Unis Z

Misrepresentation and refusal to accept wrongdoing

At the start of the year I decided to do a course after hours in draughting. I was advised by the salesperson which course to take, and on their website it stated that it would be two classes and occasional Saturdays, with some practical work. As the course already stated, I was advised to pay immediately and start the course. I had quite a few classes to catch up with, and started watching these videos. Then, as I started attending classes we got practical work, which soon escalated to a large amount of work. More than a full time employee studying after hours has available. I immediately reached out to them, and pointed out that they did not make it clear on their website or in the orientation videos later how much practical work is required, and that it is unattainable for full time employees - thus a misrepresentation of information which is seemingly set up to lure people into paying for a course that is not structured for full time employees. I was told I can take the course over two years, but that would only postpone subjects and not give more time for practical work, which indicates their complete inability to understand the issue at hand. After numerous back and forth, they told me that they will pay me back 50% after taking off the non refundable registration, in accordance with their T&Cs. While normally this would be fine, the issue here is that they do not properly consider later registrations - I requested cancellation less than a month after starting, but that's not how they calculate it. More important, it was only at this point that the amount of practical work required became evident, which was not mentioned during sign up or on their website, even though I informed them I was a full time employee. This is a typical example of "right" versus "fair", and they refused to take my particular circumstances into consideration, even after I asked to speak to the Head of Department and Head of Business to better explain it to them. I was planning on finding another course with them, however, their approach is so hostile that I now want to warn others where-ever and whenever I can to tread very careful with this institution. They seem to set up information in such a way that the sponsor / student will always be the loser, which is a terrible long term approach for any company. Add to this that their online portal is a complete mess. The mobile up does not update when viewing notices. The web portal messes up project submissions sent in PDF. Issue tickets typically take 2-3 days to be answered. The web portal often has issue when trying to join classes. Given this experience and the above, I really cannot recommend AIE to anyone. The only good thing I have to say about them, is that they have good lecturers. But the institution these lecturers associate with may unfortunately soon give them an extremely bad reputation. Please consider other institutions before selecting AIE - it is not a solid, customer centric organisation.