Abco Technology - Arif Sayed - Upender Sethi and others Rip Off Los Angeles California
Do not ever sign up with ABCO technology. They have broken many consumer protection laws and bppve(Bureau of Private Post-Secondary Vocational Education) regulations. I'm not going to list them all because there are 3 pages of violations when I was preparing for my lawsuit at small claims. First of all, they will never refund your money when requested in writing. Contracts are not honored and bppve will not have any recourse to enforce the rules and regulations; They only take complaints! Bppve can not enforce their regulations.
You must file in small claims to try and get your money back. After winning your case, you must prove that you tried to do something to get your money back. You can either try to get your money back through the court system or send documents to bppve and wait over 4 years to get your refund. Yes, that is the current time table for refunds. Go to small claims as soon as possible and do not let the statue of limitations run out on you to file against them.
Employees of ABCO are a bunch of liars and all of them working there are dishonest. They lied in court and falsified documents. They cut and paste the log books and made it look like I attended many classes when I didn't. Hence, the log book does not protect the student.
They cancelled the first class and the student have not way to document it. This was used against me in court when calculating a refund
When signing the contracts, I made an immediate request for a copy with my signature on it. They gave me a copy without my signature and is different from the original. They filled in the document differently from the copy they gave me, it was not xeroxed from the original. They will not ever give you a copy of your original contract and bppve have failed to provide me with a copy for over 1 year now!
They lied in court like crazy. The first thing they said before the hearing was that I was sueing the wrong party and that it was another company. The judge saw through their lies but they continue to protest and insist that they are not the right party being sued until the judge got furious! So take this to heart and document like crazy with certified mail with signature request return. It is the only proof you have against those liars.
E-mails are not great as they argued that anyone could falsify them. It depends on the circumstance if the judge will believe you. I had a pro temp on the appeal and he did not seem too convinced as credible evidence.
Also, now I know why you should never trust the ratings on BBB.org. They are changed on the fly for their clients! ABCO Technology had an "F" rating and was not a member of BBB at a certain time.
Once ABCO joined BBB, they got a triple B rating immediately. The dates were modified and not consistant with older reports. My complaint was dismissed like many others. ABCO reply was that the student attend all classes and unfairly asked for a refund. I can see that's it's their usual reply for students who request a refund! I've only attended one class and the course runs for several months!
Like other people have told me, BBB will not help you, you're wasting your time with them. I also noticed that when you file a complaint, the complaint statistics doesn't change and you can't read the details of the complaint.
Also, their place smells very nasty like their instructors. They don't take a bath daily. I'm not making this up.
There are better more honest schools out there, ABCO is not one of them. They will promise the world to get you in and once you get suckered in they change all of their promises on you! So I cancelled and it was fine with them because they kept my money and didn't have to earn it.
There are a whole bunch of violations made that I do not have the time to write about. I've only wrote a small fraction of them! I don't think anyone would want me to copy and paste all of my documents here. It's pretty long.
I hope this helps the people who have been hurt by them or are considering to join ABCO. It might sound like I'm making this all up, that no one could be this bad. Go sign up and request a refund after all their broken promises. Come back here and file your complaint against them too.
Oh, it's been over six months since I won the lawsuit. They still not paying.
Phat
Monterey Park, California
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
L'mar
Los Angeles,California,
U.S.A.
Response to allegations made
#2UPDATE Employee
Wed, March 14, 2007
This text is being submitted as our rebuttal and factual answers to the complaint submitted by Mr.h*o, in the order of his complaints made previously.
First he alleges that we are in complete violation of the state laws. If this were the case, then we would not be in business. When Mr. h*o first made it aware that he wanted a refund made, it was during the weekend when the administrative staff was not at work. He informed one of our instructors who explained to him to call, fax or to come in to the office during normal business hours and any issue he had would be resolved.
Mr. h*o then began to become irrational and created a scene among the students and made threats to some of the teaching staff. He then called the Culver City Police Dept for a reason unfathomable to the teachers or students. The Culver City police department arrived and escorted Mr. h*o off the premises and warned him of arrest for if he returned. We did not press charges.
