Next Step Beauty Academy Complaints Thread

A question about : Next Step Beauty Academy Complaints Thread

Hi all,

I recently had a big problem with this company. I paid for a beauty course a sum of Ј238, they cancelled it, and refused to refund my money, They told me I could travel 4 hours to get to an alternative location, OR, do another course in 1 month (however their T&Cs provided for them to cancel these courses ad infinitum!)

I was within the distance selling period of cooling off, but they claimed I had accessed valuable course materials on their student portal, and their T&Cs provided an exclusion in this circumstance.

I then met a lady on a beauty course I booked with another company, who had also suffered as Next Step cancelled her course and as she was pregnant and was too emotianally worn out to keep trying for a refund,she had given up.

I reviewed them before parting with any money, and all the reviews seemed ok. However, after having problems I googled Next Step Beauty wont refund and found many reviews where people have had the same problem, including an article in the daily express.

A lot of these reviews are removed though, and 5* reviews appear in their place. I thought by starting this thread, genuine people who have had problems could reply on here, and we could help each other.

My concern is, that many people simply give up after a few attempts, and this company get to keep hundreds of pounds of money that doesn't rightfully belong to them.

I eventually got a refund after reporting them to Trading Standards, and going down the legal route.

Please post here with relevant comments or complaints or pm if you like I will respond and help as soon as I can.

SFG x

Best answers:

• There was an article by the Daily Express - The Crusader column - about this company for treating a customer in the same way. I would not believe a word they say.
• We would be delighted to talk to you about this further should you wish and welcome you to call us directly or drop and email and wish you all the very best in your career.
  Regards
  Next Step Beauty[/QUOTE]
  Thats strange, when I phoned you to do exactly as you just suggested, you weren't so "delighted". I clearly recall being told that "this conversation is just going round in circles, I am not going to refund you" and you slamming the phone down on me. This was a conversation with Director Denise Arpels.
  You told me my course was cancelled because there weren't enough people on it.
  There was no material on your "Student Portal" to access, So I was unable to "start my course" when I told you this, you couldn't offer a reason why you wouldn't refund me and just said you would "speak to the "it" people".
  You still refused a refund despite me claiming as was my right under Distance Selling. You made me so stressed and upset, I feel upset even now just replying to you.
  I just want to warn other innocent people before they type their card details into your website.
• Thanks for the warning! I was considering doing a course with Next Step Beauty. Not any more!
• Reported this company earlier for the same reason.
• Next Step Beauty's post telling us how wonderful their customer service is (!!!!) has now been removed by mods.Well done MSE!
• Thanks for reporting them dear MSErs!!
  SFG x
• NB it doesn't mean a similar post might not reappear, either posted by MSE on their behalf, or by a properly recognised company rep for the firm. (Although they don't seem to be the sort of co to bother with the necessary hassle to do things properly.)
• You're right pmduk. I am fully expecting a newly registered user to appear representing them!!
  SFG x
• More likely, we'll have several new users purporting to have taken loads of their courses and they're the best thing since sliced bread. It's sad, because it means good reports from new users are always taken with a huge pinch of salt.
• Totally agree PMDUK, there are a plethora of unimaginatively and similarly written 5* reviews, on the internet about this company, by apparent sycophants!
  Unfortunately, these appear to mask the more truthful ones. All of those posters have only made 1 post, and guess what that is about this company! They were so amazing apparently, they were happy to register and review them. It is almost as if someone from this company has reviewd themselves!! Watch this space!
  SFG x
• Hi
  The company has asked to provide a response. MSE doesn't endorse anything a company says on the forum.
  Hi there, we are very sorry to read your comments. As you know we provide accredited courses which incorporate both distance learning (though full online video demonstration and manuals) as well as practical training sessions. The online material covers the course entirely and demonstrates exactly what is covered within the training sessions. With over 40 locations nationwide and tens of thousands of scheduled training sessions it is unfortunate but inevitable that not all will be able to run and although we try very hard and work tirelessly to run each and every session it is simply not always possible. This can be for a number of reasons and not always down to numbers for example illness and bad weather.
  On the rare occasions this happens students are offered an alternative date, alternative location or a full refund if they have not accessed the secure online training material or a partial refund if this has already been accessed as setout in the order/invoice. We simply are unable to refund the training material once it has been accessed as this was delivered.
  We continue to work with trading standards and other bodies to ensure we comply with all legislation and this would not have been a factor in any decision to refund the fees paid by you. Having successfully trained over 3000 students last year, we have no control over reviews provided and are very proud of the comments achieved. We do however always take on board comments to further develop our courses and service.
  We would be delighted to talk to you about this further should you wish and welcome you to call us directly or drop and email and wish you all the very best in your career.
  Regards
  Next Step Beauty
  
