A: Yes, it would. But New Horizons already owns newhorizonssucks.com
A: That depends on your definition of "better." In my opinion, informational sites such as newhorizonssucks.net should be fast-loading, compatible with as many browsers as possible, and shouldn't be choked with huge, slow-loading graphics. Thus, my site is mostly text with a few simple tables and list elements, and a tiny bit o' javascript that makes the pretty buttons change color (if your browser supports javascript.) The main page provides links for those whose browsers don't do frames, and the site is nearly devoid of graphics, save for my sole indulgence of the money-sucking New Horizons building, which was created by me with as few colors and frames as possible to limit file size and transmission time.
A: How very nice for you. A lot of other people don't, including me.
A: Nope. Unless I decide at some point to provide some yippie-skippy features that would require cookies for auto-login or somesuch, I have no reason to use them, and I have no desire to invade my readers' privacy or track their usage.
A: No. Private communications are private, period. If you wish to tell a story or offer some advice to the other readers, feel free to use the "Tell Story" link on the site. I will respond to your email asking permission and whether you wish to remain anonymous or put your name on your story. If you don't respond with permission, it won't be placed on the site. If you gave permission then got antsy for any reason and want your story taken off the site, email me and I'll yank it (the story, I mean.)
A: For my own convenience, mail sent to webmaster@newhorizonssucks.net is forwarded to my mailbox at my ISP. Same guy, different address, no biggie.
A: No. I'm not in this for money, and the web is choked with enough advertising already. I'm sure you've tried to surf to a site that wouldn't load just because some ad server is down and the guy who coded the site didn't know how to do it properly. Ads are annoying and seldom useful. If at some time in the future my costs become terribly prohibitive, I suppose I'd look into it, but that is an extremely remote possibility.
A: Perish the thought. Blech! I code by hand, the manly, old-fashioned way, using Notetab Light, which is without question the best text editor ever. And if you don't need or want the pro version, it's free, free, free. If you do want the pro version, it's still cheap, cheap, cheap.
A: I didn't get any money for my comments about Notetab. They're from the heart. The gentleman who coded it, Eric Fookes, has given us a fine piece of software. It completely eliminates the need to ever open a text file with that pathetic excuse for a text editor that Microsoft® includes with its OS. It allows huge files to be edited, it allows several files to be open at once in neatly tabbed windows, and it has features that even Word and WordPerfect don't have. Just pipe down and download it. You won't be sorry.
A: You are my best advertising. If you find something of value here, tell your friends about it. If you know anybody who's thinking about getting computer training, works in the IT industry, could use some advice in dealing with training companies, already got screwed over by a training company, or even if you just like my links page, tell others and put newhorizonssucks.net on your links page.
A: Please see the "Opportunity Lost" page. It goes into detail about all of the many times and many ways I tried to get New Horizons to do the right thing before I set up the web site.
A: No. Prior to my wife's experience with New Horizons, I didn't know their name or that of any other training company. I don't work for a training company. I don't have a "favorite" training company, just a "least favorite." I do not make recommendations for any particular company, I only offer advice on how to deal with them, how to find out if they are everything their marketing weasels make them out to be, and what to do if you get the shaft from one of them.
As for my story being hard to believe, I think so too. I find it hard to believe that any company would act as cavalierly as NH Milwaukee toward their responsibility to provide services for which they have been amply paid. I'm also boggled that they made a conscious decision to try to save $2000 after a settlement had been reached, rather than shoo my wife and me away quietly and happily. And that they continue the exact same business practices to this day, according to current and former employees of the franchise. You think you have a hard time believing it? I lived it and I'm still stunned.
My wife and I were very pleased, however, when New Horizons of Milwaukee finally refunded the balance of what she had paid. If only it hadn't taken until February 2001, the whole matter would have been solved and the time and trouble of putting together this web site would have been avoided.
A: My wife's "instruction" took place in Spring/Summer 2000. My first contact with New Horizons Milwaukee trying to rectify the situation was on or about August 1, 2000. On August 11, 2000, Alozie Aguwa of NH Milwaukee (finally) offered a refund of over $8150.00 to my wife. The number was arrived at by Mr. Aguwa with no assistance whatsoever from us. On August 15, 2000, Mr. Aguwa called to say that the check is going out, but instead of $8150 or so, the check would only be for $6145, a neat little 25% discount he decided to offer himself. Shortly thereafter the web site was born.
A: I've heard from several trainers, employees of New Horizons and independent contractors, who have assured me that not all New Horizons franchisees are created equal. There are, I realize, individual good training centers bearing the New Horizons name, that are managed by people who actually care a bit about the services they provide. However, the reason those centers are "good" isn't because New Horizons corporate requires them to be good. The corporate franchisor, New Horizons Worldwide, allows their franchisees to act in a fraudulent manner, which invites protest such as that found on newhorizonssucks.net.
It is unfortunate for the "good" franchisees, who pay their franchise fees to NH Corporate and actually provide professional services, that their franchisor doesn't seem to want to discipline those locations who give the company a black eye. At the time of my wife's "instruction", New Horizons' web site said, among other things, the following:
To consistently deliver the highest-quality learning experience, we only
use certified professional instructors who are regularly tested on content and presentation skills. After completing our rigorous testing, each
instructor is evaluated by every student. Instructors must maintain a 92 percent approval rating."
