Remote YearReviews of remoteyear.com

I recently traveled with remote year for a month long program. It was terrible. They acknowledged that is was an abnormally terrible series of events we experienced (lodging issues, safety issues, health concerns, cancelled activities) but their response to it all had come too little too late. Several people asked for refunds or compensation with little to no response. Myself and my roommates decided to end our trip early and go back home. Realize that this kind of investment is a gamble. It sometimes pays off and sometimes it doesn’t. I would NOT use remote year again. They hardly provided anything special, I could have organized this all myself with greater luck. I would not recommend remote year to anyone.

I participated in Remote Year for 3 months in 2021. Before I signed up for them I did my research and could not find anything bad written about them. I ultimately did not have a good experience with them and uncovered something that appears to be unethical and according to my attorney illegal in how they do business. What I uncovered is why I believe those looking for a full picture of doing business with this company is missing and buried. Based on my experience and legal opinion from my attorney, I believe Remote Year is systematically using illegal practices to cover their tracks of the buried bodies they leave in their wake. I spent three months traveling with Remote Year. They took care of all of the logistics and whenever I needed support they were there for me. I had developed some great friendships and was enjoying traveling the world with the support they provided. I was expelled from Remote Year going into my 4th and final month. There was no warning given or no idea that I had done anything inappropriate. Remote Year in their guidelines say they can remove anyone for any reason at any time and this is what happened to me. When you travel with Remote Year you become fully dependent upon them to handle everything. If you are traveling for the first time overseas they can be an amazing life jacket to help you navigate the many new challenges and experiences that arise when traveling to other countries. One morning I got a letter from their attorney saying I was being expelled…these were the shocking points that were conveyed to me in their letter I was being expelled for violating community standards but there was nothing specific that I could understand what I had actually done I was no longer allowed to communicate with any of my friends I had to be out of my lodging in 24 hours When I reached out to the staff, many of whom had become friends, I was turned away and they told me they could not help me or talk to me. Then I was told that if I wanted to get my deposit back and the balance of my money I would have to agree to not say anything negative about them to anyone. This felt so wrong. It felt unethical. They had so much leverage over me, being that I was fully reliant on them and now they were trying to force me to sign a contract to not say anything bad about them in order to get my money back. It just felt so wrong. When I got this letter out of the blue I was devastated, shocked and it felt like a punch to the gut. When I reached out to understand why this was happening I got no clear answer from their attorney. I was turned away by the staff for help. I was left alone in a forgien country to figure it out for myself. Now imagine if this happened to you. You didn’t realize you had done anything wrong. No one had said anything to you. You were relying on this company to help you being in a strange land providing you support and lodging. And then all of a sudden you are cast out, alienated and then blackmailed to keep quiet if you want to get your money back. It was heartbreaking, devastating, humiliating and soul crushing all rolled into one punch. Months later I was looking into what sites I should post my review on and I saw that on trustpilot the CEO, Shaun Prime, was responding to people's negative posts like he cared and wanted to hear and understand the person's experience. I just wanted to be heard and understand why they could do this to me. So I emailed him and he said he would have a call with me. But when it came down to actually booking the time he never did. I emailed him four times over a period of several months asking him to set up the time. And I was ignored. He was refusing to meet with me. This communicated to me the truth behind the caring words that he posts online. They are meaningless. As I was looking into what felt like blackmail I ran across the Consumer Review Fairness Act After speaking with my LA based attorney at Parker Stanbury, he informed me that based on the contract they tried to force me to sign they were violating this Act. Remote Year seems to have done something illegal and I imagine I am not the only one who has been bullied in this way. Ultimately, I refused to sign the letter, after consulting with my attorney on the matter. I felt so powerless but I did ask them to give me my money back and asked to stay in the house I was in till the end of the month. They fortunately agreed. But what they put me through I hope no one ever has to experience. This entire post is my opinion from my personal experience with Remote Year. There is no intention to hurt or harm the Remote Year business, only to share my opinion and experience and empower others with a perspective that has been hidden by this company systematically and to empower others with actions they can do to seek justice. This post is protected by the Consumer Review Fairness Act and the California Yelp Bill

Dont trust these fake reviews. Zero customer care, put you in the worst accommodation, waste of money, customer services is terrible.

