In this Shaw Academy review where we'll be taking a closer look at the training, the support and the pricing to help you decide whether you should join or not.
I must confess: I am a serious self-development addict!
Whether it's listening to audiobooks on leadership or attending property conferences, I'm a huge believer in investing time and effort into improving yourself.
So what about Shaw Academy?
Is it a scam you should stay away from or a legit learning platform worth joining?
Let's take a look 👀
Shaw Academy Review At A Glance
About: Shaw Academy (now rebranded Upskillist) is James Egan & Adrian Murphy's 10-category and 42-course online training platform.
Price: $45/month for 1 course, $49 for final assignment, $59 for certificate, and at least $16.99 for subscription.
Pros: Has a 7-day free trial and easy-to-understand courses.
Cons: These guys cannot be trusted. Shaw Academy is anything but a legit training platform.
Verdict: Shaw Academy is a total scam that takes unauthorised payments out of your account. Read the comments from our readers or watch the video below to see why you SHOULDN'T join.
OVERALL RATING
2024 UPDATE: Shaw Academy is now being investigated by Trustpilot following a surge of negative reviews and complaints and have changed their name to Upskillist.
Check out my new Shaw Academy review here:
I love Skillshare because they offer thousands of courses on everything from photography, coding, and graphic design to creative writing, cooking, music, and YouTube success.
With an affordable yearly membership, you get unlimited access to all of Skillshare's classes.
What Is ShawAcademy.com?
Shaw Academy is an online training platform that was founded by Dublin-based James Egan & Adrian Murphy in 2013. They have one clear mission statement:
“To deliver great education, accessibly and affordably to everyone”
They also have over 800,000 followers on their Facebook page and boast over 4 million graduates so far.
Here's a quick overview video I think you'll find helpful:
The Shaw Academy Training
With a mission to equip the world with skills, they offer 42 courses organised into 10 different categories:
- Photography (8 courses)
- Finance (4 courses)
- Health and Wellness (4 courses)
- Marketing (5 courses)
- Technology (7 courses)
- Design (4 courses)
- Beauty (1 course)
- Music (2 courses)
- Business (5 courses)
- Language (1 course)
They're updating their courses so they're always current and adding new courses all the time. Whether you want to learn how to develop an app, trade on the stock market, improve your Photoshop skills or learn how to play the guitar, you can develop your skills here.
Each course comes with live webinars with Q&A sessions, interactive quizzes, video walkthroughs and optional assignments.
I really like the training area layout. It's easy to find your way around and it looks great.
The number of modules and lessons will differ from course to course. Either you can work your way through the training at your own pace and develop your skills in your chosen area, or you can pay an additional fee to take the formal assessment.
Shaw Academy is accredited by the CPD Certification Service which unfortunately is not very well known or recognised. This may be a turn off for some.
The Support
Support could be better. If you have any issues you're told to email support@shawacademy.com.
Support is available to paying premium members only.
Shaw Academy Pricing
I'll be honest – it's not easy to get a handle on exactly how much the training costs but after a failed attempt at contacting customer support (I'll explain below) and a lot of digging around in the fine print, I think I've finally got to the bottom of it.
They have a 7-day free trial offer with one free 4-week course included, after that here's a breakdown of the prices:
- $45 per month per course (can unsubscribe at any time)
- To take the final assignment – $49
- To get a hard copy of your certificate – $59
On top of that, they have a monthly premium membership which is either $22, $32 or $39 per month.
Who Is Shaw Academy For?
If you're looking to earn a widely recognised qualification like a Master's or Bachelor's degree then this training platform is not for you. Check out these alternatives instead.
Shaw Academy is ideal for people looking to acquire or develop their practical skills in a certain area.
Perhaps you've got to a certain level as a software developer watching random videos on YouTube but now you want to go to the next level. The Shaw Academy training will give you a well-defined, focused and structured learning program to follow.
The end result?
You acquire practical, ‘sellable' skills and become an expert in your chosen field which can open an infinite number of doors for you going forward.
The Pros And Cons Of Shaw Academy
Pros
1. High-Quality Easily-Digestable Training
The training courses are excellent. Rather than just listening to someone speak or watching them do something, it's clear the trainers have gone to extra effort to make the lessons as interactive and practical as possible.
The modules are broken down into bitesize chunks and you can choose the dates you attend the live classes so it works with your schedule.
2. 7 Day Free Trial
The free trial period gives you the opportunity to take your first course completely risk-free so you can browse the training area and see if it's a good fit.
Cons
1. They Need To Be More Upfront About Their Prices
Rather than displaying their full prices clearly, I had to dig around in the lengthy FAQ's section to find how much it cost. Even after reading the full terms and conditions, I wasn't sure.
It seems I wasn't the only one confused either…
As you'll see here when we look at members' feedback in a second, nearly all of the complaints are around billing issues – either they claim they were charged for something they were unaware of or didn't realise they had to cancel their membership before the free trial period to avoid paying the monthly membership.
2. Support Seems Somewhat Lacking
It seems like the billing department could do with a customer service course refresher.
Whenever issues arise (especially around billing), you need to be sure you can get help and support when you need it most. Sadly, the second biggest complaint from members is that they are either completely ignored or get a, let's say ‘less than helpful' response from support staff.
In researching and writing this review I was looking for confirmation of Shaw Academy's pricing structure. The website recommended I contact the support team if I had any queries… so I did! And it bounced back!
All I got was this automated email saying I could only contact support if I upgraded my account!
What does this say about their level of support?
Shaw Academy Reviews: What Others Say
Shaw Academy has a 4 out of 5-star rating on TrustPilot.com out of a total of 1,905 reviews.
The vast majority of members are clearly very happy with the online training program with 85% rating the site ‘Excellent' or ‘Great'.
And it seems that you're assigned a personal learning advisor when you upgrade to the premium membership so you can get the support you need…
Here's a positive review from another satisfied learner who has been a member now for a couple of years and even signed up for the lifetime membership:
On the flip side, some people accuse Shaw Academy of being a scam because they say their credit cards have been charged the monthly fee without their authorisation.
Here's a complaint from the Better Business Bureau review site that confirms the need for clarification on membership costs:
Is Shaw Academy A Scam Or Legit?
My biggest bone of contention is the (intentional?) lack of clarity surrounding the course and administration fees…
It really can break trust and as we've seen, can cause people to call them a scam after being charged unexpectedly.
Sure, legally you can say they should've read the terms and conditions but we know in reality very few people do.
Shaw Academy would help their members and themselves by doing the right thing and displaying their prices clearly and prominently so people know exactly what they're getting into.
Aside from that, the training is very well thought through and put together and they actually offer a great value option for learners looking to develop their skills in a particular area, at their own pace and in their own time.
The 7-day free trial gives you the opportunity to browse the courses and test out the whole platform with no money down so you can decide whether or not this is right for you.
In my opinion Shaw Academy, though certainly not perfect, is a legit training platform that offers a high-quality education at great rates.
UPDATE: Shaw Academy is now being investigated by Trustpilot following a surge of complaints and refund requests and is most definitely a scam.
3 Better Shaw Academy Alternatives
1. Skillshare – Best Online Learning Platform
If you’re searching for a genuine online learning platform, Skillshare is a way better option.
I love Skillshare because they offer over 30,000 courses and classes on everything from photography, coding, and graphic design to creative writing, cooking, music, YouTube success and so much more.
It costs less than Shaw Academy as well. With one affordable yearly membership, you get unlimited access to all of Skillshare's classes.
Click here and you'll get a full 30-day free trial so you can check it out.
2. Udemy – 100,000's Of Courses
Udemy.com have over 100,000 video courses on almost any topic you can think of.
Seriously.
From accounting to game design, pet grooming to poker – they've got it all!
3. Wealthy Affiliate – Best Online Business Training
WealthyAffiliate.com focusses on helping aspiring entrepreneurs achieve online success.
Their step-by-step training walks you through exactly how to build an income-generating business from scratch.
They have a free Starter membership so you can test drive the platform with no credit card details required and their Premium membership is just $49/month and you can cancel anytime.
Check out my Wealthy Affiliate review to find out more.
Your Shaw Academy Review
I hope you've found this review of Shaw Academy helpful. I'd be really interested to hear from former or current members on this one.
Scroll down and share your experience!
Simon Crowe is on a mission to help as many people as possible kiss their bosses goodbye.
Take the free Wealthy Affiliate test drive to discover how to smash your online income goals and make your dream business a reality.
I do not recommend this company, there are thieves and scammers. without my consent, they charge money even though I canceled my subscription, they took my money and they refused to return it. They call with the information that their policy does not allow me to return the money but they can give me more free hens and as I say they do not want to hang up and after a while they call the same. the service is very unpleasant. I do not recommend the company. I don’t even know how they found me. I should have a free course and now I have to argue about my money back
Visit takemycoursesforme.com for online educational help for courses.
Take my Courses For Me and Take My Classes Online are also scams. Read reviews, do your research. There are so many scams out there.
I have been a member of Shaw Academy since 2017 and I purchased their lifetime full membership. At first all of the PDF files of every lessons are free of charge and the assessment for each course doesn’t have a fee. To my surprise when I log in again this year, they will charge me fees for every exams and final assessment.
I am one of Shaw Academy lifetime member. Was so lucky at this time they offered about $24 for a lifetime membership at the end of the year idk which year but I assume when they are still a new company. I literally forgot that I bought this Lifetime Pass years ago but only this year I realized about it. I went back to my account and it is still active, thank God.
I know I get the opportunity to learn any of their courses available here at anytime without worrying anything but sadly I couldn’t get their All Course Materials which can help me a lot but notice that ‘All Course Materials” promotion they held is a lil sus.
Why?
Because everytime this banner pop-up in my screen it put different name such as get your Diploma in Illustrator All Course Materials or Diploma in Web Dev All Course Materials and ended with ‘One Time Payment’.
