Sylvan Learning Reviews

And if a promise was made, it was rare that it was ever followed through by those that were to put forth the action. I am disappointed in my experience with the Sylvan of GTA, and can only request that those looking for employment with this group of Sylvan Learning Centres, to really give yourself more value to your worth, and look elsewhere - even Sylvan Learning Centres outside of the GTA, but it is highly recommended that the ones within Toronto proper, and just to the north and just to the west be exempt from your search for employment.

My daughter was disappointed after the hour was over, she called me crying saying that she didn't benefit from the hour. The tutor was slow, she covered 6 problems in one hour and they refused to give her the $55 back and the Manager of the center, Monica ** was rude to her and told her that this is the way they do business in the center and that is why no contract was written. I immediately called a private tutor and took my daughter to him because she was panicking and crying and I paid him for two hours $60, less than the cost of one hour at Sylvan. I went after to Sylvan to meet with Monica ** the manager. She was rude, arrogant and mean. She said that they gave my daughter a service and they are not responsible whether she learned or finished her study guide or went to another tutor right away. She refused to give my money back. I told her I will write this review about them, she said it is fine.

To make a long story short, I am so unhappy with them, please don't send your kids there for tutoring, the place is looks like it is for little kids or for babysitting, not for tutoring Algebra 2 or even simple math. In addition, to write a review was not easy. The page was designed to keep rejecting to submit.

When we expressed our frustration they then switched her to math, ignoring the reading and saying she needed "extra" tutoring. We refused to pay anymore fees. When we got down to the last 6 payments we were given a sheet of how much was left 1330 due. That was fine, no problem, we would pay. However they then said they would not accept anymore payments at the Sylvan site that the director who was there is no longer working there and he did things wrong and we needed to sign with "Tuition Services"...So after paying them for 4 months, which was the total of what we owed we stopped and contacted Tuition services to state we have a paper stating what we owed and it was paid in full.

Tuition services said NO, we owed another 2 payments of 397 per month and was tacking on 22.9% interest each month till paid. Well we are not dealing with the Recovery department of not only Sylvan but this Tuition services to show we actually overpaid! I am so disgusted with Sylvan for not delivering what they promised....using my time paid for my daughter as a babysitting time instead of teaching that I could just spit! If this is not resolved and the remaining balance dropped we will be suing Sylvan Learning and looking for other clients that used their service for a class action. This place should be shut down or monitored by some educational district to be able to stay open.

Having gone online to see if anyone had complaints against Sylvan, I discovered they were numerous! We trusted Sylvan, but now we know we should have checked them out before enrolling our grandson. It is a shame that not only was our grandson not helped, but we now see the Centers have an image of ripping people off who trust them to make a difference in a child's education. Below is the reply I received from the local center's director, after registering a complaint with Sylvan's corporate headquarters, one month after withdrawing our grandson:

"I have heard today that your refund was inadvertently delayed due to a chain of command issue. I submitted your refund timely to my Regional Director who then in turn approves it and submits it to our owner to cut the check. My Regional Director submitted it to our owner just TODAY - I am not exactly sure what the delay was. Rest assured that our owner now has the refund request and will be cutting you a check as soon as she can, but that may be another week or so. I cannot apologize enough for the red tape that has occurred. I understand your frustrations and that you felt the need to escalate the issue to the corporate office. Those complaints are forward directly to the center at the ownership level, and she will send your check as soon as she can! I can only ask for your patience."

At the 95 hour meeting our son was not at the goals set forth and we were told he only needed approximately 12-43 more hours to reach the goal (grade 3.9) set at the outset. Additional costs to continue were never brought up at that 95 hour parent meeting. We kept going believing he would meet his goal and when they continued withdrawing from my bank account AFTER we paid the original $4,250 they told me we went over by 30 hours. Moreover, the monthly statements were confusing and when I sought explanation in person I was essentially told not to worry about it - we were ok based on our original agreement.

