American InterContinental University-Online Aka AIU Online ripoff uncooperative dishonest harassing phonecalls evasive answers to questions breech verbal agreements poor customer service Hoffman Estates Illinois

I have had a problem with AIU-Online. AIU-Online is an online school that I attended during the early to mid part of 2005.

When I was first contacted by Romandius Moore, one of the schools Reps, I fully explained my situation to him.

I told Mr. Moore that I was interested in returning to school, but that I did not think I would be able to afford to pay for my tution.

I explained to Mr. Moore that due to prior financial aid loans that were in default I was ineligible for a student loand and I knew that I was unable to pay the tution out of my pocket.

Mr. Moore told me not to worry about the tution. He assured me that the admissions office could help me around that problem.

I explained to him that I was trying to repair my credit, so I definetley "did not want to bite off more than I could chew,"as far as trying to pay for something that I could not presently afford.

Mr. Moore told me that I would not have any problems, as far as paying them would be concerned. Their admissions office had other financial programs that they could offer to me.

To make a long story short, I was admitted into the Business program, and after the first week, I was told that I needed to come up with half of the $2500 for my class.

I spoke with someone in the financial aid office, explained my situation to them, as I did to Mr. Moore, and told them that Mr. Moore told me that their were other financial programs that could be offered to me and the situation would be handled with no problem.

Their solution to this was to make me sign a letter stating that I would be responsible for paying for the tution if my financial aid does not go through, all the while, assuring me that there would be no problems.

Hesitant to sign the form, I specifically told them, that I did not want to be responsible for paying for this becuase I knew that I was financially unable to do so, the guy told me not to worry the payment would not fall back on me, it was just a formality that they had to go through in his office, and I would not be held liable for the payment.

If for whatever reason I could not get the financial assistance necessary to pay for my tution, then I could just drop the course and could reapply when I could get the assistance needed.

I continued class a second week, and the harrassing phonecalls started, about paying the school what I owed them. After talking to a lady in the collections part of the financial aid department, I decided that the best thing for me was to drop the class.

According to her, if I dropped the class, and did not enter the virtual campus anymore, after that week, I would not have to pay for the class.

I then dropped the class I was in, and told them that I no longer wanted to go to the school, because I had explained to them before it had gotten to this point, that I could not afford to pay for this.

Anyway, I now have a 1,521.00 debt from AIU on my credit report, and they say that there is nothing that they can do. As a result, my credit rating, has gone down even more than before.

By this being reported on my credit report, all of the work that I had done, as far as, paying creditors, removing old unfavorable credit accounts from my report, and such, has been ruined.

I was on the road to recovery, with my credit, all I needed to do was, take out a few loans, and pay them back on time, and that would have boosted my rating, per credit counseling.

I was repairing my credit, so that I could try to purchase my first home, and now I have to try to deal with the AIU-Online account that is on my credit report.

In trying to clear this up, I was going to try to pay them, but they told me that they could not accept any payment less than aproximately $127.00 a month, with an initial payment of half of what I owe.

I told them that, with my current budget, I could only afford about $50.00 a month, and I could not afford to send them a large lump sum of cash all at once.

The lady told me, that they would not accept anything less than what she had proposed. I asked her twice, "So, you mean to tell me that you would not accept the $50.00 a month. She told me that if I sent $50.00 in to them, that it would be returned.

After finishing our conversation, they lady told me that they would have to submitt it to the three credit bureaus and have it put on my credit report, and that there was nothing furhter to discuss.

With the exception of Mr. Moore, most of the people that I spoke with, about this issue were sharp with me and very inconsiderate.

Anika
Shreveport, Louisiana
U.S.A.