"Professional Instructors
Their web site doesn't say anything about "Except at a certain percentage of our franchise locations from whom we choose to accept fees, but refuse to hold to our stated standards." That is why I think New Horizons corporate bears as much responsibility as the Milwaukee franchise.
A: Spanking might give them some sort of cheap thrill, and I definitely don't want that. No, I expect New Horizons Worldwide to do the same thing I would expect McDonalds® to do about a franchise restaurant that served roaches in their hamburgers. In no particular order, they could revoke the franchise; fine the franchise owners; place the franchise under corporate oversight, which means putting some corporate weenie on site to monitor their activities and making the franchise pay his/her salary and expenses until they are in full compliance; or making the franchise limit their course selection to those classes for which there are properly certified instructors who know the subject matter and can teach it effectively.
Of course, this presumes that New Horizons Worldwide does not officially condone or encourage the business practices engaged in by New Horizons of Milwaukee and other centers you've read about on the "Other Stories" pages of this site. It also presumes that the lawyer larvae who drafted their franchise agreements did a better job than the one who drafted the Indemnity and Release proposal they sent me. To find out why I find the I&R agreement so amusing, read it and then read my response. I'm sure whoever wrote the I&R had a good excuse, like perhaps attending law school at New Horizons.
A: First and foremost, I need to clarify something. I do not blame the trainers for this situation. The particular trainer at the center of my wife's experience, in my humble opinion, was not qualified to teach the courses he was made to teach by New Horizons Milwaukee's management. I do not know if he's any good at teaching non-MCSE courses.
I do know, or have at least been led to believe by the many trainers and former trainers that have emailed their stories to me, that one of the quickest ways for a New Horizons trainer to lose his job is to refuse to teach a course he or she is not qualified to teach. Apparently, a lot of the Owners and Managers of New Horizons franchises take a dim view of trainers getting all moral and whiny when there is money to be made.
I also know that it's a heck of a lot easier to stand up for integrity, principles, morality and apple pie when you're making $100,000 a year as an independent contract trainer than when you're making $22,000 a year as a New Horizons-employed trainer. For those trainers, squeaking out a living by working 6 days a week for less per hour than some newly hired burger-flippers make, choosing between standing up for one's principles and paying one's mortgage probably isn't a real tough decision after the first few times somebody's told you "Do it or you're fired."
A: Did I say independents were the bad guys? Hmmmm?
No, I'm not picking on independents. If they can command a decent rate, more power to them. If they are incompetent, they aren't going to command a decent rate for very long, and if they're good, then somebody's gonna think they're worth it. And no, I'm not a commie. My rabidly conservative friends may think so, but my rabidly liberal friends think I'm a fascist, so I must be a middle-of-the-road capitalist pig.
A: I will. Send me an email with your story, your name, and a working email address so I can contact you. Respond to my request for permission, and let me know whether you want your name withheld or proudly displayed atop your story. That's all that is required. Don't bother mailbombing me, it's boring. But if you know fifty other people who you think will want to write glowing reports about New Horizons, by all means, tell them to write me too. If I encourage people who've gotten the shaft from New Horizons to write, it'd be dishonest to discourage people who like New Horizons to write.
A: My Objective is to inform potential students of New Horizons about their business practices, to caution them against rushing into a decision to get training from New Horizons (or anybody else) without researching their options thoroughly, to provide advice about how to go about picking a training method and/or training center, and to provide a forum for students, former students, employees and ex-employees of New Horizons to tell their stories, whether positive or negative.
What do I expect? To be able to do all of the above. Nothing more, nothing less.
A: Well, I'm generally happy anyway. If you're asking if there's more I'd like to see come from this situation, why sure there is. I'd very much like it if NH Corporate gave a little "tough love" to some of their franchisees, the ones who are making the whole organization look bad. I'd have to imagine that the good franchisees, who work hard to give their customers what New Horizons says that all of their locations give, would like to see that happen too.
I'd like for New Horizons franchisees to stop jerking their students around when those students have legitimate concerns. I'd like to see a bit of common sense and common decency to replace the royal run-around that many students have received when they bring up bad service. I'd like very much to someday be able to report that the focus of NH's business model had changed from "sales at all costs" to "service at a reasonable cost." If an organization of NH's size, with their skill at getting people to sign on the dotted line, can make money by delivering crappy service, just imagine how much more they'd make if they gave great service and didn't tick off so many customers.
I'd further like to see New Horizons stop treating so many of their instructors like plow animals. I've got nothing against hard work, (especially for other people) or starting at the bottom, but one might expect that a plow animal who hasn't learned to walk yet wouldn't be made to pull the plow until it was able to do so.
I'd also like to be thinner, younger, and have happy and beautiful serfs wait on me hand and foot. I'm not holding my breath on any of the above.
A: Because it's the last question I was asked. Got another? Email me.
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The name "New Horizons" is a registered trademark of New Horizons Worldwide, Inc. The name "New Horizons Computer Learning Centers" also belongs to New Horizons Worldwide, Inc. All other copyrighted or trademarked names contained herein belong to their respective owners.
"newhorizonssucks.net" is registered to Joseph Betz. All inferences contained herein that New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, New Horizons Worldwide, Inc., or any other person or entity "suck" are the personal opinion of Joseph Betz and should not be construed otherwise. New Horizons Worldwide, Inc., its subsidiaries and franchisees, are neither responsible for the content of this site nor have they given approval of any of the materials contained herein. |