South University

South University has charged me over $80,000 for tuition, for online courses, some of which I have not yet taken. I've attended South University as of 2009. They keep blocking me from taking courses that have already been paid for by the federal government. They claim that they did not receive any money from financial aid, however after reviewing my student account, they have received over $67,000 in tuition payment, and now, they are saying I can not take anymore classes, because I owe the school $14,000. Every 2-3 months, the financial counselors and academic advisers change, and they never document previous conversations accurately.

I was told by the current financial counselor that she and her manager was working to straighten out my account, however I have left 3 or more phone messages, and sent emails, and have yet to get a response. When I asked for her supervisor's email address, she refused to give it to me. She stated he will give me a call by the end of the day, however that was two days ago, and I have yet to get a return call. I looked at my account, and they have charged me double for classes that I have not attended, and they have digital registration fees adding up to be anywhere from $70 - $212, over and over again.

No one can tell me what's going on with my account. I was taking a class that was 11 weeks long, after completing 8 weeks of class, they withdraw stating, I didn't log in to class for two days. I explained that I had some family matters to take care of, and I had notified the instructor, but they completely looked over it. South University is a complete scam, and I wish I had known this 3 years ago. I have wasted so much time with this school. I feel victimized by the educational system. How could the government let such things go on continuously. This is unfair to students trying to get an education, and find a job at the same time. These people are obviously pocketing student loan money.

I had applied to South University, because I was looking for top schools to finish my degree. I was told by Joshua that my $50 application fee would be waived and that I was accepted into the school. Great, right? Wrong!

South University signed me up for classes (I mean, what kind of school does that? In most cases, you get to choose the classes). I sent my transcripts in and I still had to take classes, even though in most cases, up to a certain amount transfers in. I keep getting a bill sent by South University for $50 for my application fee, as well as $1,116. I keep being told that if this isn't paid, it'll get sent to Collections.

First off, if you don't attend any classes, why am I being charged this amount? Second off, the classes were chosen for me, so am I getting paid because the couple different advisors that had enrolled me into all those classes? How am I to get out of paying this, if I never attended the ** school! Granted, I did sign up for FAFSA, just to see what kind of financial aid I would get. Has this happened to anyone else?

Hello! My name is Roszalia E. **. I signed up for online classes on May 13, 2010 with South University. As I was signing up, I told my finance adviser that I was on supplemental income known as SSI; and I asked if they have any program that I could fill out on the application so I would not have to pay back the loan. They said that they did. When I asked that question, they started sending me bills telling me what I owe. Now, they are calling and threatening me. All I ever got was a bill and I had not been in school but two weeks.

I was told I could get a grant to take online classes. My major is Marketing and I was enrolled in Business Administration. I was sent a bill from Direct Loans, $3,962.29, because they paid South University. I told Joshua prior to registering that I didn't want a loan. He claimed this was a package and I wouldn't be applying for a loan. I spoke to someone named James at Direct Loans 800-848-0981 ** who informed me that I would be responsible for paying the money. Amanda **, at 888-444-3404 ext. 22323, and I spoke in May 2010 and this was supposed to be resolved by them returning the loan which they did not.

Joshua and Amanda are in the Admissions Department. I was told to speak to Jesse ** who is in the Financial Department. I submitted (2) faxes to Joshua on 11/13 and 11/15/2010; no response. The form submitted to Amanda by me in May didn't mean anything. I had to have a cyst removed and couldn't perform and asked for a withdrawal, still not realizing I had to pay a loan that this wasn't a grant.

I paid the school over $12000 in grants funds and when I had to withdraw from school, I got a call and email from Dennis ** stating they were going to turn the balance over to collections. Not once did I get a call or letter stating I owed the balance. I would think that since they got $12000 I would not owe them anything, just the Department of Education. I paid on it as I could, but it is wrong of them to threaten me and turn it over to collections after getting the money they got. This is going to be on my credit report if not paid and they cannot tell me what it is for.

I have had a similar situation with the FA Dept of SUO, better known as South University on-line, mother company EDMC. If anyone is interested, look for this company on-line,and you will find numerous class action suits pending and building against them, as well as, GAO Investigating them. The GAO did an undercover operation and found this company and all it's subsidiaries to be guilty of fraudulent, misleading, misrepresentation and in some cases down right defrauding the government and the tax payers of misleading information on the FAFSA reports.

