Student fees

[TheHiper]

I am in dispute with my University. I never received an invoice for my fees (I am an International student) on paper, so I readied the amount shown on their website - the same amount that was asked by an email I received a few days before the payment was due, although the email may have been sent in error. However, I paid my fees using that invoice's reference number and the amount was credited from my account to my University, meaning it must've been a proper invoice. However, now they are asking for more money which they say is my proper fee.

How do I go about this issue? To me, I should be only paying the lesser amount as their website says and was given by the only document they gave to me regarding this.

[Hippy-chick]

Hi TheHiper and welcome to CAG.


I'm a bit confused by your post. First you say that you have not received an invoice, then you say that you paid according to the reference number. Can you clarify this? As I'm not sure that info posted on the web would suffice, but if you have anything from the Uni actually saying what your fees were going to be, you might have a case.

Please post again and clarify this.


And Happy Xmas.

HC

[TheHiper]

I never got an invoice for the larger amount they claimed, but I did for the lesser amount although it may have been in error. The latter was sent by email, and I have it stored still. I've got the Wayback Machine to archive the current version of the webpage of the fees, as well.

[Hippy-chick]

Hi TheHiper

Well, I think that if they have sent you an invoice by whatever method then you should dispute this. In the first instance I'd contact whatever department you paid the fees to (we call ours a Registry, sometimes they're called the Fees Office, but this should be easy for you to find out). I'd send them a copy of the invoice with a covering letter saying that you have paid the invoice in full and asking them to confirm that the matter is now closed and see if that does it.

In addition, I'd see what support your Uni has to help you with this. Again, this differs from Uni to Uni, but there should be NUS/SRC officers to help you and some kind of student support/welfare offices. We have an international student adviser who is always a great help in situations like this, and it would be worth finding out who s/he is and asking for help.

Please let us know how you're getting on. If this does not resolve the problem we'll think again - but I think a "softly softly" approach is best to start with - assume they have made an honest mistake and give them chance to work it out.

HC