With most of them there are literially hundreds of unsatisfied customers that have a point to be made.
Well, I've been active on here ever since I got my PPL at one of those 'sausage factories' and I must have done something wrong, because I haven't seen these 'literially [sic] hundreds of unsatisfied customers' posting on here about the school I went to. Sure, I have seen a few negative comments but IMHO nothing excessive, especially not if you compare it to their volume of business.
Are they all gathered over at the other forum, or some other place that I missed?
Have to admit there's one school that gets a fair share (but not 'literally hundreds') of negative comments, but this one is easily avoided. Don't tar the others with the same brush.
Then if he decides to go JAR he can swap it at a later date.
That is not so trivial as that single sentence seems to suggest. If your intention is to do an FAA PPL and then at a later date use that to acquire a JAA PPL, make sure you do a little research into what's involved beforehand. This thread is not the right place to discuss this, but it's definitely not a straightforward swap.