Any opinions on Fraser McKenzie? - advice needed

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To be honest with you when I was contacted by them at first there was no real information on the web about it, hence I started this thread.
It seems it was right in place as I got the information and advice needed and so did plenty of google traffic by the thread view count.

I'm glad it does what it's supposed to

Regards

 

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un-ethical but it works, and at the end of the day, businesses are all out to make money.

 

Not sure why your saying that here? This forum was started by someone wanting to make an informed choice about whether to pay thousands of pounds to a company that proported to offer a 'dream career' when in actual fact it is unlikely it can offer him anything of the sort. You're comment seems to suggests that either you don't care that people get ripped off or you're just resigned to the fact that it happens and have lumped all companies together in that respect.

I agree business is there to make money - but you get something in return for your cash, and therefore businesses have a duty not to miss-sell what you get in return. Most successful companies actully offer something good and provide a service that holds up - and they survive and prosper / profit from that - indeed in the IT Trianing area there are some reputable companies who can help the type of people Fraser Mackenzie target..

Unfortunatly there are ones which run in a way that does a disservice to their customers on purpose simply to generate cash for its owners - this is why we have this thread in the first place, to help people not get scammed - pouring such a vast amount of money down the drain could seriously adversely affect someones life and cause them long term problems.

Maybe Western Kings should apply for a job as a salesperson at Fraser Mackenzie, sounds like he would be good at it!

 

Heard today about how Fraser McKenzie get people to sign up on the day by telling them they are just signing a form to 'get funding' for the course and then after they find out they have actually signed a loan agreement with Barclays meaning they have taken out a personal loan of about £4K (about £7 / £8K after interest is added)

When people realise what they have done they cannot get out of it unless they pay at least a £500 cancelation fee.

A few people have asked what they can do when they realise they have been scammed and I'm not sure. The only thing I could suggest is to contact office of fair trading and explain that they have been mis-sold / lied to when they signed the contract. They could also contact the bank who the loan is with and tell them what Fraser McKenzie are doing - maybe they will think twice about working with them if they know they are basically ripping people off.

Contact Watchdog / local press and tell them whats been happening - maybe people can get together and run a story about it and use it top to pressure them to get your money back.

 

well i signed up to this scam today and once i got home my mum found out through these threads what they really are.
i cant believe these people are doing this. I am going to cancel it tomorrow, and of course they are saying 500 pound cancelation fee, so my dad is going to see a solicitor.
im not letting this go either im going to write to the local MP and of course watchdog as i think they would be very interested to know what disrty bastads fraser mckenzie really are.

 

Scammed? there is no scam about it, read the contract and you will understand exactly what you are doing, it's common sense, if you lack common sense, then who do you have to blame?

Have a quick look through the forum we have all discussed the legality of training providers and all that, and the majority are 100% legal, they play on words to sucker people in, that isn't illegal, it's un-ethical, but certainly not illegal. telling you all the possible pros and non of the cons is definately not illegal, if we all ran around saying "My product is good, but if im honest, it will probably break so go next door and use theirs" it wouldn't work.

Aren't personal development loans backed by the government by the way? or are they an industry related thing from the financial sector?

 

Hey Vicstar, Sorry to hear you got caught out.. the whole idea for them is to get people to sign up on the day in the heat of the moment without having the chance to think about it in depth or check the terms and conditions properly. Let us know how you get on mate

 

As said there is nothing they are doing that is illegal unless they hand out braindumps.

Most training providers go by the book although as said they are un-ethical and charge a hell of lot of money for something you could do for a lot less.

If you haven't read the contract properly and thought everything would be ok then I'm sorry to say but you only have yourself to blame. These places are out to make money and there is nothing wrong with that.

Think about this, you don't leave you car unlocked in a car park then try and blame the council or car park owners when some smack head steals it. It's common sense you lock it, so if you have a contract for something you go through it before signing.

 

The point is they are telling people to sign the contract on the day in order to 'get funding' for their training and this leads people to think that they are receiving some sort of aided support when in reality there is no 'funding' at all - If they knew they were shelling out £8K of their own money I doubt very many people would go for it. They are playing tricks wilth words and misselling their services which I think would probably be illegal under the Trades Descriptions Act. Fraser McKenzie just hope people will blame themselves when it goes wrong and walk away having lost the cash. Thats why I do hope vicstar09 follows through by speaking to his MP / solicitor and watchdog. I'll be interested to hear what they say about this.

They are just loans with clydesdale private bank most of the time - even on occasions when the government provides career development loans (which I'm not sure if Fraser McKenzie do) you get them at your own risk and they dont give any help if your sign up for something that turns out is a rip off.

 

all businesses where money is involved word things in ways that make it hard to read or understand that is why reading contracts is a necessity.

 

Yes you have to check contracts when you get a new service but you saw what happened with the door to door gas miss-selling case - where salesmen were getting people to sign a contract and misleading them about what they were actually signing. The Office Of Fair Trading looked into it and fined the companies involved – then forced them adhere to a code of practice to stop it happening again. This is pretty much what’s going on here - as such those who have been miss-sold and not wanting to pay £8K or however much they have signed up for should bring it to the attention of the Office OF Fair Trading and Watchdog. Once enough people flag it I expect they would be treated in the same way.

 

I had an interview. Very nice woman, makes you feel good, etc. Throughout the whole conversation they tell you how good the opportunity is, then at the end she says the "loan" bit so quickly that you don't even understand what she's saying and they make it out as if it's normal, just company guidelines, etc. Good thing I saw this board.

 

women will do that to you

 

Yeah but i didnt get a happy ending

 

Hi,

I joined fraser mckenzie in october and went on my first training course in Jan. In feb I was then sent my online training which should have been completed before I went on the first course. I've also taken an exam and guess what I failed. The training is very difficult and througout my training it states the course is for IT proffessionals?? well thats not me!! I do feel this is a scam. When I went to my interview i was rushed into signing the paperwork and had 4 different ppl come and talk to me as I was not sure. I am looking for a way to get out of this because I can almost guarantee that i'll end up paying the course fees either because I won't pass or fraser mkenzie will find some other reason...

I'm definately reporting them to OFT and others in my situation should do so too because what they're doing is wrong!!

 

Well, I was going for an interview with this lot tomorrow, but to be honest it just didn't smell right - from the poorly worded job advert to the ommissions of asked for information in the email correspondance. Now after reading this thread I will not be attending that interview! So thanks to everyone here!

 

Excellent - every person who reads this post and decides against joining up with a rip-off TP is one more victory for common sense!

 

Contact Trading Standards at the City of London ([email protected]) if you have a complaint about any company located here who are trading unfairly or misleading people or if you have any information you want to pass on which you feel may help others. As Fraser McKenzie's head office is based in the City Of London you can contact them or maybe they can suggest a local office if you signed up in one of Fraser McKenzie's other offices

Also see http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/

Good Luck!

 

mmm I think perhaps watch out for them. A lot of recruitment agencies are cheeseballs. Couple that with people trying to flog microsoft courses and it sounds pretty dodgy. There are plenty of other IT recruitment agencies about like Computer People and all the rest of them.

 

Can you give more insight on why you named Computer People? It seems legit and definately something totally different to Fraser MacKenzie. Enlighten me if I'm wrong, please.