Friday 9 November 2012

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

Last year I got interested in doing Bachelor of Social Work online. I met one university called Corllins University and talked to them. In the process they asked me to pay a certain fee to earn a degree through what they called Prior Learning Experience. I thought it was like our Mature Entry of the UB here. I did pay that.

Just when I thought I would be starting to study they told me that they converted my years of experience into the degree qualification and that I would be done. I became skeptical about the way they did things and was never comfortable with the process. Unfortunately I had paid. In no time they sent me the certificate written Bachelor of Social Work. I feared using this certificate.

In yet a short space of time I received another message that I should return the certificate to them to certify and authenticate it and they said that will be done by the US Department of Education. They asked for another amount.

I didn’t pay the amount, I am now asking if this is genuine or what and how can you help me find out if its not a scam?


I’m afraid you’ve been scammed. Corllins “University” is not a real university. It’s actually nothing more than a web site and an office somewhere in the Middle East that sends out fake certificates in return for cash. It has no lecturers, no buildings and no genuine accreditation.

In fact Corllins is part of a group of fake university web sites that appear to be run from Pakistan. A company called the “Organization for Global Learning Education”, started by a crook called Salem Kureshi operates a number of so-called universities calling themselves Belford, Northern Port, Panworld, Headway, Ashwood, Rochville, MUST, OLWA, McFord and Corllins. All of these are fakes.

At no point with Corllins does anyone need to sit exams, submit coursework, be assessed or do any of the things that real universities and colleges require. All you need to do is pay them and you get a fake degree. Nevertheless they sell people fake degrees in subjects like Nursing, Accounting and Education.

Unfortunately there’s not a lot you can do. You certainly can’t use this fake qualification to get a job or a promotion, that would be fraud and if you were to be discovered you’d be fired and possibly prosecuted. What you’ve bought from these crooks could get you a prison sentence if you ever used it.

Sorry I can’t be more helpful.

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

I bought a NOKIA C7 touch screen for P3,000 on 21 December with a 12 months warranty. At the beginning of the year the phone started giving me problems as it will just freeze. When someone calls the screen goes blank and you wont know who is calling. The touch buttons will just freeze when you are typing a message. I took the phone back to them but the problem continued. There was never a month my phone would not go to them for fixing. It spent the whole of June at their shop and they kept telling me all sorts of stories.

After I collected the phone in July it worked for a week and the same problems continued. I could not take it back to them as I was out of town so last week I took the phone back to be fixed and went to collect it later on that day only to find the very same problems and applications being removed. Now I am using an incomplete phone which I bought for P3000. I told the shop owner last week about removed applications but he told me that buying a cellphone does not mean I bought the whole shop. My warranty is supposed to end on 21 December 2012, I dont know if I will still be able to use this phone with all its problems. Please I would like you to help me sort this problem out.


I think you should write them a letter listing all the problems you've had, give them all the dates and details and explain that they sold you a phone that is "not of merchantable quality as required by Section 13 (1) (a) of the Consumer Protection Regulations 2001". Make it clear that you no longer have confidence that they can repair it and that you expect an alternative solution within 7 days.

Also make it clear that you have alerted Consumer Watchdog and that we can offer them a free mention in The Voice if they don’t cooperate!

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