Smart Tuition

I paid my bill with a credit card and was charged a $"convenience fee" even though there was no mention at any time during the payment process that such a fee would be chargedIt didn't say so on my invoice, nor on the web page during payment, and it didn't say so on the receipt I received from Smart Tution via emailIn fact, the only reason I know I was charged a fee was because the amount of the charge on my credit card statement was different than the amount of my invoice and receiptI had to go back to the website and dig through their Terms and Conditions page to find out that they do charge such a feeAlthough there was no indication of this during the payment process and no notification of how much the fee would beI still have no idea how they calculated it, and am only lucky that it wasn't more! This kind of lack of transparency is something you don't see from a business that cares about its' customersBut since its' customers are the schools, not the parents, it makes senseLet the user beware!

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:
I've been using *** *** On-line, Bill Pay for years and have never been late with any creditor However, the first time I was late on a bill was with your company, Smart Tuition for another school It was recommended by a Smart Tuition representative to sbank transfer info with your company to avoid future late fees Therefore, I did and had no further problems However, this year, I do not wish to furnish my bank account info for either manual or automatic payments via Smart Tuition
This year, I was late again on my very first payment through a new school I smy payment on July 3rd; however, it wasn't mailed until July 7th due to the July 4th holiday As I stated before it was due to arrive July 11th, which still allowed 2, additional business days to process the payment (My mailing instructions were followed, as verified by my bank, *** ***.) Yet, it wasn't posted to my account until July 17th, even though a copy of my bank check shows it was deposited on July 16th, still day lateSo, my question is why does it take 5, additional business days to process a payment? (Following, your example of the check being received on the 8th of July)
Thank you in advance
Regards,
*** ***

I apologize for any confusion that resulted from what you read on our website. You can make a payment at no additional cost by phone or web if you are using a checking or savings account. If you choose to use a credit card there is a convenience fee
associated with that transaction. Smart Tuition notifies everyone that uses a credit card that there is a convenience fee before we process the transaction. If you do not agree to the convenience fee or change your mind, you can cancel the transaction. When you first started making payments to Smart Tuition on 6/30/you used a checking account on the phone and there were no additional fees. Each time you used your credit card, we notify you of the credit card convenience fee before the transaction is processed. We do not charge a processing fee for payments by phone, web, or mobile app I have requested to have this line updated on our website. The total amount of the convenience fee’s was $for both years The larger tuition payments you made last year were from a checking account and there were no fee’s on those transactions. I will credit your Smart Tuition account for 16-with a $courtesy credit for the feedback regarding our website. Thank you for being a Smart Tuition parent. We appreciate your feedback so that we can improve our company going forward Sincerely,
*** ***
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

I apologize for any frustration that you have with Smart Tuition. The situation in question began on August 26th 2015. Apayment was made by the parent on our website by typing in the checking account numbers themselves. The payment failedfor R03: No Account from our
bank. This error code from the bank is most likely an error with the numbers that weretyped in that could have been incorrect/transposed or the account was closed. We emailed the parent automatically on 8/27/to notify them of the failed payment. The parent did call us to question the fee on 8/28/and we left an open note in our system to review. On 9/29/the parent called back the 2nd time to address thisissue. We immediately absorbed the failed bank fee of $on 9/29/as a one-time courtesy. I apologize that it took a month to addressthis issue. During enrollment season we are very busy and attempt to address each open request in 7-days. I will speak to the account manager aboutthis issue going forward. We also waived a late fee on 8/3/as a one-time courtesyThere are no other Smart Tuition fees on your account at this time. If you have any additional question please contact us anytime at ###-###-####.Sincerely,Smart Tuition

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to meThank you for your help
Regards,
*** ***

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to meI am appreciative of the quick response made by SmartTuition and their willingness to waive the fees that they charged. I would, however, like to clarify that the statements made by the business regarding the issue are not entirely accurate. I changed my account AFTER the first failure in an attempt to rectify the situation. I did not forget to tell SmartTuition that I changed my account. The failure of the auotpay was in no way due to any change I made to the account. In fact, all of the actions I took with my account were done after I talked to a SmartTuition customer representative and sought their advice. In addition, I have not been able to locate any emails from SmartTuition about autopayments not going through. I do have email responses when I asked direct questions via email but no responses relating to failure to receive autopaymentsI am thankful to Revdex.com for helping to reach this resolution
Regards,
*** ***