It’s like they tryna confuse you that you’ll get all these materials for all courses that available in here but it’s not. You gotta buy it one by one. Each one of them costs you $49.99. DON’T FALL FOR THIS. Just subscribe to Skillshare is better and safer and real high quality learning experience.
I sign up for the 4-week free trial, few days after someone from Shaw academy called my mobile and and was pushing me for a free membership also the line was not clear.
straight after I was charged 300 C$.
After several calls and emails they offered to refund only half my money or nothing at all.
I really feel like someone put his hand in my pocket and took 150 C$
Horrible horrible company. Even in this article they talk about having free classes for a month they even sent me a free diploma offer. I went ahead and signed up big mistake they stole my $130 I have not attended one of their classes they refuse to give me my money back. At this point my bank is giving my money back twice but now that I have this article I’m going to send this article to them showing that c even they publish free one month class.
They are scammers,a big shark.DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY. I’ve tried a free trial cookery course in a few days but i didn’t finish the course,i wanted to cancel my subscription ut can not be cancelled.They deducted $41.11 in 2 months without notifying me. I was assured by the company that no money would be taken from my account. This was lies they did take money, promised to refund but now refuse the refund, a complete scam. DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY
DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY. I cancelled my free trial cookery course within 1 hour of signing up when I realised it was unsuitable. I was assured by the company that no money would be taken from my account. This was lies they did take money, promised to refund but now refuse the refund, a complete scam. DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY
They are running a credit card auto-billing scam based on a e-contract that makes it impossible to cancel your membership through normal means of calling or simply cancelling your “student” account info. My last resort was to cancel my credit card. When an online business puts up so many obstacles to controlling your membership cancellation and does not provide easy or honest phone access to customer service, that is a red flag that they are are con.
I am a Canadian “customer” who signed up online in early March 2021 when I saw their “free 4 week trial”. I immediately had regrets and called the same day with a number I found thru a google search, to cancel my membership and get my credit card details removed. A guy with an Indian accent served me. I even said that are you sure that my credit card won’t be billed? He assured me that my cc info and account info would be deleted from their Shaw Academy system and that I would not be charged anything. LIES!!!
I recently received my cc statement and it shows two charges from Shaw Academy for CAD$69.99 each: “Mar 07 CKO*SHAW ACADEMY 531-6854354 NH” and on Apr 04 “CKO*SHAW ACADEMY 531-68543564 NH”. So I went to their website and found that I could still log into my Shaw Academy account even though I had deleted it myself back in early March. I saw that although my cc info and personal details were blank, that my account read “ACTIVE” and “PREMIUM MEMBERSHIP”.
I followed the steps to cancel my membership as I could not delete my profile info. Clicking through as per Shaw Academy’s website’s instructions I got to this page that read: “Confirm your cancellation…our business hours are…+1 844 987 3907 Canada…”
Well, I called that number and there are only two prompts, there is no real person to speak with. Each prompt gives an outgoing message instructing the caller to cancel their membership by logging into their Shaw Academy account and deleting the info. WHAT!!! My Shaw Academy account DID NOT LET ME DELETE MY ACCOUNT INFO AND GAVE ME THIS NUMBER TO CALL.
It’s a cunning circle that Shaw Academy has devised to entrap you into not having control to cancel their access to your credit card…hence they will auto-debit you until you find a way to stop them!
That is bad faith business practice.
My advice, Shaw Academy is a con business as far as their lure of “free 4 week trial” is…they just want to get you to consent to giving them your credit card information, and then they make you go in circles to cancel it, not before auto-debiting you at least a couple of time.
SHAW ACADEMY SHOULD BE SHUT DOWN.
i had the same issue they than instead of refunding my money they took from me they gave me a lifetime. i put it in recording if they continue to withdraw money fbi will investigate and so forth. they havent pulled money or tried to since.
I started signing up with Shaw Academy but stopped when they started asking for payment details… for a free trial!
I have been receiving a barrage of emails, text messages and phone calls (URGENT! Complete your registration!) since.
Despite blocking all their emails and phone numbers they STILL manage to find a way to get through – using a fake Birmingham number which can’t be blocked!
Not a simple scam – pure sharks! Dedicated to her money out of people no matter what. Avoid avoid!
Signed up… Rejected purchasing the materials, only to notice hours later I suddenly had access to the materials when I looked at the site again. My account had been charged. From what I can tell, according to many, many people, it is downright impossible to get ahold of them to cancel your subscription.
At this point, I don’t care about a refund, I just want to make sure they can’t ever charge me again. I’ve never felt so vulnerable about anyone having any sort of personal information like this.
AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS!! Advertises free 4 week trial and then debits your account without consent. Near impossible to contact and refuses to refund when you do. Shocking customer service! Courses are also low quality. SCAM !
Thanks Simon
This was a really good breakdown of the company.
So maybe Shaw is technically not a scam. But they certainly prey on people and are mala fide; clearly seeking to screw people over with the VERY unclear pricing. But darned sneaky in just barely staying legal. So I guess there’s nothing that can be done, unless they cross the line.
Some comments sound like they have. Personally I’ll just have to take the first charge as a learning fee. So I guess they did teach me something: caution! 😀
But if they continue, I’ll dispute it to my bank and they’ll be charged the money back plus the chargeback costs (I work in PCI myself).
I’m very careful about these things and pedantic by nature. Yet they managed to “cheat” me by the VERY unclear pricing.
Definitely not a fan of Shaw.
Sure thing Teemu, yeah at first it seemed like Shaw Academy was legitimate training platform but they’ve since shown their true colours.
Fellow cautious individual here. I feel extremely cheated and worried about whether or not I’ll be needing to get a new account so that I won’t be charged again.
Let’s just say my trust for this company is certainly non-existent after today.
Don’t sign up with them,
Just cancelled my membership and they repeated tried to sell me things. To protect yourself request a transcript of the phone call conversation of you cancelling ( I also have a recording of the phone call ) w/ the date and time, have screenshots of all cancellation related emails they sent you and keep it on file.
Once the bank sees all the proof you’ll be due for a refund!
Hope this helps someone
I am trying to cancel but can’t do it. They charged me $250
in first a week suddenly. How can I cancel? It seems like they made me a membership for 12 months so maybe I can’t cancel?
I signed for a 4 week free trial. Upon logging onto my PayPal, I have noticed that £44.99 have been taken from my account without my consent for a course materials I did not purchases nor I was aware that there were being purchased on my behalf. I have immediately contacted PayPal and tried to contact Shaw Academy to resolve. They refuse to refund my money or cancel my subscription.
I wish i had read through this Guardian article before i signed up : https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jun/13/big-online-learning-provider-faces-calls-for-refunds-after-complaints
I had the same experience as you. Signed up for a 4 week free trial and was charged for a $54.99 CAD on my Paypal right away. I called to cancel the day after but the agent tried to sell me all kinds of discount/promotions. After my repeated plea for cancelling he told me that it is not refundable because I purchased the material. I had no clue that they will charge you for watching the lesson webinar or downloading the study material; If it is not for free trial subscription they should put a warning or notification about the charge before you access to it. However there is no such warning or notification and I just assumed that was part of a free trial package.
I had free trial subscription with some other services but was never charged right away until the free trial ends, in which case, they always email me and notify me days before.
I thought I was the only one who had such bad experience with Shaw Academy and I blamed myself for being carelessness. I wish I had read the comments here before I signed up this so called Shaw Academy 4-week free trial lesson. THIS IS NOT FREE AND YOU WILL BE CHARGED ONCE YOU SIGN UP!
I feel utterly disgusted by the shaw academy, after cancelling my payments, they have continued to take money from my account. be warned this company is a scam just want your hard earned money then will not give it back to you.
I did not take any paid lessons after the free trial.
Trying to get your money back is a absolute nightmare.
And I see their ads are still showing on Facebook and Google…
I’m sorry you had the misfortune of having to deal with these guys Maria!
It’s just a matter of time until they get shut down but it does seem to be taking a while ????
This company is an absolute scam, run by nothing but greedy thieves who want to do their best to rip off anyone they possibly can. I made the mistake of signing up for their “free” trial, now months later they still won’t cancel, their website is purposefully set up so you can’t remove your card info.
Now having to call my financial institution to block them entirely. Don’t accept any of their lies that they’ll cancel, or your account is in the “process of cancelling.” They’ll continue to charge you every month!
Shaw Academy is a fraud /scam online institute.
They cheat me and charge one month amount without my permission.
now they are not replying me.
beware of this site….
https://www.shawacademy.com/
I found an advertisement for a free course on Facebook. I signed up for the course and used paypal payment. Immediately after I removed the automatic renewal of payments from paypal and so I did not have any unwanted charges. I recommend, when possible, to always use paypal to avoid trutte.
…Sorry, I recommend, whenever possible, to always use paypal to avoid scams.
I want my FREE trial
Shaw Academy charged me over $100 for a membership when I was in my first week free trial. When I requested a refund they deleted my account on their website and they still refuse to refund me. They steal money from their customers and treat them horribly. Shaw Academy is horrible!
Me too. Same thing happened to me. They charged $250 suddenly for a week after I registered. Even though it’s 4weeks free trial. That sucks and can’t cancel my account now.
It sucks you know! the same thing happened to me too. God bless You Shaw Academy. Karma is real!!!
Thank you for this review! Their courses look interesting, but I’ve definitely decided not to get involved in the money-withdrawing not-so-merry-go-round. Will check out your alternative sites. What a valuable service you provide here! (That said, of course I will also be looking elsewhere to see what others say about the sites you recommend!)
Sounds great Elena, a couple of minutes’ quick research has probably saved you a couple of hours’ of trouble and stress. Good call! 🙂
Do Not bother with this company
I signed up for a 30 day trial of which on the 1st of December I decided It wasn’t a great match for me at this time than I cancelled online by clicking the red cancellation link. That link took me to a series of additional pages telling me not to give up on my goal,,, and on and on. I believe it took me to about 5 or 6 pages just to damn cancel. Each page leads you to it has cancelled, then another offer. Finally, on the last page, it cancelled than gave me 5 digits( confirmation/reference code I guess) plus the 1844 9814345 number to call.
