Hi, I've read many a post on this forum going back a few years and the same thing is still happening. I really want to help stop other people getting sucked into Tigrent Learn UK Rich Dad seminar programs. I'm pursuing my money but at the moment I'm more concerned about making sure Tigrent don't get any more money. If anyone does have any advice or they have actually got money back I'd love to hear. There must be something that can be done about this company but I have only seen disappointed people still waiting for money. I went along to the free seminar in Gatwick last weekend. I've been to this type of thing before so I fully expected to be sold to, I was on my guard at the beginning, I wasn't even interested in property investing, more in stocks and shares, but as the thing went on I got totally sucked into the sucess stories, which is all they tell you. They don't actually give you anything to work on except increasing your credit card limit. At the end of the seminar I jumped up to sign up for the 3 day course, £997. As soon as I got home I thought I better do some reseach and quickly found posts on here and elsewhere. I really wanted to believe it was going to be worth the money as I was so pleased with the rich dad book, that made sense to me. But no, I couldn't find any good reviews and just stories of people going along to the 3 day course, being told to go and up their credit limit and come back in the morning, only to be told that they cant be taught everything in 3 days, but they have to sign up for further courses for 10s of thousands of pounds. I decided that I didn't want to waste my time or money on this course so phoned my credit card company to put a stop on the payment. Tigrent Learn UK had already requested the money from my credit card company. So on Monday I called Tigrent, asked them for a full refund. I explained that I had opened the home study kit but it had not been marked and was still perfectly good to sell. They said that it had to be sealed for the full refund, so they were going to charge £497 plus admin, so out of my £997 I was going to get back £450. Also they wanted me to sign a letter to say I wouldn't discuss this with anyone and this would be the final agreement. Is that even legal? not in the contract that I signed to say that if I requested a refund it would come with a gagging order. I went to their office to personally return the home study kit, but they refused to accept it, saying they couldn't legally take it as it was mine. So I'm now going to my credit card company to raise a dispute. I don't think there is much else I can do? I've set up a twitter account @tigrent_truth I'm posting links to reviews and advice to others to try and help them not get stung. Essentially the lesson is: 1) Don't sign up on the day, go home and think about what you are buying 2) Research the course and compare to other lower cost courses that seem to actually teach you something 3) Don't trust a company that doesn't have course outlines and costs on their website 4) If you do get swept away on the day, DON'T OPEN THE HOME STUDY KIT! You could probably get all of that information from a £14.99 book from amazon and some you-tube videos. Please follow me on twitter and use the hashtag to help me raise awareness. I'd also love to hear if you have got money back for the home study kit. (Although you probably have a gagging order and can't tell me, maybe a knowing wink?) I've learnt an expensive lesson, I hope to get my money back at some point, but at least if I can stop it happening to others that would be good. Thanks

A friend was tempted to attend a presentation hosted by "Homes Under the Hammer" late last year regarding how to buy property for buy-to-let. She was interested enough to sign up (£999.00) for a more detailed 3-day seminar with Tigrent Learning (who say they have no direct affiliation with HUTH) at a hotel in Yorkshire and asked me if I would join her as her guest and share the fee to some extent. I was intrigued enough to accept her offer and contributed £300 to her directly. Let me say from the outset that we are good friends and I in no way wish to burden her in this matter. We attended the 3-day course which was pretty intensive with early morning starts and long sessions but, to be honest, I learned precious little that I did not know before. The material presented was pretty basic and mostly plausible although, in retrospect, overly optimistic in terms of how easy it would be to raise deposits on credit cards, obtain mortgages, select buy and refurbish properties, then rent them out allowing us to remortgage, pull our capital out and start the cycle again. I know this stacks up on paper but feel that, in real life, things are never that easy. Looking back, the course was not only designed to impart just basic information and a 'magic' plan for buy-to-letters, but also followed a carefully planned script to psychologically wind us up with American style ra-ra-ra in order to sell us further training at an 'Advanced University' course. The courses offered looked very expensive but, in the true style of double glazing sales, we were offered discounts to sign up on the day. I don't know why I fell for it, I must have been mad, but was sufficiently caught up in the moment to agree to sign up for their most basic 'advanced' training package course jointly with my friend. I had told