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See what reviewers are saying

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Scammers. Nefarious bad people who take money unauthorised from your bank. Sign you up for “free” trial debit money without permission. Lies, deception, cheating. Run a few legit courses as a front.... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

HORRIBLE. Steals your money. I WILL be filing an investigation into Shaw Academy’s illegal practices, and I will be going through my bank to get my money back ($39.99 for the toolkit I never agreed... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Signed up for free trial, the course advertised on Facebook didn't exist...keyword advertising at it's best. Took money from my account within the 28 day trial period, even had the cheek to sen... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

This company makes use of deplorable business practices. I am fighting with them, through the BBB and PayPal, for refunds totaling $239.94. They spam customers with texts from multiple phone numbers,... See more

Company details

  1. Educational Institution
  2. Career and Education Provider
  3. Education Center

Information provided by various external sources

Shaw Academy is a largest real online educator, provides online skill development courses like photography, financial trading, digital marketing & nutrition.


Contact info

1.1

Bad

TrustScore 1 out of 5

286 reviews

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

A disgrace of an 'academy'!! Charged for cancelled membership.

This is a disgrace of an 'academy'!!! Please avoid at all costs! I signed up for a free trial in January and cancelled a couple of weeks after. Today (March 10th) I was charged membership fees *without notice* (the membership was cancelled almost two months ago). When requesting a refund, I was met with a very rude and blameful 'it is your fault, you must have clicked on a button and reactivated the membership. We will not issue a refund.' (the representative's name was Sonya). I obviously did not click on anything, nor did I open any emails or text messages from them as I am aware of their way of operating and scamming millions of desperate and hopeless people. I cannot believe they are still doing this after so many complaints! Please do not fall into this scam! Avoid at all costs!

10 March 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I signed up

I signed up, the next day someone called and offered me three months for free. They then charged me £100. I complained and they said to listen to the call. When I did, I hear the rep mumble about the price being £99 but I’d get everything for free, so I believed it was free! Apparently since they told me the price I can’t get a refund even though I’ve never used the service or agreed to pay! The rep who rung was rude and I'm absolutely furious, AVOID THIS COMPANY - IT IS A SCAM.

8 March 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

scam

they take money from you without authorization! It’s illegal, it’s a scam

Giulia Tozzi

4 March 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

This is a scamming company

This is a scamming company, that robes people in this critical time period, when most of us are struggling to make ends meet, they use illegal ways to withdraw money from your bank account. Be cautious! they will call you, offer free subscription and then will charge you for that.

4 March 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

SCAM, STEALING MONEY, FAKE COMPANY

On the 24th February 2021 I received an email from Shawn academy that said:

"SAVE MONEY WITH UNLIMITED!
Did you know that with Unlimited Access you're actually saving money? You get 100% Cashback, learn a new skill or trade and boost your career!"

I then clicked a button that said GET UNLIMITED, as I was curious I opened the email and I immediately got charged £69!! I only found out because my credit card sent me a text message about the charges.
Shawn Academy charged me £69 the moment I have clicked on an offer email. No CVV requests, no questions or preview confirmation of the membership or card details required, before getting charged. I was not aware that by opening the email I would have got charged £69. NO information on the email states that I will get charged automatically just by opening the email.
I emailed Shawn academy straight away, which they got back to me on 27th February, saying that someone will give me a call back. The same evening a represenatice of Shaw Academy called me saying they have now deleted my card details, which I entered when I registered for a free trial back in November 2020. I used their website for few day but then realised I didn't like it so I never logged back in since the 24th February. The person on the phone said that I registered the card details in November so they don't have to ask permission to charge me. According to them, the moment I clicked on the email I was accepting the charges, and carried on explaining terms and conditions of the offer, and lying about the facts that the info where on the email, but they were not. He said the 100% cashback is actually an offer of over 90%off the value, it's a great deal and that Refund is not an option. There was no way for him to give option of refund of any kind, even if I sent a complaint. He suggested and kept interrupting me, saying that he was trying to get things clear quickly, that there was no way whatsoever that the company would ever give a refund back and that I should start using the Lifetime membership or give it to family or friends if I don't want to use it.
This company is a SCAM! Their messages are fake and misleaning. They stole my money withouth asking for permission! GO TO OTHER ONLINE SCHOOLS OR COMPANIES BUT DO NOT REGISTER WITH SHAW ACADEMY AS THEY WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY WITHOUT ASKING FOR PERMISSION!!
After giving a 1 star review of Trustpilot yesterday, I received a call back by the same rude person, which was trying to ask me whst was the problem..again ,like we didn't discuss it, and reminded me that REFUND IS NOT AN OPTION WITH SHAW ACADEMY! I NEED MY £69 BACK, AND UNFORTUNATELY I CAN SEE MOST OF REVIEWS ONLINE ARE NEGATIVE FOR THE SAME REASON!

