Theschoolofphotography

This company caused a lot of stress for me so I felt compelled to write a review to save others from the same plight I faced after signing-up for their Photography course(s). I decided to sign-up for the year, versus the monthly rate, as they offered 3 free months if you sign-up for year. In several places on their website a disclaimer said "You can cancel anytime for full refund." After paying $174USD I received the normal welcome message but I was busy so I shut computer and was excited to start my Photoshop course on the following week when I had more free time. 7 days later, I accessed the website and noticed the course amount was very limited. I contacted company and told them that I signed up for the year but see very few courses. They did write back but did NOT address my concern. So, I accessed the PhotoShop course and I noticed the classes were the same as the free ones on Youtube. I spent about an hour doing the course, next day, another hour. I then started to NOT see the value and felt duped. I contacted the company about my concerns of lack of courses and my feelings of lack of value of the Photoshop course that I was paying for - again, basically same modules for free on Photoshop. My main concern was that after finishing the Photoshop course, what was I paying on future courses as the site only listed a few other smaller classes "Photography for Beginners. Tips on buying a camera. Basics of Lightroom." It was quite clear that if I just sat at computer and dedicated an entire day on their courses that I would be done in about 48 hours, if that. So, what would I be doing for the rest of the year? So, I decided to contact them again with my concerns, again, a non-responsive reply. So, I cancelled. I told them that it was OK for them to charge me for one month as I only had access to their site for about 10 days - 7 days where I did nothing as stated above and the 3 days on Photoshop... again, not learning anything that I already knew or learned on YouTube for free. They sent me a response saying "You credit card will not be charged again." I never received a credit for the year that I signed up for and again, multiple "FULL REFUND" disclaimers if I "cancel any time." I contacted the company again and told them they did NOT credit my card for the $174USD. I again reiterated that I was happy to pay for one month. No response. So, after two months I contacted my credit card and made a dispute for the $174USD charge. Two weeks later I was sent a denial message from my cc company with documentation that I spent hundreds of hours on their site. They also included an email address that was not mine and a town for my ISP that was not my town. So, did they just make this up? I had to call and write back to my credit card company and they would not budge. They told me that the company said the "full refund" was for people that spent less that 100 hours on their school's modules. I told them that I had only spent less than 10 hours, if that. Needless to say, this caused a lot of stress and I had to call/contact theschoolofphotography.com several times to no avail. I really felt terrible and very upset as I did nothing wrong and this company was obviously a scam as the disclaimers on their front pages were just there to lure people to sign-up. I sent screenshots of the sites disclaimer. Told my credit card company that the email was incorrect, which I had to prove, and that the Internet Service Provider (ISP) location contained in documents was NOT my location. This is where things got more interesting. My credit card company agreed with me but said I had to try one more time to contact theschoolofphotography.com one more time and request that they stop denying my credit card dispute. Their email response from "the owner Marc Newton" stated: We checked our files and do NOT have an email address for you on file... are you using a different email address? We do not know who you are." I was NOT using a different email address, but I found it very interesting that they stated they did NOT know who I was "disputing annual charge." Like, how many other customers are disputing charges for this company. Unless many of their customers are disputing, shouldn't they know who I was due to the back and forth, so many times? I pasted this response to my credit card company and told them this was obviously a scam as they are claiming they do NOT know who I was. If they are not a scam, then many of their customers must be signing-up, like I did, then seeing the lack of utility and lack of value then trying to cancel, then facing the same hurdles/denials as I was then being forced to dispute charges from theschoolofphotography.com. I have worked for many retail outlets, when someone disputes a charge, they are so infrequent, we know about the file/case.