My New Horizons Sucks Story - Summary

Spring 2000

My wife, seeking an MCSE certification and A+, and Novell CNE certifcations, signed up for $11,410 worth of instruction at New Horizons Computer Learning Center of Milwaukee, a franchisee of New Horizons Worldwide, Inc.

On the advice of her salesman, euphemistically called an "Account Executive" by New Horizons, she took her A+ courses first. They were acceptable. She received an A+ certification from Comptia later in the year.

Next came the Novell Course. Excellent instructor, shipped in from California to teach this course, apparently because nobody at the Milwaukee location was able to do it. Completely acceptable.

Summer 2000

Now comes the MCSE courses, which were invoiced (improperly) at $6500.00. Late starting times, long breaks, improper setup of the computers, and totally incompetent instruction were the order of the day. In two of the major NT courses (922 & 689), the instructor, Dale, stood before the class reading directly from the book, and adding little to no information of his own to the experience. She voiced her concerns to New Horizons through the feedback forms, but her criticism was ignored. It seemed to my wife and me that $6500.00 was a bit pricey for somebody to read bedtimes stories to her.

Considering that she was sold $1000.00 worth of "lab access" that was nothing more than a CD-based powerpoint presentation, and that there was no way that she was going to be able to obtain her MCSE with the training she was receiving, she wanted to cancel the MCSE courses and receive a refund for the courses not yet taken, the "lab", and the two courses taught by Dale.

August 2000

Since my wife was traveling on business, I called New Horizons for her. Several phone calls and several messages were exchanged, and the best I could get out of anybody at New Horizons was "Sorry, no refunds." I set up a meeting with their Manager, who insisted the Marketing Director attend the meeting as well.

Nearly the entire meeting was spent by the Marketer, Alozie Aguwa, threatening me, insulting me, and refusing to even consider that there could be a problem. The only thing he didn't talk about was the problem or the solution.

In spite of the tenor and lack of productivity of the first meeting, at Mr. Aguwa's request, I set up another meeting which my wife could attend. Mr. Aguwa's tone and demeanor at this second meeting was a complete 180 degree turnaround. He spoke with civility, offered explanations, and proposed a monetary settlement of roughly $8150.00, which we accepted on a handshake.

The day the accountant was writing the check, Mr. Aguwa called our home and spoke with me and my wife. He just wanted to tell us that he had made a mistake and that my wife's refund would be only $6145.00. He must have figured that it's always good to get a 25% discount, even if you haven't been offered one. Despite further attempts to settle the matter, we got a check for $2000.00 less than the agreed upon amount, and were told by Mr. Aguwa in no uncertain terms to stop bothering him.

That's when (and why) newhorizonssucks.net was created. For further developments, click the Updates link below. For the detailed play-by-play version of the story, click the Full Story link below