I called them to cancel and the lady offer me free toolkit and told me there were sending the certificate, mind you I never even had a chance to open their site and even see what the course look like or operate. But there were sending me a certificate. And I said NO I don’t want nothing just want to cancel. She said the email will be sent to me to confirm the cancellation. I never received the email. But the charge of $69.99 on my card. Called them again to refund my money since I never or will not be using the site. Representative told me they have never received my cancellation but she will send me the billing department email because they can’t be reached by phone. OKKKKKAy I hang up, waited 2 days no email, no email. I called them back again another representative helped that day. Stated it showed that I called and my refund was being processed and he was sending me the details through email. That never happened. Third time now calling and very frustrated I asked to get the billing email over the phone, of which he did. Email sent to billing. AUGUSTIN, the very first representative I talked was the one responding to my email. Letting me know I didn’t cancel on time, which was a lie. I joined November 16, 2020 and I cancelled December 01, 2020. And on December 16 my card was charged $69.99. You do the math.
I’m still waiting for my refund and its December 24th.
This company will scam you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dont do business with them.
Shaw Academy is a fraud. They continue to deduct fees even though you cancel the course.
Hi Simon, Shaw Academy is an absolute scam. Charged me $140 after 7 days on the free trial without my permission. I signed up for a free trial and $25/m after.
I’ve reported them to the bank and had to block and replace my cards. Lots of bank fees are charged for Investigating a Fraudulent claim. Still waiting to get my money back.
Trust Pilot has been investigating them buying good reviews on their platform. So watch out for such comments on your blog.
I appreciate the heads up Barco and that’s definitely something I’ll look out for!
Sounds like these guys are real scumbags ripping a lot of people off. How they haven’t been shut down yet is beyond me!
My daughter fell for this too. She rang and cancelled her course before it started, and was told that was fine. Then a month later they took £99.95 from her account. She called and said she had cancelled.
The person she spoke to said although my daughter had cancelled, she had clicked on a link in an email sent last week which activated the payment. My daughter did not receive any email from them at all – she was ill at the time, in bed, and for once had no internet.
The person offered her £30 refund plus part of a course. My daughter refused, so they offered her £40. Again my daughter refused, and the person told her that they were making the refund of £40. Again, my daughter, now hysterical, told them she wanted her full refund but they have stuck to their £40. So now she is going through Paypal to fight for her money.
She has no job at the moment and was looking for a way to re-train and gain more skills. She cannot afford to lose this money. She was in tears. These people have no morals.
I didn’t read all the comments but the first like 20 which were all negative. I don’t know if this is the first positive review..
I have had a great experience with Shaw Academy! I signed up for the free 4 week trial last summer and was working on some social media marketing and I totally forgot to cancel it; I was moving states with my husband and kids & life was crazy. I messaged them to explain the situation and how we were buying a house I couldn’t afford the $60 (or whatever it was). They responded within 1-2 days and said they couldnt give me a refund but they would give me 6 months for free. I thought that was a pretty sweet deal.
Last week I saw that they now offer a Coaching course, something I am pursuing so I’m taking classes again. One night I was just checking out the toolkit and seeing what was in it and I accidentally clicked purchase (apparently it just takes the one click since my CC info is already in). I emailed them saying it was an accident and they didn’t refund me but gave me ANOTHER 3 months free and 3 more toolkits (value $40 each).
So now I’m at 7 months of access and 4 toolkits for $100. Customer service was great and I’m enjoying my course!
Ashley, honey, did those classes come handy at all? All those free classes and toolkits?
Sounds to me like you got jibbed out on your money like the rest of us.
So…. you got scammed not once but twice. I was offered FREE LIFETIME ACCESS to ALL programs for the low price of $89.99 simply because I refused to respond to their MANY requests to return to “class.”do I believe that I will actually receive free lifetime access for that ridiculous price? Absolutely not! they’ve already stolen $138 ($69.00 x 2 times)straight out of my account despite my cancellation. PayPal is currently handling that unauthorized transaction. but as long as they have their credit card information, they’re going to keep charging you. excuse me, they’re going to keep stealing from you. and as long as you allow it, so just keep offering free courses and free months which only provide you with useless certificates.
They charged me $49 the day I signed up even though it said “Free subscription trial after 30 days” and I am scared they will charge again. I used my mom’s Paypal account and do u know how I can prevent them from charging again?
According to https://www.shawacademyscam.com :
| “PAYPAL: If you paid for Shaw Academy using PayPal, you can disconnect your payment by following the steps in this video: https://youtu.be/RM6j_8s0-P0 “
Trust me when I say don’t use this company. I took a free course 7 months ago and almost immediately cancelled because I could find better content on YouTube. I just got notice a few days ago that they illegally charged my card $70 and they are refusing to give it back. Instead they deactivated my account and said the $70 is payment. PLEASE, read their reviews on the internet. This is a scam. I wish someone warned me.
Absolute scam! They charged me for the course I didn’t even choose, then claims that I opened the module with that money and I have to study it and refuses to refund me, even though I never wanted to have that course in the first place. I’m going to fight for the money they stole from me.
This company is one big scam the prosecution should deal with them
I subscribed to the free trial and after 1 hour they charged my account with 49.99 pounds for a tool kit that I didn’t order or want . They refused to refund my money and send me a lot of free stuff.
I raised a dispute through my bank and after 2 days they refunded my money
That’s outrageous Violeta. How many 100s of people have they done this to?!
At least you got your money back, that’s the main thing!
The same happened to me, I was using my mobile phone and must have touched the toolkit button by accident – before I knew it they’d charged me the $49.99. I emailed them several times, they were less than helpful and sadly I didn’t get a refund. It’s a shame because they have a good product (a couple of the course presenters aren’t so great) but they need to work on their customer care. After studying the social media marketing and digital marketing modules and learning about building brand advocates it’s a shame they don’t follow their own advice !
Well, I signed up as skeptical as anyone else. I was very surprised to see that the course content was very on par with University studies. I also was surprised to hear that not only are they accredited courses but in contacting potential employers they all spoke very highly of Shaw certification.
Now all the comments. I have read have been focused on the Monetary side of the interaction with Shaw versus what the outside employment world has to say about Shaw. Educations are ridiculously expensive I paid approximately $84,000.00 for my son’s university education. The cost associated with this and all online studies is generally structured in a way that ppl who can’t afford a “traditional” education can still benefit from similar content at a fraction of the cost.
I guess what I’m saying is that from a credibility perspective after contacting several well-known companies they all state that a Diploma from Shaw falls well within their parameters as qualified for the position. At the end of the day, that’s what TRULY matters the rest of the financial minutia is your personal situation. I am taking the Trading and investment course and having finances in my background I am VERY impressed with the course.
How did you find out they’re accredited?? And also who spoke highly of them? I’m truly curious because I just signed up for the beauty diploma course and then came across… alll these comments so I am now TERRIFIED
The courses are ok, even if I highly doubt that they have the status they tout. Just because you can buy a certificate doesn’t make it on par with other higher education.
My payments have been an issue and on two occasions I’ve gotten a free premium membership because of that (to give me a positive experience according to the support).
I’ve decided that I’ll do some interesting courses with the free membership I got, and then delete my info.
I’ve had issues with another site (Coles Classroom – photo courses) that works somewhat the same way. They only offer a trial for the maxed out membership and only when you are deleting the membership two cheaper ones appear. Literally when you are about to press delete…
Perhaps they hope that people just give up and keep paying the higher sum?
Absolutely one of the worst on line scams. A poor excuse for education. After trying one class the second would not load and the emails and texts wanting money for class materials and certificates were a continual deluge. Then after canceling the class within the first 4 days I get charged the reoccurring membership. Save your time, energy and money and get some real education.
I’m going through that now. I received continuous texts and emails. Before the first (introductory) class, I was being told I needed to download the class toolkit for $39.99. I finally agreed to do it.
They have billed me the $39.99 for a download I never received and also a 4 week course charge of $69.99. I have reached out to them through their customer support but nothing has been resolved. I guess the onlything left to do now is see if my credit union will reverse the charges.
Ok, so I signed up for a free trial because the course looked good.
I was just checking the materials and clicked on Hardcopy Diploma purely to see what info is there. To my surprise, I got charged instantly for 199 AED. So I send an email to the billing team to refund me. I honestly thought that this was just a glitch in the system. They called and send me an email that they will work on it.
To my surprise day after I got a charge on my credit card for 1055 AED! Without even receiving any confirmation email. I guess they just bet on people not checking their account statements and noticing this when it’s too late or just letting it be because they don’t want to be bothered.
After doing some research on SHAW academy online and reading reviews – I called my bank, blocked my card, and raised a dispute on the charges. Hopefully, I will be able to get my money back.
Stay away from Scam Academy. Simon, have you really used Shaw Academy? They are horrible, quite honestly one of the worst business experience of my life, and you are leading people right into the buzzsaw. First they nickle and dime you on everything. Then they make it an unnecessarily difficult to cancel and nearly impossible to receive a refund on products you didn’t use or want in the first place. It took months and a letter to the BBB to finally receive my refund and cancel my account. Simon lies, stay away from SCAM ACADEMY, there are so many more reputable online learning platforms.
Hey Alex, I have no reason to lie. Yes, I wrote this Shaw Academy review giving them the benefit of the doubt but as you can see with everyone’s comments here and the articles I’ve linked to, Shaw Academy is 100% a scam.
I’m so sorry you’ve had trouble with them and you’re right – there are way better learning platforms out there.
Can Shaw Academy please refund me my money cause I suffer from the same problem most ppl are complaining about, scamers tht took my money don’t want to respond to me nd I hv never taken even one class R399 please nd m taking this farther if there’s no response
This is a scam. Shame on them. I signed up for their “free course” and bought the $35.00 module since as a former ad agency owner, designer (and lawyer) I figured you’d need supplies or something. My shock came when I looked at Paypal and found I’d been charged $169.00. I couldn’t believe it.