Be very careful when tracking your child's progress or you will run up your balance without realizing it. They won't say anything. I believe their intentional omissions of your account status is purposeful and now we are over cost by $1,300 (for a total cost of $5,500 - not worth it. Go to Kahn academy online. It's free).

The tattoos remind her to embrace life and live to the fullest. He could have told her this a month ago in the first interview. Mike stated that the parents are too conservative. She stated to him that she was here to help the children not please the parents. I cannot believe that there are still so many tiny brained, closed minded people in this world. For your sake and your child's sake do not take your children to Sylvan.

And before all this happens I tried to make them credit me back the rest of the money and stop the classes because it was not working, but every time she came up with another excuse and promises. Finally my son had fail the algebra and I am still paying the monthly payment to that credit company. My son ended up to go to summer school and I found this math teacher who worked with him for one month only and he ended up to get all A and B on his tests and pass with good grade. What Sylvan promised and did not deliver in 8 months another teacher delivered in only one month. I am very angry with Sylvan and their staff, because all they did was lying to me and taking my money.

Original Review: July 30, 2013

My son started going to Sylvan a little under half a year ago. Four months to be exact and he is still stuck on the same grade level as he was since he started. We've been going to the sessions faithfully and he continues to tell me he enjoys going but I don't see the results. I've gotten his report card an it's just not what me and my husband expected. I have a meeting with his teacher later today to get her opinion. But after that I want to know what Sylvan is going to do for my child. At the conferences they tell me he is doing well but, why doesn't this reflect on his report card?

A month later, I got in contact with them and I was informed that they would not refund my prepaid hours because they were technically used but excused during the summer time we were gone, and they would only transfer them to another child or person. My son is the youngest and I have no need for the hours. So the lady running the center said she would help me with finding someone to buy them and keep asking the board to get a refund. This has been about a year of trying to get my money and the last thing that was told to me when I went in about my refund is that the accountant was looking at it and I may get 16 hours now refunded. Now, they won’t return my phone calls or when I go in to talk to them, she is busy and doesn’t call me back. This has been my experience with the Lehi, Utah center and I would tell parents, DO NOT PREPAY ANY AMOUNT TO SYLVAN!

I should have just left, but I thought I was doing a good thing for my child. They had my child in a room for the assessment. Next thing you know they had computer work, I thought, which I found out later were more personal questions! My child HATED it. I had also found a Sylvan coupon online for $25.00 off the assessment which I brought, as the coupon said, but the "director" said she'd let me know. Let me know what? Refund the $25.00!! But I just very politely said, "Okay, thank you". I checked my credit card statement and NO refund! Why am I not surprised? These people are not caring teachers who want to help kids. They are out for lots of money, period!

At the end of the session, my daughter emerged with no paperwork. So I asked if we could see the work that she completed. The tutor reluctantly released the work, which made me curious and suspicious since this was our very first tutoring session - ever. When we got home, I looked at the work which had a huge smiley face at the top and said, "excellent" at the top. After checking the work, I saw that my daughter had missed several problems that were marked as correct. I asked my daughter about the scenario and she said that the tutor handed her a calculator and had her check her own work! Apparently, the tutor did not go over it again to ensure that the problems were right.

What a ripoff. I mean, I am paying these people to basically babysit my kid and we were providing the worksheets and the grading. I definitely do not recommend this company or service. You are better off trying a more reputable company or do the work at home yourself with your child. Just read the plethora of other bad reviews provided by others just like me. Shame on you, Sylvan. You might as well be criminals because you stole our money.

Last week, my husband began receiving phone calls while at work from Rocky Mountain Collection Agency stating that we had not paid our bill and had thus been sent to collections. Additional "late" fees as well as collection agency fees had been attached to the bill. On behalf of Sylvan Learning Center, this collection agency was now asking for nearly $1000 in full immediately. I called Sylvan Learning Center to inquire why this was happening. The Billing department woman stated that she could clearly see that payments had been made consistently for four months, but after that they'd not received any more. She stated that three more statements were sent to my husband and I. I stated that this did not happen. She then stated that they had sent them to us via e-mail. I asked her why they would do this as we'd been set up for paper billing statements. She had no answer. My husband checked his email account, looking for these e-statements - there were none. The billing department woman at Sylvan stated that the situation was out of her hands now that we'd been sent to collections. There was no apology.

