Advice needed please regarding Scheidegger course debt.

[verers]

Hi all,

 

I am hoping that there might be someone who can provide some information as to our situation concerning Scheidegger training and their finance company.

 

About two and a half years ago my husband Alan and I were both very unwell mentally, Alan decided he was going to make use of his time at home and do some training courses to complete some qualifications that he wanted to do.

 

He looked on the web and found this company Scheidegger Training. they then set up having a salesman come to our home to talk to us.

 

 

 

The salesman offered my husband a deal to do his courses with them but the cost was about £2.5-3k and they would provide credit. We weren't sure at first and said we wanted time to go over our money situation. We already had alot of other debts.

 

The salesman then did the old salesman tricks and told my husband that it was the last chance etc etc and if he didnt sign today then it would be almost a year until he could sign up again.

We feel that he used his new knowledge of my husbands illness to badger him into it.

 

We accepted the debt and my husband started the course, which was in his words unprofessional and felt that he wasnt able to work at his pace etc.

 

About 6 mths later we hit new financal problems and we struggled to meet the repayments on the loan to do the course, we paid what we could but couldn't afford the full repayments, they then stopped my husbands course material saying no money-no course, but saying that he does have to repay the full amount at once (basically 3k for nothing).

 

Since then we have found that Scheidegger training is basically running a [problem] with its qualifications as they are not recognised. Some careers advisors have been warning if someone comes with these qualifications then not to employ as they aren't worth the paper they are printed on.

 

We are absoloutly livid as now we are both well again we can see how they took advantage of our mental illnesses (I suffered also), but haven't a clue what to do about it.

 

So I am asking on here, if anyone has any knowledge if theres anything we can do about the debt. Is there some sort of legal action we can take to try and resolve the matter?

We need any help we can get!

 

 

 

Thank you for any information and your time to read our post.

 

 

Verity Bennett

[ruralgirl]

Hi Verity,

 

I'm in a similar position with Scheidegger, I haven't posted anything about it here yet but I read stuff on another forum and a lot seems to depend on your position when you first signed up. If you were working you were offered a loan agreement with Clydesdale and paid by DD. I have a feeling that this is legally binding.

 

If (as in my case) you were on benefits you would have been offered finance with Career Development something or other (I was told by the salesman it was a government grant) and you had to pay by SO.

 

In my case, they didn't return my coursework after half a dozen requests by email and phone. They said it was lost in the post, I re-submitted, never got it back marked nor did I get the next part of the course. I stopped paying them.

 

I am now in the position where they have passed the debt on twice and after a couple of nasty-grams I sent the latest DCA a CCA request which is now well out of time (sent 26th April). I have heard nothing since.

 

I also included this in the letter:

 

In my letter to you I pointed out that I wanted a full refund of all monies paid to date because, under the Supply Of Goods and Services Act 1982, Scheidegger had failed to supply Course materials of satisfactory quality, in fact they never returned my last piece of completed coursework in 2005 despite numerous emails and me sending it twice by post nor did they supply any further Course material.

I haven't heard anything, no CCA, no refund but no threats either. Might have to push them on this a bit now.

 

It might help if you can find something that they have breached, telling them their course is crap (which it is) won't hold much water I don't think.

[ruralgirl]

Verity,

 

I have read your post again and this concerns me.

 

About 6 mths later we hit new financal problems and we struggled to meet the repayments on the loan to do the course, we paid what we could but couldn't afford the full repayments, they then stopped my husbands course material saying no money-no course, but saying that he does have to repay the full amount at once (basically 3k for nothing).

 

I understood that the "loan" was to pay for the whole course. They can't have their cake and eat it - either they have had the money for the course or they haven't. If they haven't (as they claim) how can they expect you to pay the full amount.

 

I really hope someone with some expertise will help you out on this.

[agb657]

Hi

I had a similar problem, my course was around £3,000.00 after a while i was contacted by a collector called "credit information bureau" or something like that . I told them point blankly that the the course was not preprepared and that certain parts of the course could not be undertaken until i had reached a certain stage in the training as i was unable to carry on the training due to psychiatric problems i wished to cancel the training, after producing a letter from my local mental health care trust saying i was an outpatient credit information bureau canceled my training course for a fee of £75.00

[verers]

Thats very interesting, thanks.

 

I'm going to have a go at writing to them, see if it gets me anywhere.

I could really do with some help with the legal side of it though as I am clueless, can anyone advise me?

 

I'll keep you informed.

 

Verity

[BANDIT2]

Hi I have also had bad dealing with Scheidegger Training as I embarked on a Cisco CCNA Networking course costing me £2,500 paid in monthly amounts of £70.00 . Unfortunately part way through my course of which I was attaining 100% tutor marked assessments I fell very poorly and could not compet the rest of the course ,by this time I had already paid asbout £1,000 . I wrote to the financial dept of heidegger Training and explained to them my predicament and ther reply was well you sighned an ageement to this I replied yes I did so in good faith but was in good health at that time, but they were not listening to me and said there is nothing they could do. My next step was to go and see my GP aand inform him of what they have said to me and without thinking about my GP wrote a full letter to the company and within one week I received a reply saying that they were sorry to hear about my poor health and that on this occasion the would cancle the rest of the monthly payment when they were in receipt of all books and software they supplied so, I duly returned asll of the above and I received back £500.00 by cheque but it took some fighting to achieve this all I can tell you is go to your GP and ask him for his help in this matter. Good luck Dave

[bonkers123]

Hi guys. check out consumer forum thread "train4tradeskills problem". same company same problems

[jagi]

Hi all.

I had a nasty encounter with these idiots a few years ago after i saw an ad in a paper. All i wanted was more info on the course they offered and i got a home visit from 2 "tutours" instead. I got suspicious soon as i saw the tattoos on guy one's knuckles (the heavy) and the way he talked. Forceful and more like a preacher.

They bullied me into taking the course when it looked like i may want more time to think about it and i became worried about being alone in my house with these thugs. I tried everything to get rid of them but they were so persistent. I even said i didnt have the money to start the course til the end of the month to which one of them took my bank details and walked outside to call the office to get them to run my details through in case i was lying, WITHOUT my consent. (WOW)

Fortunately i didnt have much in there so it failed togo through so they asked if i had any money around the house. I honestly thought they were going to go through my things, they didnt want to leave without money.

Thankfully they decided to leave me with a briefcase of (according to them) very expensive course materials to get me started on the agreement that i would make my first payment at the end of the month.

Once they left i called my bank and told them no direct debits are to be honoured on my account as i believed i was the victim of fraudsters and got a new account within a fortnight. I then called Scheidegger to inform them i wasnt going ahead with there course which was met with a lot of hostility by the receptionist. I then got a call from the tattood "tutour" who was angry cuz i had the valuable materials still in my possession (briefcase). When i tried to arrange for him to collect it he claimed it was not returnable and i'd have to pay £300 for it. I told him i would do no such thing and he could try to take me to court if he liked cuz i knew they wouldn't have a leg to stand on. (Even my signature on their forms was forged by me but the dumbies didn't notice.) And did they pick up these materials? Nope. They sat outside my house in the rain for a week before i finally threw them in the bin. £300? As if.

 

I urge anybody thinking about doing a course with these [problem] artists to steer clear. It isn't worth Jack!

 

GO TO COLLEGE OR UNI.