When I applied for an online degree with the UoP I emphasized that, because of their high prices, I could only afford to complete their degree program if I received the maximum credit transfer of 72 credits for that course. Given that I have 140-ish lower division credits (including my 2 year CC degree) that was not an unreasonable expectation for this Management course - especially as their program description says they accept almost any lower division credits for the non-core credit.
After sending my transcripts for evaluation, their enrollment advisor congratulated me on achieving the maximum credit transfer and signed me up, pointing me in the direction of financial aid. He said the matriculation of the credits was now a mere formality, but could take up to three weeks into the course to complete.
Three weeks into the course, the online record showed that they transferred only 48 credits, meaning it would now take me an extra $13,000 or more to complete my degree - completely out of the question. I immediately emailed the advisor asking for help with the problem, but received no response; a call to his voice mail a day later was also unreturned. I then emailed everyone on the administrative list stating that I was unable to continue my course given the gross misrepresentation that had occurred. This was ignored, as was a subsequent voice mail.
More than two weeks later I began to get a series of not particularly polite calls, most recently from the "finance counselor" who insisted that I had dropped out by choice, I owed three weeks worth of tuition. I explained that I could not have dropped out before I found out about their misrepresentation and that I was not liable for this expense, but she became quite aggressive, insisting she had the right to harass me as much and as often as she liked, as I was in debt to the university and there was nothing I could do about it. After canceling my student loan both with the loan company (Wells Fargo) and with the UoP, in accordance with the agreement I signed, the loan transition went ahead anyway. The UoP financial aid counselor said that UoP would take part of this loan and return the remainder.
Wells Fargo representatives said they understood I had called ahead of time to cancel the loan, but they had no mechanism to stop it and the loan was processed electronically — despite being processed a week after I contacted both organizations to cancel it.
Despite being led astray by their misrepresentation over the cost of the course (bait-and-switch for those familiar with the term), reading the small print carefully, voicing my concerns at the start, and canceling in accordance with the contracts, it appears I am left with a debt and perhaps a negative credit record. I have filed complaints with the FTC and DOE and will be filing further complaints with their accrediting body and whoever else may be interested.
If there are people out there with similar experiences who wish to form a class action against UoP please append your response. I believe in pursuing this kind of behavior assertively. There are many 'victims' who are unable to stand up for their rights and get taken advantage of by companies like this.
It's interesting to see their name already in the 'select a company' list while filing this report. That probably means there are plenty of others with similar experiences.
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