Complaint Review: At-Home Professions

I took the At Home Professions course in 1992, when I had a month old infant.  It took me approximately 11 months to take the Court notereading/scoping course.  Included was medical terminology so I could have gone on to medical transcription, but I chose the court/legal transcription.  I did it successfully and was in great demand, working for approximately 9 years for anywhere from 5 to 10 court reporters.  Due to some changes in lifestyle and my children getting older and in school, I moved on to another job in an office.

Two years ago I picked up the court transcription once again and at this time I am going to take a course to become a certified court reporter. At Home Professions got me through those years I needed an at-home job with three small children.  It is still standing me in good stead all these years later as I am furthering my training that was started with them.  I have made a very nice income through the years due to their training.  I have had nothing but positive things to say about their course I took in 1992.

With any course that you take in your home or online, you are responsible for your own diligence and willingness to study and go through the course materials. 

I wish I had found this information before signing up with At Home Professions. I have made it all the way to the last course with only a couple of problems. I had some issues with two instructors (and I use that term loosely, they are trained in the field, but they are not teachers) grading the same reports and coming up with different scores.

I had an issue with one particular person that graded a test; her comments were not encouraging in any way. When a representative called me, it was explained as that "no one does very well on that quiz ha ha".

When I completed quiz 30, which I took 2 weeks to do due to the foreign accents, I took my time and tried my hardest. Up until this point I had always received scores in the 90's other than the one earlier with issues, and my overall grade was 93%. When I received the results for quiz 30, I got an 81. I looked through the errors to learn from them, then I read the comments from the "instructor". I was told to slow down and take my time; I needed to proof read better. This was a joke because she had addressed the email incorrectly using a different first name than mine. She was not in any way encouraging, I then realized it was the same person that I had had issues with earlier.

I put in a call to speak to an instructor and received a callback later that day. It was explained yet again that "no one does well on that quiz". I mentioned that one of the major stress factors in the course was learning one format all the way through 4 courses, then adding in 4 new formats for reports in the last 10 lessons.

My confidence bottomed out and I sought help from my local Vo-Tech that offered a transcription course. I met with the instructor who was extremely helpful. I showed her the formats that I had been learning; she had never seen these before. We compared them to the format that her students were learning, and they looked totally different. She also noted an error in my most recent report that had been graded already. The use of *cc* as a measurement is on the Do Not Use List, the correct use is *mL*. I was totally bewildered by now. I went home and tried to continue with my course, but found more discrepancies in grading. I still have not received an update of the Do Not Use List with that information on, so they are teaching me out-of-date information.

In the end, I enrolled at the local Vo-Tech with a Pell Grant and have since completed Medical Administration courses, Patient Billing and Medical Coding with a 97% grade, and will be taking the transcription course next semester. I am not stupid; I was just made to feel like I was by the At Home Professions personnel. Yes, all they are interested in is their money. They do not have *teachers*, they have people who read from a book/answer key when you have a question. They may well be nurses or transcriptionists, but they do not possess the quality of a teacher.

I had suggested to one instructor at At Home Professions, that gradually adding in the new formats earlier in the course would be much better, rather than cramming them in in the final 10 lessons. I also suggested a better way to contact help, either online chat or via email, as the call-in and wait for a callback is not very good. I have not completed another quiz since then, nor have I heard anything from the school in over six months. They obviously don't care, they just collect their money every month.

As a single parent trying to get a better education so that I can get a better job, this is not a company that I would recommend. I wish I had gone straight to the Vo-Tech and saved myself a lot of money.

Dear TenDueChen,

At-Home Professions does offer a referral program once a referral has been fully processed. Please contact Joyce Lindquist at Joycel@westondistancelearning.com and she will be happy to investigate the issue you are reporting.

We apologize for the frustration you have encountered and will work to correct the situation right away.

Ann Rohr, President At-Home Professions

My mother started taking the course and then referred my wife. My mother was supposed to receive the $100 referral promotion. She has been trying to get this for almost a year. Whenever she calls and asks (about once a month) they say that they will get right back to her, but then never call. While the course seems to be okay, the customer treatment is unsatisfactory. If nothing happens soon, we will file a lawsuit to get this $100.

Ms. Rohr,

I am pleased to see you are taking responsibility for attacks on your school.  I am not surprised to see comments by people upset with At Home Professions, as I am also one of them,  My wife, Lisa, completed your Medical Transcriptionist course in November, 2009.  She had some unofficial experience already, but with your course she was able to receive professional training and the certification she desired.  To date, that training and certificate have gotten her nowhere.

