Complaint Review: University of Phoenix - Internet

UoP has a long-standing history of ripoff reports, which unfortunately I didn't even bother to look at until I started having a problem. I have to say, this experience has lead me to investigate the colleges I was considering from this point onward.

They eventually ended up taking on new names out west, devry and carrington college. Though they vehemently denied that where I was living in idaho. If you call either recruitment number you still get the UoP office there. The recruitment practice is rushed, high pressure and at best criminal in my opinion. I was told my credits would be inexpensive, that my entire associates degree would cost me around $10,000.  I was also told I was signing up for an online course.

Wanting to get ahead on my financial aid and find out more about how it all worked (I hadn't been to school in almost 10 years at this point) I figured I'd call my financial aid instructor. I realized that there was no contact information sent to me, even though I was told it would be in my first email. After tracking down the information I called him, and got no answer. Odd, since it was towards the end of one term and close to the start of the next one. I figured maybe it was bad timing. I emailed him, and a week later received an email stating that I had to wait until after classes started and I was officially enrolled to talk with him. My intake adviser told me she'd have their manager talk to him about being rude.

After classes started I tried to contact him multiple times, finally giving up and using the financial aid hotline, who a few times asked me why I wasn't working with my financial adviser and were told exactly why. He won't return my calls or emails. So I kept working with them, and kept getting notices that my financial aid was under review, and I had to fill out this form. I forget what form it is now, it's been almost a year.

But I recall being told that I had the wrong kind of black ink, that I had misspelled my name in my signature (Is that possible?), that I had the wrong date and needed to change it to a different one. (okay, um.. How is my date of enrollment different from the day I enrolled or the first of the term, either one?) These were red flags, but I was a little blind to the fact, I was always reminded how it would give my child and me more time than a regular school and I would be able to do this mostly from home... hmm... I'll get into THAT later. 

After having tried 4 times to get things straight on my financial aid I was informed the online program I signed up for required me to drive 1 hour each way to the classroom once a month. okay.. It irritated me greatly. In fact I asked if this is a regular thing, because I'm not supposed to drive with my medications. I suffer from chronic pain, ranging from severe to moderate every day. It isn't too advisable to drive on some of those medications. I ended up being in horrible pain through the last half of my class, due to having to be off the medications long enough to be safe to drive.

When I got to class, I found out i would have to come back a second time at the end of the month. By now, I was just getting more angry. My student loans had still not come in and I was driving on gas money from child support to get to classes that were supposed to be entirely online. As a single mom, I was very determined to somehow make it work, around losing the time online schooling should have left me with my child. I was constantly reminded whenever I said how frustrated I was getting that I was doing this for my kid's good, and that it was just minor issues I'd have anywhere else.

At some point I was told I had to show up at campus for some kind of workgroup meeting. Mind you, this is supposed to be online and I am driving 70 miles one way. It moved from 1 time a month to now nearly 2 times a week.  Between rent and bills, and the new extra cost of gas I wasn't going to be able to do this. I was calling instead, because the times without my medication was making them less and less effective when I was on them.

I told the workgroup I want to be a part, but I'm going to have to by phone, because I am disabled and can't make the drive. This was after I asked the advisers (academic and my intake adviser) why they said I HAD to be up at the school to do it, and they told me that most people do it by phone or internet and this group was just being overbearing. I was told not to worry about it, just talk to my instructor and go on with class. It wouldn't effect me that much.

So I figured I could call to them and would talk to the instructor soon. That was another big mistake, I found out too, my work group was 80% of my grade, and I was failing due to not showing up for these little meetings. I am disabled, but not enough for disability. Going back to school was my only option. I'm enrolled in another school in a much more difficult degree program now with a 3.5 gpa. But was failing my UoP course miserably due to my 'group' status.

So I was frustrated and called my admissions adviser. We talked a short while and he let me know that someone had seriously mislead me, that it was unfortunate, but he couldn't do anything more than to suggest I talk to my other advisers then go to the Dispute Management team. He also told me that my tuition was almost 3k/month and there was no possible way that it could work out to 10k total.

I was, very, very upset. Who ever heard of a 38 thousand dollar associates degree? I could get a bachelors in what I wanted for around that in a local college. I talked with my intake counselor who told me that it wasn't that expensive, and that he must be mistaken. She insisted the degree would be around 15k (which is actually pretty normal, but by now I am angry as heck for all the lies and confusion) She then told me the best thing I could do was drop that program and enroll in another online program that was almost completely unrelated to what I wanted to do!

I told her i would rather withdraw, and was put online with my financial counselor. (Oh, he was MIA up to t his point) I had done all my dealings with the main financial aid office, because he was too busy to return my phone calls or emails, until I was dropping which meant he could bill me! The office had told me that my loans and grants would cover my expenses, and I had foolishly believed them. I came to find out, that less than 4 weeks of class was now costing me nearly 700 dollars. I'd been told it would cost me only 10K for 18 months of school. That should have been right around 550 a month, give or take. so I was concerned, only to find out that I'd been told wrong.

After all this frustration I simply dropped, which may or may not have been the best. He wanted me to stay so they could use my loans to pay for it, so I would only owe a couple hundred dollars. Now it's in collections and likely to stay that way
As for dispute resolution, Good luck. If you don't have the dates you made calls, times, who you spoke with, and almost a perfect memory of the conversation you are out of luck. If you signed the contract, it doesn't matter what you are told.

Add into this, apparently my conversation with the financial aid person when I went to leave was a verbal contract and meant I had to pay the money.  When I spoke with him he told me that I owed money to phoenix, and I told him that I know I was told I owe them for what I took, and he told me it was 700 dollars. I was a bit taken back and said "okay, but I can't pay it". According to whoever investigated my "Formal grievance" that was some sort of agreement to pay.
Now, if that worked as a contract I'd be rich with some the friends I've had over the years.

It's a great system for messing with you. The company RMS who does their collections is charming too. Both they and the financial advisor had a lot to tell me about my financial situation. Apparently, I would never own a car, never own a house, would be unable to get a loan, unable to rent except in bad neighborhoods, and this money I owed them would destroy my credit and my life.

It fascinated me it was almost exactly the same line from the financial aid person and this collection agency, and both methods of bill collection are illegal. It's a form of extortion. Oh, and that was on my formal grievance, apparently he was reprimanded for his behavior.

Back to their collections (RMS) They sometimes call 20 times in a single day, even if I pick up and answer. They say they are from another office and it isn't in the system.. Okay I'm not going to get into how this violates FTC regulations other than to say look on their website you have an amazing amount of rights you didn't know you had.  http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre18.shtm

What I will say is, they sure backed down when I told them not only will I not pay, but if they keep bothering me I will take them to court and THEY can pay it.  I get a call once in a while, a letter here and there but nothing like it was.
My advice about UoP... Don't do it. There's a lot better schools out there which are much more direct with their billing and collection practices. A lot of occupations I have been in refer to UoP as a glorified diploma mill that allows substandard students to pass. I have to agree, when a group is what determines your grade, how can you truly tell the worth of an individual student in the workplace?