Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/07/2024

  Type:Product 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.

  On July 24, 2024 I paid $6895.00 to PrepScholar with my USAA **** credit card. After they had done their audit they realized that I had another account and contacted me with an email confirming a refund in full. ******* ******** and ****** *******, promised that my credit card account would credited. To this date I have been getting nothing but run-a-round from ******* tell me all kinds of stories about my refund being sent to ****** when I did not pay them via ******. All I want from these people is to refund my credit card as I am paying interest to the bank and it is not my fault. Here is the first correspondence form ******* at PrepScholar. "I hope you are well! I am writing to confirm that we have submitted your refund of $6,895.00 for processing today. Should be reflected in your account within a few business days." It is going four months.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/15/2024

  Hi ***********,

  We noticed that you submitted a double payment and immediately took action to notify you and issue a refund on our end. When you informed us that the refund hadnt appeared yet, we confirmed with our payment processor, ******, that the amount had been refunded to your original method of payment (credit card). We then provided you the instructions for verifying the status of the refund directly with ******.

  
  We fully understand that you paid via credit card, but as we explained in our emails, ****** is the platform/payment processor we use to process all debit and credit card transactions, including refunds.
  
  When the ******'s support team made a mistake when talking to you about your refund, we promptly reached back out to them and made sure they had detailed notes so that the next time you called, they would be able to easily find the transaction being referenced. We cannot take any further actions with the payment processor, as they're not allowed to share specific card details with us, and we do not have access to your bank account or credit card account.

  Sincerely,

  PrepScholar

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/04/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore 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.

  On April 25, 2023 we signed up for Prep Scholars ACT test prep course for $397 in an effort by our son to raise his ACT score enough to ****** him scholarship money from his chosen universities. He had taken the ACT test already in December 2022 and scored a 25 and again in April 2023, scoring a 26. He was hopeful for a ***** and the companys no strings attached claim on their website for a 4 point increase between test attempts or your money back was enticing. They suggested at least 40 hours of studying to complete the course and so we went ahead and tried it. The course lays out a study plan and assigns ******s to the student personalized to their needs based on a pre-test. Our son took the pre-test on April 30, 2023 and was on his way. He completed the 40 hours of studying, completing every ****** and quiz assigned to him only to find out every time he finished one, it would re-assign him the same topic. We found out that this is because students move through Core to Advanced to Mastery. He moved through Core to Advanced and even scored 100% on some of the Advanced topics, but was not moved into Mastery-level. The definition of completing each topic kept changing. The more ******s and quizzes he finished in a given topic, the more it assigned to him. It seemed like it was never-ending. Scoring 100% on every quiz every time to get to a mastery level was not achievable. He managed to reach mastery on a handful of topics (4), one (1) topic was paused, forty-five (45) topics had moved into the Advanced category and two (2) he struggled with remaining in Core (the beginning level). In dialogue with Prep Scholar, we learned a topic will be paused (considered mastery even though mastery wasnt really achieved) after three (3) unsuccessful attempts. However, our son would take four (4) quizzes and not have topics paused. I inquired about this anomaly and have not received a response.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/11/2023

  Hi ******, We're sorry to see that your son's score didn't increase as much as you'd hoped. Our score guarantee terms are displayed on our ACT terms of service page at **************************************************************. Additionally, in our in-program FAQ, we indicate that passing a quiz typically requires 90%+ in order to promote from core to advanced and advanced to mastery. Though he may have scored 100% on some ****** quizzes in a particular skill, his average on all ****** quizzes for a skill needs to be above 90% to achieve mastery in that skill. We explicitly do not require every student to master every skill to account for the fact that we serve students of various skill levels, and so we do pause skills after 3 attempts. The reason we have this requirement is that the process of interacting with our content is what helps students improve their performance on the ACT. Prior to this, we have received no concerns from the emails we have on file or other users regarding the software not working, or questions about why the same skill was repeated more than three times. Though the terms and conditions of the score guarantee were not met, we granted a refund on August 8, 2023. All the best, PrepScholar.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/11/2023

  [A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does satisfy my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint #********. I understand that by choosing to accept the business response that my complaint will be closed as resolved. 
  
  Regards,
  
  ***********************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/21/2022

  Type:Product 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.

  My daughter signed up for a trial subscription with Prepscholar without my permission. When I saw this charge on my credit card, I had her attempt to contact them to explain that she did not understand how much it cost, nor what they were going to charge by a certain date if she did not cancel. She sent an email on 8/12. The response that she got was they would not refund the card. Once she told me, I attempted 3 separate contacts with the company. They do not take phone calls for issues so this has all been through email (15, 16 & 18 August) explaining that I was unaware of this and did not approve this purchase and requesting they contact me for refund or resolution. The company has not responded to any of my correspondence regardless of me following the directions on their website as to how to communicate issues with them. I used the same email that my daughter was able to get a response from. I would like them to refund us our money. My daughter has not been using the services since we have been trying to get a refund so we can't even get a refund based on their guarantee at this point.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/30/2022

  Hi *****, 
   
  Your daughter's ACT account was closed and refunded on August 19th. You should have seen the amount reflected back into your account within a few business days.
  

  Sincerely, PrepScholar