Complain about a product or service

Outward Bound

Nancy of Calgary OTHER (06/11/08)
My two sons went on a three month long adventure tour with a school who says that they change peoples lives. Outward Bound has a good reputation worldwide and we assumed this group was also doing what it takes to be a great, non-profit organization, helping people by providing a great experience. Their Mission Statement claims they help people discover and developmet their potential to care for themselves, others and the world around them through challenging experiences in unfamiliar settings.

We paid over $15,000 for the two of them to complete this adventure together, my oldest son 23 years old, lasted three weeks. He sprained his wrist during the hiking section, was administered a plaster cast, which washed off in the next rainstorm and was still asked to do chores with the sprain. When he fell on the wrist again, while doing chores, they sent him home. We tried to work it out with the school whereby he could stay at their base camp, or in a nearby hostel, until the wrist healed,( a few weeks) then rejoin the group.

CRROBS wouldn't allow that and sent him home, NO REFUND. We have scoured the pages of our signed contract and there is no refund policy written, yet they refused us the right to finish up the remainder of the course in the time period allowed. Only thing offered was to come back later, with course credits.

This is called a semester gap course, once you've put your life on hold to complete this, you don't usually have time or extra money to go back down there to do it again. The 3 weeks he spent there cost the school virtually nothing, they slept outdoors, they provided very little food, as he was always hungry and their tour guides and drivers are paid very little money. I think they are counting on this and I beleive this is how they provide their scholarships for poor little girl guides. It looks great to those looking in, but who paid the girl guides tuition? We did.

My younger son, 20 years old, proceeded on the course, being voted best hiker and winning the best wave award during the surf portion, he enjoyed the activities and some of the participants, despite the negative attitude that was carried through each part of the adventure by some of the leaders.

He got sick on the beach and was left unattended day after day, with vomiting and diahrrea, in a tent (internal temp. 47 degrees Celcius). He was severly dehydrated, they failed to provide adaquate clean water and tried to make him take medication that made him even more ill. When he refused, they became angry with him, gave him electrolytes, but still no water, he forced himself to get up to get his own water and they told him to go cook for the rest of the group, he refused, not wanting to share his intestinal distress, so they made him go clean toilets until he began vomiting again and refused to clean any more, they became enraged with him and sent him home as well, NO REFUNDS.

It is scary to think how close he could have been to dying of dehydration. Once again, in their enrollemt pack, they are not liable for any neglect or poor decisions made by leaders and with this seems to come an attitude of irresponsibilty towards providing adequate care. As a reason to be sent home, the Executive Director told him he could not learn to scuba dive and he might not be safe to dive with. This is surprising since my son has been an underwater snorkeller since he was 7 years old and has swam under water with giant sea turtles and sting rays. I and my 12 year old son have been certified in scuba and no one made us take a psychological test before teaching us.

This school represents themselves in their literature, to be able to help people with addictions, mood disorders, behavioural disorders, or any number of emotional or physical problems. It appears they will take money from anyone, with claims of changing their lives.

When you read the bios of their leaders, non of them have any formal education in any of these areas, and my sons found themselves in a group from 17 to 37 year olds, with all forms of alcohol, drug and emotional problems. The leaders do not appear to be able to handle situations and there was evidence of sex discrimination with one of the leaders against males. They appear to be creating scenarios whereby participants are sent home so they can benifit from unused tuitions, as my sons weren't the only ones to leave the course early.

There are obviously many complaints to be made against this school. It is apparent when even the staff has complaints, as they all went out on strike two days before my sons were to leave for the course. They filed a formal complaint against the Executive Director for misuse of funds as well as unsafe practices. It's too bad they resolved the problems out of court, two weeks later and resumed the semester, as our family wishes that we had never had any connection with this group.

Emotional damage to both of my sons and near loss of life.

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