My personal experience was as follows. The Financial Dept had made a verbal and in part an email agreement with me concerning the balance of my Pell-Grant of 2009-2010. Since I started late in the fiscal year, and could only go part-time, there would be a balance left out of this grant. This balance had been promised to me, so that I could afford to acquire a Laptop, WiFi Service out in rural America. The deposit alone was for $400 for the WiFi service. I made the purchases in lieu of this agreement.

I took out a personal loan, to cover all the extra expenses and to assist in my living expenses because of the agreement. I had two different EDMC Advisor to confirm this agreement, since they had changed my Advisor during the processing time. As far as the academic experience I have no complaints. I ended up with a GPA of 3.67 just wanted to put that out there since the census is the student/employees that are complaining cannot cut the mustard, not so.

Back to the financial aid, and the agreement, I was to receive the balance of my grant, at the end of June 30, 2010. After the fiscal year had ended. I began attempting to make contact with my FA on or around June 17, 2010 but as usual had difficulty to get her to respond either through email and or voice message. After much ado, I did eventually receive a email from my advisor, on June 24, 2010 about 3:30 pm central time. I was then informed that they had just made the decision (without my consent or knowledge) to return my Pell Grant of 2009-2010 back to the government.

They then explained to me that they had gone back and had removed my payment from my tuition payment of May 2010; that had already been paid for and had been posted as paid since May 14, 2010. So this bill had already been paid for for over 30 days and they decided they wanted to now apply my new grant of 2010-2011 to this debt. So they basically sent back roughly $1,700 of my old grant and were going to apply my new grant to the old debt, which of course would deplete my new grant faster than it should be.

I now, understood why they couldn't pay me the balance of my grant that they had agreed to. They had already sent my grant money back. Now this opens up a lot of questions. They have now breached an agreement and cannot pay me the balance I was counting on to repay the personal loan I had made.They have done this completely without my consent or knowledge, and they were basically draining my new grant for old debt; therefore, playing out my new grant early on, and I would then have to make the tuition cost out of my pocket once that happened.

They pretended that they were doing me some kind of favor mb saving me $33 because the new grant allowed more money. That made no sense because they had just sent back roughly $1,700 of my old grant money. Nothing was adding up; I decided I didn't like the way they were treating me, and I surely didn't like the way they were Advising/handling my money. They act like it's their money. I decided to withdraw, they explained if I did withdraw, they would charge me directly for all the old debt that had already been paid for, as well as the rest of the quarter that I haven't even taken yet. They also informed me that there would also be additional charges for the days the college closes down, at least on-line, anyway between the two classes within this quarter.

They closed the on-line site down, for updates, and no student is allowed to access the Campus Common, and/or their classes. You cannot access anything but they are going to charge you for it, anyway, at least in this case where I was withdrawing. We are allowed to access our classes three days early to review the course work and assignments, but the actual class doesn't start until three days later. I did eventually request that all communications be in writing through email and/or mail.

They ignored that and continued to call me, and try to get me to converse with them on the phone. I refused to continue any form of communication on the phone because of the inconsistency of all the information as well as not being able to document all they say.I did explain to the Financial Dept that I would be appealing their charges of $2,500 for the school, in addition to what I now would owe the government for a non-usable item. Within a 30 day period, they proceeded to email me twice, call me twice, and sent two letters, all claiming my debt was severely past due, with some serious consequences. They also continue to invite me to re-enroll as a solution to all of this.

I attended South University and submitted all the required documentation and was not allowed to commence classes until I was informed to do so and all documentation had been received. I was informed via letter and telephone I was clear to commence as all documentation and financial aspects had been completed and on track. I commenced my first two classes and completed with excellent grades. I chose to keep abreast with my financial. I contacted the loan institute who informed me the university cancelled the payments with no reason to the loan organization or to myself. I contacted the school and was spoken to very rudely and even abused on a number of occasions with no resolve.

Every second day I receive abusive phone calls that state I owe $3,000 and it must be paid in two weeks. Hmm, I don't know about most people but I am a student.I don't have liquid cash like that in hand and especially when the college cancelled my finances without notice. I contacted a number of education departments and they, I thought, resolved the issue, until I was asked by my new university for the transcripts. I followed correct procedures and was told I could not have them as the fees are outstanding with South University.

I contacted a department head and was told the fees are now cancelled and waived. I had nothing to pay and I would get a transcript in the mail, lies from them yet again. I was told today that not all documentation had been received and I was not supposed to commence classes ( I have a letter stating to commence and all was in order). Now it's as though they make excuses no matter the situation. I am fed up and need help finding a solution as I need those classes for my new university and to stop them from abusing me further (South University). Where do I stand and what do I do ?