Dealing with Kings Interhigh in Spain - Claiming unpaid fees - RESOLVED but still lost our £1000 refundable deposit

[KingsParent]

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/465260-reddam-house-berkshire-ltd-ta-kings-interhigh-debt-now-threatened-with-a-dca/

We've just been through the same process for exactly the same reasons but managed to resolve this in our favour AND get them to drop the court case

i have confirmed they will NOT be chasing us for this money they suggested we owed them for terminating our contract.

it was a very positive outcome.

I'm happy to share how we did this if you're interested but appreciate this is not my thread,

but just wanted to offer my help and support.

[SweetCaroline]

Hi, i d like to talk to you, can we?

[dx100uk]

@KingsParent please create you own topic and tell us the whole story please.

dx

6 minutes ago, SweetCaroline said:

Hi, i d like to talk to you, can we?

id advise against this

we dont know who people really are,.

their thread will give you all the info you need

dx

[KingsParent]

Hi,

I'm a previous parent of Kings. 

Our child attended for a a few short months but was desperately unhappy with the lack of support and guidance and teaching methods.

As working parents, we were having to take it in turns to be available for her all day to help navigate around the different platforms to find the files and even we had trouble.  When we did manage to find the documents, it was too late and we had missed the teaching objective and the purpose of the lesson.

We were told to speak to IT support who in turn told us to speak to the teachers. We tried on numerous occasions to call them, but their voicemail box was full so were unable to leave a message. We emailed and were ignored. We even used the 'contact us' form on their website which was left ignored.

As we could see our child was becoming a recluse, unhappy, isolated and very upset and angry and she felt she was losing her academic abilities, we removed her from the school and emailed them to tell them why.  This email was also ignored until we sent another one which they eventually responded to.  We asked for our refundable deposit back, but they chose to keep this to pay off a partial amount off what they said we still owned them for the rest of the academic term and they mentioned the contract and used this against us.

Their Account Dept started sending us threating emails to which we replied initially saying they had also broken their contract T&C's because they had not provided a reasonable service (education).  We also told them we would fight back and we never received another reply.

We eventually looked them up on TrustPilot only to find a lot of other disgruntled parents who left their 1* review and noticed each of them received a response from the school. We did the same (our review is attached).

One day later, our review was replied to (their response attached).  As you can see their reply states "We are sorry to hear about your experience and we are committed to resolving the matter. We have requested your details so we can look into this in more detail as a matter of urgency."

We looked up the CEO of Inspired Online School and found him on LinkedIn.  His last post was celebrating a Kings Interhigh pupil who secured two gold medals and a silver at the Youth Olympic Games. I added a comment to this post saying how this was great and not to take anything away from Zak's celebration, but it was not the same positive experience for our child and added more of my thoughts and also said that their TrustPilot response said they were 'committed to resolving the matter and they look into this as a matter of urgency' yet no one had contacted us at all.

Meanwhile, we were still receiving those annoying 'pupil concern' emails saying our child had not completed the homework - blah blah blah.  The good thing about LinkedIn is it tells you when you when someone views your profile and the CEO viewed my profile. 

Within a few days, we received a phonecall from a lady who said she was calling 'on behalf' of Kings Interhigh. She sounded genuinely interested to hear about our poor experience, apologising lots and said she was committed to resolving this IF our child did not want to return - she didn't. She asked what was our most favourable outcome and we asked for:

1. The court claim to be dropped with no further action

2. The charges to be dropped and not more money from us claimed

3. The return of our refundable deposit (£1,000).

She said she would do her best to help and would call us again in a few days. 

She did call us back and confirm that she had negotiated the court claim to be dropped AND all charges to be dropped and they would not chase us for any more money.  They said that they would not give us back our refundable deposit though.  We felt this was a positive step forward for them and 2 out 3 wants was better than one or none, we accepted this. 

This lady was actually very good, a great mediator and was a complete professional on the phone. 

I can't find any information about her and I only know her first name and she emailed us using the generic 'contact@kings...' mailbox.  However, because she started the conversation with wanting to hear about our experience and how Harriet was affected mentally and academically, it was refreshing that she was the only one from Kings to do this...to actually listen.

in turn, we treated her in the same way. No shouting, no abuse and we were very thankful, accepted her many apologies and stayed completely professional. I would say that really helped in both our favours. We left with the agreement that she would ensure these actions were processed AND put in writing and that has now happened. End of saga.

For anyone else in the same boat..

.I hope this helps because this has caused no end of stress for us as parents and our child felt very responsible for the position the school put us in. 

Glad it's over and not hanging over our heads anymore.

And we don't have to deal with those annoying 'pupil concern' emails anymore!

 

trustpilot.pdf

[dx100uk]

can you post up a copy of your court claimform to PDF please 

read upload

dx

 

[KingsParent]

It didn't get that far. 

They sent a series of threatening emails to us from the Credit Controller all called "Re: Debt Recovery Action Imminent" along with our child's name in the subject.

 

Edited March 4 by dx100uk
spacing

[dx100uk]

what country are you in please?

dx

 

[KingsParent]

Spain.

[dx100uk]

we are a UK based forum.

how you resolved this in spain is of little relevance to UK users though i suspect there never was anything they could have done legal wise anyway, most certainly "she had negotiated the court claim to be dropped AND all charges to be dropped" is BS , there never were any charges .

On 02/03/2024 at 17:38, KingsParent said:

They said that they would not give us back our refundable deposit though.

so you actually lost £1000, quite honestly id find a spannish like forum and go take them to court and get that back.

you didn't really win at all. you got had for £1000.

thread title updated.

dx

 

[KingsParent]

Wow! Never thought I’d be bullied on a consumer support site whilst offering my story to help other parents for no other reason.

