Complaint Review: American Writers & Artists Institute

I ordered this company's copywriting course three years ago. The cost was in the range of $450.00, with a thirty-day return for a full refund if I wasn't satisfied. It arrived promptly, and I set to work.

The course seemed to be fairly professional and comprehensive. It included various sales pitches for additional highly priced training, which didn't really surprise me. What did surprise me was the results of a writing exercise I sent in well after the 30-day return period had passed. It came back with two sets of comments on it, and these two sets of comments were often completely contradictory. One would indicate that I did well on a component of the writing exercise, the other claimed I did it wrong. I saw this in many places in the exercise. Since I wanted to master the course, I needed to know which set of comments to believe and act on. I called for an explanation, and was told that I was to simply do the work and not question the instructors (quotes used for sarcasm).

A thirty-day trial period for a course that cannot be completed in thirty days by someone working full time plus like I was is meaningless. Because the thirty days had passed, AWAI would not take the course back or give me a refund. AWAI may be a legitimate business, but they showed me absolutely no integrity whatsoever. Today their course is somewhere in the local landfill, and I welcome the opportunity to warn others about them.

By the way, I was prompted to post this because I received another mailing from them. One of the testimonials inside was from Kristin of Roswell, Georgia, who posted a rebuttal to another complaint about them on this site. The mailer is now on its way to join the course.

Thomas
Tontogany, Ohio
U.S.A.