It wasn't even the beginning of summer of 2008 and while I had some fun summer plans in mind, I tried to be as productive as possible. I thought I would take a summer online class only to fall into a rabbit hole I didn't even know I was in.
For some insane stupid reason, I chose Weber State University. Since I already had a degree, the website had said I could sign up for classes and declare them for personal enrichment. I filled out a form and faxed it them and go no reply.
One week went by, no reply.
The classes started, no reply.
I checked my mail. I checked my email. I even checked the spam folder. There was nothing. Summer went by and I finally got a mail from Weber University.
In the mail was a Past Due notice for a class which I didn't even know I had taken. I scrambled online immediately to find two things; a lawyer and every fine print on Weber's website.
The lawyer was a knee jerk reaction, but overall the cost of fighting a bill a couple hundred dollars wouldn't be worth it as even on principle I have bigger problems in my life at the moment. Lawyers themselves cost money and the entire process could take a long time for which I could lose because of some fine print they had.
Their website however was another matter. Everything had changed. Even the application process is different now. At the bottom of every page of anything that involved billing, it was in bold and underlined, you will be charged for courses even if you didn't attend them.
But how was I to know my application even went through? If everything was done on their own mail servers; how about an introductory email? No, I got nothing and now to save my credit score I have to pay up.
The process is now completely different, but still lacking any form of communication. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the first person this had happened to hence there was a change in how students can apply for classes now. Yet they have no remorse for these miscommunications and even now they are adamant that everything is done electronically. Call it a life lesson, but I sure as hell will be way more wary about these online classes. Apparently it is purely up to you to even find out if you have been accepted and even the initial billing is not sent to you but rather you must look it up yourself or here comes the late payment crap that comes along.
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