A “master class” taught by an Instagram star is being called a “scam” by some angry customers!
Recently, Aggie Lal (pictured above) — who goes by the social media handle @travel_inhershoes — created a 12-week course called “How To Grow Your Instagram” where students can learn “about becoming a travel blogger.”
The Internet personality — who has nearly 1 million followers — describes herself as an “LA based free spirit” who is known for posting pictures of herself in exotic locations. Because of her page, she made the jump from “broke traveler” to “a six figure earning travel blogger.”
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According to BuzzFeed News, the course — which costs $497 — enrolled 380 students, which means Aggie reportedly profited $188,860.
Sadly, not everyone is happy with Professor Lal!
Earlier this week, a participant under the pseudonym “Wannabe Influencer” wrote a post on Medium called “I Was Scammed by a Celebrity Influencer” accusing the Insta personality of tricking her into paying for a course that didn’t deliver.
The anonymous author became suspicious when Lal reportedly wanted her students to recruit more students, in addition to selling her custom Instagram filters.
“Wannabe Influencer” wrote:
“How could we ask our own followers to purchase a $500 Instagram Course that we had barely started ourselves?”
Additionally, Juliet Hatley — who runs the account @youngblondemom — was also “unhappy” with Lal’s shady requests. She said:
“Why would we sell this? So she could make more money and we get a 10% commission with an affiliate link?… Plus, that is against everything most of our brands were standing for and would have made us look inauthentic to followers.”
Hatley added:
“[The] videos were barely five minutes long, she was never involved with the students, and made a lot of comments that turned people off such as ‘when posing for pictures try not to look pregnant’ or ‘people who work at Starbucks aren’t living up to their potential’… The content was basic information you would find from any simple Google search. Not $500 worth.'”
To make matters worse, students reportedly received only half of the training videos they were promised.
In response to “Wannabe Influencer,” Lal told BuzzFeed News that she is offering “anyone who felt disappointed in the whole situation a full refund,” adding:
“My intention has always been to inspire this community I dearly love and I would never want you to feel taken advantage of.”
In regards to the training videos, Lal said she was unable to upload “4 out of 66” course clips due to “hurdles with my health and WiFi connectivity.”
Though Hatley asked for a refund, she was reportedly initially denied because of a 30-day refund policy from course platform, Teachable.
Eventually, Hatley received her refund — minus $20 for a “transaction fee” — after arguing with Lal and reaching out to Teachable. She was then reportedly “immediately removed and blocked” from the class groups, and Instagram account @MasterTribe.
A spokesperson for Teachable told BuzzFeed News:
“Once we took a closer look, it was clear that this school owner was not complying with our refund policy, and as a result, we refunded any student that reached out to us within the 30-day window.”
According to Lal, all refunds should be processed by Sunday for those who requested them.
After everything was said and done, Aggie issued the following emotional statement to her fans:
“It breaks my heart to have let you down like this, it was certainly never my intention! I was heartbroken because this course was by [sic] baby. It took me and my team months to create almost 9 hours of video classes. I want sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart to who anyone who feels like what I shared wasn’t enough.”
To Lal’s defense, one student — named Taimi — thought the course “was still useful.” She remarked:
“Yes, the course was different to what we expected and could have been handled better but it was still useful to many people in the group and is still not even over yet. There’s more content to come.”
Nobody said being an Instagram influencer is easy!
[Image via Aggie Lal/Instagram.]
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