Sylvan Learning Centers

Sylvan ELA and math standardized test camp: I signed up my granddaughter Gloria ** for what I thought would be a helpful review for the standardized tests. I was told there would be two groups of third to fifth graders and a second group of sixth to eighth graders. Instead, all of the children were housed on one room. My granddaughter was made to sit with third graders, because the 4 seventh graders were bullying her. Also, she was not provided materials, because they had not ordered enough.

Gloria told me that the class was handed booklets with instructions and told to answer questions. No help was provided until the end of each hour. To add, the teachers had no control of the classes. Then, after the first evening, another parent called me up and yelled at me for recommending Sylvan. His daughter refused to return, and he asked for his money back.

Gloria returned today, and I asked Sylvan to make some modifications in the way they were handling the class. By the time I called this afternoon, one of the educational directors said she told the entire class that anyone who gave problems tomorrow would be asked to leave the class, because there were so many disciplinary from the students today that no instruction could take place. I spoke to staff and was told that Gloria worked well. In fact, she had done little work because of the chaos in the classroom. The class cost $695 and was useless.

I signed up to have my kids tested, prior to using the Sylvan Center. I was specifically told that I would have 3 days to cancel and have my $99 refunded. The next morning, I cancelled the testing and asked for them to process a refund. It's now 5 months later, and I still don't have the money. I've been told that they are processing it, then I was told they processed it. Now the story is that there is no refund on testing, and that they can't find the paperwork that shows that I signed for it.

We paid for the program ahead of time which required us to pay about $3,500 (we took out a loan). Before hand, I thoroughly explained the need of our son who suffered from ADD. They assured me that they were the right place with instructors that could help. We entered our son into the study program, however, I didn't realize until later that, not only do they have NO guarantee (ie: accountability) nor did they have ANY education with ADD students.

My son's grades dropped during this period of time- terribly!! We walked away in a worse situation than he started. We also walked away $3,500 which was wasted! What a waste of money! I should get a refund, but because they have the "no promises" clause that is signed. We should have entered the other program with the guarantee, the guaranteed program was a program to raise his grades. we should have chosen that... in hind site... I also realized later that they had no expertise in ADD.

I would like to have an attorney contact me about this.

I pre-purchased 200 hours of tutoring. When I could not use a balance of 78 hours, I called for about six months to try to get the refund. Finally, the check came and it was considerably less than what I expected. Sylvan's reason is because I still have 40 hours of excused absences that can be used at anytime. The hours are non refundable per the policy statement. In other words, I scheduled my time in advance weekly. If I had a conflict and called to reschedule or cancel and those dates are not refundable.

Who runs a legitimate business like that? When we reviewed the agreement, there was no clear discussion about that policy. They were very out loud about I had to cal 24 hours in advance to cancel or I would be charged but there was never anything clear about the time was going in an hour bank. In essence, they still have $900 of my money. I am applying to small claims court.

I contacted American Fork Utah Sylan to see if they could help my daughter because she was behind in school and struggling with anxiety and PTSD which made it difficult to catch up with her homework and get back on track for graduation. They said they would be able to help but they would need to evaluate her first which would be $199 but that there was a coupon out that would reduce the price to $100. I did need to pay a $50 deposit "non-refundable" deposit which the non-refundable part was not made clear in the phone call. I've cancelled the evaluation and they won't refund the deposit without approval from the owner. The director mentioned that she could try to request a refund from the owner but he would probably say no. This just solidifies the complaints that have already been logged on this site. Definitely buyer beware.

My wife was employed at the Sylvan Learning Center in Bartonsville, PA when it closed down suddenly. Not only was there no warning of the closing, my wife was never paid for the last 2 1/2 weeks of work there. We are struggling just to put food on the table and take care of our child. Call, emails, and letter have led nowhere. My wife deserves to be paid. She gave an awful lot to that company. I would never recommend Sylvan to anyone, whether it is for their child or a job.

