I requested information online from UOP expecting them to email me info on their school, instead-and this is my fault because i stupidly gave them my phone #-I got a phone call from a very nice but very pushy enrollment counselor and basically was talked into filling out all the admissions forms online with the understanding that all I was doing was starting the enrollment process with absolutely no obligations and no out of pocket expense because they were running a promotion where the enrollment fee was waived.
They had me fill out the financial aid papers and like everyone else, told me not to worry, that I would definitely get financial aid and if not, my parents could apply for student loans, since I was not quite 24 and considered a dependent student even though I no longer lived at home. I gave them all my parents tax information for the previous year since they said I was a dependent student and then they tell me the promotion ended and I have to pay the $100 enrollment fee.
To make a long story short, I was led to believe that all I was doing was enrolling in the school and applying for financial aid and student loans. The next thing I know, they are telling me my first class starts in 3 days. At this point I have no idea if I got financial aid and I tell my adviser that I don't want to begin classes until I know I got financial aid because there is no way I can afford tuition. She guarantees I will get financial aid, I stupidly believed her and I begin my first class.
Of course it was one of those useless classes you wouldn't find at a real college and cost $1300 plus $60 for a stupid book that we never used! It was a 4 week class and every week I was calling to check on my financial aid. Like so many others, my advisor's changed multiple times and only once was I notified.
3 weeks into the class I received a bill for $1300 and some change, I tried calling my adviser to find out what the heck was going on with this financial aid they guaranteed me and after a lot of run around from different people, I found out that the person I thought was my adviser was M.I. A and that is why he had not been returning my calls and that they had assigned me a new adviser and no one bother to contact me and give me his name and #.
At this point I was ready to withdraw because it was a nightmare trying to get ahold of my advisors and I just knew I wouldn't get financial aid. So during this same phone call that I found out I have a new adviser, I somehow ended up on the line with an enrollment counselor at Western College or something like that who acted like it was a mistake that I was even enrolled at UOP, and that I should been enrolled at his school and gotten an A. A degree and then transfered to UOP.
So he talks me into withdrawing from UOP and into enrolling at his school. I fax the withdrawl form to UOP and start filling out the forms for the other school online. The guy tells me he recieved my withdrawl forms and will make sure my adviser gets them. I was foolish enough to believe him. So this guy I was dealing with was very rude and pushy and called me several times a day and before I finished filling out all the forms, I got sick of him and decided not to enroll at that school.
At the same time I was still enrolled at UOP because even though that other guy acknowledged receiving my withdrawal papers the first time I sent them, they still had not withdrawn me from school. I had to fax the paperwork 2 more times before I was withdrawn. During all this, I finally get some real answers about my financial aid-just like I suspected I did not qualify because I was considered a dependent student and they used my parents tax information when determining my eligibility, even though I barely made enough money to get by each month!
So after I was finally withdrawn they tell me I still have to pay for the first class I took and also the 2nd class that I never attended. This is when I went ape S$%! On them and told them that there was no way in heck I was paying for a class I never attended and that I had signed and sent in the paperwork necessary to withdraw from their fine institution 3 weeks into the first class.
They agreed not to charge me for the 2nd class and when it came to the first class, I did not feel I should pay for that class either because that class was big joke and the teacher did not teach a darn thing and it was a waste of 4 weeks and more importantly I was promised financial aid that I did not get.
However the main reason I refused to pay is because my boyfriend at the time/now husband had a co-worker who got his degree from UOP and got FULL financial aid even though he made $110,000 a year (law enforcement), owned atleast 2 homes that I know of for a fact and his wife owned a beauty salon and here I am getting denied financial aid when my parents are retired and their combined monthly income was $3000 and they had a mortgage to pay and all the other bills that come with owning a home and no other investments and all of this info I had to submit to the financial aid dept so they knew my financial status as well as my parents.
So when I was fighting with UOP over this, I demanded they waive the fee for the first class because I knew they gave a former student full financial aid and his financial status is alot higher than my parents and myself and that I could not believe he got financial aid and I didn't and that the only difference between him and myself other than our finances was that he was hispanic and I was white.
I don't agree with playing the race card and this is the ONLY time I have ever done it and you know what? It worked. I told them his situation and mine, both verbally and in writting and as soon as they received my letter, I got a phone call saying everything was taken care of and they had waived the entire amount I owed for the first class.
I thought the nightmare ended there and then about a year later I get a bill from western university saying I owed them $85 for an enrollment fee and if I don't pay in 7 days I will be sent to collections. This was the first I had ever heard about an enrollment fee and this was the first bill I ever got.
I called them immediately because I wanted to know why they were charging me an enrollment fee when I never finished filling out all the forms and why are they sending me a bill a year later. I had to call multiple times, got the run around, and was told a supervisor would call me back and they never did. It took over a month to resolve this issue and even though I finally told them I was disputing the bill until I heard from a supervisor, I continued to receive more threatening letters and then they started calling me to demand payment!
I was finally able to speak with a supervisor who told me that the fee is for the "file they had to create for me". I demanded to see copies of this file and they printed out everything I had submitted online, a whole 3 pages and faxed it to me! I told them their file didn't exist and I refused to pay them! This supervisor was unwilling to help me further so I demanded to speak to someone higher up.
Of course I was told that that person would call me back. Amazingly several days later I actually got a phone call from someone claiming to be the person in charge of the entire financial department and he was very rude and we argued for a few minutes until he said there was no way he would waive the fee and that I should of read the small print on one of the forms I signed that said I agreed to pay the enrollment fee.
I looked at that form and it did indeed say that upon completing the registration process I agree to pay the enrollment fee but in tiny print it said that for residents of California, this fee ONLY applies if you attend the first day of your first class. I told him I never completed all the registration/enrollment paperwork and I never attended any classes because I never completed the process and I pointed out exactly what that form says and he tells me that it applies only to California residents.
HELLO! I have lived in CA all my life. The next thing he says is, he is not going to argue with me and he waives the fee. A fee that I should never have been charged. It is all one big scam. It was nothing but a nightmare from the day UOP first called me. I was fed so many lies and the sick thing is, they have been able to get away with their scam for atleast 3 years now and it doesn't look like they will stop any time time soon. Something needs to be done. I don't know understand how they can be an accredited school with all scams they are running!
Jennifer
Central Coast, California
U.S.A.
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