We have recently had call after call from anxious customers who have been contacted by an overseas company telling them that their computer has a virus.
They are told to switch on their machine.
DO NOT DO THIS.
This is a very upsetting and unsettling scam and it makes people feel vulnerable.
Luckily none of our customers (that we know of) have been taken in by this so we cannot post the effect of following their instructions, but we are very sure anyone doing so would either be charged or have their privacy compromised.
PLEASE BEWARE

At the beginning of November we will be launching our new franchise in the Thames Valley Area, which will be owned and run by Paula Matthews, who has had years of experience with in the computer industry. Everyone at Laptop Learning would like to welcome Paula to the team, and watch this space for more details about when and where we will be launching this new franchise.
Photo - Paula Matthews and Cathy Gillard signing the contracts earlier this month in Bristol.

The winners from the second day of the newbury show were:

Mrs S.Lewin from Westbrook
and
Mrs D.Harris from Kingsclere

They will both be receiving a gift voucher for a Free Lesson from Tony Gadd, later this week.

The winners on the first day of the newbury show were:

Mr N. Bowden from Overton, Basingstoke
and
Mr D Wernham from Longlove, Hermitage

They will both be receiving a gift voucher for a Free Lesson from Tony Gadd, later this week.

We will be drawing Two more winners later today.

Newbury Franchise owner Tony Gadd and Marketing Manager Kelvin Price will be attending the Royal Berkshire County Show in Newbury on Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th September.

There are over 65,000 people who attend this event every year, and both Tony and Kelvin are hoping for some sunny weather and lots of new customers. We will be offering a discount to customers who book any training with Tony on these days, but anyone wanting to leave their details with us on the day for more information will be entered in to a prize draw, where they can win a number of discounts or even a free training session with Tony.

Well what can I say about the Newbury launch - we had it all!!
The night before Tony Gadd’s big launch in the Sainsbury’s car park in Newbury the Laptop Learning car got broken in to at 3:25am that morning in a quiet country village pub (and all they took was a bag containing paperwork, I would have liked to see the thief’s faces when they opened it!), The bag was found and returned to us by a lovely couple on Thursday afternoon.
From then on it was a fantastic launch, the sun was shining, the people of Newbury were smiling and we had one of the best Franchise launches to date!

We had over 55 new customers requesting more information on Tony’s courses during the 3 days at the Sainsbury’s car park, but we handed out 100’s of leaflets around Sainsbury’s and Newbury Town Centre to those interested in what was on offer and Tony has already received enquiries from these leaflets.

So from a rocky start at 3:25am on Wednesday morning the launch of the Newbury franchise became a ‘phoenix’ out of the flames!!

‘Good luck’ Tony at the Newbury Show on the 18th & 19th September and let’s hope you have the weather and success to match your launch.

GREAT NEWS
Laptop Learning is opening another branch in Newbury on Wednesday 1st September.
Come along to the Sainsbury's car park at Kings Road, Newbury and look for our two cars on Wednesday 1st, 2nd & 3rd at any time between 9am and 5pm, we will also be around Newbury Town Centre handing out information on these days.

ONE TO ONE TRAINING
Our specialist one-to-one training will help you to master your desktop or laptop computer fast. Our professional but gentle and patient trainers will go at your speed and help you learn exactly what you want to learn.

On September the 1st we will be launching our new Franchisee in Newbury, and everyone at Laptop Learning would like to welcome Tony Gadd in to the Family.

Tony Gadd Started his career just as the Personal Computer age was being born and has worked with many different computers from the lowly ZX Spectrum to huge Cray Supercomputers.

Work as a software programmer at Harwell and Jet eventually led to a job with international oil services giant Schlumberger based in Dubai where many years in Operational Support nurtured a passion for helping people especially through direct client contact.

Tony say’s:-

“It’s a wonderful feeling as a trainer when your students suddenly realise they have grasped what they thought was beyond them”.

This love of training led Tony to join Laptop Learning.

Whether you are an absolute beginner or more advanced Tony will be happy to use his IT and training experience to help you make that next step.

We are please to welcome Kelvin Price to Laptop Learning as Office Manager. He has been working for the local newspaper in Sales and Marketing for the last 8 years, Kelvin says "I am pleased to be joining such a successful company and look forward to the new challange this role will bring"