I wrote to them then cc’d it to my legal file. I cant say how the course are which is a shame since I did want to see what they had to offer. It looked very professional (of course.) Any ad exec would feel comfortable thinking they were dealing with someone who knows our business. Do NOT go near this company. This is the kind of thing that makes you really hate humanity. They’re in Europe so good luck calling them.
I’m so glad this web site is here so we can all validate our experiences. Report them if you can.
Hi,
I cannot remember putting in my credit card details onto the website but after reading this i just wanted to be sure. The page where they are directing me to cancel does not include the link for manage payment methods and my account says premium membership, 28 days. does that mean I am safe?
If they don’t have your credit card details then you’ll be fine Jaedie, it sounds like you’re on a free trial. I’m so glad you read this review first!
To be extra safe, you could check your bank and make sure there are no direct debits or standing orders set up.
I can’t believe, on reading all these reviews that Shaw Academy can go ahead with a business when they clearly taking advantage of people. The worst part is, that with the digital and online world being so hard to litigate on, the consumers are left totally devastated by the effect.
I understand that every company is trying to make money, and marketing is a great tool to do that but marketing that directly goes against ethics and morals – i.e. preying on the fact that people will forget to cancel their subscription, makes me sick to my core.
I see many people apologizing, oh it was my fault – I should never have signed up for a free trial, and we shouldn’t need to apologize. Nobody should be being taken advantage of. Having people’s credit card details should not be allowed for extended periods of time. I see many people who have tried to cancel and have been unable to. In my personal experience, my issues are the following:
1. No reminder about the subscription about to end. Although they don’t do anything ‘legally’ wrong, in my opinion, this should be illegal. It’s a four-week free trial, no doubt that people will forget to cancel, and boom they make a sale. Regardless of the fact that contract law entails that there should be a meeting of the minds in order for a contract to be valid, and I believe this to be universal.
2. The dashboard is covered in ‘one-click purchases’, portending to be of value to the consumer, but no, it makes me increasingly wary to try to navigate my way around the dashboard for fear that in one false move, I may make another unintended purchase.
3. Upon scheduling my course I’ve realized that they only allow two classes per week – thus making it difficult to complete a course in one month, thus ensuring that you HAVE to stay with them for longer than the free trial period/one month after that in order to finish, otherwise what would be the point of starting the course?
Please, if you reading this, do not enter into agreements with this organization.
Despite trying to educate people and apparently make the world better place, the above three reasons should be sufficient evidence to show, that in fact, they ONLY want to make money and don’t mind taking advantage of people’s weaknesses to do so. This is marketing in general, but we should be pushing against this. This should not be allowed.
I don’t care if their courses are excellent (something I haven’t even been able to attend yet because of their weird scheduling’rules’), but any company that preys purely on peoples’ forgetfulness/technology skills, I would never ever recommend. Unless they were also just as invested in their products and trying to make it better, not resorting to underhand tactics like I mentioned above.
Very well said Shimona! A clear warning for anyone thinking about joining. Thank you so much for sharing.
For the best chances of protecting yourself from this company and getting your money back after they ignore your communications/offer you anything other than a refund:
1) Call your bank and tell them the charges on your statement are unauthorised and you would like any further charges to be blocked.
2) Open a dispute with your bank’s Disputes Team so that the money you’ve already been charged may be refunded.
3) Complain to the Better Business Bureau at http://www.bbb.org using the US address of Shaw Academy found at https://www.bbb.org/us/nh/nashua/profile/online-education/shaw-academy-llc-0051-92051362. If you look up the company here you will see over a thousand complaints have already been made and Shaw Academy has been given a rating of D by the BBB. This will increase your chances of getting your money back.
4) File a complaint at econsumer.gov using the Ireland address of the company AND their director’s name found at https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09264991.
5) Give a one-star review on Trustpilot. This will encourage SA to get in contact with you. They may offer you a refund if you delete your bad review. Agree to this and get your refund. Do not delete the bad review.
6) Call the company at (516) 858-7410. Do this as a last resort, because they will try everything they can to deny you a refund and make you angrier in the process.
I am only reading all of this now.
Funny enough I phoned my bank and gave them screenshots and emails of the unauthorized payments going off my account.
Only for them to respond:”The merchant said you do not qualify for a refund.”
– when asking my bank for the reason as to why. They said the merchant never advised why.
Your bank should be protecting you. Not allowing people to continue taking funds off your account. For a membership that was cancelled way before the 4week trial ended.
R1999 was taken off my account supposedly for 12month access.
– A payment I never approved.
I just signed up for the free trial. I thought I would be able to complete all four modules of a class within the trial. But it looks like each module is 4 weeks. I decided to use the privacy app which generated a valid credit card number and put a one time $1 charge limit on it. This protects me from those “free trial scams” and I would only be out one USD dollar.
Now I’m glad I did.
I see the site is filled with One Click Purchase options. If you are click-happy while browsing you will be in a world of hurt if you used an unlimited credit card. I’ll go through the free trial and decide for myself if I want to purchase more. That is how it’s supposed to be.
Sounds like you’ve gone about it in exactly the right way.
I have a real problem with upsells but one click upsells especially. As you say, accidentally click in the wrong place and in an instant you’re charged. It is unethical and underhanded but something that is all too common these days.
Do let us know how you get on Kevin!
Hi,
Despite the great content that they have, my experience with Shaw Academy especially the customer service support was not that good. I was in my 4 weeks trial.
The first incident happened when I was browsing through my lesson and accidentally clicked the toolkit and it went straight charged to my credit card, they refused to give me a refund and offered me full module toolkits and e-certs and when I replied I am not willing to continue the subscription, they offered me 3 months free subscription.
Before the 1st incident resolved, I encountered 2nd incidents, where they charged me for a 4-week premium membership, and as you can guess, no matter how you plead for a refund, they kept offering you subscription and this time even longer, they offered me a 6 months subscription.
The thing is, there is no more trust here and it seems that how convenient for Shaw Academy to charge your credit card once you put your details there under their membership portal.
Very disappointed.
Hi Simon,
Too bad I just found this site today almost a month after I signed up for a free trial. My trial will be ending in 5 days. I went ahead to process the cancellation on the website and was instructed to call a phone number assigned for my country.
I called the number and went through the voice prompts to cancel. I listened to a lengthy recording about missing an opportunity to learn more and try to upsell me into staying.
I still went through my cancellation and got an email confirmation that my trial has been cancelled though the email mentioned that I will be getting 2 months free and will not be charged afterwards. My account also now shows as non-renewing. Do you think that my subscription is in fact cancelled? I am afraid that I will be charged after reading some of the comments here since there is no way for me to delete my card details.
Hi Sarah, it sounds like you’ve done everything they’ve asked you to cancel. The problem is I just don’t trust them. You can see the dozens of complaints here from people who tried to cancel their subscriptions but still ended up being charged…
It’s completely up to you, but what I would do personally is call my bank and ask them to cancel my card and send out a new one. It may sound a little extreme but it’s the only way I can think of to guarantee they can’t take any unauthorised payments.
Please let us know how you get on!
Hey! I used paypal and was supposed to start today on this course. I just found this website plus comments… How can I block someone before they charge me on paypal? I don’t want ot be a part in this… I can’t believe I fell for this (HUGE ad on facebook)!
Hi Bex, Shaw Academy will have set up the auto-payment option in your PayPal account. PayPal FAQs describe how to cancel a recurring payment: https://www.paypal.com/li/smarthelp/article/How-do-I-cancel-a-recurring-payment,-subscription,-or-automatic-billing-agreement-I-have-with-a-merchant-FAQ1067
I wrote a comment earlier on how i shaw academy was ignoring my emails and calls. i reported them to Better Business Bureau https://www.bbb.org/ and i am happy to report that my shaw account has been cancelled and my money refunded.. BBB is awesome… All done in less than 10 days!!!
Hey Mo, that is great to hear! Good on you! For anyone else reading this, now you know what you have to do.
They are a scam, giving no way to cancel. After going through 5 screens I was told to call a number in Chile and the service simply continued. No US number given on their site. The number found on Google stated that they currently (2pm on a work day) have no service.
Avoid at all costs.
FYI – they have a competition out to win a Macbook as a reward for positive reviews whether or not a legitimate customer.
My experience (so far) in brief:
Free trial advertised. You cannot see any of the course information/hidden costs until account created (including payment information for if you continue beyond the free month).
Once on, clear that there are many extra costs and the course material was not relevant to my needs. Not used a single service as it was clearly not right for me.
To cancel there are pages of tricks then a phone number.
Phone number tries very hard to get you to take offers, I refused and stated firmly that there would be no outcome of the conversation other than cancellation. Which was confirmed on the phone.
Checked my account which said inactive along with may pleas to get me to join. Thought that was over.
In the meantime despite having unsubscribed from all texts, Whatsapp etc I continued to be inundated with spam pleading me to rejoin (blackfisted and filtered to different folder). I was surprised to see a text congratulating me for being ‘back on track’. Went onto the site and my account had magically reactivated itself with a new trial (still free-for now).
Currently dealing with them through e-mail so I have a written record. In the first email I stated that they absolutely do not have permission to activate anything, or use my details in any way, and that they are to in unequivocal terms permanently cancel my membership. They responded offering more upgrades which they have activated on my behalf!
I have now responded again to keep the written record that I have absolutely cancelled far before any payment is due, do not and will not owe them anything (and have cancelled their permissions through Paypal directly as you cannot remove any payment information on the Shaw website itself).
A lot of trouble, time and stress and not even sure if I’ve been successful in stopping them.
There are many great online course providers out there that I’ve had great service from and no trouble pausing or cancelling when not in use, this is without doubt the worst.
I would have reported them officially already if I could work out which agency to contact as they do not fall nicely into one of the ‘fraud types’.
Just- avoid.
