Complaint Review: University Of Phoenix Axia Online

Thank you for this site. I discoverd University of Phoenix Axia Online from the internet. I inquired on several universities and was called back no sooner than I hit the submit button. I will admit I had not done my homework but that is my mistake. I haven't been in school for several years and I was stepping in the dark unaware of what I was doing. I was contacted by 3 to 4 schools I had inquired on, none of which I was pressured by. They were very helpful. I then got the call from University of Phoenix. They had me at hello. The admissions counselor was Jeff Starling, very nice and very good with the gift of gab. He sold me on the first call and before I knew it I was filling out the FASFA while he walked me through it on the phone. It took three hours and I was excited. I talked to him a little about my concerns and the response was "all will be OK, we're here to guide you". I was also told by Jeff that the course of study I wanted would be around $5000 for the year. Something happened during the HURRIED course of filling out all the student loans, etc. and for some reason the FASFA did not get esigned. I was called back, told what to do and that was done. I faxed the info he requested and received an email saying "good things". The next day I received the e-mail with the orientation. I signed that and emailed it back. This correspondence was from Patty Lines, my financial advisor. Now mind you, this was 07/11/09 and I had been told by Jeff, the admissions counselor that I would start classes 07/20/09. I spoke with Jeff on 7/11/09, a Saturday, did all the loan information and was told I would be hearing from the financial counselor. I waited until Thursday morning 07/16/09 to hear from the financial office so I called her. She was very rattled and walked me through all the financial info I had completed about loans and all the rules. She reiterated several times through the conversation how she was there to help me in order to take al the stress off me in order to concentrate all my energies on my classes. She also informed me of the student website telling me how user friendly it was and told me to log on and she would walk me through all the steps I needed to correct my Stafford Loan. I was now advised that the tuition was not $5000 as I was originally told but $10,302. I told her I understood if she needed to get off the phone that I would call back if I had any questions about the student website. No, she said once again how she was there for me when I needed her. She told me she COULD NOT EVEN PROCESS MY FASFA information until I had already started my classes. This is when the first red flag went up. I was right in the middle of changing the the Stafford Loan amount to an even larger number when she abrubtly told me she had to go, she had a phone call. She also could not answer several of my questions and told me to get back with Jeff my admissions counselor. One, I could not change anything on the student website as my anti-virus would not allow me because the info was not encrypted. I tried calling Jeff back and left a message for him to call me. I did not hear back from him. Now mind you, I heard back promptly before all the financial information was finished. I explained once again my concerns of starting on 07/20 and she told me that I should set it up for a week but once again, get back with Jeff. This afternoon 07/18/09 I received e-mails from U of Phoenix to start the "remdial classes". I deleted them because by this time I had decided to go with my community college due to the fact that these people were not all on the same page. I finally received phones calls later today from my admissions counselor, Jeff Starling but only after I had emailed him and told him I would not be going to U of Phoenix afterall. I thanked him most kindly for his time and input and made it short in the email. I received three calls after that, the 3rd call he left a detailed message that he could not accept my email and he needed to talk me through an exit interview. His anger was very obvious on the phone recording. I called him back in the same tone that he left his message. I knew then exactly what I was up against. I could not get a word in edge-wise. He was actually angry and would ask a question and then talk over me. He would not shut-up to let me speak so I told him I would just hush and let him go on ranting as I could clearly see, (which HE WAS) how mad he was He then used the guilt tactic, saying he and I had built a rapport and he was upset and that is why he was so angry. I told him bluntly I'm sure he would get over it if that in fact was the case. He also told me he would always be available for me through my local college studies if I ever needed his help, just call him. LOL!

This is in fact a large university but Jeff Starling told me he deals strickly with people online and also he is a former salesman with a college degree. I realize he must do his job and I can't say for sure that this is not legitimate but I can in fact say University of Phoenix Axia Online needs to get it together. I'm just thankful that I pulled up this site before I received his return call today.

D. wurts
Ashland, Kentucky
U.S.A.