Olci Complaints

[KHURREM]

Hi Guys

Im a student of OLCI construction Training ltd. I know THIS company is now known as ERR. that doesn't really matter. Im here to let all those who are in the same shoes as myself know that I have decided to build a case against OLCI construction limited. I have read many posts about complaints but found it very upsetting that nobody is doing anything about it. Like everyone I have a story to tell about how OLCI ripped me off, mis-sold and mis-lead me in to signing up to the course. Im sure many of you are out there who have haD similar or even not so similar experiences but are not sure of how to challenge the system. I will leave my email address [email protected] on here. If anyone has anything to share please come forward and with each other's help and support I truly believe we will be able to claim back damages and losses through small claims court. For those who dont know already, but this is a very cost effective way of claiming your money back for amounts up to £10,000 or less. I will help you if you need guidance on how to setup a claim and share with you almost everything I know regarding consumer law. I WILL TALK YOU THROUGH THE PROCEDURE OF COMPLAINTS AND HOW YOU COULD POSSIBLY APPROACH THE SITUATION IN CLAIMING YOUR MONEY BACK.

So please guys come forward and lets discuss!

P.S PLEASE NOTE THIS POST IS ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD A NEGATIVE EXPERIENCE WITH THIS COMPANY AND WOULD LIKE A MEANINGFUL RESOLUTION OUT OF THIS!

 

[PADOSHEE]

Hi there very interested in finding out how to get back some of the £4000 I paid these liars. If I had to write all the negative points I experienced with OLCI it would fill at least two pages. Really angry today as some women phoned me from OLCI telling me to pay the rest of the course fees. I stopped attending sessions back at the start of  January 2014. I stupidly kept paying them until August 2014. These guys are the biggest con artists in construction training.

 

[Sharpend]

And the reason you stopped attending? Followed by the reason you continued to pay?

I'm only guessing here, I'm sure our legal eagle will add/correct where necessary, but you'd probably have a difficult time justifying why you aren't paying the remainder on the basis that you continued to pay without attending?

 

[Andy™]

as always, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. they are scammes, but if people would do their own research in the first place...

 

[Sharpend]

Hold on, stop Andy, you are not suggesting that people think for themselves are you? This is clearly a forgotten tradition, unknown to younger generations.

 

[apprentice87]

What amazing me, is why people get involved with these silly schemes...

Say i wanted to be a plasterer. I would simply go along to the local college and do it. I think the truth of the matter, is that people go to these "scammers" [who is "actually" the scammer... think about it] as they think that they will be able to get their papers, basically, by dubious means, that do NOT involve 4 years of college.

In my [maybe mistaken view] they tried to be clever, it backfired.......

john...

 

[PADOSHEE]

Hey guys sorry to break the news to you. But I was not looking for a quick way to get into a profession. I tried all the local colleges and NONE of them offered the training to become an electrician. They offered single units not the complete course like many of my friends took in the the old days. I was a secondary school teacher for 15 years and I wished for a change of career. I have friends who are successful electricians in the trade and thought I would enjoy the change in direction. I was fully prepared to take 4 years over learning the trade and completing the 20 plus examinations before getting qualified. I know people think they just hand out certificates but that is not true you still have to pass all the city and guild exams even on a part time course like this. My complaint is with what I was promised by OLCI. They promised guidance and support all the way through the course. However their course notes were not up to date and were not matched to the city and guilds specifications for the examinations which made it hard to prepare. Worst of all the guy who sold me the course did not state that you had to complete the course within two years of the start date. This is what really made it tough as I was unaware of this time line. As for my no attendance to lessons. The course runs like this. You go to a three day session take an exam. When you have completed this you are then allowed to book the next session which is maybe in three more months in your city (eg London). There are twenty or so sessions to complete so nearly impossible to complete for a full or part time working person within the two year time slot available. Of course what OLCI do then is make you pay for extending the course or make people pay for many resits to examinations they failed. I was lucky and passed all the examinations I took with distinction or merit due to my science background. However I struggled with the all important practical side of the course due to my lack of experience as a tradesperson. The practical sessions basically involved a guy showing you once how to do a running coupler, use the pipe bender or terminate some armoured cable. Then 3 months later when you sit your practical exam  your expected to be able to perform the various tasks to perfection. So my complaint is that I was mislead about the course when signing up. There were many people in a worse position than me on the course. Many people hand never held a screwdriver and were told you will have no problems and will be taught to be an electrician from scratch. This was misleading and although people may have been a bit gullible in believing this, to take peoples money knowing full well they will struggle and probably fail the course while assuring them otherwise is a bit nasty. The original company went bust and sold the unpaid course fees onto Caledonian finance for collection. My issue is that I paid for 15 sessions but only booked ten as I believed I had years left. Now they want the money without providing the service.