Like many others I signed up for the Shaw Academy 1 month trial – I signed up solely for the Project Management “diploma” because I thought it would give me a different perspective but when I started the first module I realized it wasn’t a good fit for me and made a mental note to cancel before the trial was over. I thought it would be easy to cancel but boy was I wrong. I went through 3/4 web pages before getting to the page that said call this number and provide this reference number to cancel.
I called and spent 5 minutes on the phone with the automated system upselling me repeatedly. I eventually got to the end and I believe I heard that my sub had been canceled and I will receive a confirmation email which i never got (Josh in one of the comments said he got an email address to send an email to cancel – I don’t believe I got this).
I woke up this morning to a charge on my credit card and I started stressing because I was confused. I specifically remember the call and at the time I was reassured that I had canceled even though i never saw the confirmation email. I searched my call records on my phone and billing and it took a while to find a record of the call because the number they give you redirects to a different number so you cant even do a match that way. Imagine having to go through a weeks worth of phone records to identify a call you made.
I emailed them and they essentially “blamed” me – saying I didnt read their terms and conditions (which I did of course, you cancel before the trial expires without getting charged). I have reached out to my credit card company to dispute the charge. This is pretty scummy and scammy behavior (even apart from their constant spamming – multiple emails and texts but personally I dont mind those as I mostly ignore them)
Simon Crowe, I would highly recommend changing the title of your blog post (if possible – the question “IS Shaw Academy a scam?” can be reliably stated as a fact. Yes, they are) AND also the end of your recommendation – while you no longer recommend them, i think the rating you give them – 70/100 – is not congruent with the fact that they scam most of their clients.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, it is crazy that you have had to fight tooth and nail to cancel your free trial and this is obviously a deliberate act by Shaw Academy to charge your account. I am glad you are disputing the charge as they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it.
Yes I gave them the beenfit of the doubt when I first wrote this review but now clearly they are nothing but a scam. I’ve also updated the recommended or not section. Thank you again for sharing your experience but I am sorry you had to go through it.
Hi Dare… So the only thing to escape from this scam is to change your credit card? Does it help? Or can you suggest a way to get of it? Maybe a lot of subscriber now trying to get ways how to get out from that situation,after reading all the negative comments. And also thank you for sharing your experience.
Would you believe these guys? SO I filed a dispute with my credit card company and they immediately credited me the 69.99 and said they would reach out to the merchant for an investigation – this was in May. My credit card just emailed me now saying they were reversing the charges (ie paying the scam artists)!!! The scam artists submitted bogus evidence claiming I used/accessed the service and also that their terms show that their is a FREE TRIAL and a charge after that if you dont cancel (which obviously i canceled). I am incensed and will fight this
Wow, these guys really scraping the bottom of the barrel! It’s a shame these guys didn’t focus this energy on creating a legit learning platform in the first place…
You’re doing exactly the right thing by fighting this, thanks for the update please do let us know how you get on!
My experience of Shaw Academy is vastly different from the one’s as described, above? I have been a
long time Premium member, almost since they opened up, in 2013. (I think, it was?) Ok, I must say that I joined them initially on the 30 days free course, and immediately afterwards joined their Premium plan, which was debitted, once off! I therefore did not have any further deduction issues, afterwards.
I have never really had any Support problems, which is worth the, mention. Have since completed all their Foundation / Advanced, Photography diplomas, and the same goes for their Financial diploma, courses!
I have been a very happy student so far, but I guess different people may have different, experiences?
The best part of the Premium membership, is that you can get 3 people of your family to study at minimal, cost. (No study cost except they pay only for Toolkits, if they want them, as well as exams and certificate/ diploma, fee’s). They do also have an accounts department, to sort out payment, issues?
Maybe their Premium member students get more attention, which is quite, possible?
Thanks for you response. Just wondering if you have received hard copies of your certificates? Thank you
Hello, I have had the same experience regarding shaw academy however I have taken action to cancel my card and my membership with shaw. I was one day into the free trial. I am not convinced that the account has been cancelled though. The siege of text messages and relentless pestering was a red flag, i only wish i read more reviews before I signed up!
I am in hope that cancelling my card will mean no charges, as i am to afraid to go back into the shaw website and check what details i gave, if it’s just the long number on my card I should be fine… I hope.
I might be need re-assurance here!
I have read this thread from beginning to end and not one great review, unlike the rubbish written everywhere else I have the same experience and $64.99 was taken out of my account even though I tried to cancel before the expiration but it kept asking me to call a no that went straight to voicemail.
I have been on this return my money for about 2 weeks. My question now is how do we make sure we get refunds or stop this scam. Who can we report them to? I am extremely bitter as legitimate people are being scammed day in day out. We can’t just be accepting this scam, I work hard for my money for someone to steal from me because I was trying to add to my knowledge. this is unacceptable. Please what can we do, any suggestions?
My experience of Shaw Academy very similar to the above comments. Signed up to the free trial which i actually quite enjoyed. But then the scamming started! I tried to cancel. Instead they sweet talked me to stay a bit longer, extending the trial and a few freebies. I was debating whether to take the plunge and pay for the rest of the course. All the time constantly bombarded with marketing stuff. Then at one point they sent me what seemed like a great offer – to upgrade to lifetime membership for £49. I took the plunge and felt happy that i could then finish the course and maybe do a couple of others without the constant worry of continually paying out. How wrong I was. It was only by chance that i happened to notice a few days later that my membership had been reverted back to monthly. Checked my bank account and they’d charged me for that as well! I was fuming!!! Rang them and they said they’d sort it. Then got an e-mail the next day saying they couldn’t refund it because i hadn’t cancelled before the end of the free trial! The more dealings i have with this company, the more i see they are nothing but manipulative, underhanded, deceitful schemers who actually care about nothing but lining their own pockets by any means possible! It’s such a pity because if they put as much time and energy. Into legit service and transparent pricing and business practices as they do now into scamming and ripping people off they could actually have the potential to be a good company.
I wrote a review on trustpilot – and someone has reported it as being not acceptable. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if it was someone from the company. That strikes me as the kind of underhanded way they operate. Meanwhile they keep getting loads of positive reviews – from people who only just signed up and are still enjoying the free trial.
I tried to find a bit more info about the company. I see they nearly went bust a couple of years ago. Looks like they are owned by some big business tycoon who doesn’t actually give two hoots about education. I hate being down on people but I seriously hope this company gets everything they deserve. This company really needs exposing for the scammers they are in any way possible!
Having written the above, and sending them an extremely rude e-mail. (And reported them to uk gvt as a very dodgy company that needs investigating) I see they have now reverted my membership to lifetime membership and refunded the monthly fee. Immediate issue resolved. Still wouldn’t trust them as far as I can throw them though! I paid them through paypal. Do you know if there any way to block them there to prevent them taking money in the future when they think I’ve forgotten about it all? Do I need to delete my paypal account and starting again with them?
Oh and i see it was them that reported my review on trustpilot. They have said so!
I was wondering what you wrote in the email to make them give you a refund. Did you mention to them that you were going to report them to UK GVT?
I have been emailing with them back and forth for 8 days now explaining how it wasn’t my intention to buy something that was an insta buy without checkout screen… Whoever does this anyway…
They keep on upgrading my account, while I keep on saying them not too and that I explicitly don’t give permission for that. They ignore it. I even said I wanted to end my subscription since I want to delete my account. But they just came with a new offer instead.
I’m so sick and tired of this company… I really want to make sure they don’t take any money anymore and end my subscription. Since I have email history from 2nd of June and my subscription end 28th of June I’m far on time. So I guess they have a problem if they ignore that.
Wow! Thank you so much for posting this! I’d entered all my information into their website, including cc number and even clicked the box agreeing to their terms but for some reason, before clicking ‘submit’ I decided to do a google search. The first blog said they were legit and then I clicked on yours. You just saved me money and months of aggravation, I’m sure.
After signing up and having to deal with them myself for a current issue, I am hesitating if this free trial period is a way to buy time to keep you engaged so then you never get your money back for a promised refund or an unexpected deduction from your account once you decide to cancel due to their complicated cancelling process (based on all the common reviews).
If only I wasn’t naive and fell for the advertising trap and had done the same as you, to just review them first. This is now a lesson for myself to always check reviews on any transactions I will be making in future, especially if they offer FREE stuff! Note: they responded to my request for a refund on a purchase I didn’t want.
After they saw my review on Trustpilot they responded next day and in that email, they politely asked if I can remove my review too. So, it makes me question their motives.. will they only honor my refund request after I remove/edit a more positive review for them? Hmm… I think I will trust my instincts on this one and reckon it might be the case. So, hopefully responding back to them to advise I need to see my refund first before I do anything.
Thank you for this post, it clarified why I got the ridiculous responses from support. I have done the 1st module of 2 different courses (long story) on trial. I may not like how they are presenting their “live” classes at this stage; however, I do recognise that the quality of the learning material is better than some other learning options are presenting, and I would like to finish those 2 courses. Here again, your post helped tremendously. As you said; their pricing plans could be more clearly laid out.
I cancelled my trial within five days of starting it – after they bombarded me with so many calls, emails, even whatsapp messages (Six in the FIRST HOUR after i signed up). They operate like a cult.
They finally acknowledged my cancellation, and said it would be done within 48 hours. That was in March. Then weeks later in April, they’ve taken almost £50 from my PayPal account.
They’ve closed their lines and had ignored my emails until I took to twitter.
They’ve still glossed over my requests to return the money that they’ve effectively stolen, but have offered me two free months instead!? They’re just basic, low life scam artists. This is a classic subscription scam! lure you in, put a 30p authorisation through on your account, make it difficult to cancel and then sit back and steal money from your account, hoping you wouldn’t notice.
AVOID AVOID AVOID
As a recently self employed PT after serving 9 years in the marines, myself and my partner who works for the NHS are entitled to no support during the COVID-19 outbreak. This is the reason I have been looking for free courses all over the Internet as we simply cannot afford to pay for any.