I am rejecting this response because I have discussed with Smart Tuition several times about how the charges didn't appear on the invoice so there is no way we should be charged a late fee. After having this discussion and getting agreement from the customer service person, I received several additional calls about a past due balance. So it was harassment because I talked to your representative about the situation and was being further contacted several times
I am not disputing the athletic charges. I am disputing the late fee that is being applied to me on a charge that I was never invoiced for. That is fraud. You need to correct your billing system to invoice correctly

I apologize for any frustration you have with Smart Tuition. I would first like to thank you for using Smart Tuition for around years. We truly appreciate that you have been with us for a while and value your feedback. Smart
Tuition has been providing private and religious schools options for making payments for almost years There are differences between surcharges and convenience fees. The credit card companies that we deal with have fully vetted Smart Tuition and are aware that we charge convenience fees in NY. When making payments on our website, you agreed to the amount to be charged on your credit card. The convenience fee was on the confirmation page with the total amount of the charges Before you click the submit button, you have the option of cancelling the transaction if you do not agree with anything on the confirmation page. We have other options to avoid the credit card convenience fees. Parents do not have to use credit cards to pay your tuition. Payments can be made with your checking or savings account by using your routing number and bank account number. Cash payments can also be made at various locations on our website. Not all parents can make payments from their checking or savings accounts due to various reasons that come up. Smart Tuition tries to offer as many options as possible to make your tuition payments on timeAs a compromise, I will issue you a courtesy credit of $that you can use towards your tuition on your Smart Tuition account. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact meSincerely,
*** ***
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Dear Mr.***,We certainly do apologize that you were originally given incorrect information about what would happen if and when the missing check was received at the processing centerWe process over 10,payments a day, so it is impossible to look for one check deemed missing and send
it backWe do record all of our calls so I will make sure it is reviewed and addressed with the representative you spoke with.In the meantime, our records show we refunded $via check on 5/29/and also waived the $follow up feeIf there is anything still outstanding, please feel free to contact me directly.Again, my sincere apologies.Best regards,*** ***Smart Tuition###-###-####***

Tell us why here...We explained the parent’s concerns to the school and theyreached out to the parent. Currently the school mandates all families beenrolled with Smart for Charters (SFC)This family has an account in the prioryear as well with SFCFor the current
school year, the school re-enrolled allactive families to be billed again through SFC, including this familyThe schoolreached out to the family to explain and advise that for the current year theschool has not billed this family until May for lunch feeParent confirmedthat he received some emails from SFCThis family was on automatic debit withSFC in prior year, so account rolled over on auto debit. Families onautomatic debit do not get invoices, but do get advice of debit email Theschool also explained to family how they can review their billing itemsonline. The account was taken off auto debit, so that for futurebillings, the family will receive emailed invoices (school uses green invoicefor all families)The school has reviewed all the parent’s concerns with themand advised us that everything has been resolved. Parent has sincesubmitted a payment on balance due

I am rejecting this response because: I never sent any information to this business I do not know what a smart fee is or why I am being b**led for it In the state of **anybody doing business in the state must follow its laws Since this company does not offer a way to communicate without being recorded, it violates that law I am being b**led by a company I can not communicate with for services I never requested I w**l forward the matter to the *** attorney general for evaluati

This complaint was previously handled on Friday 12/16/ The payment was made after the due date on our website The parent then set up automatic payments going forward
Kind regards,
*** ***
Director of Parent
Experience Smart Tuition

I apologize for any frustration you are experiencing with Smart Tuition. Your account with Smart Tuition was fine with the auto debits until November. The bank account that we had on file was closed in November. We did send you emails for failed bank payments and they are
noted on your account that the emails were sent to your email address. It's possible they could have gone to your junk folder. If the bank account did not close there would have not been an issue. I understand that it's easy to forget about changing your bank information after you close your bank account. We did waive the initial failed bank fee on 12/01/15. I will waive the other failed bank fees because of this oversight with your bank account and also waive the late fee on your account for $as a time courtesy. In total we waived $in fees. Please be aware that going forward we will not be able to waive any additional late fees. *** *** *** allows courtesy late fee waiver per school year. If you have any questions about anything in the future please call our hour call center at ###-###-####
The other issue of slow mail delivery does not apply to your situation. We cannot control how long mail takes to be delivered to Smart Tuition. We advise our parents that mail delivery is accepted however it simply is not the fastest way to make payments. Transit times can vary due to weather, change of delivery routes, and basic inefficiency in general. We offer many different payment options so that you can avoid late fees. We are not trying to hold mail to generate late fees. Our goal is to get the payments to schools as fast as we can so the schools can function properlyIf you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly
Best regards,
*** ***
*** ** *** ***
Smart Tuition

