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Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 7:37 pm Subject:

thanks moondanzer, I really appreciate it.

My state is a one-party state when it comes to recording phone calls, so I can easily do that without breaking the law. And I know exactly who I need to call, too....I had a conversation with one guy at ITT that lasted nearly an hour, and that guy turned around in his "official" statement and claimed that I told him I left school for personal and financial reasons....when the only reason I left is because they refused to help me.

I have one more piece of evidence--telephone records. Most of the calls took place on my cell phone. So, at this point, I am up to my neck in the phone bills for the last three months, singling out each and every telephone call made to or received from anyone up there at ITT. This is really going to make them look stupid--they claim that I only notified one instructor, and then she kept trying to find me with no response. So, when I show them the phone calls that I made--more than one a week--to that instructor to keep her updated, that's one. Then, I will show them the multiple calls made from their "academic support office" phone numbers. Again, more than one per week. The phone bill will also show the length of the call, so it will be plainly obvious to anyone that I spoke to many people many times about this problem. Man....I saw their "official" response, and I got so pissed off. And from that came all the energy to tear into all the records and old emails.

There is a lesson for all of us in this one--be sure to NEVER GET RID OF ANY EMAILS or other communications in such situations--you never know when an old email will save your bacon!!

To be continued...thanks to all of you for your input!!

Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 5:23 am Subject:

Another update...

I spent a half hour on the phone last night with a guy from ITT. They have officially refused to give me what I want, which is a full refund of all tuition. That's right, I want it all refunded, because ITT agreed to provide me an education, not just one semester that I cannot use anywhere else. They refused to even provide a refund of the second semester, which they kept 50% of the tuition for. Get this--I was told that they refused to refund any money because I MADE THE CHOICE TO DROP THE PROGRAM.....

Am I off base here? Isnt there supposed to be some sort of protection in place so that a business cannot fail to deliver on its promises and keep peoples money like this? I dropped from the program because they had already begun dropping me from classes for no attendance, and if I stayed, they would only have taken more money and made my debt go up! Am I wrong in thinking that a "reasonable person" would assume that withdrawal was the only option at that point? The guy actually told me that it might be different if I didnt drop out of it myself--he actually said that I would have a case if I stayed enrolled and let them continue taking money out of my pocket for nothing!

Anyhoo, I finally have a day off today, calling an attorney to discuss this matter. Ever since I informed ITT that I have proof of my original conversation and other attempts to get this fixed, their excuse has been "well, you voluntarily left the program, that is not our fault".

One other thing--the guy actually had the nerve to ask me why I didnt demand to speak to other people in tech support. It apparently doesnt matter to them that I spoke to two tech support people, two instructors, four academic support counselors, the head of the academic support team, and had the dean of students and the online program chairperson all involved--he actually told me that "it must not have been very important to you if you didnt push to speak to more people in tech support....". He said to me, "suppose you were ITT, and I was a student. Suppose I had a technical problem. Does it make sense for me to speak to the guy that cleans the toilets, or should I instead speak to tech support?"

So apparently, for all of you out there, if you ever attend this school, dont expect that anyone there would actually be responsible for customer service--even though it is the job of everyone I spoke with, that clearly doesnt matter. More to come...

Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 9:11 pm Subject:

ok, all--this is the end of this one.

I filed a complaint with the Indianapolis BBB some time back. ITT sent the BBB their response....basically, the VP of online operations issued a statement that ITT denied that I ever reported the technical problem, and since none of their employees had any knowledge of the report that I claimed I filed in March, they refused to do anything about the issue.

That was it...until....

I produced an email that I had sent to the tech support guy back in March, giving him a screen shot of the error message I kept getting when trying to log into their system. The specific tech support guy, his name is Andre, he was contacted by one of the deans some months ago, and emailed her a reply that he had never had that contact with me in March, and he said that had he known I had a problem he would have done more to help me. SO....when all of a sudden I forward onto the VP of the school this email to Andre, I asked him three questions:

1--how did I know this person even existed within ITT Tech unless I spoke to him or someone else that knew him?

2--How would I know Andre's email address to be able to send him this email if no contact took place?

3--I used terminology in my reports to the school and support staff that is specific to ITT Tech....how would I know that specific terminology unless someone there had said it to me?

I then asked him a fourth question when I got no reply to all that---

4--Why is your employee lying to cover his butt, and damaging my reputation in the process?

Out of the blue, last week, I got an email from the Indy BBB office....with ITT Tech's final response on this complaint. They refunded ALL of the money for the entire time I was enrolled, including the first semester which was successfully completed. It turns out that their credits are non-transferrable to most schools, and so that semester was useless to me unless I went back to school at ITT. I told them that since they wasted that money by default with their refusal to fix their technical problem, that I wanted it all refunded. They initially refused, and then when I emailed the VP that copy of the March email, I informed him that I was speaking to my congressional representatives for my state, and that I would pursue legal action if need be. SO THEY REFUNDED ALL THE MONEY!!

I checked with Sallie Mae and the balance is down to nothing.....WOW...what a little persistence can do for you!!

Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 12:35 am Subject:

Too bad there's no refund for wasted time.

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 10:31 pm Subject:

ok...so I thought this one was over...apparently it isnt

I have been gettting calls all over the place from Sallie Mae, claiming that I am past due on this loan. When I look at the statements they send me, and on their website, I see the following information for account history:

Original principal balance--$2,767.00

Disbursement made--03/08/2007

Payment made: $1429.42 on 05/07/2007
Payment made: $1337.58 on 08/02/2007

When you add these two numbers up, they come to exactly the principal amount.

So, interest was added to the balance in October, after the prinicpal was already paid off. They added $171.06 on 10/11/2007 in capitalized interest.

I am now being told that I owe a total of $466.56. Up until the other day, not one single person I spoke with at SLM had any idea where this amount came from. Each person that looked over my account told me that the numbers didnt make sense. I was passed around from one person to another, until finally I was told by one guy that there is a disbursement fee of over $250.00 on this loan. Well, I have had three identical loans through SLM, this being the third, and there was never any such fee. Even on their website, their own information states that the type of loan I have carries no such fee. Yet here they are, after the fact, trying to get me to pay it.

This is turning out to be the single biggest pain in the back side ever....

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