This article aims to provide awareness of sales methods that are contentious. On my occasion, I was approached by a company called The Knowledge Academy and I believe their sale strategy has delayed massively a certification I was targeting until last month.
Sales techniques can be complex, and while The Knowledge Academy is a legitimate organization with over 45,000 reviews on Trustpilot, it wasn’t immediately clear to associate their sales representative with any deceptive practices.
On my occasion, my TOGAF certification journey started in may 2024 and I was ready to try the exam 6 month after. This is at this time that I received a call from a salesman working for The Knowledge Academy. He was advertising a special offer to get the TOGAF certification. After 1 week simmering whether the offer was relevant for me or not. I have purchased the TOGAF foundation course and this came with the exam and a resit. The methods to convince me to make the purchase were identical to a scam organisation: I was called every other day and was reminded of the deadline for this fantastic offer.
I checked the reviews for the company and decided to make the jump as I needed the exam and 45k positive reviews were a compelling reason to accept the organisation was not a scam.
The order confirmation email arrived correctly and I could use the course as expected. At this time, my suspicion died out and I assumed I would be able to do the exam without any difficulty. The course was very thorough. Although I was ready as I studied TOGAF using another course before, the Knowledge Academy was forcing to go through their course before doing the exam. I thought it was an opportunity rather than a worry and so I watched the training. It was only after 3 weeks watching the training that I was finally done with the course. I then looked in the system dashboard if there was a possibility to schedule my exam.
Unfortunately, at this time, I realised the whole experience was not as easy as I had hoped.
I first reached the support hoping still that was a glitch in the process. But the support was not working with me. I could see they were playing economic and with the mindset to explain calmly the next step announced that I needed to attend a 1-day training so that the exam could be booked
This training was a new information that had not been disclosed in any email or by the keen salesperson.
I replied that I would be able to attend if this course was online but when I asked whether the 1-day training required was remote or onsite and whether I needed to expect anything specific, this question was followed by a silent radio: the support were likely playing a game is the conclusion I made. I have regularly some emails from the support that nurture my hope to get an exam one day..
Whether this situation happens for some customers at random is a possibility. I will likely not work it out fully. I put this article public just for us to gain awareness of pushy salespeople and contentious methods that prevent customers to benefit from what they purchased.
My initial thoughts is healing frustration by talking about it is useful. My hope is to see this article being shared on a social media platform by someone who would have dodged their practice. Finally, I believe the reason they can accumulate this number of good reviews is because they request a review each time an email from the support is sent. Although this is an assumption of mine, I can imagine most customers would let go and we would not hear of them in many occasions. All the same, this article is here to guide on 2 things to check when we buy a course online:
- is the sale conducted with scam methods
- Are the deliverables for the course all listed transparently on the order confirmation email
In doubt, just bear in mind you have 14 days to cancel your order
In this instance, the course was taking a long time to be completed. With hindsight, I would double down each time something in the process raises the eyebrows. For today, let’s just clap The knowledge academy on cashing in £310 for a course whose value can be compared to udemy similar solutions for £15.
In stark contrast, I have used udemy 16 times in the last 3 years and had success on all occasions so far. We have 2 winners, well done udemy as well! 5 stars to you guys