The Sylvan learning center in Bartonsville, PA abruptly closed on the 26th of October 2011. The franchise holder Joseph ** has not returned any phone calls or emails since the business ceased operation. They are holding $900.00 in unused tuition payments. Sylvan corporate refuses to take any action even though they have a contract in place with the franchisee that specifically states when shutting down they must transfer you to another center or refund your monies. Neither happened and the corporate entity refuses to hold the franchisee accountable to the contract they signed with Sylvan corporate. It is an absolute disgrace that in this difficult financial time, corporations willingly allow people to run off and take you money. I'm out $900.00 in unused tuition money that I want refunded.

I have the complete At-Home System for 8-12 years. Everything was fine until my daughter listened to disk three. In the story, it said that birds are related to crocodiles. That is evolution. That is a theory and should not be imposed on my child no more than religion. This was a gift to me so I cannot seek a refund.

Sylvan is sold out to franchisees. A lot of people don't know that. My daughter actually got a good education at the Longmont and Boulder, CO centers. She had a very good teacher. However, Sylvan, in general, doesn't keep their promises and don't trust them. My daughter took Algebra 1 for credit and it was approved by her school to do. At almost the end of her course in Longmont, CO, she was informed that the center would be closing and she would be moved to Boulder to finish. She went to Boulder and finished, and had the same teacher who moved there too and the director there said he would get the transcript to the school.

At that time, the Boulder center was closing down too and all the people there were upset at losing their jobs. My daughter went on to school and they allowed her to take Algebra 2, the following year. It wasn't until now that she is a senior that they informed us that Sylvan never gave them the paperwork. I do fault the school for waiting so long to let us know, because if we knew the year before, we could have enrolled her in different classes to make up for it. We had no way of knowing they didn't receive the transcript because they allowed her into Algebra 2 and she finished it.

We contacted Sylvan's head office in Baltimore because the franchisee of this area completely closed down all his centers. The four centers had been owned by H&S Educational Enterprises, Inc. which is owned by Bruce Hassan, Sherry Hassan and Kristin Smith of St. Augustine, FL. I do not know if they own Sylvans in Florida, but they owned the ones here in Colorado and will not acknowledge my emails. The head office said they only received the progress reports as far as Longmont, but none of the Boulder paperwork. Last week, they agreed to send the transcript with a lower grade taking into account the part of math they didn't have credit for. So basically, they were averaging the 0% into the 100%. We didn't like that, but if she doesn't get some type of credit, she doesn't graduate.

Today, Nina at the information desk contacted us to tell us that they changed their minds and couldn't, in good consciousness, give her a transcript based on something they didn't have; even though the director of this franchise area gave them a call and told them what happened. They want to do testing on Sarah (at my cost) and if she doesn't do well on material she studied back in 2009, I am fully confident they are going to offer their services for more money, of course. I don't trust them. I don't trust their test to be honest and I refused to have her take more hours from them. Fat chance of us paying them even more money. I don't trust their testing because every time my daughter took a test, they decided she didn't do well enough and that she needed to repeat almost everything at least once and sometimes, twice. That's how our bill got so elevated. We bought into it because she has never been strong in Math and thought maybe she was doing badly. Yet she went on to high school Algebra 2 in a highly-rated school, did well and never had to repeat anything.

Apparently, according to a woman named Glenda at the main office in Baltimore, they needed three or four days to sift through paperwork the franchisee 'might' have sent in when they closed and it 'depended on what condition they sent it in'. It totally flabbergasted me that there isn't a requirement for submitting paperwork regularly and in a certain order, or when a franchise closes. They didn't locate any paperwork and would only go with the numbers that had been entered into the computer system, which was only the work through the end of the Longmont center. So basically, I paid over $8,000 for a product I didn't receive and my daughter gets to pay for the mistake by not graduating with her friends and being embarrassed. She is devastated and she worked the hardest of all on this. Three days a week for two hours at a time, for almost a whole year.

