ComplaintsforAmerican Academy of Facial Esthetics

• Initial Complaint

  08/22/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I signed up for a Botox/fillers course. I was unable to complete due to testing positive for Covid. I was refunded the course amount. I asked for a refund on the deposit and was told that it was non refundable. I was told that it could be used for a future course. I had questions about some of the course material. I have made several attempts to contact someone with AAFE. I was told the my claims were fraudulent (trouble with accessing material) and now my deposit will not be able to be used for future courses and I am no longer welcome to attend future courses.

  Business response

  08/30/2022

  ****** ******** registered for our Pittsburgh Level I Botox + Dermal Filler courses taking place on Friday, August 19th, 2022.
  
  Registration Date: August 3rd, 2022.
  
  OnDemand Coursework Accessed/Downloaded On: August 8th, 2022 and August 13th, 2022
  
  ******** Cancellation Received: August 15th, 2022 due to testing positive for COVID, the “inability” to access her OnDemand coursework and not wanting to stay overnight for a course.
  
  AAFE’s Cancellation Policy (disclosed on company website + email communication):
  
  If you have registered for an OnDemand course and have not started the OnDemand portion of the course and have not selected a live patient training location within 30 days, the course tuition is refundable less a $995 cancellation fee. If you have registered for a live patient course, the course tuition is refundable less a $995 cancellation fee 30+ days prior to the course start date as long as the OnDemand hasn’t been started.
  
  There are no refunds once OnDemand coursework has been started and/or after 30 days of any OnDemand or an OnDemand/Live Patient course registration.
  
  Communication with ****** regarding this situation:
  
  8/15/22 – ****** submitted a course cancellation policy exemption request with the following:
  
  “On 8/13/22 my son was diagnosed with Covid and my mother was admitted to the hospitals I contacted Theresa about this issue as well as having difficulty accessing videos and content on the portal. Videos will no play and power point will not load.
  
  Today, I was diagnosed with COVID. I will not be out of quarantine until Saturday.
  
  I reached out to Theresa via email and Abigail for direction about this issue. I would like a refund due to availability of follow up courses. Traveling to Cleveland, Philadelphia, or West Chester PA would require an over night stay as well as finding an overnight babysitter for my son. Pittsburgh is 1 hour from my hour, which is feasible.
  
  I am requesting a full refund as I could not access the on demand content as well, being unable to attend in person training due to Covid, and no other courses scheduled in a closer proximity.
  
  Thank you,
  *******
  8/15/22 – The following response was sent to her request:
  
  “Good afternoon, ******,
  
  Thank you for submitting a course cancellation form!
  
  Upon review, we are happy to provide a course tuition refund, which will be issued today. Please keep in mind we do have a $995 cancellation fee in place. The cancellation fee can be used towards future course tuition should you decide to re-enroll. While your refund will be issued today, this can sometimes take 3-5 business days to reflect on your end.
  
  I wish you and your family a swift recovery from COVID!”
  
  8/15/22 – ****** responded with the following:
  
  “Thank you very much. 
  I do have a question, if I am not able to re-enroll due to location, would I be eligible for a refund on at least a partial amount? I wasn’t able to really access the training information on the website.”
  
  8/15/22 – AAFE responded with the following:
  
  “Hi ******,
  
  You’re welcome! Unfortunately, we are unable to offer refunds on the cancellation fee.”
  
  8/15/22 – ****** responded with the following:
  
  “Even if I cannot access the content?”
  
  8/16/22 – AAFE responded with the following:
  
  “Good morning, ******,
  
  I assume you are referring to the online coursework, which I do see was accessed from your end on Saturday, August 13th. Should you decide to re-register for a course, we do have a dedicated team to assist with any questions you may have in this regard, so I do not anticipate an issue on that end.”
  
  8/16/22 – ****** responded with the following:
  
  “Yes, I was able to access. However, I could not get the content to load and I assume a video. Nothing would play. I have a brand new lap top. No other issues with other videos or downloading.”
  
