I contacted Top Test Prep to inquire about their test preparation services for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Before contracting the service, I had several phone conversations with Ross Blankenship, according to their website, the founder of the company.in those conversations I emphasized insistently that I was looking for a highly experienced tutor, since I was not a just-out-of-college-client. I expressed that I already had a PhD and an MBA, and that I would not take an inexperienced tutor. I was verbally and in writing promised a tutor at the level that I was expecting. Over the phone I also stated that I would not take two-hour sessions as I was being offered and that I would only take one-hour sessions. Mr. Blankenship and I agreed that I would take one-hour sessions, except for the first session which would be a two-hour session. I also expressed that I was taking the test Oct. and that I would like to spread the twenty sessions contracted between May and October.
The first tutoring session took place on May 8th. Before starting the session, I asked the tutor when did she take the LSAT. She responded Oct. 2009. Therefore, in a very best case scenario, she only had a 7-month experience tutoring for the test (Top Test Prep claims in its website that all their tutors have taken the test, therefore she could not start tutoring clients before Oct. 2009). Then I asked her what the plan for the 20 sessions was. She could not respond. She looked at some printed pages from the company that apparently described a plan, but after reading the instructions for the first session she said that it was a waist of time to spend the session reading me out loud a printed material from page 4 to 31. I concluded she had not read the material before getting to the tutoring session, that she disagreed on the one she was provided by the company, but that she did not have an alternative one. She was clearly unprepared for the session. She also informed me that she was instructed by Mr. Blankenship that she had to come back the next day for another two-hour session, although that agreement was never made: Mr. Blankenship and I never agreed on having a session the next day, much less a second two-hour session in two consecutive days.
The tutor stated that one of the reasons why she was insisting in two-hour sessions was that she lived far from the city and it was a long drive for her. She also informed me she could only work with me until August, although I made clear that I was taking the test in October and that I wanted to spread the sessions between May and October. She responded that since August, I would not need a tutor. After the session I send an email to Mr. Blankenship requesting my money back, since a series of commitment where broken. Since actually all the agreements were not honored, I felt Mr. Blankenship was running his business in bad faith. I received a call from Mr. Blankenship that same Saturday May 8th. I told him that I would prefer to have a conversation with him on Monday. He insisted. I expressed to him that all the agreements that we made where broken and that I wanted my money back (money that I needed to hire a different service). He said that our contract had a no-money-back - clause and that his only concerned was to see me improving for the test. He kept repeating that phrase without listening to my complaints and concluding that I was experiencing buyer remorse. He became very aggressive and he ended stating that he had no obligation to talk to me and hanged up the phone. Since then, I have not had any contact with a representative from Top Test Prep (today is May 12th).
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