European Flight Training (EFT)

[ian1002]

I have instructed a solicitor to work on my behalf to recovery money owed to me by EFT. I know there are other people who are still owed money. If you decide that you want to take the legal route and use the solicitor I have engaged send me a pm and I will give you their details. Obviously they are familiar with my case against EFT. I believe the more of us that try and recover our losses against EFT the stronger our cases will be. But you need to act very quickly.

[quackers]

It must be apparent to fellow Ppruners that there have been, and continue to be, problems with past students of EFT (Florida) obtaining monies due back to them following courses (or non-completion of courses where payments were made up front). EFT have obviously been the victims of a former employee, 'allegedly' stealing money from their account and, no doubt, this has left Trevor in a financial pickle. However, despite numerous emails/phone calls over the past few months nobody has had the decency to let me know a) What the current situation is with regards the charges against their former secretary and b) when us former students can expect recompense. I presume other former students have also been kept in the dark? I've no doubt somebody from EFT reads these threads so can one of you (if not Trevor Brackston) let us all know the current position - PLEASE ! That is, of course, if EFT are still operating ??

[HighKings Drifter]

I too am owed a refund by EFT for uncompleted flight hours that I prepaid for. They have accepted this through email and phone contact over the past few months, said they're trying their best to pay up. But they havent followed through, looks like its just empty words. Trevor and Ari simply ignore my emails now - really reputable honourable practice, isnt it...the latest excuse is that they have instructed their accounts person to make the refund and they are waiting for him/her to authorise it....so its out of their hands, they cant do anything more - how convenient! They probably expect that these former students will eventually give up in frustration.

it's a pity because I had good training with them and would like to recommend them to other aspiring pilots. Even considered going back to them for further training some day. Their embezzlement case is being used as an excuse, saying they're close to bankrupcy, etc. Which is ironic because the former students are effectively being embezzled now. Its really poor conduct - ignoring contact, breaking promises, breaking their own contracts with students. Even worse when the man heading up the school portrays himself as a "reverend"... Maybe legal action is the only hope.

[Matthew Adams]

To those of you still after your refunds, I emphise with you, and all I know is that unfortuantely you weren't the only ones who were victims. Many of your refunds show as have already being paid, and hence are still under investigation pending a court case. Unfortunately, we can't make the legal system work any faster.
Additionally, I suggest that you ALL try giving the company a call and email so we can review your account, as I know that some of you (above excluded) haven't actually contacted the school at all regarding your refund and just moaned on PPrune.

[quackers]

Thank you Mathew for at least having the decency to reply to the question raised with regards refunds. Interesting to see that the rantings of 'Mordacai' (Iain Poll) have been removed - hopefully not before other interested parties had chance to view his disgusting tirade. He should remember that he is the face of EFT on Pprune and should, therefore, think very carefully before he replies to a thread, particularly late into the evening! There are a lot of potential students out there trying to decide where to do their training who constantly view Pprune - telling people to 'butt out' etc portrays a very poor image of the company - hardly professional and certainly not the one that Trevor would wish for !!

[chrisbl]

With all due respect, the company should be identifying who has and has not been refunded. If EFT needs to fund resources to do it, it is down to them. The fact that the owners/management allowed this alleged fraud to happen is down to their mismanagement and poor controls them NOT the customers.

Lets face it a lot of people just get fed up and write such behaviour off par for the course. So moaning on Pprune is a pretty effective way of getting your own back.

[quackers]

To all those persons owed monies - if you paid even only part of your training costs via a Credit Card (NOT Debit Card) then it may be worth approaching your card provider. Credit Card companies have 'equal liability' when it comes to such situations (worldwide). For further information check out your Citizens Advice Bureau website or do a search on Google.

[Farrell]

Ok....enough shooting in the dark.

As some of you know, I am good friends with Matthew and Iain, but I am making this post as a way of providing impartial advice to students who are owed money by EFT.

As Matthew states, some of you who are still owed money by EFT are showing up on their records as having already been paid. A perfectly viable excuse under the circumstances.
I told you all before that I have seen first-hand the chaos that someone with authority over cash and refunds who goes rogue can cause.
Untangling the web of deceit and lies and trying to track down which refunds were real and which ones were bogus is extremely time consuming.