1 March 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

don't know where to begin but I think…

don't know where to begin but I think the best place would be to say if you think you might like to do a course in the free trial period, as you know you are bored, you've seen the pop up on Facebook, then don't.
Just don't.

Please go to the Open University where they have free courses and don't fraudently take your money off you. EVER.

This is the biggest fraud ever. I would say on par with Robert Maxwell but we won't be seeing any of the founders mysteriously jumping off ship anytime soon as the founders James Egan and Adrian Murphy believe they are above the law.

Shaw Academy are the biggest bunch of scammers in the world and I mean the world.

What started as something to do in lockdown with my time, has manifested into a crusade against a company with NO values. Not even a teensy bit of CSR. Not even fake values for their employees. Not even any scruples for anyone else who thought this during lockdown (just Google Shaw Academy, it'll save you asking your bank to do a fraud check on Shaw Academy to cancel your cards).

You can't even cancel online. You have to log in (remember this) and go through all the bits of don't go we'll give you this for free blah blah. Then you get the phone number to ring. You get through to someone (Brandon for my time) and he said yes absolutely I can see you didn't even do a course, I'll cancel straight away.

TBH I was so grateful as I had let a couple of months subscription slip by and I had felt really guilty telling my husband but it was so easy. Brandon said as a gesture of good will I'll chuck in something for a month. I said no thanks I don't need or want it but he said if you change your mind you can use it in a month. I remember saying to Brandon thanks for making my cancelling to Shaw Academy so easy!

That was Nov 2020. Let's go to my bank statement Jan 2021... so £49.99 had been taken out of my bank by none other, Shaw Academy.

I rang up by logging into my Shaw academy account where I noticed my account was still active... as you remember you can't just ring up you have to log back into your account. When you log back in online, you immediately get random texts saying you can get xyz courses. This time I spoke to Lerato and I was fuming. Apparently I had paused my account! Not on my nelly I said, and apparently there was nothing on my account to say that I had spoken to Brandon. All a bit bizarre if I had paused my account if there was no mention of me speaking to Brandon in the first place... I reiterated that this was fraudulent practice and she agreed to refund me and cancel my account. On the same day I got a confirmation cancellation email. I thought phew.

Fast forward a month and guess what? I checked my bank and there was another charge of £49.99 to Shaw Academy. How could this be? That is against GDPR and a fraudently taking monies from my bank account. So instead of ringing, I lodged a complaint online. After logging a complaint, I got a lady call Glenna ring me up saying that she can't do a refund but I've got free membership for life. I got an email back saying my account was reactivated. Not i reactivated my account but my account was reactivated - all so fishy. I have been sending numerous emails since and I still haven’t received my £100 back. I would like my interest back too as I feel people like me are crowd funding/bank rolling this awful outfit.

Actually, if everyone who has been done over by Shaw Academy put 10% in to a new online facility where we'd get awards, we'd have a better education facility than this shower.

There's loads more to this story but I hope you get the gist. The moral is - DON'T TOUCH SHAW ACADEMY WITH A BARGE POLE

26 February 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Deplorable Business Practices

Going by the enormous amount of very bad reviews on this page, I'm surprised that Shaw Academy hasn't upped their game a little, fired their website designer and promotions manager and sorted out this problem, but I guess scammers will be scammers. Are they really so desperate for clients that they will deceive, trick, steal and then hound you some more for money? A company, especially an educational company like this one claims to be, cannot last long with these kinds of deplorable business practices. If they just gave back the money to disgruntled clients (or potential clients they stole from) no doubt they would have a lot more people subscribe to their courses and scamming wouldn't be necessary.

24 February 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Total scam!

Total scam!
Total scam!!
I cancelled free trial before it was over cause I wasn’t able to do the classes with my job. And two months after cancellation they took the 50£ from my Credit Card. Called my bank and they sent me a list of transactions between me and Shaw. 60£ more wanted to take from account, but couldn’t cause its cancelled. Who knows how much more would they took if i didn’t cancelled Card. I have sent two e-mails and didn’t get any response.

Don’t get it how are they still able to do this all to us..

23 February 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Not worth the stress

I created an account but cancelled it within four days of signing up as I found the constant emails irritating. My cancellation was done BEFORE the end of my FREE trial. I also HAD NOT ACCESSED any of the materials and I was not interested in accessing them in the future, however, five months later I received a notification saying that money had gone from my PayPal to Shaw Academy. They refused to refund me even though they were at fault and instead offered me an extended membership. Despite contacting them to say I was not interested and I was legally entitled to a refund, they refused to give me a refund and stopped replying to my emails. As far as I am aware, since I had not accessed any of the materials yet and have brought up the issue within 14 DAYS of the payment going through, I should be entitled to a FULL REFUND. I had not been previously notified that there was an outstanding payment, or that there weren't sufficient funds in my PayPal account, in fact, I have my PayPal records and I know this amount has been in my account for the past few months, so this transaction has come out of the blue. The website quoted their terms and conditions to me, however these only state that the membership charges will take be debited corresponding to the commencement of my PAID membership plan. I know that I had made the cancellation before the end of the free trial period and have the emails to prove this, however the website has completely stopped replying to my emails and I do not know what to do to get my money back.

