... to a very large extent you're talking good sense bealzebub but certain flying training establishments have perfected the art of the hard sell to an extent that puts time-share sales tactics to shame. And a large number of their customers are extremely young and naive.
- Standing up in front of a room full of punters and talking with a straight face about the huge "impending pilot shortage" ...
- Filling your marketing literature with claims and implications that your company has specific links to a certain airline, when the truth is that you last sent cadets to that airline over a decade ago ...
- Having a mysterious and wonderful "hold pool" for graduates that never seems to get any smaller - which also has the benefit of stopping people from complaining they were ripped off, for years after they've finished training, because they are still terrified of getting removed from the "hold pool" if they rock the boat ...
The list is as long as your arm, and it gets longer with every new school and every new scam that comes along.
Yes of course the buyer should beware and it's their own stupid fault if they get burned at the end of the day. But, I will also never stop posting things like this on pprune, because this is one of the first stops smart people make when they're actually trying to do some research into the minefield of modern day pilot training and trying to separate the fact from the fiction.