Found a seemingly good online education platform but worry about “Is Shaw Academy A Scam?” Am I right? If yes, you’ve come to the right place.
In my Shaw Academy review, I’ll walk you through everything you need to know with the below topics before you subscribe to it.
- What Is Shaw Academy?
- The Training Courses
- Who Is Shaw Academy For?
- Pros & Cons
- Is Shaw Academy A Scam?
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Disclaimer: As the owner of Smileaffiliatesuccess.com, I have tracked down special deals for products, tools, and services mentioned herein. When you click my affiliate links on this page to make a purchase, I may get a small commission, and you will definitely get a great bargain. This is a win-win advantage for both of us.
What Is Shaw Academy?
-Summary of Shaw Academy-
Product Name: Shaw Academy
Founders: James Egan & Adrian Murphy in 2012
Product Type: Online Training Platform and Certification
Price: Free for 4 weeks, then $69.99 per month
Recommend: No
Shaw Academy is an online training platform where you can learn from photography to coding & computer science. James Egan & Adrian Murphy found it back in 2012, and now they have offered 155+ courses with more than 420k students around the globe.
Based on my online researches, I don’t think Shaw Academy is an outright scam since no online training platform is perfect. You get what you want to learn for 28 days, and after that, you need to pay the monthly subscription fee.
The reason people called it a scam is because they charge people without prior notice and do not deliver what they promised. Since there are many negative complaints about Shaw Academy, in June 2020, Shaw Academy was being investigated by Trustpilot. Be very cautious if you like to proceed with your online training with Shaw Academy.
Inside Shaw Academy
We have so many to talk about today, but let’s focus on the online training courses first.
Training Courses
You can browse the training courses on the website, and they offer 155+ courses available right now. The most popular courses are:
- Photography
- Coding & Computer Science
- Interior Design
- Fashion Design
- Digital Marketing
- Diploma in Project Management
- Creative Writing
- Graphic Design
You may check this page to know more about their wide range of online certification courses. They are designed to help you update your resume, upskill at an affordable cost, and learn at your own pace.
Who Is Shaw Academy For?
People who are looking to learn or develop a skill in a certain area, but it’s not for people looking for a degree.
Maybe you’ve known some skills first on YouTube, but now you like to go to the next level. In that case, Shaw Academy will give you a structured curriculum that fits your schedule.
Ugly Truth About Shaw Academy
TOP#1 Investigation by TrustPilot
Why was an online training platform being investigated by another online review site? The answer is easy. There are tons of negative comments on TrustPilot, so they had to investigate in June 2020.
Based on the Guardian, people are angry about Shaw Academy because the platform did the following:
- charge members￡39.99 for tool kits even though they click ‘no thanks!’
- charge members for another years’ subscription fee(￡179.95) without prior notice
- request members who get the refund to delete negative comments and leave a positive one
TOP#2 25% of Bad Reviews
On Shaw Academy’s TrustPilot page, they currently have 62,650 reviews, with 57% excellent reviews and 25% bad reviews. I don’t know much about math, but 25% of bad reviews do speak for themselves.
Since Shaw Academy ever requested members to delete their negative reviews, we should take the negative reviews more seriously than the positive ones. You may use them for future reference if you meet the same problem after joining Shaw Academy.
Here are the major complaints of 25% bad reviews on TrustPilot:
- sending tons of emails, texts, WhatsApp messages, and phone calls to persuade people to buy more services even after the membership cancellation
- problematic refund/cancellation process
TOP#3 Bad Customer Support
From my research, people call Shaw Academy’s customer support number, but no one ever really answers the phone. You can see the below complaint from AllReviews.ca.
What I Liked About Shaw Academy
TOP#1 A Four-Week Free Trial
If you find a skill you like to expertise, you could try Shaw Academy. You can try it for free for the first four weeks, and if you don’t like the training, you can cancel your membership with a lot of effort. We will talk about how to cancel your membership in a sec.
TOP#2 Good Training Courses
Let’s look at some positive reviews about Shaw Academy. While there are 25% of bad reviews, there are still 57% of positive reviews.
Is Shaw Academy Reliable For A Free Course?
Yes, Shaw Academy’s FREE training course is reliable if you are a total beginner.
You can try it for 28 days without any cost, and you can cancel your membership before the due date of your free trial, even though you need to go through a terrible cancellation process to stop them from charging you… See the next point to know how to do the whole cancellation process!
How Do You Stop Shaw Academy From Billing You For Good?
You have to skip many pop-ups that try to keep you as a member before you find the right page for cancellation.
However, you’ll have to ring a number to cancel your membership properly, which is really hard to believe in 2021.
After you call at least 4-5 times(UK time) and finally get an automated women voicemail to cancel your membership for good, you might still get emails from Shaw Academy that try to sell you something…
Is Shaw Academy Legitimate?
Yes, Shaw Academy is a legitimate platform that runs since 2012 with interactive classes that you can learn at your own pace.
But, you need to know that they are not perfect. They have a problematic cancellation/refund process and emotionally manipulative marketing tactics that unhappy members complain about on all leading review sites.
Is Shaw Academy A Scam?
No, I don’t think Shaw Academy is an outright scam since they have reliable training courses with a 28-day free trial. The only problem I see here is the problematic cancellation process and the spam emails. If you think you can deal with the cancellation process, I don’t see the harm in trying Shaw Academy.
If not, you could check other online training platforms such as Udemy, Coursera, or Skillshare. I am sure you won’t have an issue canceling your subscription anytime and anywhere.
Well, I hope my review gives you enough information to make up your mind. I’ve tried my best to gather everything you need to know before you proceed with it. Just be cautious about everything you do with Shaw Academy.