Never mind. There is always classrooms of screaming teenagers awaiting me. Maybe a bullet to the head.

 

[kerching]

Cannyou go to one of these Solicitors that will give you an hours free advice?

Or maybe Trading Standards or CAB?

Mention "mis selling" to them....BUT it sounds like they are well,versed in the art of shull bitting

 

[apprentice87]

Stick to the teaching and get a proper pension at the end......

john....

 

[septiclecky]

Problem with these parasites they advertise saying you can earn £50000+ knowing it's the biggest load of ******** going, take your money and don't give a monkey whether you pass or not as long as they have the mugs giving them the money.

Until companies like this are put out of business and the proper apprenticeships are brought back it will carry on happening.

 

[test it]

To

KHURREM and everyone else. Happy new year! I know this is an old post but I'm now having problems with Err, I'm also an ex-OLCI victim. Has KHURREM or anyone elase managed to get any compo from OLCI or ERR? Any feedback will be much appreciated. Thanks

 

[Doc Hudson]

To

KHURREM and everyone else. Happy new year! I know this is an old post but I'm now having problems with Err, I'm also an ex-OLCI victim. Has KHURREM or anyone else managed to get any compo from OLCI or ERR? Any feedback will be much appreciated. Thanks

Looking at KHURREM'S profile, he/she has not been active on the forum since Jan 2015, so I don't think they are likely to reply.

Doc H.

 

[Duncan Bellamy]

What problems are you having with ERR? I am an ex-OLCI student as well and once I managed to get proof I had paid I started the course at ERR, I had to start from the beginning though and changed from the 2357 to the 2365. Which was annoying but better than losing everything as OLCI did go bankrupt.

Duncan.

 

[Investigator]

Hi there.

All very interesting comments about the  "fast track" traning.

I was in the electrical trade for seven years in the  80s and  even though I went to college to do my  apprenticship, the company I was working for went bust  and so I didn't finish my college course. I signed up for one of these "fast track " firms  but they did not honour the training as the company went into administration and so I lost my money which I did pay in full and in advanced.

All I wanted was to have that  C&G Certificate.

Any way, that aside  having done some digging about this subject, I would have thought that some of the blame should go to City & Guilds as all these training  companies openly display the City and Guilds  sign.

Also imagine, and this is all hyperthetically that you had the money and decided to open a fast track training company.

Your first port of call would be City & Guilds and after various meetings and taking on a few staff who can do the internal "training" and signing off the various tasks for City and Guilds  practical tasks, your up and running.

Now due to you having an assocation with a charity, (Yes City & Guilds is a registered charity)  You have a massive tax break.

So now you have students signing up because your displaying the  C&G badge and having a massive tax break from it due to Charity association. The  marketing is wheeling them in!!!

On the horizon you have noticed there is some unrest  and ex students are saying just how bad it really is. (Power of the Internet!!)

 there has been some mis-lead reports, mis-lead promises etc   So what do you do ?

Well this is where normally it becomes creative so expand and  open  another five  or  six  fast track training companies.

Again you already have C & G  endorsement so just explain to C & G what your doing  as far as they are concerned everything is fine. 

Your doing a great thing creating all this training for the trade!!

You may need extra cash to open the extra training centres so you ask a few friends/ colleagues to invest and they become

Directors of this multi Training conglomerate.

The news suddenly dawns that one of your training company's is going to be in trouble, so quick fix, put it into administration

and put it out that your are actively seeking some other company to take over the Students' courses and training.

After delay of 9 months to a year you are please to anounce that  company ABC has agreed to take the training over.

What you don't tell them is you created that company a few years ago just in case.

So it goes on. the interesting point, woithout displaying the C & G badge and having their backing most of these companies would go under.

Another intersting point :

If your the type who can read a text book / reference book and  confidently execute what you have just read practically then you are fast becoming a "competant" person.

Regards Investigator.

 

[Kilovatio]

Hi. I've read all the comments about OLCI and ERR Ltd. There is a point which is usually regarded as being the same which I believe deserves some clarification. OlCI did not go bust but went into administration. Bankruptcy is not the same as going into administration. You can google it and find out for yourselves if interested. Basically, both pricess are due to insolvency. But whereas bankruptcy means total closed down of a company or organisation with the result of creditors and suppliers having little chance of recovering what they are owed, administration, on the other hand, is a process that gives the company a chance to be rescued by another company or by the same owners and therefore avoid insolvency. This rescue does not necessarily comprise all the assets, customers, etc., of the company. It can be a partial take over. The advantage for the creditors and suppliers is that they have the chance to recover more of their individual debts.
 