Put down $1000 dollars with the promise of having it returned if my employer could not accommodate my participation in RY. Was trying to work it out when COVID hit. Lost my job a month before leaving for the program, making it impossible for me to go. Was jerked around for 6 months, the company saying that they were not giving any money back at the time. Although I thought the virus and the fact that I lost my job was sufficient enough reason to have my deposit returned, I remained patient, understanding that travel companies were experiencing a rough time during COVID. I was and still am jobless. MY money is greatly needed. After the beginning of 2021, I was told if I got my employers signature in a pdf to them, they could issue the refund, at least that is the way I interpreted the communication. After nagging a previous employer, I got the signature and sent it to Remote Year. Through a twist of words, they said that wasn't good enough. My employer had to say no from the beginning.... So NOT how it was presented to me... All the work to get it signed, just to be told that wasn't good enough. My advice..... DON'T DO IT unless you have money to lose.

Don't trust this company. Save yourself the heartache and use your money elsewhere. They will make promises that they don't deliver then blame you for "mishearing" or "misunderstanding" the minute you put money down. They will lie to your face - as a salesman did for me then charge you more money because of their lie. Be aware that there have been claims about this company's lack of care for their consumers of color - find the medium article and their shady sales tactics - testimonials can be found on Reddit. You'll find many "brutally honest" articles online touting how amazing they are. Still, I warn you that some of those articles are questionable - i.e., I found an article for someone who supposedly traveled with remote year from Dec 19-Dec 20, aka during lockdown. Proceed with caution. I regretted my decision to trust this company the minute I gave them money.

Reading through the previous reviews, I definitely mirror some of the experiences people have had and am also disappointed by the CEO, Sam Pessin's blanket justification responses. I was travelling with a group on a year long programme called 'Inara', which started off in Chile on 1 March 2020. Firstly, it was negligent for the company to embark on this trip, if they 'were constantly in touch with their health and safety advisors, International SOS' as within 2 weeks, we were at a world crisis level, forcing everyone to try and get home. But the worst part has been the way Remote Year have responded (or failed to) since. We have received blanket responses explaining time and time again how we are not going to get a refund for a year long trip that was cancelled. They have been able to justify this by saying the trip it's 'postponed', so they are not obligated under their terms and conditions to do so. Remote Year have expressed options for how we can participate in future programmes, however the reality in a post-pandemic world is that the majority of us are no longer in a position to embark on a year long trip, as we now don't have that option financially or due to other commitments. All other companies in the travel industry have been forced to honour refunds due to the extenuating circumstances, however Remote Year feel they are not obligated to do so, even though at least 20 people on programmes have paid in full for a trip they will never be able to honour. It's such a disappointment, as I started the trip with admiration of this company for setting up such an amazing initiative. Sadly, they don't know how to look after their customers and really listen, which would have gone a long way to ensuring their future customers would still stay loyal to the brand and want to continue journeys with them once the world is in a place to accommodate travel again.

Remote year SCAMMED us out of our deposit on a trip that was “postponed” due to Covid!!! If this company survives (highly doubt) Covid STEER CLEAR!

I was one of the ones stranded abroad during the COVID-19 crisis. The country we were in was one of the first to close its borders. We were concerned about leaving on Friday, but remote year told us to wait until Monday before they would announce their decision - unfortunately borders shut on Saturday. None of this was Remote Year's fault, but unfortunately the way they handled the situation afterwards was disgusting. Staff supporting programs were immediately fired and communities dissolved before our eyes. We were left stranded in a country under martial law with no help or communication whatsoever from Remote Year, and were kicked out of our apartments within a week. We had previously been told to book all external excursions through the Remote Year Marketplace as it was considered to be "safe". Unfortunately that statement has no basis in reality. In addition to our deposits, Remote Year is refusing to refund thousands of dollars paid to them in escrow. It was never their money to keep, only to pass on to third party vendors - but they are keeping it nonetheless. Every other individual who booked through third parties directly received refunds, but those who booked through remote year did not. I lost approximately $8000 because of how Remote Year has been handling themselves. They have been behaving deplorably and need to do the ethical thing and refund their customers in a time of crisis.