Serious Venting here.. long post about Evil (Front Range Community College)
I just feel like venting and posting this elsewhere is not working for me so it'll go here for now...
Ok so I had been attending Aims Community College on a grant. However I decided to transfer to Front Range Community College due to the wonderful-seeming setup they have for distance learning. Because my coworkers and current work schedule can no longer allow a traditional school schedule.
In November I changed my FAFSA over to Front Range.
In December I registered for my classes.
About mid-December I emailed them to ask my status. They didn't reply. I waited a week and emailed again. No reply. I was unable to login to my account most of the month of December. I call to find out whats up and all I get is voice mail options so I leave a message with financial aid. No return call, so I call the next day, again I have to leave a message. I say "Pleeeeeease return my call, I really need to know whats going on, and hopefully before the holidays!" No return call. Christmas and New Years comes and goes. No reply. I leave another message and I find another email address online and I try that one. Finally a girl calls me back and she tells me that I didn't receive an email reply or any information online because their online setup was screwy throughout the month of December but she can't tell me why no one returned my phone calls. I tell her that I need to know the status of my financial aid/questions about my transfer credits/and what books do I need to buy? She says "oh, to start let me transfer you to financial aid" To which I get another voice mail and I leave another message. Now into January I am finally able to login to my account only to find that my classes are not listed (I assume the "system is still screwy" but my balance shows that I owe $10.50 so I am thinking that must mean my financial aid went through and paid most of it. But my classes are supposed to start next week and I still know nothing about what books I need nor has anyone returned my calls to answer my questions about transferring my credits. So I drove up there Jan 17th (after trying to call again several times, to no avail). First I go to advising and put my name on the list, they tell me it will be about 40 minutes so I decide to go over to financial aid and find out why they never called me back and if everything with financial aid is fine (as I thought it was). I wait in line for 20 minutes at financial aid and I tell her about all the messages I've left. She looks me up in her computer and says... "You're Jessi?? We thought you are a boy?"
"No, definately not a boy"
"Well, I swear I've talked to you"
"No, I would know if someone called me and talked to me (and if she did, she'd know I'm not a boy)".
"Well the hold-up is you need to fill this form out". (it is the exact same form I already filled out and faxed in! But she says I need to include my more tax information.)
"If this is all why didn't someone call me to tell me I need to do this???" She shrugs. So I fill it out correctly and have to wait 20 more minutes in line to give it to her so she can put it in the computer and she makes me fill out another form explainig why I edited the first form! She says I'm all set and off I went back to advising and sat there for a good 15 more minutes. Finally the advisors assistant came over to "assess" my situation to determine if I really need to talk to an advisor or not. I told her of my problems with no one returning my calls or emails for the past few months. She puts on this fake smile and says "Oh, I don't know about that.. we always return calls within 24 hours."
"Well you didn't and you didn't reply to my emails either!"
"Well maybe you had the wrong email address, if you tried to email the ccc facility?"
I begin to explain to her that I clicked the option "contact an advisor" on the Front Range website..."
She just looks at me like she's not even listening. "Well what is it you need to ask?"
Whatever, ok, so now I try and tell her first off I can't look up anything in my online account because it doesn't seem to be working, my classes aren't listed and that I still don't know what books I need to buy for my classes because no one will call me back!! So she goes and prints up some sort of report and comes over to tell me they dropped my classes on January the 5th because they weren't paid for!!! So I tell her about the whole financial aid fiasco and she says the only thing I can do is re-register and the financial aid will have to go through within 24 hours in order to start school! So she tells me to go back to financial aid to make sure I'm ok to re-register. I go back and wait in line for another really long time, longer than the first 2 times even. When I ask if the paperwork is going to go through within 24 hours so I can re-register she says "No, this won't take affect for 3 weeks, but if payment is due within 24 hours you'll have to pay for your classes until your financial aid is approved."
"That is over a thousand dollars! And this would have been taken care of 3 weeks ago or more if you would have just returned my call!!!!"
"Well we can set you up on a payment deferrment plan, but it costs an extra $30 and blah blah blah"
(my eyes glazed over at this point) and I just walked out.
I have such a headache.
When I got home I called the dean of students about all of this. She seemed very nice at first and said she'd do some research into the situation and call me back. She did call me back, and told me pretty much what I already told her. "Well there was a hold up because you still needed to fill out another form"
"I know, I told you that, but my point is, it was the exact same form and had someone returned my call I would have taken care of this a month ago and been able to start my classes!"
"We typically do not contact students to tell them if there is an error in their paperwork because we have so many students missing information."
"So, I wasn't going to know until I asked, yet I asked and no one returned my call, and you're saying this is how things work there?"
"Yes"
"Then I won't be attending this school and I don't feel I should have to pay the registration fee either."