I saw Shaw academy and thought perfect. Used my details to start the free trial, didn’t use it during the free trial or the following weeks after being bombarded with emails calls and texts to find that I had been charged full price.
Yes, this is my mistake for not reading all there terms and conditions about billing and cancellations, but the fact I haven’t used any of there services to be told you are not entitled to a refund, you should have read every 10000 words there are on our terms and conditions page shows what kind of company this is.
No empathy, just want your money an willing to jump on anyone who makes a mistske, regardless of there situation.
Hello, definitely not recommend this company. Only who recommend them works for them.
Signed up for a free trial, then found out I have not enough time to go through all course so I cancelled it. Then I have been charged and they explained to me that I reactivated my account again.
Cheaters! please is there any way how to get my money back? Please advise.
SOMEONE PLEASE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION I REALLY NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!
I mistakenly put in my debit card number to register the 1 month free trial and right after that, I found out about all of these scams. So I quickly went to the bank and changed my debit card number by getting a new one. I’m still not sure and now I am really anxious… There is two more weeks left in the free trial but now they don’t have the correct info. Does this mean that I am safe? Would Shaw academy still will be able to scam my money? What should I do to double check? Should I call the bank again? Someone please answer this ASAP because I am really paranoid!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also as soon as I heard about the reviews, I didn’t not used any of their products.
Hi Brian, as you’ve cancelled your card they can’t take any payments out so you are absolutely safe.
As I said in a previous comment to Kim, this is the best way to make sure they can’t touch your account. It’s just like cancelling your card after it’s been stolen, no one can use it anymore so you are all good.
I hope this helps put your mind at rest!
Oh ok then. That is great. Thank you for the reply. Now I can no longer worry and live my life peacefully.
When I first signed up to the web design course, I sent an email asking a few questions (what programmes will I need to have/download to do the web design practical work etc). No response but I did get a phone call a few days later (after being spammed with text messages, emails and even a few watsapp messages) from a woman wanting to confirm if I knew what time my class started. I said yes and proceeded to ask her my questions on the course and she put the phone down on me mid sentence. Then already I knew something was wrong.
As with all of you here, it went downhill from there and I’m struggling to cancel. Already blocked and cancelled my credit card.
I’m so sorry to hear this Kim and it goes without saying that cancelling your credit card isn’t something you should HAVE to do but it looks like this is the only way you can know for sure they can’t take any charges out of your account.
I know your experience will help other people avoid Shaw Academy so thank you very much for taking the time to share your story with us.
I thought I was rid of Shaw Academy once and for all after a good few months of back and forth disputes regarding my unfortunate engagement with them. I signed up for a free trial and cancelled my membership before the trial period ended. They still charged me for the following 2 months £34.99 and then when I went onto the site to try again to cancel my card details and remove my account completely, I was guided to click on-to a Toolbox. A one-click link that charges you instantly. I emailed immediately to advise my frustration and mistake and was unable to receive any refund whatsoever from them.
Almost 1 year on when I believed the scandal to be a distant memory Ive found £49.99 x 2 monthly charges on my credit card account. I havent logged on, signed up, even come across this site again in the last year and they’ve randomnly started to charge me again. I’ve emailed and been given a credit to my “de-activated” account. It now tells me to “re-activate” my account again to log in etc. I daren’t touch any buttons on this awfully misleading website.
I’m still responding to emails and now talking to my bank account for further guidance. Fair enough people often sign up to services and realise it’s not for them etc but after reading countless reviews of this company, I have yet to come across someone who thinks it’s a legit and customer friendly platform.
I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent trying to figure out how to stop any more payments never mind learning anything useful. Steer well clear!!
Definitely DO NOT Recommend.
Their communication policy isn’t clear. Upon signing up, I was bombarded with emails.
In addition, the company asked for my Paypal details, even though I signed up on a free offer. They then used this to automatically authorize purchases which I clicked on by mistake.
When asked for a refund, they said I’d committed to it and they couldn’t refund as per ts&cs.
They sent me text reminders, which I don’t recall signing up to. I texted back saying STOP and kept receiving texts anyway. They also reached out by Whatsapp which again I don’t recall committing to, replied back with STOP and they kept messaging.
Seriously, go study with someone else. These guys have no idea of consent and some dodgy ts&cs.
I was a few minutes earlier for my class and was trying to log in to my shaw academy account by the email and password and it said either of them are not correct. I did enter the correct one but it still denied. So I clicked on – forgot password and had reset a new password. Due to the reset for a new password process, I was late by a minute and now I am unable to join the class. It said that I could join the 3rd class next week. I was also looking for another way to re-join the same class that I had just missed just by a minute due to a glitch due to Shaw Academy website, but I still was not able to. That is why I’m cancelling my membership and classes course from Shaw Academy. I was not happy by this experience.
I wouldn’t be happy either CK. It sounds horrible and what a run around!
You know, the more reviews the amazing The Make Money Online Blog readers leave, the more I think I gave Shaw Academy way too much benefit of the doubt when I initially wrote this review…
I cant even delete my payment info from them and they keep charging me!
Its a big scam where they offer you a free class (thru tmobile tuesdays). They inundate you with course modules they want you to buy and then start disguising payment buttons as your coursework so that you inevitably click it thinking it the stuff you need for the free class. but then they charge you. its criminal, and i believe intentionally misleading.
Hi guys,
I wanted to share my negative experience with Shaw academy. I subscribed to a free month to try some classes. Which I did not like, the content was too basic and I thought the whole thing was not user friendly.
Anyway, I tried to cancel while I was still in the free trial, but the cancel subscription page was always ending as “error” I have contacted so many times their customer service about it, they charge me for the next months …
Now, I have succeeded to cancel but they still don’t want to refund the money. Imagine if they do that to thousands of people… Nice profit, good scam.
This is such a bad customer experience Fauve. They NEED to make sure they give you a 100% refund. It should be no questions asked. Please let us know what happens… hoping for a good outcome.
I’m having the same issue as everyone else.
I signed up for the free 1 month trial before COVID19 started getting serious. I figured it was a good deal and I would continue classes if I liked them. Things started getting bad overnight. Colorado was one of the first places to declare a state of emergency, I lost my job, and I have no income. Yes, with everything going on I forgot to cancel. They sent me text messages and emails reminding me i missed classes, but those messages stopped a week before they took money out of my account. I spoke with an instructor and she said that they would send a reminder before the date for me to cancel if I still wanted to. Now, I have to dispute the charge, freeze my account, and get a new bank card. There is no easy way to get in contact with a customer service representative. You are instructed to cancel your membership through the website, it takes you through 3 or more pages of “offers”, only to give you a number to call. After you call the number, you listen to a 5-minute recording of more “offers”, and then they give you an email address to cancel your membership. That process could have been made easier by just providing the email address. This is a huge red flag. I would not recommend you giving information to this company.
Also, I work in social media marketing and I can tell that a lot of the positive reviews are fake. A lot of companies hire services to write fake positive reviews in order to boost their online reputation. You can pay extra for them to write convincing thorough positive reviews as well.
I am so sorry this has happened to you Josh and every story here has a common thread – they’re really big on trying to upsell you and nothing screams “we want to squeeze as much money out of you as possible” than this in my view!
Did you manage to get a refund in the end?
You are totally right about fake reviews too. I see them all the time, mostly from affiliates writing fake positive reviews to try and get a quick commission. I review A LOT of programs here on the blog and I made the decision from the get-go to just be honest and say it as I see it.
I’ve signed up for a 4wk free trail thinking I’d cancel if I didn’t like it. Now I am really worried that I won’t be able to cancel without being billed and I too lost my job due to corona! But the reason I’ve replied to you your message is that I fully agree that all the people leaving positive reviews have been paid to do it. It is odd that all the good reviews on Trust Pilot are from people based in India and Asia, and all the ones leaving bad (honest) reviews are American or Western… seems to me they have paid a load of Asians to post good reviews everywhere to make themselves look legit!
Wish I hadn’t signed up to the free trail now.. as no doubt I am going to get scammed now!
Shaw academy is a SCAM site! be warned, they will charge your account multiple times and then get you to pay for stuffs that you had already paid for.
SCAM SITE!
I have had a horrendous experience with Shaw Academy and would highly recommend not getting involved with them, unless you want to use their services for the rest of your life!!
I signed up for the free trial, entered my card details thinking I would easily be able to cancel if I didn’t enjoy it.
I didn’t enjoy the product, it was very pushy and if you didn’t join a class you were bombarded by messages and phone calls. It just wasnt for me!
I knew to cancel before the end of my trial so 2 days before the end of my trial i attempt to cancel. Couldnt find an easy way to do it other than a phone number where I spent hours on the phone trying to contact someone. Someone did answer eventually but when I started speaking, they just hung up. This is when I started to get worried.
So I looked online to find out how others had cancelled and was met with tons and tons of awful stories about practically fraud.
I did find an email address which i e-mailed to state that I wanted to cancel my account. After waiting ages, somone got back and said my account was inactive and I wouldn’t be charged. I took their word for it but ofcourse 2 days later £50 comes out of my account.
I have been trying to resolve this for over a week but they are refusing to give my money back despite me cancelling before the end and them essentially lying to me.
They repeatedly send pre written emails and it seems no one is responding to my specific case but they must get these emails all the time so they have an automatic response.
I also beleive they are sending out hundreds of fake reviews to TrustPilot and places like quora. The reviews just seem so fake, unless people are getting bribed to review by giving free months etc.
Im sure some will be real, the problem with them only really starts when you no longer want to use their services!
I would say stay away ????
I just signed up for the free trial. Entered my credit card details and noted that I would NOT be charged anything during the free trial. Immediately obvious there is something odd going on.
First you have to pay for the tool kit. You also have to pay for the certificate. That is PER module and 4 modules on the course I signed up to for free. Then I noticed that you can set your own timetable for receipt of “live” online lessons. Really, so I can pick any day of the week, and time between 6am and 10pm for a “live” lesson.
