School Of Game Design Site Bbb.org

09/02/2021

My daughter, who was a high school kid, was trying to sign up for the 4-week free trial of an online course offered by Shaw Academy last year on 17 July (using her email ID : ********@gmail.com). After she filled in required info, she then realized that the course did not fit into her time schedule. So she cancelled her registration right away. However, without any prior notification or email confirmation to me or my daughter, Shaw started charging to my VISA a monthly fee of $69.99 in Aug 2020 until Aug2021. During this period, there wasn't any email nor other type of communication that informed my daughter that she had been registered as a premium member, nor update/promo on course offers. My daughter wasn't aware that her membership with Shaw Academy was still active at all. Basically, the Academy had ZERO communication with her before and after the end of the free trial period in Jul 2020. This is really tricky, sneaky n unacceptable! So I want a refund of all the fees paid !

Desired Outcome

Billing adjustment

Customer Response

09/03/2021

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) First of all, pls note that my daughter was attracted to your IG post on a free course on graphic design. So she tried to access the course details in your website by signing up as (what she believed) a general or regular member. Upon reviewing the course intro, she did not think the course could fit into her schedule. So she did not finish the registration n simply cancelled the course in accordance with the system procedure, NOT via email. What I think as inappropriate and misleading practice of yours is that there wasn't any alert that once she signed in, she would become a Premium Member. Also, your Academy had attracted her via IG post which said that you were offering a FREE course, it mentioned nothing about premium membership or subscription. Furthermore, after she signed into her account, the first page did have a red button says UPGRADE (to Premium Member). It implied that my daughter was just a general user/member unless she pressed the red UPDGRADE button on the first page of her account to become a premium member. (as circled in the attached screenshot). So when she found the course was not right for her, she simply cancelled her registration with the course rather than her membership. Last but not the least, as you can see from your records, my daughter, who was still in Grade11 as of last summer, did not log in your system nor attend/register into any course that you offered since she signed up last July. It is crystalclear to me and to everybody that she had never had intention to subscribe your Premium membership. In Aug 2020, your academy did not send her any confirmation email about the 4-week free trial nor her successful subscription of Premium membership, nor any payment notification before and when the 1st payment of $69.99. So quietly, you are taking money from me without any alert and prior notice. This is an unacceptable practice and in fact illegal in many countries nowaday. So I request you give me a full refund of all the paid subscription fees.