Has anyone
else noticed that in these times of lock down all the on-line study
centres are cashing in on the bored people at home? I've lost count
of the number of different companies who have adverts popping up on
my FaceBook or Instagram page advertising 'free courses'. There is
nothing 'free' about any of these courses.
They reel
people in with advertising slogans such as, 'Learn a new skill for
free' or 'Free courses during lock down'. What a complete farce!! I
have tried to sign up with at least four different companies to
'learn a new skill for free'.
I thought
that as I was stuck at home with nothing to do all day I would do a
'free' online pet first aid course. Loads of on-line study centres
seemed to be offering this. I'm not particularly interested in
getting a professional qualification but all of the courses that I
looked at, had blurb on their websites to say that their courses were
accredited to this, that and the next professional body. As a 61 year
old who hasn't taken an exam in years, non of this interested me, so
I didn't pursue what exactly the type of further education one could
go on to do after completing one of these courses was. I just wanted to
do an on-line course because I was bored. And let's face it; if
someone is offering 'free' courses why wouldn't you sign up to do
something that interests you? It's not like any of us have got
anything else to do.
Big
mistake............................
I've tried
signing up for at least four of these so-called 'free' on-line
courses. There is absolutely nothing 'free' about them at all.
What they
do is........................ they ask you to complete a really long
application form for your so called 'free' course and then, when you
get to the very last part of the application form, all of a sudden
you are told that the 'free' course isn't actually 'free'. It's only
'free' for the first month. But they tell you this in such a way
that most people probably wouldn't even realise that they are being
told this. Thank goodness I'm such a savy 61 year old. Lol.
So when they're asked to add their credit card details with a big
message saying that they are free to cancel at anytime, most people
will. And then before they know it they're tied into a 24/36 month
contract of paying at least £30 per month to an online course that
they didn't even want to do in the first place. Yes they have signed
up to a 'free' course for a month but these unscrupulous companies
work on the assumption that no-one will read the 'small print'.
And......................
if one is savvy enough to actually abandon the application form at
this point, for weeks and weeks afterwards one is inundated with
emails (because giving one's email address is at the start of the
application form) saying, 'You have not completed your application.
Please click here to claim your FREE course'.
Fortunately
I have had enough sense not to sign up to one of these courses.
However,
in these times of lock-down we're all bored, so learning a new skill
or learning more about something that one is interested in is very
tempting. And when one sees an advert on their social media pages
offering a 'free' course, obviously people are going to sign up to
it.
My advice
to you would be.............................. If it's free, it's
free. If you have to add your credit/debit card details to a 'free'
course then it's obviously NOT free!!!
See you
all tomorrow.
Toodles.
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