Spitefulness and Terrible Customer Service

I have had probably one of the worst experiences with Varsity College Midrand. Having been in the customer service game for most of my working life, this has to be one of the worst I have experienced. but i want to say upfront, that this is NOT an IIE problem but has proven to be a Varsity College Midrand problem. As I have not had experience with other campuses I cannot refer to them in this review.

In around October 2017 I started helping my girlfriend get into college. As she could not get into university at this stage our only option was to find a college. We saw an adverti*****t on television on Varsity College so that was our first stop. The student advisor who helped us was a very good sales person in the way that she managed to convince us that Varsity College Midrand (VC) was the best place for her to go, which I realise is her job. Right from the start though we had explained that finance was a problem. We were reassured that we have time to sort that out. January came and it was now time to apply. Again we went in to the campus but explained that finances was still very much a problem. we started looking around for other places to go but none of them offered (what we were sold) the IIE Certification.

We had already paid the application fee but did not have the money for the registration fee. We were told they would send us the bill of costs and proof of registration so that we could go get a bank loan (we had to ask numerous times for this to be sent to us). Once we received the bill of costs and acceptance letter, the two people that could stand surety were declined. This left us in a problem. At this stage we had not signed the "person responsible for the account" section as we didn't know who it was going to be but she did sign the registration form. We again approached the student adviser about the fact that we had no funding and we were then put through to the Marketing Manager. They both said (and I will own up to this) that she can start class but the finances were to be sorted out before middle of March as not to interfere with the audit that was going to take place and that we take a risk by putting her into class that we might be liable for the classes she attends.

One last attempt at another bank to get funding. I could not stand surety as I am self employed there was nothing more we could do but my girlfriend had now attended 2 classes. While at school my girlfriend was call to the student advisors office as her registration was still in the pending phase and needed to be completed. The only part that was missing was the "Person responsible for the account" section. She was asked to fill this out but the problem was we did not have the funding she was told to just right her moms name in that section. it was never signed my her mother and as I was not there I could not advise my girlfriend what to do, so she filled out the section with her moms details but her mom NEVER signed. The bank called us back and asked why are we applying for such an expensive place and we told the consultant that its because its an IIE and BAC registered college and we wanted that certification. The consultant the asked us why we are not going to ROSEBANK COLLEGE! (RC) we were informed that they have the exact same qualifications as they are under the same company IIE! we confirmed this with Rosebank college and found out for the same course my girlfriend would be paying R15500 excluding text books (which are also cheaper at RC than at VC for the same thing) compared to the R53 000 excluding text books for the SAME course.

Now maybe its just my belief that a sales person should do what is right for the customer and not for themselves that made me incredibly angry. We were now 3 weeks into the year only to find out that VC Midrand could have told us there was a cheaper option, they KNEW our financial problems from day one, yet refrained from telling us about RC. I am aware that they are two different entities but of the SAME group that being IIE! They had purposely NOT told us about RC because they wanted their R53 000 regardless of whether it was going to put us into serious financial troubles.

We immediately went to RC and registered but due to the fact that there was a registration "pending" at VC we could not register her. We called and went to speak to VC who then told us we had to pay 50% of the year fee because we were cancelling! that is R25 000!!!!!! not for a cancel but a TRANSFER, we were being penalised by doing a transfer from one IIE college to another. VC kept telling us that we had to DE-REGISTER only for the reason that it would mean it was a cancellation and not a transfer. I asked the VC student advisor/sales lady why we were never told and her answer was this "Pick 'n Pay wouldn't tell you about Woolworths would they". Unfortunately this wasn't the correct as it would be more Checkers towards Shoprite! and yes I would tell the customer and have done many times in my working career as I believe that you should what is best for the customer and not yourself. when leaving VC was still charging me R25 000.

I decided to call David McConnell, the Principle of VC Midrand, I explained the story. It took a day for him to reply but I did get a reply. it was what i found to be a very confusing reply but it took one of the account ladies to confirm that the answer was this: We were going to have to pay a R10 000 cancellation fee because she attended what I think was 3 classes as VC. I was not happy at this as we would not be in this position at all if we were just told about RC in the first place when they knew finance was a problem. I resorted to calling IIE head office!

I will state this the quality of service that I received from IIE (Liz King and Isthembiso) was brilliant. they went out of their way to understand what had happened and tried to resolve the problem but VC was keeping to their cancellation story and not transfer and that we knew if class was attended she would be charged. As I have said previously I admit that BUT that was if we CANCELLED it was not discussed about a TRANSFER. Rosebank College staff were impeccable they helped us in every way they could from the student advisor Teboho her boss Soloman, the accounts manager and even the principle, everybody was trying to help us. At this stage VC refused to release my girlfriends student number so she could not register at RC.

Finally after a week VC finally admitted that its a transfer and the principle told Liz King that he has already given the go ahead for the release of the student number BUT he still wants his R10 000 regardless of the fact that it was a transfer. the only change he made was that we had to pay the R10 000 to RC and RC will forward the money to them.

Even though 3 days have passed the student number has still not been released and as of this morning Friday 09 March we still owe VC R53 000. they have done NOTHING to help us. and every day that passes my girlfriend has NO access to the student portal, no study notes etc etc.... the staff at RC are trying the best to help but it is blatantly clear that VC is being nasty and spiteful. this was supposed to be resolved a week ago but VC is holding everything up ON PURPOSE......

I truly hope that someone high up in the chain of command at IIE will read this and see how badly VC midrand is treating customers....I will NEVER recommend any VC college to anyone thanks to Midrand.

Rosebank College and their staff, IIE thank you for your help you have been great. as we sitting here the student number has STILL not been released. in fact I got a call from a VC credit controller wanting to know about our payments. this is AFTER David McConnell has said that he has given the go ahead to do the transfer 3 days ago. of course the credit controller said she would call me back to let me know whats happening, she didn't, I called her back and guess what no info because, David McConnell as with all his team, 60% of the time are in a meeting and probably wont return anyones calls.