• Thanks Andrea,
  They have just cut and pasted their original response, which hasn't addressed any of the subsequent points I made, as I expected.
  SFG x
• I'm a grumpy sod, (my mates say they based Victor Meldrew on me) but... I told you so!
  We've all read, both here, and elsewhere the rude and unhlepful response you'll get if you do phone them.
• Ah pmduk I don't believe it!! you seem lovely not Mr. Medrew at all!
  I just hope people who need support find this thread! I have read lots of complaints and people wanting to collectively report them, one one site in particular, but for security reasons they won't publish email addresses. On another Beauty professionals website i left a review but the mods there told me Next Step Beauty had threatened legal action against them unless it was removed (then it was). Trouble is, when you review somewhere most people would type "nextstep beauty reviews" rather than "next step beauty wont refund" so the dreadful experiences are masked by all the 5* reviews posted by first time reviewers...... Smoke and mirrors...
• Hi Superflygal,
  I had problems with this company too - and they sound very similar to yours!
  I did the complete nail technicians course with them in 2011, which was ok (trainer was great, but they recommend the cheapest products and encourage you to buy their kit, which is made up of all different brands, and is not what is encouraged in the beauty world, mixing systems). Anyway I enrolled on this course, and cleared my diary, then the date was changed a week prior to the course taking place, which I wasn't pleased about as I am self employed, so had cleared all my appointments, and then found I had to change appointments again!
  Last year I decided that I wanted to do a pedicure course, and coincidentally I received an email from Next Step Beauty with an offer on their Pedicure course, so I thought I would book it. The course was local to me, and only half a day. I had booked this course for the start of summer, so that I could offer this service to my clients in time for the summer holidays. The day of the course I decided to check my emails in the 'Student Portal' located on their website to double check I had the correct details, and found that they had emailed me a week prior, cancelling the course. I emailed them back to ask why, and if they could not contact me through the student portal, but via my personal email address, that they had, as I didn't log into the portal often. I got a generic email back, saying that they don't often have to cancel courses and I was transfered to the one running the next month which would take place.
  The following month, I checked my emails on the Student Portal a week prior to the course to find it had been cancelled again! No email to my personal email address as requested, and again the course was not running, although I had been assured it would be. Now I had lost 2 afternoon's work! I phoned the company to ask them what was going on, they said that looking at the class list the course would definitely run the following month, so I decided that I would wait and do it (although I had now missed the optimum summer period!). Guess what happened? Yep, it was cancelled again - and yes, no notification via my personal email address, just through the student portal on their website! I decided to cancel my booking and get my money refunded. I paid to take the course somewhere else, they ran the course on the date advertised, and training was great!
  However NExt Step Beauty refused to refund my money, saying that I had accessed the Student Portal where the course material was! I never downloaded the course material, but they said that they could see I had accessed the student portal. Of course I had, how else would I have known the course was cancelled on 3 different occasions if I hadn't. They seem to have very little concern for their customer service. I asked them on 2 separate occasions to email me personally, but they failed to do so, then used the reason of accessing the student portal as a reason to not refund me! I was told, over the telephone that I could be refunded Ј10.00 of the Ј114 I had paid to them for the course not taking place. If the practical course only costs them Ј10.00, they should be able to run it if 1 person or 20 people turn up. I doubt very much that the cost of the practical course is this little. I was told that I could transfer to another course, as I explained that I had now done my pedicure training with another company. I had lost all faith in this company and told them so, and said I didn't want to train with them. Still no refund! Finally I got my money back after contacting trading standards and getting them involved. But as you can imagine, the refund was not simple. I was told 3 different times that I had been refunded, yet the money was not in my bank account. I think that this company makes the refund process so difficult that they hope people will get bored with chasing them! I would never recommend this company. Only one person there was anywhere near helpful and this wasn't the MD! I would recommend people to look for another training academy rather than use these!