Perhaps, before calling this BS, you should take into consideration that the school in question is a school for international students. Students are therefore attending the English GCSE classes from ALL OVER THE WORLD no matter what nationality they are. As long as they can speak English - they can attend classes. Do your research. The contract T&Cs covers the jurisdiction and states that UK law will apply - no matter where a student lives. 

i am have nothing to gain by replying and only wanted to give other parents in similar situations support and a favourable solution.

The total sum that Kings we claiming from us from was approximately £3,000 so yes…on our eyes…this was a win for us. Which is subjective. For us, we are happy. We don’t want the stress of learning the Spanish court system, to pay the costs of taking them to court, to have this subject talked about infront of my daughter who has been suffering herself as a result.

So YES, for us - this is a positive result. I’m really not interested in your view of whether it’s a win. You’re not us. You’re a volunteer and perhaps need the money. Also, I’m sure you may have dealt the phone call in a different way. We feel content that we were able to reach this result without resorting to using bullying tactics like they did.

And like you have here. Why on earth are you even an admin on a help forum with your attitude? I’ve been open, honest, helpful and supportive, followed your rules and I’m also able to back my experience up with proof. Not for me. For others. I do genuinely hope this helps.

i think dx - you have a trust issue and sound unhappy in life. Me? I’m happy, content, £1000 down BUT…I’m not a volunteer so I’ll make that back in time and keep on looking after my children’s health, sanity and education in the way I see fit.

thank you.
 

 

 

 

1HI0_31_rms_20180822.pdf

[honeybee13]

Please don't put personal contact details on the open forum. You don't know how they could be used or abused.

HB

[KingsParent]

Interestingly, I found a real legal expert warning everyone not to trust the ‘dx chappie’ on this forum who is giving out questionable advice which we’ve just seen. Ironic.

A cautionary tale……. | Consumer Credit Litigation, Banking & Debt Collection

CONSUMERCREDITLITIGATIONANDDEBTCOLLECTION.WORDPRESS.COM

---

Internet forums provide a wealth of advice and assistance to people who are often faced with a need for legal...

 

3 minutes ago, honeybee13 said:

Please don't put personal contact details on the open forum. You don't know how they could be used or abused.

HB

I’ve just been abused by dx on this forum and I’m here to offer support not to be abused.

[Another KingsInterhigh Dad]

As a father of a child at the uk-based international school in question, this story sounds all too familiar and I’ve been reading the various posts on here about the school for some months waiting for a potential solution to appear that did not involve having to appear in court.

However, this thread, which looks like was started with good intentions with a solution, appears to have been highjacked by unhelpful, arrogant forum owners.

Thank you to the parent who first published this post as this is what we needed to see.

I won’t be commenting on the actions of the people managing this forum as we have our own battle with the School to contend with but at least now, my wife and I have a plan and are talking to barristers who are fully trained in mediating effectively.

Thanks.

[Bellarose]

@KingsParent thank you for sharing your experience.  I also tried contacting the CEO but didn’t get very far. Do you mind sharing his contact details? 
kind regards 

 

[dx100uk]

1st - all my posts on CAG are made not only in reply to the specific issue the topic starter makes but also in a general matter to advise any future readers upon the related subject - here it is kings interhigh online school. KIH

lets take this topic apart shall we so readers know the real situation and the real truth...and underline the correct way to deal with KIH.

https://tinyurl.com/ycxb4fk7

Kings Interhigh Online School issues - Training and Apprenticeships - Consumer Action Group - but did not ever reply to the last post. 

but the user then went around every existing topic here on CAG about KIH pointing to the above topic and the 'want' to make some form of group  promoting some  'class action' against KIH .

then on the 2nd march this very topic this msg is in was created.

all remarkably similar eh?

all appear to be or state..they are in spain...

....as well as the earlier post flaunting their linkedin ID, (same profile picture) that might have slipped through via email before our admin killed it.., trying to give some kind of legitimacy to their 'credentials' of being 'an honest poster'....oh and some kind of 'zen' website using a .co.uk  address (when in spain- bit like the Chinese ebay sallers) they run ...

and now we get the father of the bride ...no sorry...father of a child at the uk-based international school in question posting ...pretending to be not the 'other alf... do you really think people are that stupid.....

...................

17 hours ago, KingsParent said:

The total sum that Kings we claiming from us from was approximately £3,000

nope you never owed that in the 1st place...

17 hours ago, KingsParent said:

The contract T&Cs covers the jurisdiction and states that UK law will apply - no matter where a student lives. 

wake up you got had and grabbed the phone - oh no they are taking me to court under UK jurisdiction...and fell for every trick in the book that they would never ever put in writing that could be placed in front of a court operating under their stated uk jurisdiction wherever you live.

T&C's are always challengeable under UK law

this very site would not exist if it were not for the +£Bn's bank charges reclaiming from 2006> and latterly the +£Bn's of PPI reclaiming both directly stated in the banks' T&C's were they claimed they were legally enforceable ...not!! they lost big time...

16 hours ago, Another KingsInterhigh Dad said:

and are talking to barristers

why? a waste of more money if you've not got a court claim.......

why not use them for a good outcome...go reclaim that £1000 refundable deposit you got scammed out of .

people please research very carefully ...you never know who any of these people are that are posting about kings interhigh and their 'stories'

they could even be one of their online tutors or a shill . don't get taken in.

dx

 

 

 

[Another KingsInterhigh Dad]

Just seen this email for the CEO on here - [email protected] @Bellarose