Kennedy Western refund HELP!

Does anyone know how to get a refund from Kennedy-Western?

Unfortunately I signed this document at the beginning:

"A student has seven days from the date of registration to cancel his application and registration and the school may retain not more than $50.00. For a student requesting cancellation of his/her registration after seven days from the date of registration, the refund made will be based on the length of time a student has been registered. 75% of total tuition amount will be refunded if the written request is received within the first 90 days from the date of registration. 50% of total tuition amount will be refunded if the written refund request is received between 91 – 180 days from the date of registration. 25% of total tuition amount will be refunded if the written refund request is received between 181 – 270 days from the date of registration. Tuition will not be refunded if the written refund request is received beyond 271 days from the date of registration."

I think its 300 days after I signed the registration.
I will have lost $5100. It was all paid with a credit card but
I had paid the card off.

If anyone has any creative ways of knowing how to get this money back Id be more than grateful. I might even consider giving you a percentage. I already tried saying I was
laid-off from my job. That didnt work.

Regardless, Im currently going to start an online program at a real school. Rochester Institute of Technology.

Thanks....

Signed, Duped

 

Ouch.

That's a great deal of money to lose. Unfortunately, in general, we're bound by the contracts we sign, whether we understand them entirely or not.

May I suggest that the amount you're talking about sounds like the ENTIRE tuition fee for a K-W course? Perhaps you could argue that you rescinded the contract long before K-W was called upon to perform more than a portion of it?

What caused you to rescind? I mean, if you'd already paid for the whole thing...

DON'T answer this question on this, or any other, forum! REPEAT! DON'T ANSWER HERE!

Instead, spend $100 or so to consult an attorney!

DO IT TODAY!

Nosborne, JD

 

It sounds like you're obligated for the tuition--they've rendered their services based upon the amount of time you were enrolled. But that doesn't mean you can't take action. Some ideas:

1. Look at warrantability. Did they deliver what they promised? Is there a material breach here because they didn't/couldn't? Can you show that they are not a real university?

2. Get an attorney. Expect to spend about what you'll get back, though, if not more.

3. Kick up a fuss. Contact them, telling them you're interested in settling the matter before taking them to small claims court. Call the BBB. Call the Wyoming education officials who license them (as if they care). They might be willing to send you back some of the tuition in return for you going quiet--their business is particularly subject to bad publicity. Speaking of which, you might want to find a friendly ear in the media....

 

You don't happen to live in Oregon do you? If so, this could be very interesting, because the degree is illegal in Oregon.

Even if you don't live there, you might consider calling your credit card company and explaining to them that at the time you did not know (I'm assuming this is the case) that you were buying something that could get you arrested in parts of this country. Maybe they'll initiate a chargeback. I doubt it, but it's possible.

Ask friends to recommend a good attorney. They might be able to get at least part of the money back. Again, I kinda doubt it, but it's worth a shot.

And if it comes down to it, I would take the damn classes and get the degree (while working on a legit degree.) Force them to hold up their end of the bargain. At worst, you will learn something.

I mean, you can learn a lot from the Discovery Channel, and it's not regionally accredited. But you wouldn't exactly want to advertise the source of your knowledge on your resume.

Jeff

 

California does have a tuition recovery fund . . . but I believe it only relates to schools based in California. Wait a minute, Kennedy-Western is based in California. I wonder if there is a lawyer who might enjoy suing the Bureau of Private Post Secondary (etc.) for dereliction of duty, since they decline to require a California based school to participate in the tuition recovery fund because said school's "campus" is (as reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education) a basement office in Wyoming staffed by two clerks.

You might consider small claims court, wherever you are located. I learned in resarching my book on effective complaining, that they are traditionally very consumer-friendly. The further you are from California, the less likely they'd be even to show up. And if you got a judgment, there are procedures for collecting by attaching bank accounts, etc. All this done without a lawyer. Nolo Press has a very helpful book on the process.

Good luck. Let us know what you decide to do and how it works.

 

Kennedy Western refund HELP!

Thanks for all the suggestions. I live in Pennsylvania, btw.

The reason I decided to cancel my registration with Kennedy-Western was a guilty conscience. Unfortunately, it caught up with me too late. lol I decided I couldnt go thru life with a shady degree hanging over my head.

I sent another email to my "guidance counselor" there asking if I could talk to someone higher up concerning my refund. This is
all under the notion that Ive been layed-off, mind you. Hey, if theyre willing to screw me out of $5100 then I can play the game too. That amount was for the entire degree, btw. They provided no services to even justify taking the money. I had to pay for the books. Heres KW in a nutshell: 1. You buy books. 2. You take online multiple choice test with open book. 3. If you screw up the test you can take it again until you pass it.

If they wont budge on giving me any refund, I just might complete the damn thing for the heck of it, just to learn. The books I did get are good. But it doesnt take a rocket scientist to pick out good books. I could charge someone $5100 for picking out books for them to read.

Im checking out Rochester Institute of Technology right now and Im very impressed. And no guilty conscience.

 

Re: Kennedy Western refund HELP!

At http://www.kw.edu/degree.asp , it says: "Kennedy-Western University guarantees that its curriculum is comparable in academic quality and substance to that found in any college or university in the United States. Curriculum, as defined in this statement, includes learning objectives and accompanying textbooks."

