Complaint Review:
Lincoln Park Kaplan Center
Lincoln Park Kaplan Center Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions Did not honor higher score guarantee as advertized. Used vauge wording from contract fine print to justify. Chicago, Illinois
I paid for my son to take a GRE Prep course from Kaplan based on advertising on their web site which offers a higher score guarantee.The course began on May 12, 2009. When my son scored lower on both parts of his actual GRE (taken on Aug 28, 2009) than he had scored on the Kaplan Diagnostic test I requested a refund.I sent the required documentation within the required time period. I received a reply that my son did not qualify for the refund because he was not a first time Kaplan student. He had taken advantage of the offer to study again if he did not feel ready to take the GRE. There was nothing in the online advertising to indicate that studying again before taking the GRE would void the higher score guarantee. Caryn Smith sent me a copy of a contract that did say you must be a first time student . THIS WAS NOT MENTIONED IN THE ADVERTISING ON THE WEB SITE.The web site makes it seem that the two offers are completely separate. Even in the contract there was no clear statement that taking advantage of the restudy offer would make a student ineligible for the refund offer.I would consider a person to have still been a first time student until he took his GRE or paid for another course. Clearly Kaplan offers struggling students the opportunity to study again just so they can then use the vague wording in the contract to refuse refunds. (Less)