Refused to refund a CPC course which was found not to be suitable
Booked a training module with ISM for my CPC Driver Qualification Card, one of five modules you have to do over a five-year period in order to keep your card valid.
Having moved to the UK for an unknown period of time, I had changed my Irish driving licence to a UK one but had kept my CPC card as an Irish issued one and was back in Ireland visiting and took the opportunity to do the course.
I was advised, by sources other than ISM, that this option was okay and these required modules could be undertaken in Ireland and applied to my Irish CPC card.
However, the course tutor advised that this may not be the case and he would ask the centre manager for clarification when he came in.
When the manager finally arrived he subsequently advised that the course modules would only be valid if, in fact, my driving licence was still an Irish one, or had been changed back to an Irish one from the UK one. The only alternative was to change my Irish issued CPC card to a UK one when back in the UK and do the required CPC modules there.
So, the course I had paid for and was currently attending was no good to me as it was not going to be valid and, in that regard, I asked the manager could I get a refund and his answer was a flat no. The reason being “Well, we could have had someone else on the course instead of you and we wouldn’t have lost €65”
Now, ISM have an annual turnover of about €11M and generate a yearly profit of about €3M but they refused to refund an amount of €65.00. They, I’m sure, would argue that the invalid booking that was made by me was not their fault but I found their money grabbing greed quite sickening to flatly refuse a refund on a course booked in error.
To refund €65.00 on the back of profits of €3M would not even have amounted to pennies in relative cost to them.
So, I would advise to be very careful when booking anything with ISM because if you make any kind of error in the booking you’ve lost your money.
And ISM have certainly lost me as a future customer for any course/tuition requirements.
Date of experience: July 25, 2023