  8/17/22 – ****** messaged the AAFE President on LinkedIn with the following message:
  
  “Dr. **********,
  
  I registered for a course on 8/19 in Pittsburgh, PA. I am unable to attend due to testing positive for Covid. I have emailed Theresa and Melissa about not being able to access the training info. I can log in but cannot view the video or other training materials. I was offered to be scheduled for another course; however, none of the course we in close proximity and would require an overnight stay. I am not able to do this due to childcare issues.
  
  I was granted a refund for the in person course. I am asking for my deposit to be refunded. I cannot view leaning materials and there were no future courses in my area. I have emailed Melissa 2 days ago without a response. If I am not able to access the training materials, how could I even think about rescheduling for another course?
  
  Melissa has not responded to my emails. I would like to have this issues resolved and have my $995 deposit refunded.
  
  I am happy to speak to my bank about this issue as well as inform other NPs looking for Botox training to avoid AAFE at all costs. Everyone was so helpful and I was registering for the course and now that I am having an issue, no help whatsoever.
  
  Thank you for your time,
  ******”
  
  8/19/22 – ****** submitted another course cancellation policy exemption request with the following:
  
  “I am requesting a refund for the deposit that I have paid. I am not able to use that towards an additional course.”
  
  8/22/22 – The following response was sent to her:
  
  “Good afternoon, ******,
  
  I just wanted to touch base, as I saw another course cancellation form was submitted on your end. As mentioned, we are unable to refund the cancellation fee.
  
  Thanks!”
  
  8/22/22 – ****** responded with the following:
  
  “Can you please give me a breakdown of the cancellation fee and why it is $995 and why it is no refundable? I am not able to access the portal so I’m curious as to what exactly I’m paying for that is no refundable?
  If I chose to do another course, would I have to pay this fee again? If not, does the deposit expire?”
  
  8/22/22 – AAFE responded with the following:
  
  “Hi ******,
  
  Per your request, I have broken down the policies for you below. (To view our company’s policies in totality, please click here.)
  
  Our policy states the following:
  
  Ø  If you have registered for an OnDemand course and have not started the OnDemand portion of the course1 and have not selected a live patient training location within 30 days2, the course tuition is refundable less a $995 cancellation fee. If you have registered for a live patient course, the course tuition is refundable less a $995 cancellation fee 30+ days prior to the course start date as long as the OnDemand hasn’t been started.
  Ø  There are no refunds once OnDemand coursework has been started and/or after 30 days of any OnDemand or an OnDemand Live Patient course registration.3
  Ø  At the AAFE’s discretion, you may be able to change to another date and location but there will be no refund available should you transfer into another course, cancel out of that course4, or fail to show up for any reason. Any changes, such as the aforementioned, would require notifying the AAFE prior to 72 hours before your scheduled course.
  
  Highlighted explanations below:
  
  1)      From the backend of our system, I can see you were able to access your OnDemand coursework on both August 8, 2022 and August 13, 2022. The first time you logged in, you downloaded the Level I Botulinum Toxin course booklet, which would have nullified any refund; however, we made an exception to this for you.
  2)      You registered for our Pittsburgh, PA Level I Botox + Dermal Filler courses (scheduled for August 19th) on August 4th.
  3)      Please refer to point 1.
  4)      You requested to be taken out of your originally scheduled course on August 15, 2022.
  
  Should you choose to register for another course, the cancellation fee would be applied as a $995 credit towards the tuition amount due.
  
  Thanks!”
  
  8/22/22 – ****** responded with the following:
  
  “I cannot view the course booklet, do you have someone there that can assist?”
  
  8/22/22 – AAFE responded with the following:
  
  “Hi ******,
  
  Since your tuition refund has been issued, the correlating OnDemand coursework is no longer accessible, as you are not currently paid or registered for a course.”
  
  8/22/22 – ****** responded with the following:
  
  “I could not view the booklet prior to the cancellation.
  Also, does the deposit expire?”
  