The main office blames the franchisee, and the franchisee won't speak to us. It is the main offices' issue, though, in my opinion. It was their Sylvan name we trusted and no longer trust. They want to sell their franchises, but they don't want to be responsible for them. If your franchisee screws you over, tough luck. Even getting my money back for a product I didn't receive won't take the pain away from my daughter of not being able to graduate. They have even refused to do that and they only referred us to 'Legal'. My daughter is sweet and kind to everyone, shy and sensitive, and she works so hard at everything, even things she finds especially difficult. I've been blessed to have such a usual child who didn't take me through the teenage trauma of most girls, and I am angrier than I can ever convey.

Don't buy the lie that they care about you or their students. You are just money to them and if you aren't paying at the moment, you don't matter. I am posting this everywhere I can because I think people should be warned. You are putting your child in the hands of a franchisee that you know nothing about. It isn't the same thing as eating a burger at a McDonald's franchise or playing a game at a Laser Tag franchise. It is much more important than that. Unfortunately, Sylvan doesn't run franchises and keeps records with the same diligence and responsibility McDonald's does. Ask the teachers at school for recommendations for a tutor that other kids have worked with and had good experiences with, or ask other parents. It'll be cheaper and more reliable, and since the teachers and parents aren't usually making a living off selling the product, it will be more honest.

It should be a lot cheaper to find a tutor that way. We began by being told this was going to cost us $4,500 for the school credit and it kept elevating to almost $9,000. They knew we needed it as a credit and took advantage of that, and are still trying to. I am posting this everywhere a review is possible, just to warn people. The reason you read good reviews in one place and bad ones in others is because the franchisees are all different people and the company, as a whole, is not cohesive or discerning.

I paid $99 to have my daughter assessed in June 2011. I met with a Sylvan representative at the Metairie location to review the results. I paid $95 to register my daughter for the Slidell location, which I was told was owned by the same owner. I completed the necessary paperwork to enroll my daughter for the Slidell location to begin on August 16, 2011. At the end of July 2011, Rebecca from Sylvan called to change Anna's tutoring time from 5:30 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. I called Sylvan's Slidell location on August 11, 12 and 15 to ask a question about which date the tuition was due. I only got a voicemail from "Beth", who never returned any of my calls.

When I showed up with my daughter at 5:00 P.M. on August 16, Carol, the lady at the desk, said she didn't even know who we were and that my daughter was not in the system. I couldn't believe it. How could she not be in the system? Sylvan had already spoken to me about the dates. They had already been paid the registration fee. I left there because I was very upset. Sylvan is an expensive solution to get homework help for my daughter but I was willing to give it a try. After what happened, I decided that Sylvan was not a good choice for me or my daughter. I am on a fixed income and have to assure that every dollar I spend is spent responsibly. I lost all confidence in that business after the way I was treated with a total lack of professionalism and consideration.

I requested for the return of the $95 I paid for the registration. I think it is a fair request considering what happened. I am not asking for the assessment fee as I realize this was completed. I spoke with the owner Sal Cusanza on August 17 and then mailed him a letter on August 23, 2011. I have since called Julie in the business office up to 4 times a week asking for my refund. I keep getting the run-around. I am totally frustrated and disgusted at this point.

I enrolled my daughter, Karlee, in Sylvan. I paid right at $3000 up front. She went for four sessions (which was great). The teacher called on Monday evening at 3:30 stating that Baldwin Management who operates the school came in and told her she could not accept any more children and they were closing the center. I have my contract. I also have the letter they sent out to the parents. But I do not have a refund for my money. They wanted their money up front, a contract signed. Where is my money? I would not refer anyone to this center. I'm now going to have to get attorney to collect my money. Sad that all education is going downhill and taking parents' money. This have put me in a very financial bind. My daughter is very upset mentally. She was very saddened that she couldn't go back. Now, I can't afford to go hire another tutor due to no refund.