We now have a hungry creditor bothering us daily, threatening our credit and stating that he will not take payments from us as he wants the money in full now. We don't know what our rights are with this situation, but hope that someone is willing to give us some guidance in this matter asap before our credit is affected.

On 11/29/12, I had a conference meeting with the Director Stephanie ** to discuss my son’s progress. At that time, I was excited because I was expecting to hear my son had achieved mastery in Algebra, but his skills assessment information Stephanie had given me had not changed from the skills assessment my son had initially taken in August 2012. I asked Stephanie why my son’s test scores had not improved after attending 43 hours of the Algebra program. I am sure the Algebra program has a curriculum? Then Stephanie stated their main focus was to help my son with his homework, but if I purchase more hours, they would be able to follow through with the Algebra curriculum. She was trying to convince me to purchase more hours.

Needless to say, I was quite frustrated and disappointed - I was expecting a higher level of service. And I do not want to continue to spend any more money on this problem. I do not want to take my son to Sylvan Learning. I wrote a letter to the franchise owner Fran Dyer and explained my son had received a deficiency in his high school Math, and she refuses to give me a refund and offered to give me 10 hours. I am expecting a full refund of $2,413.92.

I was so mad about all of this! When speaking with another parent in the "waiting area," I found out that there had been around 10 different directors in the last year. Wow! Whoever owns this business is obviously not doing something right and has shady business practices. I am beyond frustrated as my child has not improved much in school and is not even allowed to do homework. I'm paying $60 an hour, so how dare they tell me she can't do her homework?! I will not be recommending this place to anyone! While the past director and teachers are very professional and great, there is something going on here that I do not like! It is too expensive for this kind of service and lack of improvement! Stay away!

Several times during that 5 months (which over the summer involved one or two-hour sessions 5 or 6 days a week), we reiterated to the facility director that we wanted our son focusing on Algebra with specific goals in mind. On his first day of Algebra class in 8th grade, he was given a skills assessment packet to bring home and complete. He was absolutely freaked out because he didn't understand any of it. He might as well have been handed a Greek novel. I couldn't understand how after 5 months all of the concepts (properties, terms, basic graphing) were totally foreign to him. He and I spent hours at the dinner table going over the concepts and trying to get him comfortable with the basics (no easy task for someone who hasn't done Algebra in 25 years).

The fact that even first week Algebra 1 was completely lost on him tells me that Sylvan failed completely to comply with our goals for our son and in fact cost him the prep time he could have been spending with a real tutor. I contacted the center and told them he would not be returning and that I wanted the unused hours cancelled (we purchased a package of 111 hours, of which we used 60 or so) and the money for them refunded (which they are doing) and that I wanted at least a partial refund of some hours spent there since they clearly did not provide the service they agreed to provide! Both the center director and the region manager flatly refused any refund for hours spent, insisting that we're just not seeing the benefit of the tutoring because we didn't keep our son there for the full program length.

The way I see it is that if you can't teach "week 1" Algebra in 5 months, more hours will not help accomplish anything. Their assessment testing at Sylvan generates pretty graphs and terms like "grade level equivalency" scores that have exactly jack to do with your child performing in "real" school. Their "1 grade level" guarantee isn't one grade school level - it's one "benchmark level" within their definitions. And if your student doesn't improve 1 grade level, they offer more hours! Completely worthless. Early termination of the program came with a huge penalty as well. Because we bought a package bundle, we got a rate discount of $15/hour.

When we terminated prior to using the entire 111 hours, all of the hours spent were billed at the higher "pay as you go" rate, making them 33% more expensive than when we bought them. This is in the contract we signed, so I cannot argue against this except for the fact that they get more money for not doing what they were paid to do than by actually doing it. In short, I consider what Sylvan did to be plain and simple theft. I have filed a complaint with my area's BBB and am going to be talking to a legal counsel to see if I have any recourse. In the meantime, I promised the regional manager that I would do everything I could to let other parents know of the scam that is Sylvan.

