Barbri, Incorporated

Review: I registered for a BARBRI PA bar prep course for the February, 2014 Bar exam in October 2013 with the registrar of the [redacted] office of bARBRI over the phone without being shown or explained the company's policy and without being given any paperwork to sign. I called in January about postponing the Bar exam to July and inquired over the phone about the refund policy. I was told that the bar course will be transferred to July, 2014 course without any charges and I will receive a full refund in the event I withdraw as long as I give notice before the start of the course. I told Barbari last week that I want to withdraw from the course and was told, for the first time, that I was charged for a $250 non-redundable deposit fee. They said it is the company policy. No one had told me about that before, and I certainly has not consented to any such policy by reading or signing any paperwork.Desired Settlement: Full refund of the entire Barbri course fee - postage charges = $3105 now.

Business

Response:

May 12, 2014Dear [redacted]:I am in receipt of your correspondence dated May 2, 2014, in reference to [redacted]. Pursuant to your instructions we are responding to her complaint. Enclosed with this correspondence is the completion of the Standard Business Questionnaire and the screen shots **. [redacted] viewed as she accessed the BARBRI bar review course materials.BARBRI Bar Review is a national company that provides bar exam preparation to law school graduates preparing to take state bar exams. The preparatory course typically runs from late May to mid July for the summer bar exam given in each state at the end of July or from early January to mid February for the bar exam given at the end of February. The preparatory course meets every day Monday thru Friday leading up to the Bar Exam. The course consists of written materials, online materials, and lectures presented at locations and/or online.**. [redacted] was familiar with the BARBRI Prep course and its refund policies prior to this allegation. [redacted], ID# [redacted], had enrolled in the NY BAR Summer 2008 Bar Review Course on November 11, 2007. She paid the fees including the non refundable deposit and the course tuition. She attended the course and passed the NY bar exam given in July 2008. The relevant BARBRI policies involving payment of a non refundable deposit and course tuition have not changed since 2007 up to the present.In the present matter, on October 29, 2013, she enrolled in the PA BAR Winter 2014 preparation course and paid the reduced tuition rate based on her prior enrollment in the New York BARBRI Bar review course in 2008. The information concerning her reduced course tuition and payment of all fees was provided to her by experienced, knowledgeable, competent personnel in the [redacted] office. Her course materials were shipped and she had access to the online materials when she paid for the Winter 2014 bar review course.Upon her enrollment in the Winter 2014 Pennsylvania Bar Review Course she received a registration confirmation email which included a link to the Enrollment Agreement. The Enrollment Agreement included the following relevant language:PAYMENT INFORMATION: You lock in your tuition price upon our receipt of a non-refundable $250 registration fee, which must be paid by October 31st of your second year in law school. Upon payment of your registration fee, your tuition price for your bar review course will be locked-in for up to two years from the date of your graduation from law school. You may not lock in alumni tuition. Your $250 registration fee will be credited toward your bar review course tuition charge. You are responsible for all sales, use, service, value added or like taxes based upon your purchase of BARBRI's materials and services. To avoid a $75 late fee, you must pay your tuition charge, book deposit and any other outstanding balance to us by the December 1st immediately prior to your winter bar review course or the April 1st immediately prior to your summer bar review course.On December 6, 2013, **. [redacted] logged on to her BARBRI Account. By doing so she had access to all of the Bar Review Course materials and agreed to the below:Terms of UsePlease carefully read these terms and conditions ("Terms and Conditions") before using this website (the "BARBRI Site"). By accessing, using or downloading materials from the BARBRI Site, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. If you do not agree to these Terms and Conditions, please do not use the BARBRI Site. BARBRI is the owner of the BARBRI Site. The BARBRI Site contains information, including, without limitation, all text, graphics, photographs, graphs, sounds, data, images, audio, video, page headers, software (including HTML and other scripts), buttons, and other icons, and the arrangement and compilation of this information (collectively, the "Information") that is either owned or licensed by BARBRI.Particularly relevant is section 3 of the Terms of Use as follows:3. CancellationYou may no longer cancel your enrollment once you have been shipped course materials, attended a bar review class, or had access to any online bar review course content.Students have to agree to the above terms because once they receive the books/materials and have online access to the BARBRI bar review course materials they have access to the content of the course. On December 6, 2013, **. [redacted] logged on to her BARBRI account, agreed to the above terms, and proceeded to access the online materials for the Winter 2014 bar review course. Once she took these steps she was not entitled to any refund pursuant to her agreement.On January, 7, 2014, at **. [redacted]’s request, her enrollment was transferred from the Winter 2014 bar prep course to the Summer 2014 course. On April 7,2014, **. [redacted] notified our office of her wish to withdraw from the Summer 2014 bar review course. From December 6, 2013, when she first logged on to her account until April 7, 2014, when she notified our [redacted] office of her wish to withdraw, **. [redacted] had access to the bar review information either for the Winter 2014 bar review course or the pre Summer 2014 bar review course.On April 7, 2014, and thereafter she was advised that she was not entitled to a refund due to her access and use of the materials. This information was explained to her by the Directors in the [redacted] BARBRI Office and the Regional Director in the New York BARBRI office.Despite her consent to the Terms of Use acknowledging that she was not entitled to a refund, she was offered a refund of her payment except for the non refundable deposit in the amount of $250. The refund in the amount of $2,855.00 was issued to her on April 11, 2014.I have been associated with BARBRI for over 33 years. I have been a Director of the PA/NJ Bar Review office in [redacted] in excess of 25 years. This is the first complaint of this nature that I am aware. We made every effort within reason to accommodate **. [redacted].If you have any questions, or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me at ###-###-#### directly.?Very truly yours

Consumer

Response:

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed Administratively Resolved]

Review: [redacted]

I am rejecting this response because BARBRI's response was factually inaccurate. I outline below the facts of the matter and reasons why BARBRI's handling of the matter was unethical and illegal. Their complaint handling process was opaque and I was threatened by multiple people that if I keep pressing for the refund, I would receive no refund at all even though I have never taken the course and have taken steps to inform them my withdrawal before the start of the course.

Facts