My Choice
When it comes to updating my resume or upskilling, I also love to learn something new on the internet. Unlike Shaw Academy, with so many courses that you can learn, I like to build an affiliate marketing business online.
If you don’t have any clue about affiliate marketing, let me explain. Affiliate marketing allows you to promote others’ products without creating your own so that you won’t have a stockpiling issue like any MLM business. For example, Nu Skin, Color Street Nails, or Farmasi.
You can start a blog and write reviews for products that meet your expectations and are useful for other affiliate marketers. By implementing good SEO & keyword research, you can rank your articles higher on the SERP so that people can land on your site ahead of others.
If they like your sharing, they may purchase the products through your affiliate links. Here come your earning potentials.
I know I’ve made the process sound easier than done, but it takes a lot of hard work, time, and patience to see positive results. The online income won’t fall on your lap without doing anything on your side. The more you are willing to put into your site, the more you stand to earn with it.
If this is something, you like to pursue to escape the rat race and kiss your boss goodbye, feel free to check my alternative to make money online right below.
My Alternative Online Training Platform
I believe that you don’t need to join Shaw Academy when you can get all affiliate marketing at a $49 membership fee per month or $495 per year. An alternative I do recommend is Wealthy Affiliate(WA).
- When you are doing your training courses, you get to know Kyle & Carson, the founders of Wealthy Affiliate. They are both down-to-earth kinds of guys that make WA is always over-deliver and under-promise.
- Wealthy Affiliate is an affiliate marketing education platform that comes with training courses, powerful tools & features(one keyword research tool included), and the 24/7 support you need to maintain your affiliate marketing business.
- Wealthy Affiliate offers a 7-day FREE trial without the credit card details required. If this is not your cup of tea after 7 days, you won’t lose a penny from your pocket. I will also be your personal coach & advisor for your online business, so see you very soon on the other side.
- There are many WA success stories on the internet, and I am sure you can find a lot with one simple Google search. I’ve handpicked the most inspiring ones in the next paragraph, so enjoy them.
Wealthy Affiliate Income Proof
Here are some most active members from Wealthy Affiliate. Each of them did succeed in generating a sustainable income to replace their 9-5 jobs. You are more than welcome to check their stories HERE.
- I Made Over $1 Million With Affiliate Marketing.
- Can someone make a full-time income promoting WA? You bet they can!
- What Does $1000 Per Day Look Like?$
- 40,000 In One Weekend
- A Very Humbling $12,803.26 Month – August Progress Report
- It’s Getting Better: $500+ in 2 Days
- Newbies Pay Attention! $5,195.20 Affiliate Check for June: Thanks, WA!
- Joined the 10K Per Month Club. January Earnings $13,481.39
- New Record: $1,300+ Per DAY! Affiliate Marketing Works & Rocks!
- Made $7,395 in a WEEK: First Black Friday Results!
I hope you enjoy this review, and you are more than welcome to share ideas or leave your comments below. I will reply as soon as I can, thanks.
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Wow, again, a great review, Matt!
I would never try it if it is difficult to start the cancellation process, even though I always love to learn new things, and education is crucial. I did an online course some years ago, but it is not really for me because I instead enjoy meeting classmates, sitting together, and communicating face to face.
The 25 % negative reviews are certainly higher if members are manipulated into rewriting their reviews. There is so much corruption going on nowadays on all levels that I would be pretty much careful joining a program or platform online.
However, Wealthy Affiliate is genuine and honest, very significant opportunities to join them for building an online business. If we invest in our business right from the beginning and over quite a time, we will succeed. So many great examples have built up a high income, now able to live financially free, showing us that it is working. I can recommend WA for everyone! 🙂
Hi Sylvia,
Thanks for the compliment. I am flattered. During the pandemic, it’s inevitable to try online education, making more people become victims of Shaw Academy’s cancelation process. Like you, I prefer to learn something in a real school, including discussions with classmates or do team reports after school. Those make learning more fun and a good memory, right?
If Shaw Academy could re-design the cancellation process, it would become a good platform where people can actually learn new skills. So far, they have a lot to fix it.
Thanks for backing my recommendation up here. Sometimes, I feel like my readers’ words outweigh my whole review. Highly appreciated! I learned everything to start a blog to run an affiliate marketing business, and it helps me generate a passive income stably. Before I started with Wealthy Affiliate, I knew nothing about creating a website or affiliate marketing. So if I can do this, trust me, you can make it too.
Matt
With a complicated cancellation policy and manipulative marketing strategies, I will definitely pass on this one. If even Trust Pilot investigated Shaw Academy, then it’s really a bad sign.
Our local cellphone company also uses manipulative marketing techniques when you want to cancel a specific service, which keeps you on the phone for at least half an hour, being offered products over and over again while telling them again and again “I called you to cancel, not buy new stuff!” It is extremely annoying and I am sure that many people give up and just keep the membership just to avoid the hassle of canceling, but canceling shouldn’t be a hassle, it is a customer’s right, and companies have no right to complicate that process.
Hi Christine,
Yes, the cancellation of any online service should be a piece of cake instead of a complicated process. If Shaw Academy would love to improve that, it helps bring back its reputation online, and TrustPilot does not need to investigate.
I am sorry to hear that you have had a similar experience canceling your phone services, and it must be bad. I would suggest that people interested in any online learning platforms do some research to see what others complain or compliment. This would help you avoid tons of hassles in the future.
My favorite affiliate marketing platform won’t have this issue! If you are interested in affiliate marketing, feel free to check it HERE. 🙂
Matt