Stonebridge Associated Colleges www.stonebridge.uk.com

I haven’t had a good experience through out my studies. Customer service is very poor and if you can get hols of someone they are not helpful at all. I managed to complete my programme, I was supposed to receive my certificate within 6 weeks, 10 weeks have passed and ı have received nothing yet.

They don't issue any certificates!

I am waiting 9months after completing my course and they keep ignoring me!

I v paid over a £1000 for not getting any certificate!

This college is not genuine college. Please do yourself a favour and research before you sign-up with this college. I don,t know they are allowed to operate and tricking innocent people. 3 years ago I signed up a course with them and after 4 days I realised I have been signed for different course. I then requested for a cancelation but and asked to pay amount of 1910.50.So i spoke on of the adviser to contest this claim because I had just signed paper work but had not started,he said if I agree to pay half of the amount and I will be allowed to switch. After going back and forth with this argument one of the advisor agreed not to continue with the claim. After 3 years I have received a court action. I am furious

Terrible customer service and poor tutor support. Some of the course content was wrong and riddled with spelling errors and factual mistakes. Vague assignments, vague indirect ways of contacting tutors, mediocre support and they get defensive when you complain. Poorly thought-out course content. Felt unsupported throughout the whole process. Avoid this institution like the plague.

I was ill and didn't turn in an assignment for months. No one checked to see why I hadn't completed the course. Once they have your money they do not care about you at all.

You have been warned.

I was told by a man over the phone i would have one to one video classes and lots of help and support. I have had no support whatsoever and there is no one to one video classes at all with my tutor I was told lies so I would give them money they took my money I wont get that back I paid full price and several times they said they would phone me and they haven't bothered that was months ago before easter it is now august they still haven't phoned me I just got in remission from cancer and I have not got the help and support from them that was promised over the phone. I am so disappointed at the way I have been treated by them all. the tutor takes days or weeks to respond and only with their text messaging service online not by phoning you or email or anything when you phone them its just someone saying they will phone you and no one does phone me as it has been months of no one phoning me I feel because they got all my money up front they just don't care its only if people haven't paid it all do they encourage if they get it all at once then they are not going to bother with you at all because they got what they wanted

As a serving headteacher, I am disgusted at how a colleague within my organisation has been treated during her course over the last 18 months. The support has been inept at best. Communication has been poor and the course content/requirements has changed throughout this year. It feels like the organisation has lost its accreditation and it is making up things ‘adhoc’ as they go. No one has responded to my numerous emails and communication and if you read other reviews, this is clearly not an exception. Do NOT train with them.

The customer service here is shameful and I wish I had read the reviews before signing up as I wouldn't have enrolled if I had known. Disrespectful and dismissive behavior showing no compassion or skill. Constantly pushing me off the phone to send emails to what felt like trolls who just repeated themselves with the information I can find on the website and have done already. I complained about my tutoring and was met with an opinionated agent who left me feeling nothing but anger for trying to ask for help.

The fact that I had no access to my account through the months of July and August and still was told to pay for a service I couldn't (not wouldn't) use was atrocious. if you had no access to your phone service for a month because of the provider, you would not think it fair to be told to pay, let alone be forced to pay a late fee.

After going through hours on hold across the months of July, August, and now September, I requested to cancel and was told it was case by case... based on my case I believe it right to let me go. I was advised to escalate as it was a no.

I never asked for a refund as I was aware of the fact that I had seen the documents, just to be let go but this wasn't acknowledged, and the 14-day cooling period was repeated non-stop to me. I was then advised I could change my course to another and then told that I had to continue paying for the old course which was ten times more than the course I am on at present but would still have to pay for the admin to transfer me over?

Why would I swap courses to something smaller with a different certification and price and still pay for the value of the previous one?

Who would pay for the service of a full spa day when they are only getting a pedicure?

Their T&C is vague and so they interpret it how they wish;

The first quote found on the LearnDirect website "...Please note, there may be a £40.00 administration charge for changing courses outside of your 14-day cancellation period..." Nothing about continuing to pay for the previous course here.

Second quote found in the Mandate attached "... If we agree to the course transfer, the total fees paid towards the discontinued course will be offset against the cost of the new

course. However, we will require that if the new course fee is greater than that of the discontinued course, the balance should be paid in full along with a standard £40 transfer fee..." Again nothing about paying for the previous course.

I read the T&C Mandate top to bottom and back again and found nothing about paying for my old course when moving, but forcing someone to stay with a ridiculous excuse for a service and then on top of that forcing them to continue to pay for an older, more expensive course. For that, ALL potential students should be made aware of your tendencies and small non-existent print.

After giving a review on trustpilot they told me to contact them on a specific email to help resolve and they basically told me to continue speaking to the bad customer service rep I have been speaking to.

Disappointed and terrible customer experience.

I joined a course on a 12 month payment plan, sadly my circumstances have changes (lost my job) and I can't afford the repayments. I spoke with Customer Service who said I couldn't cancel. Spoke to appeals, who said I couldn't cancel.

Told so many times I'd get a reply, but didn't. I had to chase them nearly everyday for a week, each time told I'd get a reply in a few hours from escalations. When I got a reply it was one sentence saying it wouldn't be possible to cancel, no explanation why they couldn't or wouldn't allow an execution in exceptional circumstances, not to mention no actually apology for being fobbed off so many times.

Wish I'd known this was learndirect before I signed up. They have a terrible name. Very misleading and utterly shocking service.