He then filed a complaint with the BPPVE (the regulating body for schools in California). The BPPVE contacted us and we presented our case to them. Mr. h*o was informed to take this to small claims court if he was unsatisfied with the outcome as he had attended a portion of the class, kept the software and books yet wanted a full refund on everything after he had already learned the knowledge from the certification course and had all of the materials.
Mr. h*o claims that ABCO falsified documents in court. It is common knowledge that to falsify documents is a major offense and again, the company would be shut down if this was the case. This was not obviously the case as the supposed falsified documents were examined by the court including Mr. h*o's signatures and were found to be true, accurate and signed by Mr. h*o. The judge had even asked Mr. h*o if he believed the documents to be signed in his writing. He examined them as well as his attorney and they both agreed to this. It is difficult to understand the basis for this allegation by Mr. h*o.
Mr. h*o claims that the first class was cancelled. This pertains to one of the supposedly falsified documents. The class was not cancelled and we provided written and signed proof of other students along with Mr. h*o that they had attended the class. The attendance sheets at the time were done individually and signed daily by the students , which Mr. h*o had his check in and check out times written by his hand and signed. This was again proven in court. It was also the original paper, not a copy as Mr h*o alleges, that was brought into court and was examined by the judge, Mr. h*o and his attorney who all concluded that it was not a copy, nor falsified.
Mr. h*o claims he was not provided with his contract at signing. He was provided with a copy of his signed contract and a printed copy as well. He later called saying he lost it and wanted a replacement which we also provided. This claim is also clearly false. Our contract has provisions on there for our protection as well as the student and it is in our interest as well as our clients that everyone is aware of the details to protect both parties. I personally spent over 30 minutes that day (I recall it as he had questions for me due to my personal IT background and I was off of work) discussing with Mr. h*o the contract and his rights as a client before signing.
Mr. h*o claims we lied when he sued the wrong party. Our position on this as we stated that day as I was one of the persons present for this court case was that Mr. h*o was suing an individual employee of the school and Mr. h*o should be suing the school not a teacher. I gave the judge the correct information to make that change which he did. There was no further complaint on that issue as I thought it unfair that Mr. h*o out of anger was pushing to have an employee sued who had no financial responsibility for complaints against the company.
Mr. h*o also complains about the BBB rating that Abco has. Anyone that understands the operations of the BBB, it is not an agency that sits by and has no effect on business. If a complaint is issued, a full report including supporting documentation is given to them by both parties along with resolution. A triple B rating is not given to companies who do not resolve the complaints with any clients nor have proof supporting their claims. I would advise Mr. h*o and others to have a little bit more faith in the organizations placed for fair business practices.
Mr. h*o's complaint about the facility having a bad scent and the instructors not bathing is almost laughable and I debated on including a rebuttal to this. In response to this, all of our employees bathe and shower regularly, some even wear perfume or cologne. I myself shower three times per day, once in the morning, once after the gym, and once before bed.
Mr. h*o did win the last law suit in small claims as we told the judge that we just wanted the matter over and done with as it cost more then it was worth to fight it. The judge still wanted to wait on awarding anything until he could have time to look over the documentation as the only dispute we had with Mr h*o was the amount he requested as he did not want to be charged for the books he kept nor the classes he attended. I would like it to be known that this was the 5th time Mr. h*o changed his mind on what class certification he was attending and our staff went well beyond their normal duties to accomodate him in his class changes after the deadlines for this.
As far as Mr. h*o's payment. We have made multiple attempts to contact Mr. h*o and his attorney to make payment arrangements yet neither party contacts us back. Mr. h*o was told by the Culver City Police Dept to not come to this location on penalty of arrest due to his previous threats and erratic action but he was informed by the court, by us, and by the police dept that he could communicate by email, fax or phone.
We have documented the various calls we made to his attorney's office to make payment and we even went back to the court in December to figure out how to arrange for his payment as he never responded to our communication. So his final allegation about refunds is also false as we have been wanting this matter to be done with much longer then Mr Phat h*o.