Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/05/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I was part of the undergraduate engineering program when I was enrolled at Eastern University. The engineering program consists of completing a mathematics degree from Eastern along with some undergraduate engineering courses at *********. I graduated from Eastern in May of 2021 with a degree in mathematics and was accepted into the master of engineering program at ********* earlier that same spring. I did not end up attending ********* for my masters in engineering, as my career settled elsewhere. In October of 2023 I received a bill from Eastern University. When I asked the student accounts office about the bill they claimed that I owe them this money because I did not complete the graduate program at *********. The terms of this program were not clearly explained to me, as I was under the impression that I only had to be accepted to the Villanova graduate program to successfully complete the engineering program at Eastern. There is no written, signed contract where the terms of this program were clearly laid out in writing. I also had a $0 balance bill at the time of my graduation; meaning all of my courses taken as an undergraduate were paid in full to Eastern. Eastern is now trying to extort tens of thousands of dollars from me two and a half years after my graduation from the institution. They are refusing to remove the charges after over two months of correspondence via email with their student accounts office, despite not being able to back their claims with any official documentation about the program. Eastern university has stopped responding to my emails as of early November. These charges need to be removed from my account as soon as possible.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/22/2023

  The short story is that ********* provides prerequisite courses at no charge through Eastern Univ so as the student starts and finished the graduate engineering program at *********. This program has been in place for more than 10 years and never has there been an issue because students are informed up front that if they do not complete the grad program ********* they will be responsible for the tuition costs associated with the perquisite courses they took at no cost. 

  Here is our last communication to ******************* and ****** on 12/22/2023:
  

  Hello *************,
  
  Thank you for your patience.  Please understand it is not the University's intent to directly place any financial burden on our students; however, we do have cost(s) associated with delivering educational program(s) not only directly through Eastern, but also other institutions, such as *********, whom we have programmatic agreements with. It was communicated to all students, which included ******, that if the graduate program was not completed the student would be responsible for the tuition of the prerequisite classes offered by *********. Please see the clause in our agreement with ********* that addresses this situation. Eastern is not adding any additional fees and ********* is only charging the part-time student tuition rate.   

  Payment for the ********* courses completed by ****** is required as she did not start and complete the designated MS in Engineering Degree program at ********* University as defined in section "a" of the requirements disclosed to student(s) prior to entering this program track:  On Friday October 13, 2023, we provided an itemization for the charge on the student account per ******'s request and she did confirm on November 15, 2023 that she completed the courses listed below:
  
  ******'s email on November 1, 2023,indicated that she was aware of the requirements for this program and I'd hoped to move forward by extending the following options as ways to resolve the balance.  First, is the option to start and successfully complete the MS in Engineering Degree at ********* University which would absolve her of these charges.  Or I can offer an extended due date of January 19, 2024, for payment in full or payment arrangement. Please let me know which option works best by Friday January 5, 2024.  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/26/2023

  [To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
  
   Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  1) I NEVER indicated that I was aware of the terms of the program that Eastern is claiming to be true. No one informed me that there would be financial implications if the grad program was not completed, the only stipulation I remember is that I had to be accepted to ********** graduate program. Which I was. I urge Eastern to read my email from 11/01 again where I solely confirmed that I took the courses at *********, not that the financial terms were presented to me and agreed to. Again, I was not aware that Eastern would charge me two and a half years after my graduation if I didn't complete the masters at *********. 

  I have asked COUNTLESS times for Eastern to provide documentation where the terms of this program were presented and agreed to by me at the outset of the program. They have failed to do so. The program is NOT no cost, I paid full time Eastern tuition for the ********* courses that I completed. All balances placed on my student account by Eastern University while I was enrolled were paid in full by the time of my graduation. 
  2) The screenshot provided here is seemingly the agreement between ********* and Eastern for the program. It seems that Eastern methodically and maliciously left out a large portion of this document. Eastern should provide the entire agreement between ********* and Eastern, which undoubtedly says that Eastern owes ********* money for such courses if a student does not complete the masters. But since Eastern failed to follow good business practices and did not present and have me formally agree to the terms of the program, I am not in debt to Eastern for this money. They will need to pay their own debts without extorting the money from their alumni.
  The intentional omission of that crucial detail in the Eastern-********* agreement document is called fraud.
  Eastern may remove the charges from my account, give me a letter stating that I do not now and will not ever owe them money for the courses I already paid for prior to my graduation in 2021, and apologize for their gross incompetence while handling this situation. 
  Also, I would appreciate if the BBB can please confirm that mine and my fathers names and personally identifiable information will be taken out of this complaint history before it is posted for the public, as *************************** apparently thinks it appropriate to share such information. An Eastern professor has already shared my billing status with other former students so such inappropriate and unprofessional behavior is unfortunately the norm at this university.
  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************