Yeovil College claimform - unpaid Tuition Fees

[determined45]

Hi all

 

We have just received a County Court Money Claims Form for a College Course that my wife withdrew from back in 2014 and I would like some advice if you can help?!

 

My wife enrolled in a course and at first it was going well but then problems started to happen such as the tutor regularly failing to turn up without warning, when she was there she was useless, coursework being lost or reviewed very late etc. This caused my wife so much stress as she was in a new job whilst also helping to look after our children. This was a very stressful situation and she left the course.

 

a few months later we received notice that we had to pay for the course and had a letter from a debt collection agency demanding full payment for the course. I then phoned the college and said that we were not willing to pay a penny for a course that was not provided. They asked me to provide a written complaint which we did.

 

In the email to the college (and copied to the debt collection agency) we detailed our complaints and asked them to investigate and to write off the fees or to inform us of their decision so that we could seek legal advice. We heard nothing back from them or the debt collection agency until now where we are facing a claims court hearing.

 

Unfortunately I think they may have us over a barrel as I don't think my wife fully followed the course withdrawal process. However, once I contacted them I was assured that if I put my complaints in a letter or email then they would investigate. Seeing as another year had passed before we got this claim form we believed that they had dropped the case. I now have to respond to this claim.

 

We would like to fully contest this claim as I don't think we should pay for a service or course that clearly wasn't being provided. I also do not think that they have investigated our complaint as we have had no response from them.

 

Any advice would be very welcome Thanks

Edited August 2, 2016 by honeybee13
Paras.

[BankFodder]

There are too many colleges nowadays that charge money for courses and do nothing about quality control and seem to think that because you are students, you have to accept whatever is dished up.

 

If you want to issue a challenge to this, then we will be pleased to help you.

 

Please post up the particulars of claim so we can see exactly what is being said. You should file an acknowledgement of the claim immediately which will give you extra time in which to defend.

 

What is the date of the claim and what is the return date?

 

Which college is this? Have you looked through the Internet to see if anybody else is complaining about similar things? You should try to look up not only the name of the college, but also the name of the tutor and see if there have been any complaints or criticisms directed at him/her.

 

You should now get your wife to write out a detailed statement – so far she is able to remember giving precisely the dates of the course, the dates of attendance, the name of any tutors and as many details as possible of the problems including times and dates whenever possible.

 

I have to say that it is a shame that she just dropped out without making an issue of it in writing at the time. I don't imagine that this is the way that you would deal with any other company with whom you had a contract – and I tend to find that students tend to treat their colleges and their courses in this way in exactly the same slack way that they themselves are treated by their colleges.

 

Although your wife hasn't followed the course withdrawal process, it doesn't mean that that is the end of the matter. I think that when it comes to the directions questionnaire, you can require the college to provide full details of the tutors absences and also the dates of any coursework and the marking dates et cetera. There should be records of this.

 

Does your wife know anybody else who was at the college at the same time and who had to endure the same poor standards?

 

You haven't told us what the value of the claim is.

[determined45]

Hi thanks for your reply.

 

We have replied with an Acknowledgement of Service so do have extra time to defend.

 

The claim is for the 4,800 for the course,

625.80 interest plus 455.00 court fees

so a total of 5880.80.

 

VI believe there were other complaints and some other withdrawals from the course.

 

We responded to the College once we got a letter demanding full payment for the course.

 

I phoned the college and they said to put our complaint in writing which we did on 8th June 2015 detailing our complaint and asking them to investigate our complaint and for the fees to be waived.

 

We have had no response from them until this point where we have received the claim.

 

I even put in there that if they upheld the claim to let me know as I would then seek legal advice.

 

We have had no reply so can only assume no investigation took place or they did not agree with our complaint

but either way we didn't get a response.

 

We still have a copy of that email and will be submitting that as part of our defence.

I will also include your point about getting them to supply the tutors attendance and the marking criteria (thanks for that!!).

 

 

Surely we do have a case where they have failed to investigate our complaint and didn't even respond?

 

 

Thanks

[determined45]

What is the directions questionnaire that you mention? This was not part of the pack that was sent to us or is this something we fill out at a later date? When should I request the college to provide tutor absence records and marking criteria information should this be with our defence?

[shamrocker]

Can you do as BankFodder suggested and post up the particulars of claim - hide any identifiable details such as reference numbers, etc.

[determined45]

here is the e-mail that I sent to the college

 

 

- I have removed names and any other sensitive information but hopefully you can get the gist of our complaint.

 

 

I am writing in reference to my withdrawal from my HND Health and Social Care Course and the subsequent letters that I have received from you in regards to the fees apparently owed.

