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Thecollegeprepcenter.com Aka The College Prep Center Inc. Deceptive sales practices, refusal to honor return guarantee. La Mesa California
The customer service line that customers are required to call in order to return the merchandise within the trial period is a recording that says that the line is only staffed from 8AM to 4PM PST. There is no way to leave a message, no hold queue and quite often usually requires numerous tries to reach anyone.
Sales people assure parents that if they don't like the program that "you can just put it back in the package and return it-we will send it to another student that wants it-no problem" Suggested solution: company's fax number is 619-668-2232. Fax your cancellation and save the transmission verification report from your fax machine to provide proof that you did contact the company within the trial period. This will help you to have the charge reversed on your credit card by calling the phone number on the back of the card that you used. Enough complaints to credit card companies will cause this company to loose the privilege of accepting credit cards and them out of business.
You may also be able to reach a manager at 619-668-2241.
The corporate name for this company is The College Prep Center, Inc.
California corporation # C2591798.
The agent of process and mailing address listed for them with the state of California is:
John Joseph Stuart
8130 La Mesa Blvd #134
La Mesa, CA 91941
This is the address of a mail box company.
A representative for the mail box company said that they are not authorized to accept service for the company at this address. I beleive that not having a publicly posted address for service of lawsuits is a violation of California law.
The actual address that they operate from is:
8270 La Mesa Blvd #708
La Mesa, CA 91941
They are operating this business approximately two blocks from the La Mesa police department.
The phone number for the La Mesa police is 619-667-1400.
The phone number for La Mesa business license information is 619-6671118. The phone number that they have listed for this company is disconnected.
BTW: The Kaplan program is an excellent way to prepare for the SAT and the ACT. It is sold directly through the Kaplan Company on-line at a fraction of the price this company charges. (Approx $20-50 for different versions) I am not associated with Kaplan.