Now, in the case of OCI, on 6th May 2014 went into administration. It did not go bust. The appointed joint administrators were, and still are, Allan Graham and Rob Croxen from KPMG LLP (UK). ERR Ltd. was the company appointed by Caledonian to take over all the students whose contracts with OLCI had not expired before 6/May/14. As former students of OLCI you must have received the first letter from ERR Ltd. dated 7/May/16 in which, apart from informing us that OLCI had gone into administration, ERR Ltd stated that they will HONOUR our contracts with OLCI.
 

This is a crucial point to understand. If OLCI had gone bust this takeover would not have been possible, But as this was not the case, any further legal issues we may have with our contracts with OLCI can now be dealt, and indeed legally challenged, with ERR Ltd but NOT with OLCI.

I was reading KHURREM post of 31/Jan/15 and I respectfully believe his approach was not the correct way forward. I don’t know what kind of contract he signed with OLCI when he enrolled. But whatever the case his challenge should have rather been aimed to ERR Ltd and not against OLCI as the owners went into administration to precisely protect themselves against any legal challenge, apart from as I pointed it out earlier, with the possibility of rescuing their company at least partially.

My contract with OLCI was for a full electrician NVQ Level 3 and that I had to pay the full fees within a period of 2 years, which I did anyway. But I could extend my course every year thereafter until I had successfully completed it provided I paid a fee of £300.00 every year. The other condition was that I was exempt from paying for exam resits, regardless as to how many times I had to resit the same one. In addition, once I had completed my full electrician course, I was offer the Photovoltaic installation course for free. All this is in my contract.

After a long battle with ERR Ltd (it lasted over a year) due to my files not having been passed by the administrators KPMG to ERR Ltd, I was finally given an extension for 11 months for an extra fee of £500, which I reluctantly accepted. But un any event, I was with the view of continuing my course extending it a further year if required until completion. The problem now is that ERR Ltd refuses to acknowledge my contract with OLCI alleging that it was for only two years and that they, as a gesture of good will, gave me an extension of 11 months. There are other other issues with them, like the fact they allocated me almost from the beginning of their course when I was already in the process of completing the Inspection and Testing unit prior to the last one, Fault Finding and 4 resits I had to do, waiting for the results of one which I never received. I did not care the stage which the put me at. I just took it assuming it would be nice to go through almost all the course again. After all, I was under the impression I could renew it every year as it was supposed to be with my contract with OLCI which ERR Ltd committed to honour it.

But little did I knew that ERR Ltd had other ideas in mind. They never told me what was next after the 11 months. Only when this extension expired and when I contacted them to say I was prepared to pay another yearly fee for an extension did they let me know that my contract had already come to an end and that I had now become a commercial customer. In other words, I had to restart the whole course all over again. This means that I have to pay £500 plus VAT for each week of practice at their training centre. There are 8 weeks which cover only for the domestic electrician, NVQ Level 2, that is £4,000 plus VAT = £4,800. And then another nearly £4,200 (incl of VAT) for AM2 (Achievement Measurement 2) and the NVQ Level 3. So, altogether I will have to pay nearly £9,000 for the entire course.

Naturally, in view of all this and after trying to reach an agreement with them for nearly 3 months, I am now in the process of taking them to the Small Claims Court procedure and let the judge to decide. These people are treating me as if I were as most of the OLCI students, that is, they last for two years. But my contract is there. The evidence will show that, in effect, I have the right to extend my course every year prior to paying a fee, which with OLCI was £300, until successful completion. We'll see. But certainly, I will not go without a battle. it is really unfair what ERR Ltd is trying to do. And if there are similar cases or you as a former OLCI student believe they had not honour your contracts, do challenge them. The problem is if you are within the time limit as prescribed by the law

 

[Kayd]

Hi

I'm in the same situation as yourself. I've been lucky enough not to have paid the whole amount but I have only completed 4 practical weeks of 8. I'm also being asked to pay 500 plus vat. It's disgusting.

I'm with a financial company called Caledonian finance who did say it would be £500 for an extention  of 6 months. They are now cleaning they did not say this. 

How have you got on so far?

 

[Investigator]

Hi Guys.

I think you need to ask ERR and OLCI (who no doubt is a "registered company of Caledonian Comsuer  Finance ")for all the information on you under the Data Protection Act. There is a good letter of law regarding this and as these companies seem to be Holster and Pistol clan this is a start. Remember ask for all the information.  Think about how you paid them. Remember it is your data about you.

Regards

Investigator.

 

[Kayd]

In what sense do you mean all data? I've heard ppl who have been on the course over 3 years have still had extensions free of charge. I know one person who was allowed to book his last three weeks all together and he started before me.

I have also never been registered with city and guilds through olci so I find this very frustrating. I had to start from scratch with ERR because of this

Locked to prevent resurrection (Post started in 2015)