Have you tried talking to someone at Outco about the situation?
ISAa fell apart in the past two years and essentially don't exist anymore as they used to. All new ISAs are created as loans for the upfront cost of a program that you have to pay back regardless, however they can pause payments if you lose your job and the amount you pay is capped by your salary rather than a fixed amount.
If you didn't get a job and you attended all of the sessions and mock interviews and such then you should pay something for their time.
BUT, the contract applies to them too, and if they didn't live up to part of their side then you should talk to them about a reduced exit fee that takes into account both sides of the story.
Disclosure, my company competes with Outco. They stopped taking new people on their site and one or more of the founders are doing something else now, so I don't call them a competitor anymore but I'm not making any judgments because of my bias and just giving person to person advice.
u/ConstructionPlenty51 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
I've tried repeatedly to speak with people at Outco about the situation. In emails I repeatedly asked for a phone number of someone, or a different person to speak to and I would never get it.
I was only ever able to speak with the one person who made the initial request for
u/michaelnovatireplied·
Yeah sorry to hear that. I'm not going to comment on the day to day but I've heard similar things from others now about those changes and it's perhaps why they removed the ability to apply from their website.
If the person who was telling you about AppBooster told you that over the phone and not in writing and doesn't work there anymore then I would tell Outco the date and time this person told you this with as much detail as possible (if it's in writing that's better) and tell them you are not paying anything until they investigate and respond to that claim.
The second strategy I would try is showing some willingness to pay a flat fee for the services you go that you think is fair. By offering something fair you are making a gesture that you want to work with them instead of a more adversarial approach. If you genuinely believe you should not pay a cent then don't offer something. But if you think all of the stuff you did was worth $1000 or $2000 then offering that to call it settled might be a good approach.
u/Same_Pass985 wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
Her contract states if she doesn’t get employed within a year, she doesn’t pay. They aren’t honoring their contract now as it is, why should she negotiate with them when she didn’t get a job?? Clearly she is the one following the contract, she shouldn’t pay them anything just bec
u/michaelnovatireplied·
OP absolutely shouldn't negotiate if they don't owe anything according to the contract! 100%.
My company has offered contracts in the past that have a similar condition and some people do not pay anything as a result and that's how it should be!
No one here is a lawyer (as far as is public info), and I'm assuming no one has seen the contract (other than maybe OP) and there can be some very specific clauses that give the company the right to payment. If a representative of the company contradicted that in writing, then that's a good start to negotiate something.
For example if the contract says you owe the full ISA and an employee made a good faith, non-fraudulent, error in their communication, but that the communication resulted in the person making decisions they wouldn't have made without the communication, then that is grounds for a compromise and not necessarily a full cancellation.
No one here knows! I'm happy to look at the contract and give my non-legal, completely personal opinion.