I enrolled my 8-year-old daughter in Sylvan Learning Center in Las Vegas in June 2007 to bring her up to grade level in reading comprehension. I paid almost $4,000 for the program. My daughter never made any improvement, every time I picked her up from Sylvan I asked her what she did that day and she will tell me she only read kindergarten books when she was supposed to be reading chapter books for 3rd grader students, so I went inside and checked the books they had and most of them were really picture books for little kids, not to mention that they didn't have many to choose from anyway. No wonder she never got any better. Not only that, but you had to pay extra money when they scheduled conferences to tell you how the student was doing. I can only describe my experience with the services I received at Sylvan Learning Center as very bad since my daughter never accomplished anything with them. I would not recommend Sylvan to any parent that needs help with their children's education.

I signed up for my granddaughter for 88 hours of reading help with Sylvan and paid $4048.00 upfront to get the hourly discount. After two months of instruction, it closed without warning, then I found out that the owner had filed bankruptcy after 30 days of instruction.

I am out over $4000.00. The reading lessons never helped my granddaughter plus the interest I am having to pay on the money that was taken.

I enrolled my 14-year-old grandson and paid $3000.00 to bring him up to Algebra 1 level. Not only are the directors and teachers condescending and rude to me, my son, and most importantly, my grandson, but after many hours of tutoring, we find out they don't have any tutors who know Algebra! They tell us they used to, but don't anymore. No refund, no credit, just more bull, and now my grandson is way behind in math.

When the teacher was wrong on a problem and my grandson questioned it, they told him never to argue with the teacher. Adults are always right! They said that he has an attitude problem! Also, when he called them to reschedule an appointment due to illness, they said it was okay. Then they charged us for the two hours $90.00 and said, "We didn't reschedule him because we do not listen to children!" They have great policies when working with kids. Buyer beware!

We had to move due to military orders and I expected to receive a refund for the hours not used from Sylvan in 2007. I contacted Sylvan and they told me I had to deal with the franchise owner Debbie **. Mrs. ** emailed me in July 2010 that she had mailed a check for the refund. This never happened. I responded to her that I never received the check. She emailed me again stating that she was placing a stop payment on that check and sending out another check. This never happened. It is now November 2010 and I never received any other response from Mrs. **. I would advise everyone not to get any type of loan with this company to pay for services. They will not cooperate in refunding any amounts that they owe you.

My son was enrolled in Sylvan Learning in November 2008. The school automatically closed down without any warning. I paid them $4000+ upfront (** me, right). I have tried to contact the center owner, but no response. I've tried to contact her lawyer, but no response. I'm still fighting this issue. I'm not rich and can not afford a lawyer at this moment. I'm currently stationed in Africa and still trying to resolve this. I have contacted the center, but they told me they need my son's records from that branch that he was at. When I told them that I can't get in any contact with them, they said they will also try as well. So I've contacted the Civil Affairs, State Affairs and the police. I feel like I've been robbed and more importantly, my son and the other kids and parents who went through this ordeal.

Panama City Sylvan Learning Center closed without warning, they owe us and probably others money. I have gotten absolutely no satisfaction or even acknowledgment of the debt owed to me by Sylvan Learning Center. Mr. ** has not bothered to return even one of my telephone messages. I was contacted by the Fort Walton office, never spoke to anyone, but I no longer desire any tutoring. I want a refund of the $250 paid to Sylvan Learning Center, but never used. My account number is **. I had a consultation with Jennifer ** on 4/19/2010. During that consultation, I hand wrote a note suspending his tutoring until the summer. I had paid for the month of April in full, so I am due month's tuition. I would love for Mr. ** to do the right thing if he is the franchise owner, but ultimately, my checks were made out to Sylvan Learning Center.

I enrolled my daughter at my local Sylvan Learning Center here in McAllen, TX. She was taking the SAT courses and I even went ahead and paid for the another month not sure she would need to go that long. The staff at Sylvan assured me I would get my refund if she did not need to continue the lessons. I wanted my daughter to start the a new ACT course at the end of April but the staff at Sylvan was to call me back regarding the start date for the upcoming ACT course.