"I am sorry to hear that and no, we will refund your registration fee."
GRRRR...
Ok so I had been attending Aims Community College on a grant. However I decided to transfer to Front Range Community College due to the wonderful-seeming setup they have for distance learning. Because my coworkers and current work schedule can no longer allow a traditional school schedule.
In November I changed my FAFSA over to Front Range.
In December I registered for my classes.
About mid-December I emailed them to ask my status. They didn't reply. I waited a week and emailed again. No reply. I was unable to login to my account most of the month of December. I call to find out whats up and all I get is voice mail options so I leave a message with financial aid. No return call, so I call the next day, again I have to leave a message. I say "Pleeeeeease return my call, I really need to know whats going on, and hopefully before the holidays!" No return call. Christmas and New Years comes and goes. No reply. I leave another message and I find another email address online and I try that one. Finally a girl calls me back and she tells me that I didn't receive an email reply or any information online because their online setup was screwy throughout the month of December but she can't tell me why no one returned my phone calls. I tell her that I need to know the status of my financial aid/questions about my transfer credits/and what books do I need to buy? She says "oh, to start let me transfer you to financial aid" To which I get another voice mail and I leave another message. Now into January I am finally able to login to my account only to find that my classes are not listed (I assume the "system is still screwy" but my balance shows that I owe $10.50 so I am thinking that must mean my financial aid went through and paid most of it. But my classes are supposed to start next week and I still know nothing about what books I need nor has anyone returned my calls to answer my questions about transferring my credits. So I drove up there Jan 17th (after trying to call again several times, to no avail). First I go to advising and put my name on the list, they tell me it will be about 40 minutes so I decide to go over to financial aid and find out why they never called me back and if everything with financial aid is fine (as I thought it was). I wait in line for 20 minutes at financial aid and I tell her about all the messages I've left. She looks me up in her computer and says... "You're Jessi?? We thought you are a boy?"
"No, definately not a boy"
"Well, I swear I've talked to you"
"No, I would know if someone called me and talked to me (and if she did, she'd know I'm not a boy)".
"Well the hold-up is you need to fill this form out". (it is the exact same form I already filled out and faxed in! But she says I need to include my more tax information.)
"If this is all why didn't someone call me to tell me I need to do this???" She shrugs. So I fill it out correctly and have to wait 20 more minutes in line to give it to her so she can put it in the computer and she makes me fill out another form explainig why I edited the first form! She says I'm all set and off I went back to advising and sat there for a good 15 more minutes. Finally the advisors assistant came over to "assess" my situation to determine if I really need to talk to an advisor or not. I told her of my problems with no one returning my calls or emails for the past few months. She puts on this fake smile and says "Oh, I don't know about that.. we always return calls within 24 hours."
"Well you didn't and you didn't reply to my emails either!"
"Well maybe you had the wrong email address, if you tried to email the ccc facility?"
I begin to explain to her that I clicked the option "contact an advisor" on the Front Range website..."
She just looks at me like she's not even listening. "Well what is it you need to ask?"
Whatever, ok, so now I try and tell her first off I can't look up anything in my online account because it doesn't seem to be working, my classes aren't listed and that I still don't know what books I need to buy for my classes because no one will call me back!! So she goes and prints up some sort of report and comes over to tell me they dropped my classes on January the 5th because they weren't paid for!!! So I tell her about the whole financial aid fiasco and she says the only thing I can do is re-register and the financial aid will have to go through within 24 hours in order to start school! So she tells me to go back to financial aid to make sure I'm ok to re-register. I go back and wait in line for another really long time, longer than the first 2 times even. When I ask if the paperwork is going to go through within 24 hours so I can re-register she says "No, this won't take affect for 3 weeks, but if payment is due within 24 hours you'll have to pay for your classes until your financial aid is approved."
"That is over a thousand dollars! And this would have been taken care of 3 weeks ago or more if you would have just returned my call!!!!"
"Well we can set you up on a payment deferrment plan, but it costs an extra $30 and blah blah blah"
(my eyes glazed over at this point) and I just walked out.
I have such a headache.
When I got home I called the dean of students about all of this. She seemed very nice at first and said she'd do some research into the situation and call me back. She did call me back, and told me pretty much what I already told her. "Well there was a hold up because you still needed to fill out another form"
"I know, I told you that, but my point is, it was the exact same form and had someone returned my call I would have taken care of this a month ago and been able to start my classes!"
"We typically do not contact students to tell them if there is an error in their paperwork because we have so many students missing information."
"So, I wasn't going to know until I asked, yet I asked and no one returned my call, and you're saying this is how things work there?"
"Yes"
"Then I won't be attending this school and I don't feel I should have to pay the registration fee either."
"I am sorry to hear that and no, we will refund your registration fee."
GRRRR...