Complaint Review: Advanced Career Training D/b/a ACT - Jacksonville Florida

None of what was put in this report is likely to be true. Federally, any school receiving Title IV funds must return funds in accordance with their stated policy. In this persons case, they would be charged nothing if they dropped after one day. The only way for them to be charged as much as he states, is for him to have attended the school for a minimum of 5 months. If there were a drop of merit to his claim the school would not be open. However Advanced Career Training is 100% in compliance with Federal Refund policies as is documented by the Department of Education. Not too many schools can claim 100%. Feel free to check this with the DOE. Secondly, the placement situation is also false. Advanced Career Training and all other ACCETT accredited programs must meet minimum placement standards to keep their accreditation. At present the Business Office Administration program is placing significantly above the ACCETT placement standards. It would be great to place every student in the job of their dreams, but that is something we will work towards. Could there be an employer who doesn't like us, sure, but obviously not many. I am not sure who he talked to, but if he is still able to sit home during the day and watch our commercials, I imagine that he may not have been their best employee. Too bad he didn't finish the program. He then could have joined the vast majority of our students who have found great jobs after COMPLETING the Business Office Administration program. Feel free to check our statistics with the State of Florida and the ACCETT accrediting body. Third, as to a lawsuit for his tuition from ACT that is also pretty darn unlikely as his remaining balance would have been either a Federal loan or one from a nonrecourse lender such as Sallie Mae. They do not threaten lawsuits, but do send collection letters if someone is a debtor. This is not something that would come from the school. If he had completed our program he would have been better able to read the content of whatever letter he received and been able to reply to the proper contact. We can only hope he continues his education somewhere. Feel free to follow up with Sallie Mae or the DOE on this as well. Forth, the corporate office for ACT is not in Atlanta, it's in Irvine, California. Once again, if he had completed our program he would have been better able to handle both outbound and incoming phone calls. Our corporate office has a very thorough and stringent Answer program for all complaints. This number is posted throughout our building. All complaints, be they student or staff, are answered very quickly and solution are always sought. Records of all these transactions are kept. As a side note, his story about "Jackie Smith" is not only a complete distortion for ACT; I would find it hard to imagine that any business in the country would risk their reputation or license with such a nonsensical line of conversation. This is particularly true as we, like most companies, warn when a call is being recorded. He may want to relisten to his actual phone call so that he can understand where he misunderstood so completely. Feel free to check with the corporate office in Irvine. I personally am sorry that this person had such a negative reaction to ONE DAY of classes. This is VERY unusual for us. His claims have little merit and are obviously distorted badly, but I hate to see anyone have such a negative attitude towards our schools. We help an awful lot of people change their lives. We have a dedicated staff who has this as their sole purpose. A school like ours is not able to pay our employees at the same level as the big schools, so it is important that we get our satisfaction in other ways. What makes our jobs worthwhile is when a kid with a rough life, COMPLETES THE PROGRAM and then finds themselves met on the other side by a great opportunity that change their lives. This is happening all of the time in the Business Office Administration program at ACT. I invite this gentleman and anyone else who has read either reply to visit the school and judge us on the merits of reality. As this young gentleman is still sitting at home during the day, needing to find work to support his family, we strongly invite him to return to school either here or another of the great schools in Jacksonville. If he contacts me I would be glad to guide him in either direction. Education is the key to success. It doesn't matter 'where' you go to school, as much as it matters 'that' you go to school. Advanced Career Training is a top choice in Jacksonville for anyone seeking to better their lives and get assistance in finding a career in the fields of Medical Assisting, Dental Assisting, Computer Systems Technology and, of course, Business Office Administration. We look forward to working with all dedicated students and outstanding employers.