Meanwhile, the new course had been partially paid. I called Sylvan several time and they never return any of my calls. By this time the course had already started and my daughter would be a week behind already if she joined the new group. So I asked them to refund me the balance. Today is July 27, 2010 and I have made several calls to my local Sylvan Center requesting a refund. I am always told that the check is in the mail. First, they told me it would take a month. Then they tell me it's in the mail. I am very unhappy with Sylvan Learning Center. It is very wrong! I will never use their services again.

My son went to Sylvan under pressure from the teachers at school. For 92 sessions, I "paid" approximately $3,000. I am still paying through Sallie Mae years later. It will end up being more like $13,000.00 because of the interest. I think they take advantage of parents who want to help their child. But my child learned nothing. They said they would give him help with his homework. They would get upset with him if he brought his homework. They insisted he do whatever they wanted. He didn't learn a thing. In fact years later, he is not graduating high school. Because after paying for them and not getting help, I couldn't afford anything else.

Sylvan **! I am a poor person. I had to have a co-signer and everything. I have made every single payment and 7 years later, I still owe over a $1,000.00 and my son didn't get anywhere with his education.

We had previously enrolled my son in the study skills program in Grade 9. In this program, the math instructor was very good and helped my son attain a passing grade in Grade 9 math. For Grade 10, we enrolled my son in a homework support program to help him with his Grade 10 math. Unfortunately the Math instructor that was there for Grade 9 had left and a new one was hired.

After a few weeks, my son commented that the new person was not nearly as good as the previous year. We decided to give him a chance as my son was doing well at homework completion and we were optimistic at this point. When we had our first parent-teacher meeting with the school, we were not at all happy with what we heard. The teacher was confused as to my son's test scores not reflective of the nearly 100 % homework completion. We had a number of progress reports that indicated that he was capable of doing the work but just needed to work on his speed and he was progressing well and showing an improvement in his understanding.

Unfortunately his mark in the subject did not at all reflect this as he ended up with a 38%. I went to the office and spoke to the director at the time and she could not offer any explanation as to why there was such a discrepancy. We tried to arrange for additional support in preparation for the final exam but they were not able to provide this. We ended up hiring a private tutor to try to salvage the year. The tutor's assessment of my son's current level of understanding was not favorable and although they worked many hours to try to prepare, my son still failed.

I spoke to my son again about what he did during his sessions at Sylvan to try and understand how he could have completed all his homework and not managed to grasp the subject at all. He felt that the instructor that he had the second year was not nearly as knowledgeable and that rather than instructing him on the homework, he often completed the exercises first and my son would copy them. That this was his method of instruction while the other instructors explained in detail each step and this was why he had previously done better.

I received an email at the beginning of the next semester inquiring if we were planning to continue for the next year. At this point we currently had outstanding hours remaining and a balance owing for the previous year. I responded that I was very unhappy with the results of the last session of Math for Alexander. His mark in this last semester was 37% and actually went down after his exam. I expressed the concern that it would appear that all that was happening during his sessions is that his homework was being completed for him rather than him doing it with instruction and feedback.

I explained that this last session fell far below our expectations and I believe it is clearly the loss of the previous instructor that was the major contributor to this. The teachers that worked with my son on Math in this semester did not help him at all. The progress meetings that we had with them on this clearly did not reflect his actual math results. As of that point we would not be continuing with the remaining hours, can you please tell me what my balance is without them. I received no response through email or mail.

Three months later I received an email from a collection agency that they where pursuing me for payment on the outstanding amount. I called the Center Director and inquired as to why they had not replied to my message and why they had sent this to collections. She informed me that they had sent me letters to my address. I asked her to clarify this and she explained she had sent them to my wife's name at my address. The name that she had on file was not my wife's so I never received them.

Now I am even more concerned that even their bookkeeping is inquisition as the account does not even appear to be in my name. I asked to speak to the head office to try to resolve this and after doing so, they did not acknowledge my concerns and that I had to deal with the collections people.