Concerned I looked at how to cancel membership. No option other than to e-mail support which I did. Immediately got a response saying it was not my registered e-mail address so they would not answer. But it was my registered e-mail address. I then dug out this review. Clearly the reviews on trustpilot are false (I looked at them before setting up the free trial).
So I rang my credit card company. Guess what, I was charged 30p when I registered, so not free registration. Then my card company say I can only stop payments for specific amounts not a generic block on Shaw Academy. Guess I now have to check every statement to see if I am charged by Shaw Academy, which from reading the comments here will happen.
I have only just realised this, regarding the whole paying £40 per final module to move onto the next module. This was not advertised at the beginning with the initial price guide and I was informed of this in an email and from the app. Then I had to find out for myself by going into the FAQs. This is AFTER I’ve signed up for a premium 6 months. So not only have I paid the 6 months, I assumed that was everything included, and it clearly isn’t. I’ve taken on 2 courses, each with however many Modules (5 I think), so per module, on each course, that’s a lot more than the actual premium memberships.
So my question is, I only just paid for the premium membership. Is there a way of getting that refunded??
DEFINITELY A SCAM! I signed up for the 4 Week Free Trial a couple days ago because I thought “Hey, it’s free to try out, why not”, but made the mistake of providing my Credit Card info assuming that I was safe to cancel in the first 4 weeks without issues. Then after my first “Lesson”, I realized it wasn’t for me and just a sales pitch, so when I went to go Cancel my Account, I was redirected to 5 different website links, only at the end to find that I HAD TO CALL A PHONE NUMBER TO “CANCEL”. So, I thought I’d call the number, and after listening to them for 10 minutes trying to convince me not to cancel and “Give up on my dreams” as they said, and pressing key after key after key to finally get to the end of the prerecording, all they say is that I NEED TO EMAIL THIS EMAIL ADDRESS. So, I’m extremely frustrated and worried at this point as they have my credit card information, so I thought I would email them with the Subject “For the LOVE OF GOD Cancel my Subscription”, only to get an automated response back saying that my email is being reviewed with no additional follow up by them, while they still have my credit card information. Basically, it’s just a giant LIE in order to convince you that you need this bullshit “product”, with them towing you around with your credit card information.
I ended up having to call my bank and cancelling my credit card prior to any payments coming out from them in order to ensure they didn’t get a cent of my money, crooked fraudulent bastards.
So save yourself a giant headache and NEVER EVER SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY as they just want to steal your money.
Sincerely,
A very dissatisfied “customer” AKA some fool who fell for these assholes’ con.
Hey Jordan, I’m dealing with the exact same thing, signed up, gave my payment details and am now jumping through hoops trying to cancel the free trial before they charge me. Out of curiosity, what was the email you were told to contact?
Anna, they tell you to contact support but then you just get an automated reply telling you that they will get back to you. They give you a case number but any automated system can give you that. See my experience posted on 1st April for more details.
Same here. The free trial promotion was provided by T-mobile Tuesday 3/31/2020. After I found I got charged for toolkit, I email them for refund. However, Shaw’s statement was sounding like that was my responsibility to pay attention on what would be charged.
I’m completely with you., having experienced the same.
What made it slightly more difficult, is that nowhere is it translated into my cureency (ZAR), only Pounds, Dollars and Euros, so now I’m left to just figure out what exchange rate to use and wht’s to say they’re keeping to it?
Beware – unfair charges!
I pushed the wrong button and was charged for a toolkit i never used. there is even no confirmation during the purchase. So beware of entering your credit card details. When I asked for refund they refused and offered another sets of toolkits for free – which means actually that I have to purchase more course lessons.
big NO
I’m so sorry you had to experience this Orly, but I thank you wholeheartedly for sharing your story as a warning to others!
Exactly the same problem here over the last couple of days! They’ve refused a refund and offered the same. Luckily, I provided PayPal only and have removed pre-approved payments but I’m still concerned that they may attempt to take payment at the end of this ‘free’ trial.
Shaw Academy is definitely a scam! They take unauthorized money out of your credit card. Stay away.
I bit for their free Photoshop course, 8 lessons. I received it although that is only module 1 of many more, which of course you have to pay for.
After the free month I went to cancel. Finding the cancel info was impossible so I emailed them asking to cancel.They responded with a link which I filled out. I then received an email pointing me to another page to cancel. After going through a number of pages offering me different options to stay and telling me why I should stay i finally got to page saying I had to call to cancel. I called during the stated hours and got voicemail so I left all of the information. I have herd nothing since so I think I am finally done.
Luckily I gave my Paypal info to sign up so I went to the Paypal subscription page and cancelled payments to Shaw. Time will tell as to what happens next. Not happy with Shaw at all, although the class was really good. Just not worth what they are charging.
Hi Fred, did cancelling payments through PayPal work for you please? Thanks in advance!
I do need to chime in here… I also created an account, but had it closed after 6 days. After emailing them, my account was closed. After 1 month, my credit card got charged with 41 and 39 Euros. Luckily I only use revoult for online stuff, and never have a lot of money on it.
i dont know who or how to gey my money back i never signed up help thanks
Hi,
I have purchased an account from show academy using flipcart. After purchasing the account what I noticed is, it still shows as a free trial user. I was not that concerned about that because the courses they provided are not useful for me. Still, I have purchased one to test because I already paid for the account. They will ask for another big amount for course materials. Since it was not at all useful I decided to cancel and deactivated the account. After deactivating the account I saw the account status as “non-renewing”. Just after 1 month, they took a membership fee for renewing the same.
Do you think this is good? As a customer, I have sent email to their customer service. The assigned person agreed that it is not fair, but as per their company policy, they can’t process a refund for me. I would like to say that they are misusing their customer’s credit card details. Because they should not take any amount to renew any account if the account status is “Non-renewing”. I hope people who read this will try to understand and
purchase courses from trusted providers.
My rating for show academy is -1 star
My recommendation for online courses is Udemy.com, there you can find lots of courses from highly skilled trainers. The highlight is we can trust. They are giving 100% refund if the course is not good. I have purchased around 5 to 6 courses from udemy for me and my friends which were awesome.
Please stop paying to cheaters like show academy hereafter.
This does not sound good Jeril, thanks for sharing your experience.
Hi, I am looking to purchase a membership on Shaw Academy and wanted a few things clarified (from ones who have already experienced the platform)
Do you have to pay at the end of each module for the assessment? is certification provided at the end of each module? and again, do you have to pay to receive it?
Seems to me like this makes the cost of an individual course is too high?
What do you guys think?
Is it worth an EQF level 5 certification? also, how valuable is that certificate?
See my previous comment. I would rather recommend udemy for your better learning
Hi Simon,
I signed up through a Wowcher deal, £5 each for both an Introduction to Social Media Marketing Diploma and an Introduction to Photography Diploma. This came with a free trial of Premium Membership for a month, allowing access to bonus content, notes and slides. You then have an option of whether you wish to continue on to do the full Diploma (3 more modules).
That’s where you get stung.
It is not overly expensive but things creep in here and there. First of all you have to sign up for Premium Members ship and are given a choice of £xxx per month (given the options of 1, 3, 6 and 12 months (this however is taken as one payment and is a “rolling contract” so you would actively have to cancel this in time!).
I signed up for 3 months as I thought it would take 16 weeks to complete all 4 modules (as first advertised) This is not the case. After completing module 1 and finishing all the assignments and essay in time, I was made to wait an extra week before I could start the second module. Half way through module 2, I have been made to wait a second time for another week.
Not only have I had to fit this around work (and now need to ask for a (minimum?) of two more weeks, my 3 month membership will now not cover me until the end of my course and therefore, they will have to take another payment from me!
I am anticipating that I will be made to wait at least another week between modules and potentially a week mid-way through them (an extra 6 weeks in total, meaning that even if I cancel the rolling contract for a further three months, it would not save me any money by signing up for a month by month contract as this is at a higher rate).
So, if my assumptions about having to waiting and having an extra 6 weeks added to the end date are correct, I would be paying for another 12 weeks by continuing my 3 month rolling contract whilst they get an extra 6 weeks money from me. The 3 month contract was advertised at a cheaper rate and therefore I wouldn’t save any money by converting to a one month rolling contract.
They also charge for a hard copy of the Diploma so there will be plenty of expense to come!
On the positive side, the course content is easy to follow and slides are explained well. The assignments are not difficult as they are in the form of multiple choice questions and you can re-submit these if necessary. As I am doing two courses at once, it is “cheaper” but if I had decided to do one at once it might not have been worth it money-wise for me.
The course content I would recommend, the organisation……hmmmm……it is cheaper than some but, not the easiest to get a straight answer from if you question things. There is a hard sell after module one to get you to sign up for the full course and they are deliberately vague about a lot of things.
Thanks for sharing your experience Selina, I didn’t know they time-lock lessons! That’s a very sneaky tactic clearly for their benefit not yours.
And I completely agree about the intentional vagueness. I think they would help their students and themselves if they were more open about the exact pricing structure and full costs involved. By not doing so they automatically raise suspicions.
Thank you again for sharing, I know people thinking about whether or not to sign up will find your full breakdown really useful.
Hi, right now, Shaw is offering lifetime memberships for $69, and they converted me when I complained about being charged $49.99 after a one month trial, when I couldn’t find in their website how to cancel prior to my trial’s end.
Initially I was offered 6 months free as substitute to my one month paid, which wasn’t a bad trade-off but I told them I keep getting asked for lifetime membership for $69 on my work mobile, so I sent them a screen shot and someone gave me lifetime access.
So in my case, they were responsive, they gave positive spins on learning at your own pace, which was acceptable to me, and overall, customer service was a 4 out of 5. I haven’t accessed any course yet, though so let’s see.