23 February 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

this is a nightmare

Have been asking for a refund for weeks. they offered me free 6 months access but refused to give me a refund. Said he was sorry that it was not possible. I kept insisting that I did not authorise taking money fro me. As compensation he said that my bank details had been removed and that they wouldn't take more money. I persisted in asking for refund then he said coz i raised a dispute in paypal the money is locked. They cannot release. THAT IS A LIE. Paypal closed the case weeks ago as declined it. the money is not locked at all!
DO GIVE THEM YOUR BANK DETAIL
this is a nightmare

18 February 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Screamed at early in the morning

Screamed at early in the morning
I registered but pulled out when they asked for my credit card details.

Two days later (Today) I received a call 9ish in the morning from one of their employees asking me to complete my registration...He said it's a very good deal and today's my last chance to register....etc. I said I have decided to go with another provider, he kept pushing and I said I will consider again and make a decision this afternoon. He then literally screamed at me that he's not asking for my credit card details and something else...at this point I was too surprised at his attitude to say anything before he shouted 'Have a good day' and hung up.

What a waste of time picking up their calls which ruined my peaceful morning.

16 February 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

ScamAcademy!!

ScamAcademy!!
ScamAcademy!!! I signed up for a free class a month ago but them immediately decided to cancel it because I do not have enough time for any class. I spoke to a customer rep, told me that she cancelled it already and I won’t be charged. But just today I was charged for subscription! During this pandemic when many people are jobless, why would you steal their money? Give me back my money!!!!

13 February 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Trustpilot have a warning up about this…

Trustpilot have a warning up about this company on another Shaw Academy page. There are at least three pages on Trustpilot for this company. If you've posted here please go and post on the one that the company have actually claimed where Trustpilot have already put a warning up about Shaw Academy. I've been hit by them too. £49.99 unauthorised payment taken from my account. Bombarded with popups after signing up for a free course in good faith that I would be able to cancel it and pay nothing at all as long as I cancelled before 3rd March 2021 but they have already taken this payment. Now trying to get a refund via Nationwide and get them blocked from taking anything else.

11 February 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

THIS COMPANY FULL OF SCAMMERS!

THIS COMPANY FULL OF SCAMMERS!
The worker of that company called me and said to join and everything is free for 4 weeks. I registered and then after being less than 5 minutes in their site the amount of 44,99EUR was taken from my account without any notice.It is really big amount of money for me, as I have to pay for my tuition and my apartment too. I am strongly disappointed, the company does not answer to your emails. I cancelled free trial right after that, but it is still not cancelled. WILL NOT EVER HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH THAT COMPANY. I WILL DO EVERYTHING TO GET MY REFUND.

10 February 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Awful

Awful. Old content. They charged me for a toolkit that was not explained as a chargeable item- DURING a free trial. A pop up appeared in my iPhone that I couldn’t clear, and the BOOM got an email from PayPal to say I’d been charged. They will not cooperate. But I won’t stop until I get a refund

9 February 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

THIS COMPANY IS A FRAUD

THIS COMPANY IS A FRAUD, DON´T SUBSCRIBE ANY OF THEIR COURSES

When I subscribed to the shaw academy it was for 4 weeks FREE. I CANCELED the subscription before I could even attend some classes. I noticed on my bank statement that the Shaw academy has discounted since December 2020 the amount of € 49.99. This is not correct, I did not subscribe to the platform again, nor do I even use your courses. How do you keep me active if I canceled? I want you to RETURN the total amount of € 99.98. Because the Shaw academy discounted me in December and January. I want my money (99,98 €) as quick as possible. And if you try to delete your bank details in your shaw academy customer profile, the platform won't let you delete it. This is a violation of the protection of personal data.

8 February 2021
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

SCAM!!!

SCAM!!!! BEWARE!!!!

"FREE COURSE" AND THEN THEY DEDUCT MONEY. THEY DON'T ANSWER EMAILS AND BLOCK AND DELETE YOUR COMMENTS. YOU WILL BE ROBBED OF YOUR HARD EARNED CASH.

They stole R1000 of my husband's money from his bank account and is refusing to refund or even talk to him. They literally then force their crap unaccredited courses onto you incessantly via SMS and emails.

4 February 2021
Unprompted review

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