I was all set to learn something new, and the 'Marketplace Manager' courses looked like the perfect fit. The New Year's vibe and discounts had me convinced to go with Synergy. But things took a turn when an employee called me on December 10, spilling all the 'good stuff.' I didn't have the cash for the training, so I opted for a payment plan, but the catch was the discount was only valid for that day. I applied for the plan, and the manager told me to wait for an invite to the student's personal account and Telegram channel. The next day, I got a call from the 'specialist of care,' who said enrollment would take 2-7 days. We'll just wait, right?
They kind of forgot about me...Fast forward to December 18, and no one had contacted me, so I reached out to the 'care department' myself. Their response? 'Hello, the distribution has already passed, did the curator contact you?' That's when doubts started creeping in...
December 18 - password deliveryAfter a few hours, the curator finally got in touch and gave me the password to the course and Telegram.
December 18 - password deliveryOn this day, they sent me an additional agreement for the discount, which I had to sign and send right away, and the contract was supposed to be sent by another department.
I started watching the video lectures, registered in the Telegram group, and then I hit another wall - the group was a free-for-all, with graduates and newcomers asking questions left and right. It was chaos. I thought there was another group for my stream, so I asked the curator, but it turned out there were no streams! And all the questions were in one big chat... not exactly what I had in mind.
I tried to get some kind of educational plan from the curator so I could stay on track, since the contract was signed on December 10, but by the end of the month, I realized they were counting the training from December 1. Yeah, right. But the schedule never arrived.
As the New Year rolled in, my focus shifted away from studying. I'd pop into the Telegram chat every now and then, and I was shocked by all the complaints from students and the number of dropouts. To make matters worse, the video lectures stopped loading during the holidays, and when I checked on my end, everything seemed fine.
After comparing the chaos to my previous experience at another school, I decided to cut my losses and request a refund early on.
And that's when things got really interesting! On January 8th, I sent an email to my curator,
January 8th, first attemptbut since everyone was working on reduced hours during the holidays, I decided to send a duplicate email to the 'concerned specialist' as well.
January 8th, attempt twoThe 'concerned specialist' got back to me right away and we scheduled a call for the next day to discuss everything. I also asked about the contract they were supposed to send me, which still hadn't arrived, and how I was supposed to cancel the course without it.
The next day, I didn't hear back from anyone. I started sending emails to my curator in parallel, who apologized for the inconvenience and explained that the returns department wouldn't be working until January 12th.
January 12th rolled around, and I sent another reminder. This time, the returns department got in touch with me – it was the same 'concerned specialist' I'd been dealing with earlier. Of course, they tried to convince me to stay on the course or transfer to a different one, but not to request a refund. I wasn't having it.
Then the heavy artillery came out, and I was told that I wouldn't be getting a full refund, but rather a portion of it – around 10% of the total. I asked how much that would be, considering I hadn't completed anything during the short time I was on the course. They explained that it would be around 9,000 rubles, and I agreed.
Finally, I received the withdrawal statement, and over the next few days, I started getting documents for the transfer that no one had sent me previously. As of January 12th, they'd also disabled my access to the personal account and removed me from the Telegram channel. Efficient, right?
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole ordeal. On January 19, I started searching for what to do next, as I needed to receive documents for the return process, and I found the email address for the return department on the Synergy website. They sent me an email with the documents on January 20, and the most shocking part was the amount they were holding back - 20,000 rubles! I was not happy with the amount they were claiming, so I called their customer support hotline. However, the operators were all busy, and I only got a call back in the evening, but they didn't help me at all. They told me to sort it out with my advisor and do a re-calculation!
Of course, I wrote to my advisor, sent her screenshots of our conversation, and gave her access to my account from December 18. The paperwork for the withdrawal was done on January 12, and I started asking to terminate the contract on January 8. This was definitely not 2 months of studying! She replied that she would get in touch with the return department, and... well, you can guess what happened next.
Calculation with some second month of studyingI'm still trying to figure out how they can insist that I studied for 2 months. I wrote to my advisor again, and she redirected me to a 'concerned specialist.' Let's just say it was a wild ride...
The 'concerned specialist' claimed that they had warned me about holding back some amount, but it was around 9,000 rubles, not 20,000.
According to the return department's calculation:
'You were charged for 2 months of studying, as you only contacted us in January.
The course duration is 6 months, and the cost is 59,400 rubles.
59,400 - 59,400/6*2 = 39,600'
I'm speechless! Where did this second month of studying come from?????
Dear Synergy, I'm filing a pre-trial complaint for their treatment of students and will get my money back, taking into account only 1 month of studying (which, by the way, didn't even happen).
I'm not recommending anyone deal with this organization. They're all smiles and care until you can't find the end of the tunnel.
Unsuccessful student, DoroKhova Alena Anatolyevna, 2149483/25