On April 11, 2007 I signed up for one of their courses. Information came to light however re: the validity of their Teachers Aide Program and the fact that most schools will accept you and train you without prior certification within the next day or so.
I sent a letter requesting cancellation of my contract and return of my deposit on April 13, 2007 stating the following:
April 13, 2007
Stratford Career Institute
1010 Vermont Ave NW, Ste 805
Washington, DC 20005
Sent Via Certified Mail
Article #: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
To whom it may concern:
Please cancel my contract for the Teachers Aide program and refund my deposit of $XX paid via XXXXXX check # XXXX dated April 11, 2007. I am well within the 14-day cancellation period.
Sincerely,
I received the following notification from the post office.
Status: Delivered
Your item was delivered at 1:33 PM on April 17, 2007 in WASHINGTON, DC 20005.
I received a letter dated April 30th from Jason Hammond, Student Advisor, re: my options instead of cancellation. I do not think the above letter left any uncertainty re: my intent to cancel.
I sent an email to the advisor (as to have documented proof) which included the tracking information of the initial certified letter stating the following:
I wish only to cancel the course. I do not wish to transfer or place the program on hold. Your course materials were refused and returned to sender directly from the post office at which they were received on the day they were received.
Please cancel the contract and refund my deposit as requested.
On May 9th, I received a bill re: my failure to cancel w/in 14 days and a balance I owe them of $179! I have of course filed complaints with the DC Attorney General and DC BBB against them in addition to emailing them all of my documentation that disputes their claims. The email address that they gave me however is no longer valid!
I mailed a copy of the email to them instead.
I found out too late that they have a reputation for defrauding those who wish to cancel. Luckily I sent my cancellation request via certified mail. As evidenced by post office records and the attached letter, it was sent, as per the policy they included with their scam, to the correct address and still received well within your 14 days. The cancellation address, by the way, is only included on the backside of the initial agreement the one the applicant has to mail off to them - and no where else either on their website or by any other easily obtainable means obviously more of their scam. That they chose to ignore my request for cancellation is their own fault. Their pathetic attempts to try to keep my business and stall out the 14 days, have been duly noted.
As for their lessons, the date the 1st and only one arrived at the post office, I refused it and wrote refused, return to sender immediately handing it back to the clerk. Again, another scam about them that I have read about.
It is apparent that their business is so poorly run that they feel the need to defraud people in order to stay afloat. Rest assured that I will do everything in my power to make it even more difficult for them.
Also please find attached a list of links detailing the same type of scam being perpetrated by them. I only wonder how many times they've successfully pulled this scam on people too ashamed or too uninformed to know the proper recourse.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/results.asp?q1=ALL&q4=&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0&submit2=Search%21&q5=stratford+career+institute
http://www.insiderpages.com/b/3712152181
http://www.theblogpound.com/index.php/weblog/comments/stratford_career_institute_veterinary_assistant_program_rant/
http://cbs5.com/consumer/local_story_047212733.html
http://scamclub.com/reports/Stratford-Carer-Institute-3681.html
Judging from the volume of these entries, this seems to be their standard MO, even CBS news reported on it!
Posted 05/18/07 | Report Abuse
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