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:10/24/2024

  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.

  My child was enrolled at Sylvan Learning Center in Topeka Kansas. Early August the center abruptly closed. We were told that we would be refunded for the remaining sessions ($430) by the end of September but that hasn’t happened. I call and email a couple times a week and leave messages. There has been no communication back from them.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 11/04/2024

  Thank you for the update. ***** ********* contacted me on October 31st. He indicated he would refund $550 for the sessions we didn’t get to use. The refund has not yet shown up in my account. Please keep this matter active until the refund is received. Thanks again!

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/11/2024

  Type:Billing 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 took my son in for help. Sylvan completely disregarded the accommodations for reading on a 504, visual processing disorder and specifically dyseidetic. The staff could not answer any questions. When I picked up my son, he told me they left him in a room by himself and it was terrible. No one was greeting or assisting any customers, they just let you sit there. No assistance. After evaluating the process of what the company does. This program is highway robbery. I brought up my complaint with Joseph who told me there would be no charge and he was sorry. Never received a bill until two years later and 99.00 has been turned into collections. The assessment is advertised for 29.99. I am not sure this is not a scam. This was two years ago.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/01/2024

  Hello,

  I spoke with ********* about the issues she had brought up.  I apologized to her about her concerns.  We walked through why we were attempting to collect, and both agreed that there were many issues with how things were handled.  In light of this as an organization we decided to call off collections.  Credit World is not a scam, they are a collections agency.  

  Thank you,

  *****

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/24/2023

  Type:Billing 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.

  Fourth Director since October 2022 Has promised math instruction during summer did not provide Totally disorganized Told had prepaid through July of next year and then Told would owe in September then told I owed $680 for August I calculated units used and sent to them asked for there attendance records never got They have discounted bill to 299, but I show they owe for at least one session not received and credit for not providing math instruction as promised

  Business Response

  Date: 10/26/2023

  We have had a decent amount of turnover in the director position there in Topeka, we are now breaking out the position to one center director per center (the position use to include the Manhattan Center however we will be staffing both fully).  We are also now taking our time to select the best candidates possible.  With our new goals in place we are striving to have a director for the long haul.
  Disorganization is to be expected with this much turnover but is zero excuse for what happened.  We do apologize for any difficulties this has brought up.  Our Director of Education Operations is currently running the Topeka Center and before her current position had 2+ years of experience being a Center Director.
  There was a situation where our now terminated center director did not notice that the family’s prepayment had run out of funds.  This is the point that is being made in the compliant.  This was an oversight and correct measures was given due to said mistake.   I will put down below email communication about the back and forth regarding the overcharge and what was done to correct said overcharge.  In short since the prepayment ran out the family was charged the full amount for our session cost.  Once noticed this was corrected and since there was this oversight we discounted the sessions back to the pre-payment session rate.  This discount dropped the charge to $295.65.  Claimant only wanted to pay $200 and did so.  At this time, we were willing to call this fine and go our separate ways.  Claimant is correct in stating that attendance records were not sent, the email from our Director of Education Operations lined out the reasons for the charges however.  If there are any more disputes on sessions that have now popped up, please work with myself the owner (****************************).  I thought this considered done after the initial settlement.
  The math situation was another unfortunate oversight from our now terminated Center Director.  The prior director that walked out with no two weeks had the agreement with claimant about the math sessions to my understanding/notes.  This was not transferred over to the now terminated Center Director and no math enrollment was created due to this.  No math services were rendered so not sure what credit should be given and we were not made privy to any promises along these lines.  I do very much dislike to hear that this math enrollment was missed and understand their frustration.  Our Director of Education Operations did discount the bill to the original pre-pay due to this math situation.
  Again, please reach out to that above email with what you are still claiming or through this BBB process.  I am not 100% sure how it all works but either way let me know so we can wrap this all up.  It is not clear what you are wanting in the compliant.
  Email from our Director of Education Operations to Claimant:
  Sent: Friday, August 25, 2023 2:47 PM Subject: STUDENT - Sylvan Learning Account Importance: High Good afternoon! Our Center Director let me know that you had some questions and concerns regarding your account and student sessions.  I have looked at great length at your account and verified sessions laid out with prior center director at the beginning of the summer to make sure everything is correct according to the calendar you provided us. I am sorry that Math Essentials was not a part of student’s sessions this summer.  With the Director turnover the scheduling of that did fall through the cracks and I am very sorry about that! I have attached a copy of your Account activity for your review.  I have indicated your payments for the 60 and 40 session packages, along with session counts billed/paid for each month.  There were also some June sessions that had been manually added by prior center director that were later omitted (in purple) so you were not charged for those, nor did you pay for those.  Also, students Math was never billed out for any sessions so you did not pay for any Math services either. The 100 sessions total that you purchased were used up by the end of July.  In August, there were 5 sessions that student attended and those are the sessions that still have a balance due.  I have also put in a discount on all of those sessions that matches the session rate you were previously paying.  This was due to the mix-up with the Math sessions not happening and the lack of communication on our part regarding your prepayment running out of funds. With all of this being said and the $200 check that you have submitted this week, there is still a balance due of $95.65.  There will be no more billing on your account since students last day was 8/19. Please reach out with any questions and let us know when to expect the $95.65 either via check or credit/debit card. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/24/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  UnansweredMore 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 was enrolled to take tutoring in April 2022. She began tutoring when school was out in June. She attended 1-3 days a week from June until the end of July. In August, I asked to cancel for the month as I was told that I had access to the remaining hours for a certain period of time. I contacted Shay ****** about getting hours set up on August 15th. She responded and said that I could not cancel for the month because I had not cancelled by the 15th of the month. I emailed her on August 20th and received no response. I continued to email her about the remaining hours or a refund. I received no response. I emailed Shay ****** (assistant director) and Kimberley ******, who was listed as a director on 10/12/22. Again to set up tutoring or a refund. I received no response from either. I emailed again on 10/19/22,10/23 and 10/28/2022, 11/10/22 with no response. I emailed another director (Kristin *****o )on 12/9/22 again asking for a return and received no response. ** ***** ********* ** ******* ** *** ** ******** ********* They did not work on what we asked and took our money without allowing her to attend her remaining hours that we already paid for and did not respond when I asked for a refund.