Originally Posted by
Moylan
I've been to something like 30 classes over the last 3 years. That's not 30 full-size 2 day shooting classes. The list includes some online seminars with John Hearne, Lee Weems, Active Self Protection. It includes some in-person classes with well-known or relatively well-known trainers, and it includes quite a few in-person classes with local trainers. I have found some of these classes pretty pointless. In quite a few, I've been annoyed by time wasting. In many, I have been thoroughly unsatisfied with the safety briefing/medical kit access, etc. In others, I have had guns pointed at me by fellow students, while the instructors and AI's were completely oblivious to safety violations. In a couple, I've been taught stuff that was incredibly stupid. I have spoken to various instructors to (a) let them know that they were missing egregious safety violations or to (b) report that I had some serious problems from a legal perspective with some of the junk they were teaching. I carry my own IFAK now, and an extra tourniquet. But I also have learned enough from my experiences, good and bad, to do a better job in choosing where to study in the future.
I've never asked for nor been offered a refund. I do suspect that if you're getting comped for half or more of the classes you take, you may have unreasonably high expectations. I don't know you, and so my guess is worth what everyone paid for it. I suppose the obvious reply is that I have unreasonably low standards. Maybe that's true. Anyway, my standards are much higher now than they were a couple of years ago, because I've learned to adjust to the realities of training as it exists in the real world.