British Council Reviews 

Unfortunately, my overall experience has not been great. Starting my morning with the staff who explained to us how the day would be, they were all very good! However, the examiner who was in charge of the speaking part of the test was very rude. He did not seem interested in making me feel comfortable, he was interrupting me all the time, did not listen to me, he was not looking at me at all but he was looking outside of the window or his papers he even watched his watch a couple of times. I think his name was either Danny or Damien or something like that. Very unwelcome person and he was not only rude to the examiners but to the staff as well.

I don’t recommend them at all. Had booked an IELTS English test and of course was preparing. Exam cancelled over a weekend with no notice. No offer of a refund, and have been unable to contact the service or IELTS for a refund for a whole week as phones not being answered . I suggest it’s a scam

I have been trying to register for an online training seminar with British Council with no success. No customer service exists. they do not really care. I have been asking them to help me by sharing my screen to identify the problem THEY HAVE in THEIR OWN PLATFORM! 4 months of waiting. too many attempts to register for this course. I do not recommend them at all!! if this course was not mandatory I WOULD NEVER EVER EVER EVER make efforts, wasting my time to send emails, screenshots of the problem to them. they kept saying that there was a glitch in their system. then they claimed that they were doing maintenance and this is why the platform is not working!!! this is ridiculous!

Wasn't able to take the exam at the first date because of a missing document. They canceled it without refunding me, over $200 down the drain...

Horrible experience at the online test.

I booked an online test to get my IELTS results as fast as possible to apply to a university programme.

As an IT professional and software developer myself, setting up the test software was way harder than it should have been and took much longer than it should. Sometimes it needs more RAM even though no other program is running and I have the newest Mac. It runs mulitple security checks and requires full computer access and changes of privacy settings.

After waiting and setup, the exam itself never worked, the zoom meetings for the speaking exam were always grey or the audio did not work.

I had to postpone the same exam with the customer support chat three times on the same day. I wasted the whole day, re-installing the software multiple times, going through tedious setup and waiting a lot. It is just tedious and very annoying. In the end it did not even work.

Horrible experience.
How is this possible for an official site like this?

My experience: I managed to take the oral exam. Then for the written part the application took more than 15 minutes to run, at the end it was late, I tried to send emails but no answers.

Please give us some answers, I need to rebook the second part of the exam. Plus, there is no customer service.
I thought I could rely on this site, so sad...

English Online. Customer service is very bad and they replaced my regular (excellent) teacher with a really bad one. I won't be renewing my subscription.

I waited for my exam for 1 hour, they literally cancelled my exams because of 1 CCTV camera I had in my room. Because of that, the money "Can't be refunded", they said.
This is an official scam, literally. Congrats to the British Council for making theft an official profession!

It was good she was really helpful

Worst experience ever.
I have subscribed for English online courses with 7 day’s free trial, but I have been charged immediately after it (without even an hour of trial).
I cancelled my subscription after that without using “online courses “ and I would like to have my money back.
I wrote to support but never got any reply back.

Hi people, please don't book the IELTS with this company. I booked the exam at May, when the moment arrived. I was getting ready to do the exam, and the examinator told me, that I need to take out the screen computer that didn't work. He said to log out and confirmed that I could log in again, because I had time, so I did. The application took more than 5 minutes to run so they denied my access... I tried to send emails and I made a refund with my bank. Afterwards, they reclaimed and took my money and sent me a post with personal information from another person (This is ILLEGAL) that accused me that I didn't assisted on the exam, these people are horrible and now I will put a complaint and do a paralegal process.

I am a student in the British Coucil since 2016 without interruption and I have to say that it is the right place to learn English. Not only the teachers and the staff are excellent but they also offer lots of different cultural activities for free - and even parties. I highly recommend it!

They ignore you after you pay. I'm trying them to send me my title and no answers. The mail man lost my package with my title and I'm trying to get another copy of my certificate, and no answers.

As many people my exam test has been reported because of their obsolete program. (few hours)
The exam was taken by people who do speak English. However, they were indians and not British,
so this actually affected surely some of the results because of the simple composition of Subject, verb...
(wonder why IA will take their place)
>specifying this is not racism, only my opinion.
It's like speaking a language with an accent
(for example, for me it could be correct but for you it could be incorrect).
The program fitted my screen in a way that did not let me see the timer in the left top corner. (and no watch is allowed during the test)
Only at the last moment before the test, I have been told that I can't smoke a cigarette while executing the test at MY HOUSE.
They try to be strict to not let people copy, I just want to precise that copying could have been possible for me at least in 7 different ways. And I surely think that when you have 20 or plus years old, you should start to have the decency to not copy.
And even if you would have achieved it in a doubtedly way (C2 result for example), other people could reveal just in a few minutes that you do not speak/write English at that level.
I have written to the customer service and they are just rude, no way around it. The only way is to pay for a new examination of the different tests paying an additional fee of 125 euros.
(exam is 250 euros)
I will take the result again, when there will be no personal opinion on whatever. Hopefully only in a few years.
Waste of money, time and energy.

The UI is so dumb. I created an account, but I cannot verify it.

CAREFUL!!! I booked an online test and the staff was LYING to me about an application running in the background of my laptop. I checked, NOTHING was running there. They denied me doing the test due to false reasons. It was already the second test date because of technical issues on their side on the first date. They say I will get my money back, but I don't receive the language certificate in time for my university application. Most unfair situation I ever was in. The person who denied me my test entrance should get fired. Nobody was able to help.

ChatGPT
Title: Disappointing Experience with British Council IELTS Exam

I recently had a terribly frustrating experience with the British Council's IELTS exam. After waiting for a month and a half without receiving my results, I was left in a state of utter frustration and disappointment. This delay wreaked havoc on my plans to apply for permanent residency, as I urgently needed my English proficiency scores.

Fed up with the British Council's incompetence, I decided to try the CELPIP exam instead. What a revelation! Not only did I receive my results promptly the very next day, but I also achieved a CLB 9 score, which exceeded my expectations.

The stark contrast between the British Council's sluggishness and the efficiency of the CELPIP exam was eye-opening. The British Council's lack of professionalism and disrespect for candidates' time became abundantly clear when they cited vague reasons for withholding my results and failed to provide any timeline for resolution.

To anyone considering an English proficiency exam, I wholeheartedly recommend opting for the CELPIP exam offered by the Canadian authorities. It was a breath of fresh air compared to the nightmare I endured with the British Council's IELTS exam. Fast results, professional service, and a seamless experience make CELPIP the clear choice for anyone seeking an English proficiency certification. Save yourself the headache and go with CELPIP—you won't regret it.

Dissapointed, Done the exam on Feb 17 2024, It's been a month, still haven't published the result, worst academy..I am really dissapointed.

They're committed to excellence, even if they don't always get it 100 per cent right, but they don't really care about employees from the very top down.