If you are considering taking your child here (which I cannot recommend against strongly enough), know that you will never really understand what your child is working on. And that if their tutoring turns out to be completely ineffective, you will be flatly refused any compensation for the time, effort and self-esteem it costs your child or the money it costs you for them to go there and fail. I would avoid this company like the plague.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I drove two times a week from Chiloquin to Medford, Oregon at great hardship to Jake and I. When there was no noticeable improvement for Jake, we had to quit the Sylvan Learning for my son who has dysgraphia. Rather than help his problem, they only reviewed subjects that he had done two years before. They still have the $400.00 refund. It was to be paid to us in further class time hours. At one point, they talked about putting the money in the loan at Sallie Mae, but that never happened.

I paid by check initially for a 40-year program for each of my children at the rate of $68.00/session (x 2 children = $136.00 3x a week). Jassica told me that if I wanted better, to give her $90.00 per child. I have been asking for a transfer to the Sylvan Learning Center in Mineola, which appears to be functioning better and appears to meet our expectations. But I was told by Jassica that she would have to fill out paperwork that would take 8-10 weeks, which would cause my children to miss Summer Enhancement Classes.

Jassica, the Director in Flushing, stated she could make a deal with me and pay the $50.00 per hour x 2 for the remaining 29 hours each child and that she would keep the rest. When I refused and told her that she cashed my check in full and that I wanted to contact her corporate office, she could not remember the number or names of her superiors. I told her that if I did not receive a satisfactory response, I would contact the Queens District Attorney Office/Better Business Office, unless I received the money to register my children in Mineola (2 slots are open.). But I do not have $5000.00 available to give again. Please help as soon as possible so that my children are not penalized any further.

I presented her with a check for $50.00 as a deposit and left. After speaking with my husband and we figured out the monthly fee for tutoring of $48.00 per hour at 10 hours per week (just to start, the hours can be as many as 12 hours per week), the monthly fee is $1,920.00. This is more than what we make in a month in our household. We absolutely cannot afford this!

I called Ms. ** this afternoon, June 8 at 1:41 pm and explained the situation to her and asked for a refund of the $50.00 deposit. She advised me that it was a non-refundable fee and that we could not receive it back and that we could still bring our son in to be tested and then let it go at that. I told her she never advised me that the deposit was non-refundable and that I also never signed any contract or paperwork stating or agreeing to this. She stated that they do not have contracts nor are they obligated to advise customers that the deposit is non-refundable.

She also stated that the spot was held for our son when they could have used it for someone else. I told her they would not have had a problem filling that spot, since the calendar was not even full at the time of our meeting; and she had mentioned at the same time that the summer session was receiving a lot of attention. She simply stated that we would not receive our deposit back, and she hung up.

This person has no interest in the children obviously, so I took her to Sylvan in Gautier, MS and the director retested her and she was far above average. I knew this and my daughter only needed to comprehend Pre-Algebra and was being taught 2nd, 3rd, 4th grade Math and never even got to the 7th grade level tutoring at Sylvan. My daughter left Mobile with a 56 and two weeks later, she is at a 76 but is probably still not going to pass (going into the final, her yearly average is 69). I tried speaking with customer service and was told my daughter was on a 2nd grade level even though her last year's report card grade shows a B in Math and A's and B's in other subjects, just a copy of all state testing since 2nd grade and all show proficient and above average through 6th grade (7th grade not available yet).

Customer service and the Mobile Sylvan are extremely rude and take no responsibility to at least offer reimbursement since I spent $3,000 for my daughter to fail. I was also told my daughter had obviously regressed from 7th grade to 2nd grade! (This put me over the top!) I said my child has not had a brain injury and I decided to get proof of grade level and fight this battle my way even if I have to get an attorney. Summer school is 40 miles away (one way) at 15m/gallon, five days a week for four weeks. Course cost is $175, not to mention I will not be able to work, only weekend for that month. And then starting all over at another Sylvan paying for education that my daughter should have been taught the four months that I paid for. Yes, Sylvan, I am very angry at the moment as I should be. Take responsibility in the fact your test was wrong and you should have thought that a 7th grader couldn't possibly be on a 2nd grade level and give my money back.

