ComplaintsforGarden State Real Estate Academy

• Initial Complaint

  09/18/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I paid to attend the **** starting 9/12/2023 with no intentions of cancelling my course. On my first day I attended in person as suggested. The teacher spoke extremely quickly and often times slurred words together making it quite difficult for me to hear as I have a substantial hearing loss. At the lunch break, I let him know I thought I needed to defer the class to another time. However, he is the only teacher for the daytime course. He suggested I go home and try taking it via Zoom. I did so yet I actually had even more difficulty as I now had not only a word comprehension issue, I had the issues of generalized internet freezing, etc. I tried last evening to listen to the recording yet the issues I had with word comprehension remained an issue during the recording. My problem is NOT volume of sound. I tried explaining my issues with the school and they are not providing any refund saying their refund policy is up to the day of the class starting. I had no intentions of dropping out of this course but how can I attend a class that I can not hear? They said they feel they've offered reasonable accommodations by providing me an zoom option w captions. Yet captions were not capturing words either due to the speed of his speech. It is completely unethical for anyone to claim they can determine what someone is or is not able to hear. The teacher admitted himself that he speaks quickly - which is an issue in a information heavy course. As I stated, I had no intentions of cancelling did I want to. It seems completely unreasonable that I should have to pay for a class when I cant hear in it. This has never been an issue in any other course I've taken. Ive always been offered some proper accommodation or had no issue with the class.

  Business response

  10/24/2023

  1. Garden State Real Estate Academy has NEVER, since it was founded in 2004, had a single complaint from a customer with the BBB or any similar agency.
  2. Our policies regarding refunds are completely clear, transparent, and consistent with other real estate schools. They are simple to understand:

  • If you cancel a registration more than seven days prior to the first day of the course, we will refund the entire cost of the course, less $50.
  • If you cancel up to 24 hours prior to the start of the course, we will charge a 50% cancellation fee, although we will give 100% credit of that amount for any other course you take within six months.
  • If you cancel after the course has started, there is no refund. And yet even then, we allow that student to attend any replacement course AT NO CHARGE within six months.

   

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