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Okay I've seen that there are threads for this already, but I didn't know if I should post on those or start a new thread? So I am doing it here...
It is a long post and I'm sorry, but I think that I need to say all of it - it is just the way that I am
I completed an MA in 2007 before being diagnosed with debilitating acute stress (which then led to a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome), and was still in this same situation when, in 2012 I saw an advert online for a games design course.
There was an online form to fill out if you wanted more information and I filled it out I guess assuming that they'd send me out a prospectus or something similar but instead I received a call from somebody related to the course asking to make an appointment to talk about it and they came to my house.
Everything he told me about the course sounded so good, he was saying that the it would be a foot in the door to get into the games industry, that it was like a university degree but much cheaper (about £5,000 in total) because it ran differently and didn't need a physical building and so on, and that in-fact it was actually better than many degrees as it was more vocationally orientated and more of a technical qualification.
He told me over and over that it was flexibly delivered which would suit me with the issues that I have and I remember very specifically that he told me over and over that there are no deadlines – that exact phrase.
I remember this very well as knowing how my autism affects me and how erratic I can be and how bad my health was – given the fact that the course was compared to a regular degree I took it to be roughly three year of full-time study – I was worried about the impact it could have on studying, even given the fact that it was online and flexibly delivered and so on, i.e. that I wouldn't be able to study effectively to that level to complete a time-limited course.
He said that there was also an arrangement that is available with a financial company to save people having to go to their bank and ask for such a big loan. This seemed good as on top of my health one of my main concerns was whether or not I'd actually be able to literally afford to study at all.
In the end I agreed and filled out the contracts and I can't say how excited I was as I've always had a strong interest in computer games since being a child (seems quite common with autism) and had planned on getting into them in some form ideally, I'd studied a BA in Creative Writing and then an MA in Writing for Film and TV and was hoping to move into that direction – and I was excited to at the thought of being able to study and then hopefully find work, having already been on sickness benefits for 5 years.
Over the next three years I had other commitments and various personal issues – I had a housing crisis and it almost looked like I was going to be homeless basically due to deceitful support organisation making promises that they weren't able to deliver on but didn't bother letting me or anybody else know and more or less completely stonewalling me and my family and other people acting on my behalf – I had only a few weeks to find appropriate affordable accommodation considering autism issues relating to location and so on.
I then also had problems with Interserve hassling me not making reasonable adjustment and making unreasonable demands which meant I was getting more and more ill when I had work-related activities to pursue that I'd found independently, which they were actually making it harder for me to do!
I also then had medication issues and was hospitalised for an accidental painkiller overdose, itself related to the fact that professionals were making it harder for me to get pain relief because they believed that I had an addiction... I was referred to a secondary care drug and alcohol unit before finally being able to have an autism specialist involved who confirmed that actually autism-related pain was the problem the issue rather than a substance use issue.
Even with all this going I'd managed to do a certain amount of studying for the games design course (I'd actually completed a significant portion, very quickly, and been reset to the beginning with 'improved' course material) but suddenly I found that I couldn't log in to the online student website and when I got in touch with them to ask why and they told me that my study period had finished.
I was gobsmacked as I'd been repeatedly told that there were no deadlines – and as mentioned this was key to my signing up. Looking through the significant amount of course material I'd received I found that it was true and mentioned, once or maybe twice, in small print, amongst all of this material.
It was also never mentioned online in advertising material or the student world or in any of the correspondence I received in letter or text or any other form and it also linked neatly to the final payment that I'd been giving to the finance company.
I contacted them to explain all the above: my personal issues combined with the apparent oversight of the salesperson to accurately describe the nature of the course; and in fact to technically contradict the real information, and I couldn't believe it but they completely refused me absolutely any extension in relation to these mitigation circumstance instead referring me to another organisation – one that 'sources excess training capacity' for a further fee.
Looking into I found that this new website seems to be owned by the same people, as is the credit company that I took the loan out with.
I sent a formal complaint to which they responded with a dismissive and derogatory letter saying that many of their students complete their courses whilst working full-time and that it was all my fault, implying that I was being disingenuous and – perhaps strangely given that I'd not made the claim – saying that their salesperson was very highly trained and would not have promised me a job.
I told the Citizens Advice online who outlined my rights and said they'd pass the details on to Trading Standards, although they don't follow up on individual instances
I also tried to complain to City & Guilds, the only organisation accrediting the course (there used to be another The Independent Games Developers Association – but they severed all ties to the course in 2014) but while they were sympathetic they said that they couldn't pursue any complaint because I didn't have a student number so I'd never been registered with them.