After several weeks of instruction, Kadee took a practice ACT test. On this test, she received a score of 16. Needless to say, we were very concerned at this point. We made a call to Sylvan and were assured that Kadee was learning a lot of new things and that this was normal. Tamara asked for a copy of the scores that Kadee had received on her last test taken before she started the Sylvan course. We reminded her that we had left her a copy when we registered. This was a little upsetting since Tamara had assured us that she would keep a close watch on Kadee's progress. After a few more weeks, we received notice that Tamara was taking over the direction of Kadee's study. We felt that she was doing this because we had expressed concern over her progress. This proved to be untrue.

At the completion of the course, Kadee took a final ACT practice test and scored only a 19. My husband made a call to Tamara again; this time he was upset. Tamara was confused as to why he was upset because she said she came up 3 points. Once again, she had forgotten that she had the real ACT scores showing that Kadee received an 18 before she took the Sylvan course. The only thing that Tamara could say when this was brought to her attention for the second time was that they don't guarantee anything.

Needless to say, we feel that we not only wasted $1,200 that we could have applied to my daughter's college tuition but 30 hours of my daughter's time and the expense that was incurred by Kadee traveling 30 miles one way to attend these classes, because we were given false hope that Sylvan could increase my daughter's ACT scores and therefore, increase her chances of receiving more scholarships. Tamara gave us lots of promises while taking our money but when we required some explanations, she was very uncooperative. All she could offer in response to our dissatisfaction with the service that we received was more classes so that Kadee could take the ACT again in July. We would like to have our money refunded so that we may apply it towards college tuition for our daughter.

Ben has always found a network of friends to help him, but I put him back in private high school so the financial strain is there and I still owe Sallie Mae $12,000. When I recently wrote Sylvan, they said it wasn't their place to see if a child has a learning disability. How can that be when they base their charges on how far back the child tested? Anyway, they know that a child with learning disabilities does not test well. There are special rules. I am now looking for grants to help me. I received so many feedbacks from people and those who quit working there since they took advantage of families in pain. Is there any way a class action can be started or can I file a claim on my own? Please help me. My credit is ruined. I fell at work and am now out on worker's comp. Please help.

I called the attorney office that was given on this letter to find out they are filing Chapter 7. I emailed the Sylvan corp office, and got nowhere because all the offices are independently owned. So Sylvan does not stand behind the contract you sign with their name all over it. I was told after month of fighting and writing letters and reviews that the Jefferson City or Washington office MAY work out something to take on the prepaid people. After weeks, I was told that the Jefferson office will take my son with No other charges ONLY for 44 hours, equaling out to $1584 that they showed was left on my son's account. This did not include the 12 free hours, or the 12 hours for the snow days that THEY were closed, or the 2 sick days or the 1 test day. As of TODAY, I drive 2 1/2 hours, one way to go to Jefferson City for 3 hours of tutoring, for 44 hours. I am still out 36 hours.

As we requested the director to add another 12 hours to her program, she said no. Sylvan tested her skills and her reading skills did improve to one grade per Sylvan standards. The testing is base on a national assessment test, which no one told us, that the State of California does not recognize though this type of testing is recognized in over 40 other states. Nowhere did we read or hear that the State of California education system does recognize Sylvan test assessments; or better yet, Sylvan Learning Center does not recognize the State of California testing for grade children.

We should be refunded the entire full amount of the tuition of $5,585.00. We feel we been misled, defrauded upon and influenced by false advertising. We also feel that we should submit this complaint to the State of California State Attorney and investigate other claims besides ours and maybe there is pattern of defrauding consumers by Sylvan Learning Center in Fremont, California.

