Ripped Off and Let Down
Seattle,#2Consumer Comment
Mon, April 24, 2017
While it may be true that the government provided the loan and the school benefitted from it and 'it's not their fault that the school closed'... I agree, but also disagree. Banks put you through enormous scrutiny before approving a loan and they want to know it's purpose. The Department of Education did not. They handed these loans out to kids fresh out of high school who had no idea that a school could even be a scam. Had the government done any checking whatsoever, they would not have approved loans for this school. They also did nothing to inform anyone getting these loans about anything relating to the loans! I never saw any paperwork about the amount of the 'loans' I was supposedly getting and had no idea about any of this scam possibility.
Yes I was a niave kid...but there are consumer protection laws for a reason and I believe the Department of Education fell down on it's job of protecting consumers on this one. I was also never notified of the class action lawsuit (even though I was living at the same address I was living at while attendting the school) so I never received anything from it and was somehow excluded from ever being able to do anything. Tell me how that makes any sense? I've been on disability for years due to major health problems and have had to deal with constant harrassment from this debt which I have disputed for over 20 years now. There are laws limiting the time to collect a debt, yet somehow these loans are able to get around that fact. That alone tells me that maybe the Department of Education should take a little more time and responsibility to verify information before chaining someone up to a lifetime of debt...
concepcion ****
lynnwood,#3Consumer Comment
Fri, January 11, 2013
Bcti not only rip me off but also had me belive all this time that i had a GED theyvgave me a grant that later turn into a loan only i was to naive to know what was happening also di not know english so i could not even read what they gave me to sighned...but now i am stuck with a big loan...
Jim
Millbrook,#4General Comment
Wed, September 01, 2010
I also have a pituitary tumor, (Benign) I switched doctors (Doctor wanted to operate) and was prescribed Cobalt, I am feeling cured, no more pain, fatigue, or weakness, go to your doctor, or change doctors, it is d**n expensive medicine, but it works.
ten tiny pills, half the size of a gain of rice,and I take 1/2 pill two times a week. Cost me (With medicare paying part) $265.00 for the bottle of ten, I take my last half-pill this thursday and that's the end of it.
RB
Washington,#5Author of original report
Sat, April 17, 2010
I don't need your sympathy, and I don't owe you nothing!
Ashley
Springfield,#6Consumer Suggestion
Thu, April 30, 2009
The school may have secured these loans for you, but the school did not loan you the money. A bank or the government loaned you the money. If it was non-public funds, then a bank loaned the money to you. You owe the bank the money, not the school. Should the bank just go, Oh you got ripped off because of your poor school choice just forget about that money you owe us. That wouldn't make any sense. No one made you go to that school. No one made you get that loan. You could have taken the loan money to any school you wished. Say you get a loan for a car and the car turns out to be a lemon. You can't use the car and you only getting a small settlement over the issue that isn't enough for your loan. You still owe on the loan even though the car is useless. Why? Because you borrowed the money, it doesn't matter what the money was used for, YOU borrowed the money and YOU need to pay it back.
Anaisnun
Long Beach,#7Consumer Suggestion
Thu, April 30, 2009
As a former BCTI completion certificate-holding "student", I don't owe beentheredonethat anything. BCTI also made use of non-federal private loans at even higher interest and I was a recipient. It was funny how easily they gave it to me all those years ago; I explained to Brett from the Beaverton campus that I was already in default on a federal student loan, how I was dealing with mental problems (finding years later I had a pituitary tumor), that I was struggling with drug addiction and recently divorced, and also on disability. Of course, he did ask me to find a co-signer, but I couldn't -and he approved the in-house loan anway. I gave BCTI full disclosure of such circumstances during this process, so does it sound like I was capable of making a rational decision about this nonsense at the time? BCTI did engage in predatory and negligent practices, thay are not an innocent party -federal funding or not. This goes beyond money. I won't say much about students running away with instructors or the rampant drug use, the multiple homeless and/or borderline developmentally disabled students, or the sexually predatory stalker who attended that was allowed to stay in school even after several complaints from female students. Forget my meager instruction to Dos/WordPerfect when it was so obsolete it wasn't usable in "real life". I am a plaintiff in the Oregon class action suit. Defend, defend, defend all you want, but BCTI is not just a victim of greedy ex students.
Beentheredonethat
Tacoma,#8UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sun, March 29, 2009
I feel your pain. Many of the people who went to BCTI did get ripped off. But BCTI didn't lend you the money. Most of the money was lent to you in the form of Student Loans, right? That's taxpayer money. You owe it to the American people. Even though you got ripped off. You pay your debts and then you go after BCTI (which you did in your lawsuit) to get back what you can. That is just how it works. You have a legitimate beef with how private vocational schools are regulated and overseen. I applaud your efforts to change that system - you may have more luck if you call Ms. Cantwell Maria rather than Marie - and Patty Murray was a staunch supporter of BCTI, helping them regain their status when they lost it in 1996, and temporarily cold not avail themselves of the student loan pie. I'm sure she is embarassed by that now and won't go near the topic. I worked at BCTI for a short time, sucked in by the promise of changing lives. When I realized it was a scam I left, and that was long before they got as dirty as they were the last few years, as I hear it told now. Hope you land on your feet and channel all that energy into your own great success.