 

 

When I started this Course in 2014 I was led to believe that we would have tutor led lectures on a Tuesday and a Thursday which would aid our learning.

 

 

For a few weeks this started well and I was positive about the course that I had signed up for however, things then started to change.

 

The tutor xxxxxx and xxxxxxx (from the Learning Centre) then began to not turn up for lectures without warning which not only meant we were not getting the support that was promised but the majority of times we had turned up for no reason and had wasted a lot of my own personal time, money and effort.

 

 

xxxxxxx was then signed off on sick leave

 

 

until her replacement was in place I was left completely unsupported and without lecture support.

Even when the tutors that were supposed to be in on the Tuesday and Thursday lectures did bother to turn up,

the support we got was completely inadequate and when we handed work in it was on occasions handed back late

or in my case my work was lost completely and to my knowledge never recovered.

 

The inadequate support provided by xxxxxx and xxxxxxx and the poor handover to her replacement caused me huge amounts of stress at a time I was trying to complete my course to better myself whilst also holding down a full time job at Mencap looking after adults with learning disabilities and juggling childcare for my 2 children.

 

 

The stress that the inadequate support provided on this course was too much for me to continue and began to impact on my work and home life.

 

 

I know from other students that have also left the course and those still on it have also had similar cause for complaints and wish they had never started the course in the first place.

 

I am writing to let you know that the additional stress caused by my being chased for payment for a course where the tutor barely bothered to attend and when she did the support she provided was poor at best is unacceptable and that I am not willing to pay a single penny for a service that was promised and not delivered upon.

 

I hope that you investigate this case and can see that you as a University Centre failed to deliver a service on this course that you promised and will waive the fees that you are requesting with an apology for the stress caused both during my attendance at the lectures that I attended (with or without a tutor being there) and the follow on chasing for fees for a course that you did not adequately provide.

 

I look forward a quick and amicable solution to this issue before I am forced to seek legal consultation if this issue is not resolved. I also ask for you to place this account on hold until you resolve this issue.

[shamrocker]

Can you do as BankFodder suggested and post up the particulars of claim - hide any identifiable details such as reference numbers, etc.

 

^^^^^^

[determined45]

The details of the claim are as follows:

 

 

The claimant's claim is for 4,800.00 due to the Claimant from the defendant in respect of tuition fees invoiced to the defendant. The claimant further claims interest at the rate of 8% per annum under section 69 of the County Court Act 1984 on the said sum of 625.80.

 

 

And the claimant further claims interest under the above act at the rate of 1.05 per day from 29/06/2016 until judgment or earlier payment.

 

 

They then include the invoice that was submitted to us for the original tuition fees of 4,800.00.

 

 

The college's claimant agent is ACT Credit Management Ltd based in Harrow - 7 St Johns Road, HA1 2EE.

 

 

Hope this helps?

 

 

Many thanks

[shamrocker]

Cheers!

 

Tell us more about the course withdrawl process. What should your wife have done, and where is this documented?

[BankFodder]

Thank you, but it would be very much more helpful if you could scan and put up the original particulars of claim as asked.

 

Also, which college is it? What was the course?

 

You say that there are other people who experience problems and that there were some withdrawals. Have you any idea as to who those people might be and where they are now?

 

Have you done anything about searching the Internet as asked.

[dx100uk]

Urm..this smells of a private college???

[determined45]

There is no more info on the claim apart from the Claim Ref number and names of the defendant and claimant

- I typed all word for word.

 

The college is Yeovil College and the Course was HND Health and Social Care.

 

I will do some research on the internet later and ask the wife about any other people that withdrew or complained.

 

Here is the link to the colleges fees policy

: http://www.yeovil.ac.uk/Documents/Fee%20Policy%202015.pdf

 

 

Thanks

[BankFodder]

I'm very sorry, but I always err on the side of caution.

 

We prefer to have the original documents scanned up. Although you are getting the advice here for free, I think you have to pretend that you are paying the 2000 or £3000 that the advice is eventually worth and deal with us in the most efficient way. It is especially difficult when dealing on a forum so that we are asking questions and receiving answers at a distance and over time lag.

 

We are working for free and it makes it much easier for us if we can ask a number of questions and find that they are all answered at one go rather than having to chase for it in bits and pieces.

 

I'm sure that you are right that what you have typed is exactly the form, I'd like you to post the form please

[dx100uk]

thread title updated.

 

 

dx

[BankFodder]

Yeovil.

 

Well there is quite a lot we can do here, I think if you will get back to us with the information we have asked for.