Now thanks to Stonebridge aka Learn Direct, it's likely I'm going to have to go down a debt management route. Thanks for helping me, I'll be sure to let everyone know how unhelpful you are to your students.

I would like to say a massive thank you to my Tutor! Who guided me in the best possible way!

Not having to stick to deadlines was an absolute blessing...

Since studying with the college, I now have a job within that field. I decided to study the subject purely based on my interest but never imagined I would be working in a patient facing role almost immediately after completion.

I would study again with Stonebridge college.

I highly recommend.

Thank you!

Let me share my story with you. As I am still involved in an ongoing situation with Stonebridge and they are a nightmare to deal with and are extremely good at ignoring any communication with them and will keep transferring your case from one team to another. It appears no one there wants to take any responsibility and thus will keep forwarding your emails from one team to another. So far, I have been in contact with numerous Stonebridge representatives

My story begins a follows….We all remember the official first lockdown back in March 2020. Working from home and consequently having lots of spare time on your hands, I therefore decided to engage in some online courses. After doing some research online, I came across Stonebridge college, despite the fact that they had numerous poor and even suspect reviews. I found a course that I really liked and rang the customer service team and asked them for a free trial lesson. They told me that they did not currently offer this option, however if I did not like a particular course, I could always cancel my subscription within 14 days as per their cancellation policy. The agent also informed me that they were doing a special online offer at the moment, and I only had to pay £9.50 for the deposit to sign up for the course I wanted.

I decided to purchase a subscription to the course I liked with my company credit card on the 29th of April 2020. On the 1st of May 2020, i received a sad news from my company, that the business would not be able to survive the Covid 19 pandemic and they were closing down the business and therefore I would be made redundant. I rang Stonebridge college customer service team on the 4th of May 2020, only 6 days after I purchased the course, to tell them that I had to cancel the course booked, as I would be leaving the UK and wanted to let them know as soon as possible. The agent told me on the phone, “yes it’s all fine” and that i only had to send them an email so that they would have confirmation of the cancellation in writing. The email was sent to them on the 5th May, 2020 which was in line, in good time and in adherence to their own cancellation policy. I duly informed them about my situation that I was leaving the UK and wanted to notify them straight away. Then the stressful and unwarranted harassment began with Stonebridge college phoning and emailing me and they have continued to this day, to ignore and disregard my consumer rights….

In November 2020, I started to receive the most threatening and aggressive text messages and emails telling me to pay for the course I cancelled (which was cancelled if you remember in line with their own cancellation policy). I immediately contacted the Customer Service Team at Stonebridge again and asked them politely to look into this, as this was an error on their part. I had to re-send them all the email correspondence between them and myself from May 2020, whereby I requested that they cancel my course as per their own agent’s telephone instructions given to me. They then responded that i still had to pay for the course as I owed them money for the cost of the course. This was the only reply I have to date received from them via email. They completely disregarded my previous email to them and insisted that I pay for a course I never received etc.

I yet again sent them another email highlighting and indicating their own company policy, that the course could legally be cancelled within 14 days of purchase. I even sent them again all the supporting documentation showing that I have cancelled the course 6 days after it had been purchased, and their response was that they did not have any record of my cancellation email.

Having had enough of dealing with their customer agents, who were obviously badly in need of customer relationship training, I requested to speak to a manager, or someone in authority who could help. What a surprise! No one got back to me! To date I still have not had any response from them confirming my cancellation or indeed any productive dialogue whatsoever! Every month, I receive another harassing email from a new customer service agent, proceeding to simply copy and paste a standard email template, with the same threatening dialogue, accusing me of owing them money and threatening legal procedures citing that they had not heard from me despite the fact that I had contacted them several times! Stonebridge college have continued to ignore any of my emails sent to them and definitely have no concept of customer service as they never reply back to me. Instead, they continue to send me harassing and extremely upsetting emails threatening me with legal action unless I pay. I am extremely stringent in keeping every single email sent to me from Stonebridge and I always reply to their email’s requesting a manger contact me urgently and as always I never hear back from them.

Based on my traumatic and upsetting experiences with them, and their extremely poor record of communications, I would advise if you are unfortunate enough to have any dealings with them, which I would strongly avoid at all costs!! You MUST keep every single email or correspondence.

Since November 2020, I have continued to receive very aggressive text messages from numerous private mobile numbers and their text messages are always the same. “Remember to contact us and make a payment. Stonebridge”.

It has been more than a year, and as previously stated, even now I keep receiving the most unprofessional and threatening communications from them. To date i am still waiting for a manager from Stonebridge to have the decency to contact me. I have sent more than 17 emails to their customer service team, to request that they stop sending me threatening email and text messages. They are relentless and blindingly oblivious to any regard for customer service or legal procedures and the reply I keep getting is that you owe us a money, or you need to speak to the account team or speak to the customer services team or speak to the late payment team etc etc Basically going around in the same pointless circle!

The irony is that none of this situation needed to be as traumatic, stressful, and extremely upsetting. So, I would repeat and strongly advise that if you have the misfortune to encounter Stonebridge College or Learn Direct Courses, please avoid them ‘like the plague’ and believe me there are much better online education establishments and companies. This company may appear to offer a good selection of courses, but their customer services are most definitely non-existent, and you will certainly regret any dealings with them!

If you also want to read about similar stories to mine , please visit [Resolved] Stonebridge College Review: Very poor tutor support | Complaints Board , you will see many more victims such as myself whom are happy to share their stories when dealing with Stonebridge College.