  8/22/22 – AAFE responded with the following:
  
  “******,
  
  This will be my final response. As mentioned, I see you logged into your OnDemand coursework on both August 8, 2022 and August 13, 2022. On August 8th, the course booklet was downloaded. On August 13th, the first module to the course was 87% completed. This shows us that not only were you able to access the online material, but you also progressed past the course booklet.
  
  With our company policies in mind, the fact that any tuition refund was offered to you should show that we are doing our best to work with you. The $995 cancellation fee is just that – a cancellation fee that does not have the option to be refunded; however, you were also given the option to use this as a credit towards future course tuition should you decide to re-register. To be honest with you, at this point, comparing what you are claiming to what the system shows, this could be considered a fraudulent claim on your end.”
  
  8/22/22 – ****** responded with the following:
  
  “Can you please answer my question if the deposit expires?”
  
  8/22/22 – ****** proceeded to repeatedly call our office lines and online chat in search of a supervisor above who she’d been communicating with.
  
  8/22/22 – AAFE responded with the following:
  
  “Hi ******,
  
  I have received communication from the AAFE Team that you were advised of this answer and that you are requesting to speak with my supervisor. The latter request is not able to be fulfilled, as there is not a supervisor above me.
  
  That being said, we had initially offered for the cancellation fee to be used towards future course tuition. That offer is no longer on the table. Due to the fraudulence concerns and how this situation has been progressing, it has been advised that the tuition refund be reversed.  While I will not be moving forward with a reversal at this time, we will not be able to welcome you to any AAFE courses in the future.”
  
  8/22/22 – ****** responded with the following:
  
  “You emailed and said you were not going to respond. I had questions and reached out. Now you are going back on your word about the deposit being used for future courses. I merely asked to speak with someone about this. 
  I have questions about upcoming courses for Pittsburgh and wanted to seeing someone could help resolve the issue with not being able to view course material. 
  Fraudulent concerns? I have questions about not being able to view material, how is that fraudulent?
  I have it in writing that I could use that deposit for upcoming courses.”
  
  8/22/22 – AAFE responded with the following and ceased all communication following:
  
  “Yes, and you also have in writing that the offer has been retracted and you are no longer welcome at our courses. Please be aware that because of this, our team has not and will not be responding to the requests you have sent for future course date information.”
  
  8/23/22 – ****** filed a complaint with the BBB stating the following:
  
  “I signed up for a Botox/fillers course. I was unable to complete due to testing positive for Covid. I was refunded the course amount. I asked for a refund on the deposit and was told that it was non refundable. I was told that it could be used for a future course. I had questions about some of the course material. I have made several attempts to contact someone with AAFE. I was told the my claims were fraudulent (trouble with accessing material) and now my deposit will not be able to be used for future courses and I am no longer welcome to attend future courses.”

• Initial Complaint

  04/18/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I joined the AAFE in October 2021 and bought a gold membership package that includes 4 courses. for $5997. Less than a week before a course in Chicago in January 2022, the venue was changed from downtown Chicago to more than one hour outside of Chicago due to compliance with Covid restrictions. I don't own a vehicle but thought I could make it, but then there were public transportation issues and limitations due to Covid and I was not able to make it. I will lose one course out of the 4 and find this unfair. I think an exception should be made to policy due to Covid and the unforseen ensuing issues that have happened during this trying time and due to my commitment to the AAFE, an organization I think highly of.

  Business response

  04/25/2022

  To Whom It May Concern, 

  Attached are the correspondences that were sent to complaint holder advising her of all course details. Per company policy, "At the AAFE’s discretion, you may be able to change to another date and location but there will
  be no refund available should you transfer into another course, cancel out of that course, or fail to show up for any reason. Any changes, such as the aforementioned, would require notifying the AAFE prior to 72 hours before your scheduled course.
  For participants registered for an AAFE all access membership plan package – if a participant does not show up for a scheduled live patient training without 72-hour prior notice to the AAFE, then this will result in the loss of the course(s) in which the participant no-showed from the all access plan package."

  If there is anything further you may need, please reach out. 

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