Unfortunately for those students affected, it is not simply a case of handing over your refund. The company will have its own internal investigating to do, and no doubt, the police will as well.

You can go on and on about back-up plans and incompetence and whatnot, however, this is all just jibber-jabber as it is trying to solve the problem with hindsight.

My advice to anyone who is looking to get back a refund, is to follow the example of the first poster and get yourself a lawyer.
Sad and all as it is, some of you may have been ripped off by a former EFT staff member. That is the fact of this issue i.e. some of you have been robbed. The activity was criminal and like anywhere else in the world, you must now follow a legal path in an attempt to retrieve your money.

Also.....some food for thought:
No one is running away from this issue at EFT.
You have two senior instructors online who are doing their best to explain the situation to you as best as they can, with the information that they have been given.
It would appear on the surface that they are trying to sort it out.

Any unscrupulous company would have already pulled the plug at this stage and declared bankruptcy.
Remember that EFT hire their aircraft from Ariben Aviator......they have no real assets of their own!

Would you be willing to head over there and attend a creditor's meeting at your own expense and accommodate yourself there?
How much are you owed? Would it be worth it? Probably not.

You are one of, I think, many who have possibly been swindled.
Therefore, you have two options:

1. Write to EFT and lodge your claim for unreturned funds and wait it out until they are in a position to pay you back.
(Either do this personally or through a lawyer)

2. Put it down to a bad experience and move on.

I know that there are moral and emotional elements to either of the above.
But the bottom line is: **** happens - and you must deal with it.

Farrell

[Mordacai]

As we're on first name terms Kieth, Iain deleted the post himself.

I saw Matty pass your details onto the powers that be, hope you get somthing back real soon.

[737hustler]

They must pay you guys (iain, matt etc) a whole lot of money to sit there and come up with positives for an organisation that is the exact opposite.

I do agree, getting a lawyer is the only way to go. But don't get it confused, if EFT can't organise their bread an butter (IE money from students) how can you expect them to organise training?:eek:

What goes around comes around...

[HighKings Drifter]

Any other ex students that are owed money by EFT, contact me or the thread starter by pm. We have an excellent lawyer who is preparing a multi-faceted group action on our behalf. There is a growing number of former students in the group. We have a very strong case on many fronts. Several authorities and agencies will be interested in investigating the situation and how EFT conducts its business.

[7574ever]

3 students per instructor??? are you kidding Matthew???? When I was at EFT there were only 2 full time instructors and about 30 students, so please don't try to fool anybody.

They might have that ratio in place at this very moment, but be advised, they won't hesitate to take on as many students as they can. And I don't think things have changed THAT much since we were all there...

[Matthew Adams]

I invite you to come back, see for yourself, and go through all the student records.

Not exceeded that ratio since 2007, and nor shall we.

Things have changed a lot since certain staff are no longer here.

I agree, if things were like they were in Autumn 2007, I would have never stayed onto work here. Unfortunately, that period was an exception to the rule, and those students who were here during that period were ones who left unhappy. The majority of students before and after, nearly all recommend EFT, since that's where nearly all our business comes from.

Before anyone above or else comments negatively, perhaps you would like to come here, and see that things are exactly as stated above, rather than opinion - but then again this is a rumour site :ok:

[Privatairdreaming]

That is the biggest load of tripe I have ever heard. All of you people are the same. You always say its the word of mouth that gets you the students and that your ratio is fantastic. You can feed us all the BS you guys wish to but its just to easy for you to say things have changed since we was there. The only thing that has changed is that you are lying to everyone. Oh hang on a minute thats what you did anyway. Top marks for being so consistent.

[Dauntless8]

I was considering using european flight training as my training provider, and almost all of the post I have read about them up until about a year or two ago have been good.

Until now that is, so could somone tell me what the problem is right now with them? I've gathered that some of you are owed money back from them, but why is this? and what caused it? Is it that you don't want to continue your training there or that they won't/can't let you?

Are EFT still operating?

I don't mean to derail the thread but it's just a quick question and didn't seem thread worthy.