Needless to say, the sessions were a waste of time just like the entire 9 months. I took out a loan through Sallie Mae for $7,000, which I am still paying $55.00 monthly. I feel cheated. My son is currently in 3rd grade and was just assessed with a learning disability. Sylvan took advantage of the opportunity to make money instead of helping a child who was in need. I have read the other complaints on this site and I pray we are able to start a class action lawsuit against these crooks!

I finally removed my daughter from the Sylvan program when I received my daughter's report card and her grades went down in every area that Sylvan tried to help her in. She made it through third grade, but by the skin of her teeth. Rather than subject my daughter to Sylvan for the entire summer, I said enough is enough and pulled her and demanded a refund. I was informed that the Sylvan Advantage is that if the student does not improve a whole grade then there would be additional classes at no additional cost. I did not want my daughter's grades to suffer further so I demanded a refund of the unused portion of the loan so that I could be through with Sylvan. That was in early summer. In September, I followed up with an e-mail demanding my refund. I was told by Rachelle ** on Sept. 29 that my loan would be reimbursed the unused funds in 6 to 8 weeks processing time. After 10 weeks and still no refund, during which time I continued to pay my monthly amounts to Sallie Mae. I contacted Dave at Sylvan, the second in charge at the center. He did not initially return calls because he was ill.

I finally caught him in late December. His explanation was that due to the hard financial times, the owner, John, was behind in processing refund requests. He promised me that the loan would be refunded by Jan. 15. Today is Jan. 22. My loan still has not been refunded. Sallie Mae is a third party in this. They funded the loan and now demand payment. I am stuck paying them. No one at Sallie Mae will return correspondence asking for help. And Sylvan continues on with what amounts to free money from my loan which they so far have not refunded. I would not recommend Sylvan to anyone. A better bet would be to check with a local college. They offer tutoring by students at a price less than half of what Sylvan charges and with no contracts.

Now I'm being sued by Sallie Mae for over $7,000. Something that I don't have, even though I started out paying the loan fine. Until my son didn't benefit from it, I stop paying because I was getting behind on everything else trying to pay for something that didn't even help my son. It just put me in more debt. I wish that there was a way Sylvan Learning Center can pay that money back to Sallie Mae. It was just a ripoff taking money from people that want to help their child succeed.

Due to transportation problems, I called and let them know my son would no longer be attending the program until I could get another vehicle. Sylvan refused to reimburse any of my money and also kicked my son out of the program. I made three appointments with Sylvan's director (to explain my situation about transportation). The director never showed up on either appointments. Sylvan's director was never available for conference. I was completely misled by Sylvan and I wouldn't recommend anyone sending their children there.

We were promised that they would get with his teachers at school. (I had to push and push for them to do it and when they finally did meet with his Learning Strategies teacher, they started and finished the meeting without me even though I said I wanted to be there and took off work). They said he would be put with kids his age (he was put with kids much younger than him). Conferences were at their convenience. (They sent a letter stating "15 minutes has been set aside for you on this date" which at their whim would be changed last minute.) Meetings started late and once or twice, I had to leave before meeting started because of the lateness and me having to get back to work. Finally, because of disappointment after disappointment with our son's progress, we had a meeting with Sylvan on June 12th and we were going to dis-enroll him and get a private tutor.

At the meeting again, we were promised he would be further along come August when school started and a private tutor would not be as effective as they are. And here it is January and still not further along. As a matter of fact, he has gone backward not forward as of their last testing. I have been working with his teachers and getting him passed not Sylvan. I have so much more to say that I don't think this e-mail space is enough. I have e-mail after e-mail of my complaints to Sylvan and their reasons things aren't going as promised. Unfortunately, we don't have the money to just throw away on empty promises. I feel we have been taken advantage of because of our desperation to help our son succeed. After the last meeting in December, I was so fed up that I dis-enrolled him. I was then told he had until January 9th and when I dropped him off on January 5th, I was told sorry he is already dis-enrolled. I need help! Oh, the $9,309 we paid for enrollment does not include the $275 we paid to have him evaluated by Sylvan.