I got an email from them back in January, offering the Masters for £99, which included lifetime membership for myself and 3 of my friends, finding it hard to believe they could be offering a Masters, for that kind of money, I got in touch, and was assured the Masters is genuine, and is same as any Masters in Uni, I decided to go ahead, my lifetime membership became active immediately, but I had to badger them for the links for my 3 friends, which they have got and have all been using.
I decided to do the web development course, so signed up, set up the day and time, and began, found the course to be really helpful, then my initial 4 week course came to an end I then signed up to do the advanced course, which is on demand, and quickly discovered the course is from 2017, 2 years old.
I have to say I am very concerned about the Masters Degree, I cannot find any mention of it on their website, it is now June and I haven’t heard anything from them about when it will actually start, all I know is it is meant to start in July. Is it a scam?
Hi Lorraine,
I’m having a hard time signing up 3 family members/friends too! How did you get them to assist you with this? I’d really appreciate your help! Thank you.
Hi Mariana,
Good old social media, I sent them a message on Facebook, and they dealt with it straight away, they really are terrible when it comes to responding.
Have you signed up to the Masters aswell?
Whilst waiting to start the Masters, I decided to practice with web development and web design, the initial 4 week course, you had to set a date and time to do, but the advanced is on demand and when I have started it I have discovered it is from 2017.
I am trying to get some information about when this Masters Degree will start, but not had a response. It is very frustrating.
Im in the same boat as you – ive started googling to see what i can find out about Shaw Academy and the Masters course and found an article by The Journal Times saying that Shaw Academy is in examinership! Google it!!
Ive emailed them about 10 times and ive called all their numbers and all of them say that this number is not available. i have little doubt ill be doing my masters with them. The saying is true – when something seems too good to be true, it generally is! FML!
SPAMMER!!!!!
Will send you SMS and Emails on a Daily basis!!! I inputted my cp# & email but didn’t finish the registration. It’s almost a month now and they don’t stop sending emails and sms.
That’s annoying.
You can try registering your number (for free) with DoNotCall.gov to stop spammy sales calls coming through. I’m not sure if it covers SMS, but it’s worth asking. If they continue to contact you after that you can also report them to the FTC through the link I just gave you.
Hope that helps!
I finished my Nutrition Course and have been emailing them for the hard copy diploma. Every time there seem to be a different excuse. I was told by other people that they haven’t got their diploma either and they did the course years ago.
Bellow is Shaw Academy latest answer:
Due to huge demand and technical issues in delivering the hard copy certificates, this “EQF Hard copy Diploma” service is temporarily disabled since February.
Our development team is working with the relevant teams from Logistics and technical group to bring this facility back at the earliest possible. This may take a month to have this feature re-enabled by 1st week of May.
Once the service is re-enabled, we will reissue your hard copy diploma to your address at no extra cost.
I’m in the middle of the Photography Diploma Course, and I must admit that I have mixed feelings about Shaw Academy. The course content has been outstanding; the automated learning system and customer service have been nightmares to deal with.
I first signed up for the introductory course through Mashable for $29. When I clicked on the link they sent me, Shaw Academy automatically scheduled my classes (the “live” webinars) at a time when I wasn’t available. It took a month of repeated emails to their support staff to get the problem straightened out. During that time, I was receiving repeated automated reminders about attending the class, and notices with links to reschedule. But the links in the rescheduling emails didn’t work. Then the emails started telling me that they were going to cancel my course because I wasn’t attending.
Two months after purchasing the course, I was finally able to begin it. As I noted, the course itself is wonderful. It’s comprehensive and informative, and they include downloads of both the webinar slides and a set of instructor’s notes, which are very useful.
When I was nearly finished with the initial 4-week class, I began receiving multiple emails (sometimes 4 or 5 per day) encouraging me to purchase a lifetime membership for $89. The sheer volume of emails was maddening. I liked the class so much that I did purchase the membership.
After completing the class, I received a digital copy of my diploma, and chose not to pay them an additional $29 for a hard copy. I had to contact their customer support in order to get them to stop sending 3 or more emails per day about the diplomas.
When I tried to schedule Module 2 of the 4 module course, the same scheduling glitch occurred (wrong days/times, notes that I wasn’t attending the “live” webinars, suggestions that I reschedule with links that didn’t work, etc.). I’ve been watching the webinars during the times that work for me (course content is still outstanding), and emailing their support team regularly because at first their system wasn’t registering that I’d watched the webinars. They finally fixed that, but now that I’ve completed the module and taken the exam, I have another issue: The system doesn’t seem to register that I’ve completed the exam, so the next module won’t open. Ugh.
My experience is negative.
Lessons were not live 100%. My chat during those lessons has never worked, same people over and over were communicating with the instructor and he was instantly replying in the video, lol.
I completed my exam back in January and I still haven’t received my diploma, it’s May now. I’ve tried getting in touch with them about it 4 times, they still experience issue with printing them. Can you believe it?!!!
And you had to pay extra for the diploma certificate, right? That’s ridiculous.
I’ve seen those ‘live, not really live’ webinars before, it seems to be a trend right now but it’s so blatantly obvious they’re not live. I saw a webinar once where the person was answering the questions a couple of seconds before the question was being asked, he obviously got the timing wrong lol.
Seriously though, this sounds terrible, what a headache! I thank you for sharing your experience with us and I’ll be praying they get their printer fixed…
Hi Simon!
I originally subscribed via Tmobile Tuesdays, promising 1 month free of charge, and later I paid 2 more times, around $300 total. I wasn’t asked for any extra for diploma therefore no diploma))) I cancelled my subscription and yet I got an email+texts to subscribed for $900 master’s degree.
No, thank you Shaw Academy! I’ll pay the full price but I’ll get a real degree with real University.
(Sorry for mistakes, I’m not a native speaker)
I read so many negative reviews but decided to go ahead and sign up anyway, and honestly I’ve been nothing but impressed.
There were issues activating my membership but the support team got back to me immediately and were incredibly friendly and helpful, sorting everything out by the end of the day.
Im doing the Graphic Design course and the Digital Marketing course and even though im only a few lessons in im very impressed with the depth of the content. Overall very impressed.
Thanks for sharing James, as you say there are a lot of negative reviews about the level of support at Shaw Academy but it’s great to hear you have had a great experience with them. It’s good to know if issues come up, you can get help when you need it.
I agree with you, though they have around only 50 courses – they are very well thought through.
I wish you the best of luck in your graphic design and digital marketing, I’m sure you’ll do well! 🙂
He James,
How did the course end up for you? How long did it take, and how much do you estimate you paid? Also, what subscription did you choose? Did you have to pay extra for “toolkits” and your diploma?
TIA
Shaw Academy is ideal for people looking to acquire or develop their practical skills in a certain area.The training courses are excellent. Rather than just listening to someone speak or watching them do something, it’s clear the trainers have gone to extra effort to make the lessons as interactive and practical as possible.The modules are broken down into bitesize chunks and you can choose the dates you attend the live classes so it works with your schedule.
Thanks for sharing!
Online learning has helped many people get new jobs or promotions. When it comes to training, Shaw Academy would be very good for those who want to acquire online skills, it’s got a good high rating, even though it has a high membership cost. It has keep a good standard for it to have high rating and it has free trail as well.
I am impressed with how you approached this review of the Shaw Academy platform. You really dug down on the pros of the site with everything from what is on offer to user experiences. This did not keep you from also advising on the cons such as lack of clarity for charges, customer support, and the qualification/certification they have for their training.
These are all good points to show potential users of the platform, so they know what they are getting into if they decide to try it out. It sounds to me like they are legitimate if in need of a little attention in regards to their sales and support departments.
Lastly, I also like that you included some alternatives to the Shaw Academy that are reasonably priced and within reach of most people who have a limited budget. These days there are many ways to get an education, and spending $150,000 on a bricks and mortar university does not make sense for many.
I would say that all the options you have included will work for most people. Knowing what the options are and then doing some due diligence (like reading this review) will raise the chance that you will get what you are looking for when you do invest your hard-earned money in yourself!
Thanks so much for such a thoughtful comment Dave. I really appreciate that!
And I couldn’t agree with you more about the huge difference in price between digital and skills-based learning platforms like this one vs. the cost of studying at a traditional university.
While I totally get that university is necessary for certain career paths, say if you want to be a vet or a nurse for example, the astronomical tuition fees and complete lack of real world application of some degree courses really make me question if it’s worth spending all that time and money at all. I see too many people leaving university with a boat load of student debt hanging over their heads and still unable to get a job because they have no work experience.
As you say, with online learning the ‘tuition fees’ are next to nothing compared to the traditional way of learning and as is the case with this training platform, you are learning valuable skills you can then take to the marketplace either working for someone else or for yourself.
Thanks again Dave, all the best!
Hey Simon,
Great review. I am a former student at Shaw Academy.
I have taken the photography course and it is absolutely brilliant!! Enjoyed the webinars, the content is engaging and informative. l have learned so much and it’s so easy, everything is well explained and I would 100% recommend Shaw Academy to anyone who to improve or upgrade their skills.
I also like how convenient the app is as you can use it on the go.
Thank you and best wishes.
Hey Zayn, it’s great to hear your feedback. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I’ll be honest, I had no idea there was a Shaw Academy app! I completely missed that! I see the app has a 4.4/5.0 rating on Google Play too, very impressive!
Hi Simon – great review of the Shaw Academy. You provided a lot of great information that is beneficial for people looking to take online courses. They seem to have a nice variety of courses available, which is nice. And another great part is that they offer a 7 day free trial. That way you can take a look at what they are all about before totally committing.
Thank you for this information,
Michele
I also am really interested in self-development, and I am always excited when I find a good site to continue developing skills. I noticed they have a number of different topics and courses, but in your research, do you think there are any particular areas of study where Shaw Academy stands above their competitors?
Hey Simon,
I’ve really enjoyed reading this review on “Shaw Academy” as you’ve provided us with tonnes of valuable information on this platform. I’m not sure if I found this information on this page or not but in case if I’m not happy with the platform, do they offer a full refund?
Thanks in advance for answering my question. Keep up the good work Simon!