In April I registered for a class with Langua World. After receiving my payment, Sandrine Samperi immediately canceled the class stating there were not enough students.
I had previously told Ms. Samperi that it was vital that I start classes immediately as I was leaving for Paris in 4 weeks.
After inquiring about the FULL cost of the course and paying that amount, Samperi asked for more money for books over $125 for books. This is really unacceptable for a short 4-week beginner class and she never mentioned this during registration.
When I told her I would cancel, she initially said there was a 'no refund' policy, and then she pointed me to a refund policy on learnFrenchNewYork.com. (I had never been to that site but had inquired and paid my money to Languaworld.com). When I pointed out that the refund policy stated I was due a refund because the class hadn't started, she backed away from that policy and said she would start the class within days. Even still, although the refund policy was from a different website than that which I dealt with, even that policy would have granted me a refund. She was clearly deceptive and then when her own policy didn't suit her, she ignored it entirely.
I gave her several chances to simply refund my money and even agreed to allow her to take 6% fee for the amount PayPal would charge to refund the money. She refused.
She then marked my emails as SPAM and cut off all communication.
I filed a case with the Small Claims Court in Manhattan and on 6/22/09 I received a judgment for my full tuition, my court costs and interest on the money due.
Despite being notified of the judgment, Ms Samperi has still not paid the money and I am now in contact with the city Sheriff to have him collect the debt. If you receive a judgment against this company, note that you may be entitled to triple damages the specifics are on the court documents and the small claims website.
I have also filed a complaint with the New York Department of State to have Langua World's business license canceled.
I have also filed a complaint with the better business bureau. Sadly I did not look this company up but if you do you will see they have several complaints, all for not starting classes.
I am also sending a copy of the judgment to PayPal.
I have over 32 email correspondences with this company with details on how they encouraged me to enroll and then within two minutes of receiving payment, canceled the class. The emails also show that she attempted to collect the tuition amount in cash to avoid sales tax. After the court papers were filed, she claimed to only be a teacher; however, if you look at MySpace and other websites, she claims she is the CEO or SEO of the company. Be careful because she plays between the websites of Languaworld.com and learnfrenchnewyork.com.
Ms. Samperi is most untrustworthy in business and overall not a nice person to deal with.
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