Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/06/2022

  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.

  I was enrolled and completed a WEMT course through NOLS.
  Issue 1: When I applied I was late enrollment, and the representative I was talking to on the phone and emailing with confirmed that I would have 28 days to complete the prerequisites. At that time I was confident I could complete them, so I paid the full tuition. Only after I paid was I told by another representative that I would only have 10 days to complete them. I informed them of the conflicting information and they refused to go back to the 28 days. I applied past the refund date and I am not confident they would have refunded me if I was unable to complete the prerequisites.
  Issue 2: In the information packet provided by NOLS, it stated “The meal plan includes three bountiful, healthy meals per day, Monday through Friday.” That was not the case. Limited, unhealthy options every day. Until the cafeteria closed one evening and left us all without dinner. The next morning our instructor gave us each the choice to opt out of the meal plan and get a full refund of the balance remaining on our food cards after the class was over, or stick with the meal plan and deal with any inconsistencies. All but maybe 3 out of 24 opted out. After the class was completed, we all got emails saying that a refund of $350 would be applied to our accounts rather than the full balance. My remaining balance was over $550, and some others had over $600. NOLS has refused to honor the agreement that was made, and refuses to fully refund my classmates and I.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/06/2022

  The complaint alleges that we did not refund students who opted out of the meal plan the full amount of money remaining in their meal funds.

  The meals and lodging component of the tuition for this course was $1350, based on the contractual agreement with the College of the Siskiyous.  This amount further breaks down to $665 for meals and $650 for lodging.
  
  Our contract is to pay College of the Siskiyous $665 per student for food services (19 days at $35 per day).  We pay this amount regardless of how much or how little a student eats.  For this course, when the food service provided by College of the Siskiyous failed to meet the expectations, students were offered the opportunity to opt out of the meal plan after 9 days of meal service.  As such, NOLS paid CoS $315 (9 x $35) for the first 9 days for each student who opted out.  NOLS then refunded each student the remaining $350 of their meal costs.  We retained none of the meal money.
  
  
  I hope this clarifies the steps we have taken to provide refunds to the students who opted out of the meal plan.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/06/2022

  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  NOLS’s response fails to acknowledge the fact that all 24 of the students in the class were promised a full refund of the remaining balance when we were given the choice to opt out. We were not given any follow up information that would have contradicted this until after the program ended, and after our meal cards were voided. We were not given the choice with the information NOLS is providing now. I understand that NOLS had a contract with the College of the Siskiyous regarding the meal plan, which the college broke, but NOLS themselves also had a promise with the students of my class that we would be properly fed, which we were not. The response also fails to take note of the false claims in the information packet regarding the meal plan, as well as the previous contradictions during my application and my struggle with the prerequisite timeline that was caused by their lack of consistency. I am simply asking for my full meal card balance to be refunded, and for a change to be made in the travel and logistics document for future participants regarding the meal plan.
  
  
  
  

  Business Response

  Date: 02/06/2023

  Hi Clay,
  
  Thanks for the follow up.  
  
  With respect to the two issues this student logged in their most recent posting:
  
  Issue 1:
  This student has expressed concern with what might have happened, but did not happen.  They were able to meet the prerequisite requirements within the allotted time and were admitted to the course.  Our admissions team followed up with the student to apologize for the confusion with the deadlines.
  
  Issue 2:
  As stated in our initial response, we refunded all remaining meal money that we had for each student.  We paid the College for the contract amount due for each day of service, and when students dropped the meal plan we refunded the remaining amount to each student.  We are in the process of restructuring the contract for future courses with the College, and we did not include the meal plan for the current course.  Course materials for the current course were adjusted accordingly.
  
  I understand this student is unhappy, but we have addressed the issues to the best of our ability and will consider this closed.
  
  Thanks,
  Gates

  Customer Answer

  Date: 02/06/2023

  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Issue 1:
  There has been no formal apology from nols acknowledging their lack of communication that resulted in a crunched deadline. Had someone been kind and understanding, there would have been less of an issue, but nobody has been since my case was taken by Alicia. Or perhaps if someone had said something about the false deadline before I paid almost $5k in tuition. Please note this was after the refund deadline. So at the point where I was told my timeline would be cut, I wouldn’t have been able to get a refund on my tuition. I can’t help but see this as a trap. Since I had to cancel my original plans to complete the prerequisites, I suffered hundreds of dollars in lost wages and travel costs. 
  
  
  Issue 2:
  As I have stated before, our instructors of the course told us we would be refunded the total balance remaining on our cards when we chose to opt out. We received no further communication or updates from NOLS, who did have all of our contact information and could have notified us of any change in plans when they were made. Our instructors struggled to get further updates for us from NOLS admin. Instead, we were only told of changes after we completed the course and no longer had an opportunity to use our remaining balances. If we had been given all the information NOLS failed to relay to us, many of us would have chosen differently. Instead, deals regarding our money were made between nols and the college without our input. The current January class in Shasta have all received full refunds for the food portion of their tuition, an option that was not even available to us before the start of our session. 
  I firmly believe that the word given to us by our instructors should be honored, and that NOLS should be the one to eat the cost of their mistake rather than their students that had no opportunity to have a say in the matter.
  
  
  I do not feel as though any of the issues I have brought to attention have been properly addressed, but rather swept under the rug for the last several months in the hope that we would lose interest in continuing the discussion.
  
  
  Regards,
  
  
  
  *** *******