You cannot believe the pain and disappointment that we felt when he didn't even pass that year in school. What a waste of time and money! When I called Sylvan about it, they just wanted to give us more lessons. We refused more lessons because the first lessons didn't work. We paid on the loan for as long as we could, and then stopped. They have turned us over to a collection agency and it is ruining our perfect credit. With the interest added on the $9,000.00 is more like $12,000.00. I wouldn't recommend Sylvan to anyone. It's not worth it.

After the initial testing, I agreed to take Joey for two hours a day, three days a week. Tessa, the director, said that if I prepay, I would be charged less per hour and that if I used Sallie Mae for a loan, it would be tax deductible. Another perk would be that the balance of the payment for the remaining hours, if I did not keep Joey enrolled during the school year, could be sent directly to Sallie Mae at the end of the summer. It would save me some interest charges.

I signed paperwork for a loan of 3195.00 payable to the Morris Sylvan center. When school resumed in August, I spoke with my son's teacher and asked her to let me know the results of his placement testing as soon as she could. They tested the first week of school and after finding out that Joey had actually LOST knowledge during the summer and that the school has programs to help him, I decided it was not in my or Joey's best interest to continue to go to Sylvan. Joey loved his teacher and enjoyed his time at the center, but he was okay with it.

I talked to Tessa, who told me that the credit might take a couple of weeks to show up at Sallie Mae and to call if for some reason it wasn't there in two weeks. This made me question whether the reimbursement would really be processed and I made a mental note to check back. The payment was never sent. As you can imagine, we have lots of bills coming in and I want to pay this loan off and be done with it. (There is no monthly statement and I didn't want to forget and be charged more.)

I have called repeatedly and been told, I'm sorry that it wasn't taken care of when we said. It will be taken care of immediately. I have also been told that it was just done last Friday; sorry it's been taking so long to get it done. This is four months I have been waiting and been lied to. The last time I talked to Tessa, I asked her what balance was going to be sent - he still had over twenty hours left and we had agreed to the loan to get the reduced fee of $39 per hour. I expected the amount to be over $1000.

I was told the amount would be in the 800s. The difference is more than the interest we have accrued while waiting for the reimbursement! When I asked why the amount was so low, Tessa told me that it was because we had not used all of the hours. The rate had been adjusted to $43/hour. Tessa apologized that I must not have heard that part of our conversation.

I am still being put off and today was told by the owner's secretary that the owner (who is 'out' on days I call the centers) is a good man. She went on to say that it was probably Sallie Mae being slow. Some times Sallie Mae takes almost two months. My payments show up almost immediately. I do not believe that. I called Sallie Mae and checked the account on the website. They have received nothing from Sylvan against our account.

I will never go back to neither this location, nor to Sylvan!

There were many times that the center was supposed to open at 8:30 a.m. and no one arrived until 9:00 or 9:15 a.m. Class was supposed to end at 12:30 p.m. We would arrive around 12:15 and our daughter was already out of class. Come to find out, there was also a 15-20 minute break in between classes. So I'm paying for 4 hours and only receiving 3. At $52.00 per hour. I'm losing over $100.00 per week. The director set up meetings to discuss progress and missed most of them. Not once, did she ever call to reschedule. She just let us drive across town for nothing. No one in the center could ever offer us an explanation. I called the corporate office on several occasions and was always told that someone would get back to me. I didn't know that it would take 3 months.

When the director's supervisor finally did get around to calling me back, all she could do was defend her colleague. At one missed meeting, the director stated that she missed it because her father passed away. Of course, I empathized. But, when she missed the next meeting without a phone call, I was irate. I called the supervisor and even she couldn't track down the director. Later that day, the supervisor returned my call only to tell me that the reason the director missed our meeting was because her father fell ill. I'm sorry, but didn't her father just die last month? I have a heart, but I will not be lied to when there is over $14,000 on the line.