I had both my children assessed by Sylvan for challenges that they were experiencing in school mainly surrounding reading. My daughter is 10 years old, in fourth grade. She has been on an IEP (Individual Education Plan) since she started school for speech and language delay. This delay continues to create challenges for reading comprehension for her. We were spending hours on homework with her. We wanted to get her additional support for the homework and had a goal of getting her to a point where she would not require an IEP. We enrolled her in the "unlimited" program that Sylvan offered for $2995. She went 12 hours per week, 4 of the 12 hours were homework support; the other 8 hours were for Sylvan's reading program. She went all of March, April, and May. She accumulated over 120 hours of reading support (this doesn't include the homework support hours). Sylvan's initial assessment said that she would require 65-77 hours to master skills in her grade level. At the end of May, by Sylvan's own report she had not mastered the skills. In addition, at her IEP meeting at her school, no noticeable difference had been seen by her team of teachers.

Further, the school testing performed in late May showed that she was at the end of a second grade level in reading assessments (DRA testing, standard in this school district). Sylvan testing performed in the same time showed that my daughter tested at 5th grade 4th month overall in reading (figuring reading comprehension and vocabulary). However, by their own admission, her first time around on the test, she didn't do well. So, they had her "look it over again" to generate better results. We brought Sylvan and school together for a meeting. Sylvan attributes the gap to their style of test (multiple choice) versus the school's (open-ended questions). Sylvan offered 8 additional hours, but really what will 8 hours do that over 120 hours didn't do? They are firm that they will not do anything more than the 8 free hours (or 2 summer camps) to close this gap. I put my daughter, our family time, and her growth in their hands for 3 months straight and saw no results. When this came out, they offered 8 hours. I have $3000 invested and am thoroughly disappointed that they were not taking steps to make her successful at her school and testing that is done in our state.

My son is 8 and in second grade. He had challenges with reading, but unlike my daughter is not on an IEP. (He does not have any learning delays, speech problems, etc.) He also did not show much growth in the testing that the school offered. Sylvan's testing (multiple choice) shows him at beginning 3rd grade. The school testing (DRA, also multiple choice at this level) at end of 1st grade. My son also went 12 hours a week for 3 solid months. Sylvan didn't offer any support for him. His cost was also $2995. Additionally, like my daughter, Sylvan stated that he would require 64-76 hours to master 2nd grade skills that showed a gap in their testing. After over 120 hours, there were still quite a few skills for 2nd grade level that he had not yet mastered, by Sylvan's own report. So, to sum it up, I spent nearly $6000 and 3 solid months of our lives, and the kids are no further along in school with testing or otherwise. Sylvan has nothing to offer to make this right. We have lost nearly $6,000 of our money.

I used to be a Director of Education for Sylvan (prior to that I was a high school English and History teacher for 5 years, I have 3 degrees including a masters in curriculum development). First of all, it doesn't matter which one you go to every single program is the same. The Math and Reading programs are sent from corporate to every Sylvan and as the Director, you cannot change the program in anyway, or else they cannot offer the one grade level improvement guarantee. They claim to tailor the program to your child, but they can't. They can omit certain skills that your child may not need to learn, but other than that, every child will learn the same things with the same books at the same time.

Furthermore, Sylvan's testing is a complete joke. They expose your child to a complicated test in a format that your child is not familiar with. After your 36 hours, they then give your child the same test, however now they have had 36 hours of worksheets showing them how to answer these test questions, and have of course, seen the test before and are more comfortable with it. There is no correlation whatsoever between the reading program and school.

As a Director, you are sent on a week-long training program in Baltimore where they teach you how to use wiggle language to avoid questions and to sell their system. As a high school teacher, there is no benefit from the reading program that couldn't be gained from reading with your child every night and checking their homework. It would be more helpful to speak to their teacher and set up daily sign-offs on homework through an agenda, then having your child sit for 3 hours a week doing multiple choice activities out of workbooks. Directors are even taught to downplay the effectiveness of private tutors (the main competition that sylvan has) because "although they may help your child do better in school initially, there will be no long term results". This is also untrue. The benefit of a tutor is that they actually work with your child on the activities that your child is doing in school, and when they have questions, the tutor can help them to understand.