There were also a few other issues/irregularities that I haven't mentioned but this all happened almost three years ago now and although I looked into what other possibilities there were for me to deal with it – legal action I guess – which would involve an attempt at mediation initially (although I have no hopes that they'd agree to it) I ended up really dragging my feet on it.
Of course I can take full responsibility that I should've read everything thoroughly – that was just stupid and I won't be making that mistake again of course – but ultimately there's no way for me to prove anything that was said in the interview.
It has always felt like there are other more positive things to focus my time and energy upon, and also just thinking about it makes me increases my stress and the related pain – but as I understand it there is a 6 year limit to take legal action which for me is coming up – I signed up to the course on 29/11/2012 – and so it feels like it is now or never if I am going to do anything.
£5,000 is so much money, I have no savings to speak of except a few hundred pounds to stop me going into overdraft and for the three years I was paying them it was a very significantly large part of my disposable income; kind of the difference between whether or not I would be able to have an external activity with my support (i.e. going to cinema/for food, that sort of thing...)
That's just the thought of the money that I've lost, aside from all the hope I'd had about actually being able to enjoy studying and then being in a position to actually start some form or related employment – and also the feeling that I could've completed this course if I'd only know about the time limit - I feelt like they've treated me like a complete idiot and blamed everything on me for a mistake I'd expected most reputable organisations would be disgusted that a sales representative did on their part... and all I WANTED to do was study!!!
I know that there's plenty of people criticising the Train2game material... they may wel be right... be for me even to have the chance to improve my CV/projects, even a less than stellar course would be something... as it is I never even got that, and they've still taken £5,000 off me, or just under.
I've seen other similar courses since then online, and much cheaper, but I don't know if I trust any of them now. I am even paranoid about Train2game and what suspicious things that they might be up, i.e. planting stories of successful court cases against them just to encourage people to try, knowing it will go wrong and end-up as positive publicity for them (as has happened with Financial Ombundsman rulling City&Guilds is a better qualification than the TIGA certification that was lost when TIGA washed their hands of Train2game.
So ultimately I guess I was wondering if anybody has had similar experiences and/or can help me, perhaps finding legal advice with a particularly disability/autism focus (I am in Yorkshire).
I guess I'm wondering if it seems as though this was an autism-related issue, to take the salesperson so literally like this?
Thank you for reading this long post.
It is a long post and I'm sorry, but I think that I need to say all of it - it is just the way that I am
I completed an MA in 2007 before being diagnosed with debilitating acute stress (which then led to a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome), and was still in this same situation when, in 2012 I saw an advert online for a games design course.
There was an online form to fill out if you wanted more information and I filled it out I guess assuming that they'd send me out a prospectus or something similar but instead I received a call from somebody related to the course asking to make an appointment to talk about it and they came to my house.
Everything he told me about the course sounded so good, he was saying that the it would be a foot in the door to get into the games industry, that it was like a university degree but much cheaper (about £5,000 in total) because it ran differently and didn't need a physical building and so on, and that in-fact it was actually better than many degrees as it was more vocationally orientated and more of a technical qualification.
He told me over and over that it was flexibly delivered which would suit me with the issues that I have and I remember very specifically that he told me over and over that there are no deadlines – that exact phrase.
I remember this very well as knowing how my autism affects me and how erratic I can be and how bad my health was – given the fact that the course was compared to a regular degree I took it to be roughly three year of full-time study – I was worried about the impact it could have on studying, even given the fact that it was online and flexibly delivered and so on, i.e. that I wouldn't be able to study effectively to that level to complete a time-limited course.
He said that there was also an arrangement that is available with a financial company to save people having to go to their bank and ask for such a big loan. This seemed good as on top of my health one of my main concerns was whether or not I'd actually be able to literally afford to study at all.
In the end I agreed and filled out the contracts and I can't say how excited I was as I've always had a strong interest in computer games since being a child (seems quite common with autism) and had planned on getting into them in some form ideally, I'd studied a BA in Creative Writing and then an MA in Writing for Film and TV and was hoping to move into that direction – and I was excited to at the thought of being able to study and then hopefully find work, having already been on sickness benefits for 5 years.
Over the next three years I had other commitments and various personal issues – I had a housing crisis and it almost looked like I was going to be homeless basically due to deceitful support organisation making promises that they weren't able to deliver on but didn't bother letting me or anybody else know and more or less completely stonewalling me and my family and other people acting on my behalf – I had only a few weeks to find appropriate affordable accommodation considering autism issues relating to location and so on.