I apologize for any frustration that you experienced with Smart Tuition Online bill pay is a very convenient method for families to make payments and we understand that We are transitioning into receiving electronic online bill payments in the 1st quarter of next year As of
today, online bill payments are mailed from your banks processing center to Smart Tuition by regular mail Due to the fact that we cannot track things by regular mail we have to rely on banks to mail the payments in a timely fashion and the postal service to deliver the payment to our lockbox Both of our lockboxes make several trips a day to pick up mail Online bill pay is not the fastest way to make a payment at this time If you wish to continue using this method you should initiate your payment a few days earlier The other payment options that you have with Smart Tuition are ACH auto debits, one time payment methods online and by phone, and cash payments at * *** *** *** ***, and *** *** We also have a mobile app you can make one time payments from These are the most efficient ways to make payments at this time When we being receiving electronic online bill payments, we will most likely eliminate any further issues with transit times
I have waived your late fee as a courtesy I do not show any records of you calling our company to discuss this issue We would have been able to resolve an issue of late fee over the phone if we knew the situation I hope you and your school will continue to use Smart Tuition in the future We are taking steps to improve going forwardSincerely,
*** ***
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

I apologize for any confusion The email you were sent last night was an error You should not have received an email because nothing has changed with your school We sent out a retraction email to you an hour after the mistake was discovered You will be able to use your
credit card with Smart Tuition for this school Sincerely,
*** ***
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Good morning Mr***,I apologize for any problems that you may have encountered over the holiday break. Smart Tuition does have many different options to pay without having to pay a credit card convenience fee. You can make a payment from your checking or savings account with
your routing number and your bank account number. When I checked your payment history, you previously paid this way on 7/21/on our website. On 4/1/14, you sent us a check. Neither of these payments received a fee. We will refund your $for this payment however if you do use a credit card going forward you will be charged a credit card convenience fee of 2.65% of the transaction amount. Additionally, Smart Tuition does have a confirmation paid before you submit your payment online that clearly displays the convenience fee and the total payment before you continue and confirm your payment. If you have any additional questions or comments, please contact me at ###-###-####.Best regards,*** ***Director of Parent Experience

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
As a note of accuracy, the first email regarding the change in payment policy was sent at 5:53PM on 9/ The retraction email noted by Mr*** was sent at 10:16PM Not one hour later, but over hours later, after I'd already spoken with the company However, given that the policy remains unchanged and is stated as such in writing, I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me
Regards,
*** ***

Hi ***,
I do apologize that your refund was not immediately processed*** *** *** has a refund process/policy that we must abide by, which means they must authorize Smart Tuition to process refundsOriginally, we contacted the school about your refund request on
1/20/On 1/21/the school authorized us to zero out the remaining balance, but said they needed to review the refund requestFinally, on 1/29/the school authorized Smart Tuition to process the refundWe have since refunded your checking account in the amount of $and as stated above the remaining balance was zeroed out
Again, I truly do apologize for the delay and any frustration you experienced during this time
If you have any question, please feel free to contact me directly
Thanks,
*** ***
*** *** *** *
***

I apologize for any frustration that you have experienced with our parent website. Smart Tuitiondoes offer payment options for credit cards however there is a 2.65% convenience fee per transaction. We also offerother options to pay without a convenience fee. You can make a
payment free of charge by using your checking/savingsrouting number and bank account number. We have reversed the payment that you made so there was no conveniencefee accessed. When making a payment on our website the convenience fee is listed before you finalize the paymentamount. The amount of the convenience fee is noted and the percentage that is charge is noted right above the arrowto go to the next screen. I’m sorry you did not see this when confirming your payment amount. We will make this more prevalent as we aredeveloping our new parent website. I do not have an ETA on when we will release this to our Smart parents. Please call me directly if you have anyadditional questions. Best regards, *** ***Director of Parent ExperienceSmart Tuition

Hi, my name is *** *** and my complaint id is ***. I no
"">longer want to make the complaint. It was actually just resolved and I amhappy with the results. I would like to withdraw my complaint if possible.If you have any further questions you many contact me thru email or by phoneat ***. Thank you