Reader struggles to obtain refund for online seminars despite cancelling within the cooling-off period I feel I have been ripped off by the foreign exchange training platform Learn to Trade. I joined an online seminar hosted by the company, which is run by a man called Greg Secker, who appears in adverts on YouTube selling the dream of investing in forex.
The presentation was very exciting. We were told that a few “lucky” individuals among the 100 or so taking part would be selected to take the course at a cost of £3,000 instead of the usual £10,000. I was “selected” after giving my details. I enrolled with the platform on Nov 7, paying £3,064. About 36 hours later I changed my mind as I realised that I would not have enough time to take part in the courses as I am a full-time student and have my university studies to concentrate on.
So I asked for my money back. Vincent von Backström, the “mentor” who took my money initially, assured me when I asked that a refund would not be a problem. I requested the cancellation well within the 14 days “cooling-off period” mentioned on its website. I have made several calls and sent emails to the company but it has repeatedly turned down my request and been evasive. Vincent no longer answers his phone – it goes straight to answer machine.
The problem appears to be that when I had paid my money to Vincent, I was urged to then click on a link forwarded to me that allowed me to log on for the courses (which turned out to be offered by an overseas company called Smart Charts). But Learn to Trade said if you click on this link you are deemed to have bought the company’s digital material and therefore are automatically disqualified from any cooling-off period for a refund.
I feel I have been tricked. Please can you help me get my money back? I do not want to have anything to do with this company.
You have had a most frustrating experience with this forex training company. First, being lured in with a soft sell about how you were one of the lucky ones to get a huge discount on the online courses they offer, and then being encouraged to click on a link without, in my view, adequate warning of consequences for your payment. It meant that without realising it you had instantly waved goodbye to the £3,000 or so you had paid.
You had no time to reflect on your purchase and properly take advantage of the 14-day cooling off period. Although you quickly realised you did not want to use Learn to Trade’s courses and tried to cancel, it held you to the small print under the “Let’s start” button that stated you would lose “your right of withdrawal from the content once the download or streaming had begun”.
The full meaning of this nasty catch (that is, why you were told you would not be seeing your money again) was buried within its many pages of Ts & Cs. Despite your polite but increasingly insistent requests, your refund pleas were rejected. I took up the cudgels on your behalf. At first it seemed Learn to Trade felt it was beneath it to discuss your case with me directly. It simply copied me into another reply to you that again denied you a refund with the words “your query to cancel has been closed”.
I made further attempts at making contact, including calling Vincent, your “mentor”, directly, but he never answered his phone. I tried numerous times and for several days in a row, finally leaving a message on his answer machine without much hope of receiving a return call.
Perhaps that message triggered some action, as a few days later, now about two weeks since you first got in touch with me for help, the firm responded to me by name to inform me it was “liaising directly” with you and trying to provide a satisfactory outcome “reflective of the terms and conditions of sale which comply with consumer regulations”. Meanwhile, I spoke to financial expert Alan Smith, of wealth manager Capital Asset Management, about these types of forex courses widely advertised online.
He had sage words. He suggested that although you might have handed over £3,000 to this firm now, by going no further with the courses you will have saved yourself from the likelihood of much deeper losses from the trading that inevitably would have followed. Individuals do not actually trade in physical currencies but in risky “Contracts for Difference”, or CFDs, which are essentially bets on price movements between pairs of currencies.