I then also had problems with Interserve hassling me not making reasonable adjustment and making unreasonable demands which meant I was getting more and more ill when I had work-related activities to pursue that I'd found independently, which they were actually making it harder for me to do!
I also then had medication issues and was hospitalised for an accidental painkiller overdose, itself related to the fact that professionals were making it harder for me to get pain relief because they believed that I had an addiction... I was referred to a secondary care drug and alcohol unit before finally being able to have an autism specialist involved who confirmed that actually autism-related pain was the problem the issue rather than a substance use issue.
Even with all this going I'd managed to do a certain amount of studying for the games design course (I'd actually completed a significant portion, very quickly, and been reset to the beginning with 'improved' course material) but suddenly I found that I couldn't log in to the online student website and when I got in touch with them to ask why and they told me that my study period had finished.
I was gobsmacked as I'd been repeatedly told that there were no deadlines – and as mentioned this was key to my signing up. Looking through the significant amount of course material I'd received I found that it was true and mentioned, once or maybe twice, in small print, amongst all of this material.
It was also never mentioned online in advertising material or the student world or in any of the correspondence I received in letter or text or any other form and it also linked neatly to the final payment that I'd been giving to the finance company.
I contacted them to explain all the above: my personal issues combined with the apparent oversight of the salesperson to accurately describe the nature of the course; and in fact to technically contradict the real information, and I couldn't believe it but they completely refused me absolutely any extension in relation to these mitigation circumstance instead referring me to another organisation – one that 'sources excess training capacity' for a further fee.
Looking into I found that this new website seems to be owned by the same people, as is the credit company that I took the loan out with.
I sent a formal complaint to which they responded with a dismissive and derogatory letter saying that many of their students complete their courses whilst working full-time and that it was all my fault, implying that I was being disingenuous and – perhaps strangely given that I'd not made the claim – saying that their salesperson was very highly trained and would not have promised me a job.
I told the Citizens Advice online who outlined my rights and said they'd pass the details on to Trading Standards, although they don't follow up on individual instances
I also tried to complain to City & Guilds, the only organisation accrediting the course (there used to be another The Independent Games Developers Association – but they severed all ties to the course in 2014) but while they were sympathetic they said that they couldn't pursue any complaint because I didn't have a student number so I'd never been registered with them.
There were also a few other issues/irregularities that I haven't mentioned but this all happened almost three years ago now and although I looked into what other possibilities there were for me to deal with it – legal action I guess – which would involve an attempt at mediation initially (although I have no hopes that they'd agree to it) I ended up really dragging my feet on it.
Of course I can take full responsibility that I should've read everything thoroughly – that was just stupid and I won't be making that mistake again of course – but ultimately there's no way for me to prove anything that was said in the interview.
It has always felt like there are other more positive things to focus my time and energy upon, and also just thinking about it makes me increases my stress and the related pain – but as I understand it there is a 6 year limit to take legal action which for me is coming up – I signed up to the course on 29/11/2012 – and so it feels like it is now or never if I am going to do anything.
£5,000 is so much money, I have no savings to speak of except a few hundred pounds to stop me going into overdraft and for the three years I was paying them it was a very significantly large part of my disposable income; kind of the difference between whether or not I would be able to have an external activity with my support (i.e. going to cinema/for food, that sort of thing...)
That's just the thought of the money that I've lost, aside from all the hope I'd had about actually being able to enjoy studying and then being in a position to actually start some form or related employment – and also the feeling that I could've completed this course if I'd only know about the time limit - I feelt like they've treated me like a complete idiot and blamed everything on me for a mistake I'd expected most reputable organisations would be disgusted that a sales representative did on their part... and all I WANTED to do was study!!!
I know that there's plenty of people criticising the Train2game material... they may wel be right... be for me even to have the chance to improve my CV/projects, even a less than stellar course would be something... as it is I never even got that, and they've still taken £5,000 off me, or just under.
I've seen other similar courses since then online, and much cheaper, but I don't know if I trust any of them now. I am even paranoid about Train2game and what suspicious things that they might be up, i.e. planting stories of successful court cases against them just to encourage people to try, knowing it will go wrong and end-up as positive publicity for them (as has happened with Financial Ombundsman rulling City&Guilds is a better qualification than the TIGA certification that was lost when TIGA washed their hands of Train2game.
So ultimately I guess I was wondering if anybody has had similar experiences and/or can help me, perhaps finding legal advice with a particularly disability/autism focus (I am in Yorkshire).
I guess I'm wondering if it seems as though this was an autism-related issue, to take the salesperson so literally like this?
Thank you for reading this long post.
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