Theoretically, you could argue in court that multiple-choice open-book exams are a betrayal of that guarantee.

Practically, they would respond that it should not have taken you 300 days to figure that out. They could also serve you with discovery, and demonstrate your "lost job" to be a lie, which would lose you the sympathy of the judge or jury.

 

I have had some experience with small claims court in California. Getting a judgement is the easy part, collecting on that judgement is were it gets complicated.

 

small claims in California

John Bear wrote:

> You might consider small claims court, wherever you are
> located. [...] The further you are from California, the less likely
> they'd be even to show up.

In order for a suit to be filed in a court in County X, either the cause of action must have occurred in County X, or the defendant must live in County X. Where the plaintiff lives is irrelevant.

Furthermore, in California, the Code of Civil Procedure requires that for small claims, the defendant must be served in California. You can't sue someone who lives outside California, unless he happens to be in California at the time you have the complaint served on him. (You can't serve it yourself, either.) I know: I had to dismiss a small claims case and re-file it in superior court, precisely because the defendant had moved out of state.

PlumbDog10 wrote:

> Getting a judgement is the easy part, collecting on that
> judgement is where it gets complicated.

When my defendant wouldn't pay the judgment, I just turned it over to a collection agency. They got a 40% cut, but that was cheaper than stalking the defendant in Arizona myself.

 

But where does the "cause of action" occur when the purchaser lives in Pennsylvania, and the merchant is located in California, (but licensed in Montana), and uses a domain name registered to a company in Alberta, Canada and apparently operated from a company located in the UK.??

Moreover, if you claim that the cause of action occurred in Pennsylvania, would they be required to come there to prove that it didn't?

 

It's a sad situation, but I have a hard time being completly sympathtic. You entered into a contract, with the intentions of gaining a degree through questionable methods, only to realize it was a mistake. Now you're asking the members of this forum, most of whom spend alot of time arguing against this method, to give you advice on how to break what seems to be a legal contract.

It seems to me, you should consider the whole thing a loss and move on.

 

Yes....I am just going to move on. At least I will work that much harder at the new school.

Wish I had known of this site earlier. But I am also at fault, for sure.

 

Re: Kennedy Western refund HELP!

If you get no refund at all, at least you don't go through life with the "shady degree hanging over [your] head."

 

This is true....and I guess thats priceless

 

"At http://www.kw.edu/degree.asp , it says: "Kennedy-Western University guarantees that its curriculum is comparable in academic quality and substance to that found in any college or university in the United States. Curriculum, as defined in this statement, includes learning objectives and accompanying textbooks." "

"Theoretically, you could argue in court that multiple-choice open-book exams are a betrayal of that guarantee. "

Since they get to make the definitions, I am inclined to believe that the use of the term "learning objectives" only requires that you meet the same standards as "any college or university in the United States." Any means ANY...not the best for sure. Meets their standards.
Textbooks? Haven't seen them...but requiring the same texts doesn't mean the knowledge required in their exams meets that required at UC Berkeley, Stanford, etc.

Open Book? Hardest exams ever I took were Graduate take homes from Stanford and open book in class at Stanford. Of course we had the Honor System...which I never saw abused at Stanford.
I DID see it abused at another local school...and half the class turned in the responsible party. (Same fellow that insisted that his family's honor would be harmed if I didn't give him an A.)

 

Product for your money

I am sorry that you are not able to obtain the refund you seek. To K-W's advantage, they likely feel why did it take 300 days before you approached them for a refund. If it truly is a fianancial hardship you are experiencing, call your credit card company and negotiate.

I am not here to defend K-W, nor am I an appologist, as I did not feel K-W "ripped me off", yet this is my experience not yours.

However, I would reccomend that you should at least get your monies worth and complete the remaining classes at K-W and write the final paper/thesis. If not anything else, at least you'll have a degree from a WY state licensced post secondary program. Also, it will show prospective employers that at least you completed a course of study (if you drop-out after one year already invested, that may cause more concern). Then explain that you are pursuing an Accredited Degree, for professional purposes. 5K is a lot of money to give away, for no product in return, however substandard you feel it is. The school is not a charity so at least complete the degree to demonstrate the 300 days you invested thus far. Then turn around and CLEP test comparable courses at RIT; you'll have that many less classes to complete, and have incurred additional savings. In addition, for an undergrad degree, you may be able to submit your final project as part of a portfolio for additional credit.

 

RJT IS the definition of an apologist for the degree mill KW. Under no circumstances would I finish a degree mill program like KW. You are much better off forgeting the waste of time and money and moving on. I certainly would use CLEP tests to finish an RA degree that you can be proud of. In any event, good luck!

 

I don't understand this thinking. Sure, I would not suggest ever actually using the degree.

While it may be substandard, it's still education. They do actually have some classes of some sort. And at this point, it's free.

As long as you never use the degree, no one will ever know, so I don't see what harm it could do. Maybe I'm missing something.

 

Rich: Even a "free" degree from K-WU is too expensive.


Bill wise cracks: For most people the negative damage done to one's reputation would make such a degree too expensive. What about someone that has a horrible reputation. One that is so bad that not even a K-W degree could damage it. Would "free" be too expensive for someone like say Jeffery Dahmer?