On our ‘Uncapped Tutor Supported’ courses, occasionally we are asked for a refund, and on a distance learning course, this can be a thorny issue!
Our policy is clearly stated on our enrolment forms:
Cancellations
Once enrolment has taken place and you have received confirmation of your order, you are able to cancel your course within 7 days, provided that we have received notice of your cancellation in writing. This programme is non-transferable. No refunds are available after 7 days, unless you have purchased and paid in full for the Premium package, in which case we may refund any unused AAT exam or membership fees only to the original purchaser.
For our tutor supported courses, we offer “uncapped” support. This means if you want to, or need to, ask us oodles of questions, we will be there to answer them and help you understand the subject matter you are studying. If we don’t hear from you we will also chase you / nag you each month. We will call you or email you, whichever you prefer. However, if you don’t pick up the phone, you don’t return our call or you don’t return our email, we are a bit stuck. We can’t do the studies for you. We can’t ask the questions for you. You are wanting to become an accountant or a bookkeeper. If you become one, you will need to be self-motivated and engaged. It will be you that will need to be proactively supporting your employer or your client.
To provide this “uncapped” support, we employ a team of professional and committed tutors. Unfortunately, although they love to do it, they don’t do it for love!?!
We have to pay them.
We have to pay them each month, whether or not you are phoning them or sending them progress tests to mark.
If your course is planned to last a year, we have to budget to be able to afford to pay them for that year. If you extend your course to last two years, we have to pay them for the 2nd year. As your original course fee has paid for the first year, we now have to charge a fee to cover any extension you want.
We understand that circumstances change and we try to be as accommodating as possible. Where there are exceptional reasons, we can “pause” a course for a short period, in which case we put on hold the monthly contact call/email.
You can liken it to those restaurants which offer an “eat as much as you want” deal. Whilst you are in the restaurant you have an uncapped menu. You can eat as much as you want. However, it is down to you to ask for more food or to collect more food from the buffet counter. The restaurant won’t force you to eat more.
However, you can only “eat as much as you want” for the duration of the meal. You can’t leave and come back tomorrow and keep eating!
They also don’t normally include drinks in this offer. You pay for drinks separately. You might be provided with a drinks voucher or the meal might come with a specified drink as part of the cost. With our packages, you can choose to pay us the exam fees up-front and we then pay the exam venue when you sit the exam.
If you cancel a course during your course duration, we generally refund the exam fees not used. If you run over your course duration, it really becomes financially impractical to expect us to refund them.
In the pubs where you get this drink as part of the meal, if you don’t have it as part of the meal, you can’t come back another day and ask for it then!
I subscribe to the local gym. I try to go after work. I’m hopeless and get distracted by work and leave the office too late. I can’t get a refund saying “I’ve not used the gym. I want my money back”. The facilities are there, waiting for me. The hotel has paid for them and has paid the trainer/attendant to be there, whether or not I go. I can stop paying and stop going but I can’t get my money back. They have already spent it on the attendant’s wages.
We really, really, really want you to complete your course, pass your exams and qualify as an AATQB or an MAAT. We will work our socks off to help you. That’s why we offer uncapped tutor support for the duration of your tutor supported course. You can “eat as much as you can” for the duration of the meal, but if you come back tomorrow, you will have to buy another meal.
After all, we’re accountants – and we want you to be one too.