the lecturers all along that, although I had an interest in property, the timing was not right for me (neither was it for my friend who was going on holiday abroad over Christmas) and I would like time to think about it and maybe get back to them. But, of course, we were then put under yet more pressure in very subtle ways. To cut a long story short, my friend and I discussed it and, goodness knows what possessed me, I agreed to jointly sign up for the most basic joint package at £9192 inc vat, the earliest course we could provisionally attend being scheduled for mid February 2013. It was agreed verbally that we could each give a deposit of £2000 on credit cards, so long as the balance was paid before the training date. My friend was the signatory, my details were added as a guest (but no signature) and I paid my £2K on a hand written credit card form and I presume she did the same. My friend received a copy of the contract (I would attach but I don't know how!) but I did not see it or get a copy at the time. This was on a Sunday evening. We both left thinking 'what have we done?' but had been told we had made a positive, life-changing decision (!) and, for the moment, that was that. Maybe I should have done it beforehand but I decided to do some Googling on Tigrent and was disturbed by much of what I read. My friend had already gone on holiday and so it was difficult to discuss matters with her apart from a brief email until she returned in early January when I told her of my worries. She emailed me a copy of the agreement a couple of days ago which seems quite official and on the face of it legally well constucted, although there may be some loopholes. But basically, I have decided that I now have no interest in attending the further training (which I now think is massively over-expensive for what it is) and would dearly like to draw a line under this whole business. I certainly baulk at the thought of paying another £2600 odd + travelling and hotel fees. I have certain quite serious health issues now arising which make it impossible for me to be available in February in any case but it appears that we would have to attend together as part of their rules. And, now I have seen the contract, it seems we might be subject to not getting the discount because we did not pay the balance within 15 days - I was not aware of this. This was not what was agreed verbally. There is no mention of the full price on the agreement by the way, just the discounted figure and only three days right to cancel which I am not sure is legal in UK. (I have cancelled my credit card transferred the balance to a zero % card, just in case they try to put through any further charge. My bank (FD) didn't acknowledge any reason to refund me - this was 2 days after the contract.) My friend is resigned to going ahead with the training (whilst sympathetic to my reluctance) but does not want to be landed with paying my extra £2596. I really don't want to cause her any problems. I am resigned to writing off my £2K deposit and chalk it up to experience. But, ideally, I do not want to proceed or have to pay any more. She has suggested one possibility is for her to team up with someone else (there were a couple of guys she met on the course who were thinking of signing up singlely - there is a discount for pairs). Or maybe Tigrent would agree to put my £2K towards a single fee for her - I just don't know how reasonable they would be. Whatever, we have to contact Tigrent to accept or adjust our attendance dates by Friday 25th January, at which time I am sure they will press for the balance - so not much time to think. I am obviously in a bit of a quandry and feel a very foolish old man. Anyone have any thoughts please?

I have been inspired to post here by the brilliant and successful advice I have read given by "legalpickle" to someone who had a very similar problem to me, in the thread "Un-fair admin charges through Rich Dad (RDE) ***SUCCESS***". The quickest way to learn about how these people operate is to google "rich dad [problem]". Briefly - I backed out of a contract with them on the first day of the cooling off period. They then should have returned the several thousand pounds that I had paid them by credit card, perhaps deducting an admin fee. Although they concede that they owe me the money and that I have done everything they ask, they simply do not return the money. They claim it is due to their inefficiency rather than dishonesty. Every successful case of money returned that I have (now) read about involves threatening them with court. At one stage, in order to get your money back, they insist that you sign a form saying "I agree with the terms described above and acknowledge that Whitney UK has handled this matter to my complete satisfaction. Furthermore, I shall keep the existence and terms of this refund settlement agreement strictly confidential. Neither party shall divulge said terms to any third party in any matter." I don't know whether they can do that, but where I differ from the similar case mentioned above is that unfortunately I DID sign this, putting the loss of the 5% admin fee down to experience. How do I go about taking these people to court? Do I claim for * all my money back; * all but 5% (losing more than £700); * all my money plus some interest (it's been more than 6 months)? All advice welcome ... especially from legalpickle.