Sylvan wants you to believe that you need their program in order to catch your child up and help them get ahead. In my 3 years with Sylvan, I never saw a single child get to the point where they were ahead. Furthermore, students who had been with Sylvan for a long time were often still failing their classes (especially English) because the material is so irrelevant to the classroom.

In training, we were also taught how to roll students from one program into another and how to keep them paying Sylvan. The programs are set up so that your child will score very low on a test (to create a sense of "urgency") that is ambiguous and doesn't truly reflect school grade (it's true-they are "Sylvan Grades"), and then a set amount of hours are required for them to move toward their "grade level", however by the time this is reached, the child is already at the next year and school and will have to be tested all over again.

It is a complete sham. I wish more people would explain how crooked this system is, but Directors are afraid because we are forced to sign a waiver stating that we will not tell anyone how the Sylvan system works. I beg you to save your money. Get a private tutor, or work out a solution with your child's teacher, but don't throw your money down the corporate Sylvan tube.

1. This woman feels parents out, let them talk on and on about their kids and how they were struggling with grades, study habits, self-control, self-esteem, and many more factors that contributed to the bad grades. Then, she uses that information and throws it back in the parent's face... making them feel guilty that they, as parents, aren't doing their job by any means necessary as a parent.

2. She speaks to the parents, aka. the customer, with no respect and speaks to the children, aka. the customer, badly as well.

3. I could go on...buyer beware of this center.

I signed my daughter up for Sylvan Learning Center in Sioux City Iowa on 7/28/09. My mother took out a loan to pay her tuition with their loan company Your Tuition Solution - Springstone Financial in Southborough MA 1-800-920-9777. Frank **, the Center Director from Omaha who was tested my daughter Bailey and said she would need 144-168 hours of tutoring. He said, if we paid for 100-143 hours up front, we would get a discount to only pay $40.50 per hour.

He also stated if she doesn't pass the Sylvan Skills assessment after 36 hours of instruction, they would guarantee me 12 free hours. Bailey did not pass, so he said he would give her 12 hours. Bailey has to be working on reading and math which she has only worked on word analysis, vocabulary and comprehension but not math skills. My mother Donna ** had taken the loan out for $5000.00 acct # ** which I make the payments on. Bailey has gone to Sylvan for a total of 59 1/2 hours at $40.50 for $2409.75. He owed us 12 hours $486.002409.75-486, so our total we owe would be $1,923.75.

Sylvan closed in Sioux City without anyone telling us until 1 week after it closed but of course we seen it on the news first. I have made 7 payments of $157.17 to the bank on this loan, so far for a total of $ 1100.19. We owe 823.56 which I don't think we should have to pay because of what happened but am willing to. But no more than that. I received a letter from the owner of Sylvan Dianna Rich, her phone # is 402-334-9449 on Jan 27th stating that they did indeed close and that we could drive to Omaha, Sioux Falls, Spencer or Norfolk or do Sylvan online. We wouldn't be able to drive to any of those places after my daughter was out of school for the day because it would be over 1 hour drive one way to get to them and we will not do Sylvan on-line since she is in need of instruction by a one on one setting with a teacher.

I contacted Dianna Rich on 1/29/10 and left a message to have her contact the bank to cancel the remainder of the loan. She did not contact me back. I contacted Frank on 02/01/10 and he said he would call the bank and take care of it and call me back but never did. I contacted Dianna Rich today, 2/2/10 and she said, they would have to go through all the account to see what they owed and it will take some time. I need your help to resolve this matter. I don't feel it is our responsibility to continue to pay on this when they closed up and the services are no longer there for her to attend. They have not contacted us to give us our money back and the loan company states we have to continue to pay them even though we are no receiving the services.

