Any recourse for being misled?

[missmooch]

Hi guys

Just a tentative enquiry. I was sold an online internet marketing course for just under £5,000 in late 2012. I was given a real hard sell on this, quite typical of these sorts of things I now realise, whereby I was constantly called by their sales team, then given a payment plan to make things ‘easy’ on me to pay, and then hurried into making a decision. I was told the training would be available for life. In 2013 I moved house, then got married then moved abroad shortly after, so I never really managed to start the training in 2013 or 2014. Anyhow I wasn’t worried, as it would be there for a lifetime as I was told upon signing up, so I went back to it in 2015 but it was no longer available. I went back to the company to ask, telling them I was told it would be available for life and that I had since seen other people had complained online about this. They told me the original training was no longer available but gave me access to their latest training and told me to come back to them with any problems or questions. I went through most of the training and went back with questions, which I wanted answers for before proceeding, but never heard back. This newer training is now no longer available. I can find the contact details of the 2 guys that ran the training.I appreciate it was a while ago, but do I have any recourse and if so, what would be my way forward?

thanks for any help!

[james_law]

To stArt with before we jump into presuming anythjng, it would be great if you could post the contract you agreed to etc for the product/services?

[missmooch]

Thanks for kind reply James law!

No contract. I do have proof of payment sent, I asked for an invoice but none was sent. I do have proof of my email stating that they said training was for life and they acknowledged this. Any good?

[james_law]

You will still have a contract but not in the traditional paper sense.

The course you bought, was it from a company?
One of the potential issues is that it was 7 yeArs ago.

[missmooch]

Thanks for your time in responding once again James Law, really appreciate it!

would the 7 years make it time barred?

the course was bought from a company, and there were several staff, but mainly 2 people heading up the company. The company has since been dissolved, in 2017 according to companies house, but I have found one of the two who headed it up on linked in who states on his profile


CEO | Director of Marketing
Company name (no mention of it being limited)
July 2008 – Present 10 years 9 months

Worked alongside Xxxx (the other guy) as the director of marketing for 7 years, and eventually became the owner of the business in Feb 2015.

any thoughts? And thanks once again!

[james_law]

Generally speaking anything over 90 days means you wont be entitled to a full refund. Taking into consideration you have actually had some benefit from the online course. So its very likely you would be entitled to a partial refund. Again your potential refund would dependent upon the seriousness placed upon the ''available for life'' (i would say it may be in between minor and significant).

So potentially you have a claim but from whom you are going to claim from. You say a company sold you the product but is now dissolved. Again you will need to look into if you can actually claim from them. Also a dissolved company seizes to exist upon dissolution but a person can still trade under that name, i believe.

I'm afraid that is all I will be able to say on the matter, hope this helps and someone else may comment who knows more.