On several occasions, my daughter was left to herself at a table to learn and memorize flash cards. I can go to the dollar store and get flash cards for $.99 and do that at home with her myself. Why pay Sylvan $52.00? Hello, does this make any sense to anyone? My daughter said that she was in groups of 3 and had a question about the lesson being taught. Her tutor told her to wait until the end of the lesson for her question. Why? At the end of the lesson, she forgot the question and never learned the lesson. I told the director that I wasn't happy with Sylvan and wanted her removed. She was very persistent that we give it a little more time. I couldn't say no to my daughter, she seemed to like it there. But according to her teachers at her school, her academic performance wasn't showing any signs of progress.

It took 4 months for Sylvan to get the curriculum from our daughter's school so that they could teach at Sylvan what was being taught in her primary school. So for 4 months, they taught her what they "assumed" all 4th graders were learning. On slow days, they would just do her homework with her for her 2 hour class. Upon picking her up from Sylvan, her homework still wasn't done. How can you not finish 3 pages of homework in 2 hours? What is being done in these facilities for $52.00 per hour? My daughter's test scores were all coming back below 60%! My daughter wasn't learning anything!

When the director finally got a hold of the schools' curriculum, all my questions had been answered! Come to find out, my daughters' school was teaching "new" math and Sylvan was teaching "traditional" math! So, my daughter was being taught 2 different things, sometimes in the same day. She was totally confused. Had the director done her job in the beginning instead of just trying to fill up her seats, none of this would have happened. In conclusion, Sylvan was the biggest most expensive mistake of my life and I would give anything to go back in time and not send her there. I wouldn't recommend Sylvan to my worst enemy.

We have one discouraged student and a depleted bank account. We are grandparents living on fixed incomes and raising two grandkids. We are sending this information on to the Better Business Bureau in Little Rock.

After every session I confer with the teacher, observe his work and note his progress. If they have been studying antonyms or homonyms or prefixes or the differences between questions and statements I reinforce what he has learned during the class. When I ask him what he has learned during a full day of class he replies: 'Nothing'. When I ask him what he has learned at Sylvan that day, not only can he tell me but I am engaged in reinforcing his learning. Amy Rasch, the supervisor at this location has been commendable in her attention to my child's needs and applying the appropriate resources to them. My complaint is with the NYC Board of Ed. and its ineptitude with dealing with children with special needs.

I feel sylvan took adavantage of me and my sons, I signed a contract for 17,000. I am in arrears over this thing, and guess what else never got a tax write off please help

my credit score has plummeted, and what would have happened if I didn't have the family crisis, my boys would have gone and kept going not knowing they had a disability.

Paid $400 for loan fees, lost $38 x 23 hours = $874 and money for interest paid since June 2006

Then I finally got ahold of Zaidee at the Rego Park office who did not get back to me neither. I finally got fed up with them so I sent them a fax in which I told them that because of their lack of customer service and professionalism I was request a refund for the remaining lessons. No one responded to my fax either.

Then I called again and got a hold of Audrey who then told me that Kevin the manager was no longer with their firm. She said she would look into the matter and get back to me. I got a called from her where she apologized and said she would look into the matter futher. She said that she would take care of it and send me a check which should send me a refund and it would take another two weeks which I expected by end of October. When the check didn't arrive I called her back and then she said that she was sorry that no one took care of the matter and she would have the accounting department mail it to me by Friday, Nov. 3 and to call her if I didn't receive it.

Then I called her back on Nov. 3th to tell her I hadn't seen it and she said she would call me back. I called her on Nov. 20th and she said that she didn't owe me anything because the agreement said (which no one told me of such a policy) that if my daughter didn't finish the course the price would revert from the discounted price to the original price and thus Sylvan did not owe me anything. It took them 4 months of run around and this goose chase with Keith (who is no longer with them) and ultimately with Audrey.

I enrolled my daughter in these classes and paid up front because they convinced me that it was the cheepest way to go. After they didn't even get back to me and my they neglect and disregard I was disgusted with them. I am requesting a reimbursement for the remaining 20 hours. Their service is terrible and I don't want my daughter returning to that establishment.