Before even completing the course, she began job searching and networking.  She created a home office, a professional website, and printed out fliers advertising her new business.  She mailed out well over 100 to local medical offices and hospitals.  She attempted follow-up phone calls and follow-up in-person visits.  She even offered "First week free" and rates of only 8 cents per line.  Still, she has gotten no response and no business.  She has been told by multiple offices they already use someone for transcriptions and don't need anyone else.  Others companies have told her they require employees to complete their own transcription course, not someone else's.  My own sister is a physical therapist and told me they have a machine in their office which transcribes, which requires only proofreading to be done be an actual human.  She tells me demand for transcriptionists is dropping, not increasing as your company proclaims.  From what I've seen, I agree with her.

I have asked my wife repeatedly to contact At Home Professions for help and guidance.  She is too embarrassed by her failure.  She spent countless hours studying and thousands of dollars, all leading to nothing.

My wife has not produced an income since July of 2009.  I ended up losing my job in November of 2009.  The $2,570 we paid for this course came directly out of our savings account.  Besides postage, paper, ink, and gas, I don't not even know what other expenses she has incurred as she is too embarrassed to admit them to me. 

My only hope now is that I can deduct your tuition as an education expense, and forget that she ever heard of your school.  I'm sure there are lots of success stories out there.  It's only fair that people get to hear from the rest of us. 

I recently started at-home professions and I have been very pleased with it so far. I am trying to work from home as a MT. I don't think that the program is a rip-off at all. I believe that some people might have graduated and not really known what they were doing because they didn't put all their time and effort into studying. It's not like this is going to come easy. It makes no sense for some people to do really well after graduating from at-home professionals and for some people to do horrible. It's like if two people went to Harvard, one got out top of their class and the other barely scraped by, does it mean it is the school's fault? Don't you think the people that do horrible do so because they do not put enough time and effort into learning certain parts of each course...those can all add up in the end.

Well, that's my two cents for what it's worth. I love at-home professions!! Thank you for the opportunity!

At-Home Professions is,in my opinion, not a rip-off. I am a student and satisfied with the program. I don't think they charge too much, unlike most of the big professional school chains, such as Kaplan, DeVry, and many others. These institutions are charging at lot of money for the extra courses that have nothing to do with whatever degree you are studying for.

At-Home Professions gives you only what you need at an affordable price.

My name is Ann Rohr and I am the President of At-Home Professions located in Fort Collins Colorado. For nearly 30 years, we have been successfully educating medical transcriptionists, and I take great exception to Julianna's posting.

At-Home Professions is accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) in Washington DC. The DETC's standards for quality education and outcomes assessment are among the highest in our nation and At-Home Professions is proud to hold this distinctive accreditation.

Further, we are approved for military education benefits by both the Veteran's Administration and DANTES. We pride ourselves on our long-standing relationship with the Better Business Bureau, and we were most recently awarded their highest A+ rating.

Our curriculum is developed in house by certified instructional designers under the guidance of working MT's which allows us to quickly adapt to changes in industry standards. Our program includes medical terminology, anatomy and physiology as well as hours of real-world doctor dictations. We include a career starter kit which prepares our MT graduates to obtain employment and we have requests from employers who are seeking more of our graduates.

Many of our MT graduates are willing to share their stories of success with others, and we are happy to put future students in contact with them. If you are interested in speaking with them, please feel free to contact me directly or our Vice President of Operations, Joyce Lindquist.

In Julianna's posting, she states her desire to contact our school. I invite her to call or email me directly. I am happy to share our student and graduate success stories.

I specifically did a search on "At-Home Professions Colorado scam" to see what would come up. I had only found good to say about them, so I used the word "scam" in my search. I only found one negative comment about them: this one.

Also, I checked the Better Business Bureau. The company is fine. Sounded like a few people may not have gotten the facts about refunds, but only 30-something complaints in 3 years isn't many, considering the size of the United States! :o)

I am currently taking a course from there, and am very satisfied.

I am a graduate of At-Home Professions. Since graduation, I have become tremendously successful in the field of medical transcription and I am employed by one of the largest medical transcription companies in the United States. Not only am I employed by them, I am a level 2 MT, with level 3 being the highest (levels are entry level, MT-1, MT-2, and MT-3). I was also nominated "Most Valuable Transcriptionist" in November 2003.

Before I was hired by this company almost 2 years ago, I worked for a few other medical facilities who continually call me to see if I would be able to do work for them.

In every industry, there are those who will be successful and those who won't. To be a successful MT, you have to have good typing skills, good retention skills, good listening skills, excellent English/grammar skills, and be a hard worker. If an At-Home Professions graduate is trying to make it in the MT field and doesn't have the above-mentioned skills, AHP cannot be blamed. They are a reputable company and I stand behind them 100%.