[flyhighsky]

Hi,
EFT owes me money aswell after being behind them for last one year and hearing their sore excuses and most of the time passing the blame,I had decided to sue them aswell and I am joining with Ian to let these clown's know that enough is enough.For future pilot's I would advice to make sure that you keep all your's papers right from the begining till end safely and ask them all the questions possible from the contract to make sure what are possible if's and but's and who takes the responsible.I am sure they will be sweet until they take our money and then show their true colours.I think mostly these happen to the PPL holders b'cos we are blind out there in a foreign country and they can easily take a ride on us :*:=

[Hufty]

I just wanted to add to this thread......I last interacted with EFT back in 2003 but at that time, I had no issues with them. They were a pretty good school and got me through in double quick time......it was definately a case of "does exactly what it says on the tin."

If Trevor is having trouble with his business then I am sorry...especially as he seems to have been embezzeled too. He always struck me as a decent bloke when I was there.

[v2-Gear Up]

Thanks to all, I wont be enrolling there another one off the list. I think I am just gonna stay in the UK and train with Cats at Cranfield, have not heard anything bad about them.

[Matthew Adams]

As far as EFT is concerned - the last refunds were taken care of last week :E after the relevant admin was pieced together following the dark period of late 07-Mar 08, which was induced by a former employee. :(

Any one else is "shooting in the dark" because we certainly don't know who you are despite us asking for you to contact EFT.

[Privatairdreaming]

ALL the REFUNDS were done last week???????????????
Where the hell is mine then. I know you have sent me a private message saying that all of the papers was lost earlier this year and therefore dont know who has had a refund so how can all the refunds be sorted now??
How about the numerous emails that I have sent to EFT and not had anything back from you??
All of you out there know who the students concerned are if you need a reminder look in your log books and it should tell you the student names. Then pick the phone up and call all of us ask us if we have had our refunds and then give us our money back.

[Matthew Adams]

Any emails/calls/letters you have sent that would have been read or intercepted or dealt with by the former secratary were as if you never sent them.

You can obviously see we've tried to resolve the situation but you chose not participate. Those who did appropriately were refunded once the details were analysed.

[Mordacai]

Privateairdreaming!

Please for heavens sake just tell us who you are! Either publicly or by PM..Don't play the check your logbooks game.

We are trying to sort this out....if you're owed money subject to contract we'll try to help! We have no access to any emails that were sent previously..but for the record those (4) that PM'd us with their details, and were found to be owed money were issued with refund checks last week. The checks were sent by UPS.

Also - 'flyhighsky' perhaps you would like to contact us as well, because we have absolutely no idea who you are either.

[SOLUS]

After completing my PPl at EFT and pre paid my Multi/IR/CPL back in 2006, I recently received from EFT my US Visa application forms, and will be commencing the above courses from the 1st of December.
Ok, so it took a few months for EFT to confirm that they had been holding my payments, but, they have suffered the pain of an alleged embezzling employee and lets not forget the now upon us Credit Crunch and looming recession.

I still believe, there a good outfit with committed instructors.

For any wannabe's on this site who are considering EFT, I will be posting regular up-dates on P-prune, of my progress over the coming 3 months I will be in Florida, complete with warts and all.

And for the cynics among you, please keep your comments to yourself, at the age of 47 I am doing this, for my own personal development.

[flyhighsky]

Hello,
I contacted several times personally over phone,email to EFT giving my personal phone no, email ,the amount EFT owes and even one more step faxing the last receipt confirming the money that EFT owes but you guys never had any courtsey until today to write even one line that you guys are working onit but you confront us on this site with all ur writing skills. we are talking about this after all the former secretary episode. I personally gave the details to you(Mathew).you guys gave the same msg that the investigation is going on,,,I am surprised to hear that the reimbursement are done,,,to whom ????? hope students,,,:D

[Mordacai]

Flyhighsky,

I'm sorry to hear that. Please understand that Matthew and I do not write refund checks, we merely pass details on the powers that be so to speak. Until fairly recently the details of refunds were bundled up into the paperwork for the ongoing court case against the former secretary. What we have done is convince management that in view of the length of time this was taking, and considering how long there has been a lack of communication with the individuals concerned, this was not really fair. We are doing our jobs as flight instructors as well, so even if you forwarded your details a while back, if we already passed your details on, apologies if we can't remember who you are from your pprune tag. I would urge you, and anyone else who feels they are owed money to PM us - your name is sufficient.

Please don't attack us personally over refunds.