I trained to work at Sylvan for a part-time job. I am an experienced teacher with an M.Ed. After a few weeks there, I decided that their program does not provide a quality experience for the students, and parents could spend less money and get better results simply by hiring a 1-to-1 tutor for their child. Because Sylvan makes money by enrolling as many students as possible (and underpaying teachers), their set-up is usually about 3 students per teacher at a table. Since all of the students are at different levels, it is virtually impossible to deliver good instruction.

Sylvan tries to promote the 3:1 ratio as optimal (for a combination of independent and guided practice, supposedly leading to a better transition to whole class experiences), but this is simply not true. To accommodate everyone, I was jumping from student to student, all of whom needed more intervention than I was giving. A lot of the assignments were too easy or very boring, which is why Sylvan has us recycle the work ,rather than share it with parents. A lot of it is just worksheet, book practice, and simple strategies you can get at any educational materials store, or from a classroom teacher.

The curriculum is not updated, and they have virtually no technology experiences available for the students. I would advise any parent considering Sylvan to find a good personal tutor for your child, who makes no promises, but shows you exactly what they are doing with your child. Also, invest in educational software or subscriptions to websites that will provide an interesting game format to reinforce skills (rather than the dull worksheets they'll do at Sylvan). Your child deserves better, and you definitely don't get what you pay for by bringing your child to Sylvan. As a caring educator, I was really dismayed to realize that the Sylvan bottom line is, quite simply, profit.

I didn't have that experience. I am sorry for experiences but I thank each and everyone of you for sharing so that families like mine will not deal with this company and get our children caught up in the hassles of Sylvan. I am looking for someone to help my son with his reading and comprehension skills. I guess at the end of the day with time, dedication and patience, we, parents, can only rely on ourselves to help our children. Again, thanks to each of you and I am sorry for the problems you faced but you all saved me money and the headache of dealing with a company that will leave my son in shambles.

After we paid our account in full, we continued to receive statements from Sylvan. We would have to call and wait for Beth, the director, to call us back because they never answer their phones. We were advised on numerous occasions that their record reflected our bill was paid in full and that they would take care of the mistake. Today we received a collection letter. Now we are going to have to hire an attorney so that our credit is not affected by Sylvan's inefficiency. We would never recommend this organization to anyone. We will need to hire an attorney.

I consulted them about tutoring for my daughter who is in the fifth grade. When I had asked for references for the services, they said they could not provide references. She was assessed. They estimated that she would need about 100 hours of tutoring in math to get to grade level. They had given a no risk policy of 12 hours or within 4 weeks. I have this document. During the 4 weeks, I asked my daughter about the work that was being done. She said she was doing a lot of work that she had already mastered. I notified them in an email that I was removing my daughter within the 4 weeks she began with them.

They would not offer the no risk policy. They said the policy was only effective within the first 12 hours. This contradicts the letter which I received with the contract. Additionally, when I tried to speak with the owner about my concern, I did not get any response. Sylvan also had not contacted my daughter's teacher during those 4 weeks about where they could focus they tutoring. I lost $750 in tutoring fees and $200 in assessment and registration fees.

I gave the Sioux City Sylvan facility $2500 to start my child in December 2009. I received a letter stating they are closing immediately. No one will return my phone calls. I'm just out my money. What happened to the Sylvan Guarantee? There is none. I am ashamed of myself for allowing them to talk me into helping my son. I want my money back. I believe my son only received 12 hours of instruction. I have tried to reach everyone/every Sylvan facility looking for help. I am receiving nothing/no answers.

Economic damage is beyond words in this economy. I am a single mother. I did everything I could to scrap the money together to help my son. Physically, my son was showing some improvements, and now he is without any help.

We had our grandson evaluated in Math in December 2009 with a promise Sylvan would help to get his skills up to where they needed to be. Jack (owner) gave us the long sales speech about how long they had been in Saint Joseph and what they could do for us. We decided to commit. Then after 4 weeks of weekly visits, we received a notice in the mail telling us they had closed. No one bothered to sit down with us to discuss his progress and options to go forward. I have sent emails asking to discuss over the phone and received emails telling me that only emails will be answered. Is this how Sylvan does business?