I responded to an email that AIU sent to me at the beginning of April that advertised, join a growing field be a medical biller, or words to that effect. My sister told me that the hospital where shes been working at for twenty years is very overwhelmed with billing, and I know its a growing field, so I decided to do that as a career.in the essay that I sent to AIU to be accepted into the university I stated medical billing, In my files I have the original AIU Online Advantage Grant Program Application that clearly says on the line for Degree Program, Medical Billing. The whole time I was going through the registration process I clearly said medical billing several times and anyone that I was talking to was leading me to believe that I was doing the right thing in order to get into the medical billing profession.
I started attending online classes on April 27 and was getting good grades along with very positive feedback from my instructors and fellow students. After only two months into their thirteen month program a student advisor contacted me and asked if I wanted to extend my education to a bachelors degree. I told him it was rather premature to make a commitment like that, and (again) from my understanding I would only need an associates degree in order to get into medical billing. This had me wondering if there is an incentive program for their employees.
One other thing that I kept questioning was why is college algebra on my schedule? The only thing any student advisor or academic advisor would tell me was "thats just the way it is..." or "well its required". This is not very professional-like behavior, and it really didnt answer my question, what in the world does algebra have to do with medical billing anyway? Nobody could give me a straight answer. Even though I tried my best, I ended up getting an F in algebra but wasnt too concerned about it for the simple reason that I am NOT-GOING-TO-NEED-IT for medical billing.
On October 13 I received an email from the university that said that the additional funding that I requested was being processed. I did NOT request any such thing and on the 15th of that month when I was talking to yet another student advisor, she told me, "youre not taking a course for medical billing; its for an AABA with a concentration on medical billing. But with that you can get a job about anywhere". This was very little, if any, consolation, and it was NOT what I had asked for, it was NOT what I had in mind and definitely NOT what I was lead to believe. Lets face it, they were just simply leading me on and right out lying to me. I dont need to be told about all of the things that I SHOULD have done, because I repeatedly stated MEDICAL BILLING through out the entire time and anyone I was talking to was leading me to believe that I had come to the right place. When I asked about the additional tuition, which I DID NOT REQUEST, she could only tell me, "thats just the way they do it", again, NOT very professional at all.
I happened to be on the AIU web-site when I was finally told the truth about what course I was taking and noticed that the web-page was some what different looking than what is was just a few moments earlier. ONLY THEN, it had written on there AABA with a concentration on medical billing and another student survey was in my inbox. I let them know on that survey how I was simply infuriated beyond words. For the past SIX MONTHS of my life I would work a ten hour day and eight hours on Saturday, then come home and be on the computer until I went to bed late at night. The whole time being lead to believe that the effort and sacrifices that I was making would be well worth it. I was so excited, thinking that I was in my final year of being a factory worker. Now I come to find out that all my time and effort was in vain.
To add insult to injury, on December 3, I received a letter from Discover Bank saying that I owe them nearly $8,000. Oo. AIU has caused me an awful lot of problems. First their ad was simply false advertising, and then they were leading me to believe that I was doing the right thing and now I owe a lot of money to a financial institute for nothing. I was only trying to improve my life and financial situation, but now, thanks to AIU, it is going to take me a very, very long time to recover from the problems that they have caused me. But they kept on saying how dedicated they are to my academic success. Boy if THAT isnt a load of CRAP! I never would have gotten involved with them in the first place IF they would have been up front and honest with me about the program right from the very beginning.
I have had consumer complaints saved on my favorites list for quite some time now, and call it a convenient "coincident", but when I started getting suspicious about AIU, the web-site didnt want to come up. At first I thought that it might have been some problems with the web-site, but after awhile I tried to bring it up on google and went right to the site. I was (somewhat) surprised when I saw that AIU has had 140 reports filed on them. I know that anyone affiliated with AIU is going to be telling me that I was the one who willingly signed up for their program, this I cannot deny, but it was ONLY BECAUSE I WAS LEAD TO BELIEVE THAT I WAS TAKING THESE CLASSES FOR MEDICAL BILLING. THESE CROOKS NEED TO BE STOPPED and NOW!
Victim
Lima, Ohio
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