Smart Tuition

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Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
I still question this company's business practices, though.  Nowhere on my Payment History page does it show the actual amount that was withdrawn from my banking account
Regards,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
Mr. [redacted]
I appreciate your attempts to position your activities as within the bounds of non-predatory activities.  I reject that assertion.
1) Please provide me with your policy on late fees as well as any documentation that I accepted agreeing to a late fee
2) You indicate that Blackbaud / Smart Tuition is collecting this late fee on behalf of the school, yet upon informal inquiry with the school, they have no record of an agreement in place for Blackbaud / SmartTuition to impose late fees nor have they had any late fees you collect, theoretically on their behalf, forwarded to them.  Please provide evidence that you have been conveyed the right by the school to charge this fee on their behalf, and evidence that past late fees that you have collected have in fact been transmitted to the school, or are simply being retained by Blackbaud / Smart Tuition to your benefit.
My expectation of Blackbaud / Smart Tuition is that you operate as prescribed under 12 CFR Part 1026, better known as "Reg Z":
"A creditor shall credit a payment to the consumer's account as of the date of receipt, execpt when a delay in crediting does not result in a finance or other charge or except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section."
Paragraph (b) as I am sure you are aware pertains to specific requirements for payment which given that the payment was ultimately accepted, would not apply here.
I am also certain that you are aware that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the CFPB, is amongst the regulatory firms that enforces Reg Z and supervises financial institutions as well as payment service providers such as Blackbaud / Smart Tuition.
Regards,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
Regards,
[redacted]

I paid my bill with a credit card and was charged a $10.69 "convenience fee" even though there was no mention at any time during the payment process that such a fee would be charged. It 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 email. In 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 receipt. I had to go back to the website and dig through their Terms and Conditions page to find out that they do charge such a fee. Although there was no indication of this during the payment process and no notification of how much the fee would be. I 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' customers. But since its' customers are the schools, not the parents, it makes sense. Let the user beware!

[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 [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
While I am still not happy with the way checks are processed by your organization, I do appreciate the reversal of returned check fees, $60.00 and the follow-up call by [redacted]
I have used on-line bill pay for years where paper checks have been sent to other companies and I have never had this type of problem.  Additionally, I do still believe that the timing of when my check was processed (same day as the stop payment was put through) is questionable. 
Hopefully in the near future, I do hope electronic transfers of money will be possible.  However, in the short term, I would hope that the processing of a paper check could be quicker than 3 weeks.  Tomorrow, I will attempt to payoff the full balance again, this time via phone with a customer service rep.
Thank you in advance for your expeditious response and assistance in this urgent matter.
Regards,
[redacted]

Dear [redacted],Smart Tuition simply provides resources and tools necessary for The[redacted] to bill and collect tuition and ancillary fees throughout the year. All tuition, fees and discounts, are provided to us by the school. We spoke to the school regarding your complaint. They...

confirmed the paid in full discount of $364.55, is in fact correct. This discount amount was calculated on tuition only, less the 10% tuition deposit. So, the total tuition for the year is $20,253.00. The tuition deposit of 10% equals $2025.30. They subtracted $2025.30 from $20,253.00, which brings the remaining billable amount to $18,227.70. The 2% paid in full discount amount was calculated from the $18,227.70, which is why the paid in full discount was $364.55. I hope this helps clarify everything. We certainly do apologize for any confusion or frustration this has caused.The school told us they sent you an email giving an explanation of your billing details. If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.Sincerely,[redacted]###-###-####[redacted]

I apologize for any frustration you are experiencing with Smart Tuition.  The late fee was already waived when you called us on 1/4/16.  The payment was being processed that day and was in your account on 1/5/16.  I have responded to many of...

these types of complaints regarding online bill pay.  The payment from your bank is sent by regular mail and cannot be tracked.  The bank estimates when we should receive the payment.  There are many other factors with this type of payment method that are out of our control.  We understand that many families use this payment method and that we need to accept online bill payments electronically instead of by check.  We do not have an ETA on when this will happen however I want to assure you that I have been pushing for this process to happen ASAP.  Until that time comes, we have other options to make payments.  I recommend making 1 time payments online or by phone.  I understand you may not want to do this but these payment methods are much faster ways to make payments.  We are a PCI compliant company and your bank information is blocked out so that no one can see that information going forward.   [redacted] Director of Parent Experience Smart Tuition

I understand the frustration you are experiencing with your delayed payment to Smart Tuition.  When our representative spoke to you over the phone on 11/21/16 your bank indicated to our phone representative they were...

reimbursing you for the late fee.  We understand your bank mailed the payment 10/27/16 for your due date of the 1st of the month.  That is not enough time for a regular mail check to get to Smart Tuition.  We advise our parents 7-10 days before the due date.  Another option would have been to place a one-time payment on our website or phone to avoid the late fee.  Smart Tuition has options in place to avoid a late fee.  You can make payments free of charge by using a routing number and bank account number from your checking or savings account.  We are PCI complaint so your information is safely guarded.  Even though it looks like you are getting reimbursed for your late fee, I will waive this late fee as a courtesy.  Going forward, we will not be in a position to waive any more, so please make sure to send your payment sooner or make a payment on our website or by phone.   Smart Tuition is in the process of setting up receiving online bill payments electronically by the 2nd Quarter of next year.  We doing the best we can to get this implemented in a timely fashion.   Sincerely,   [redacted] Director of Parent Experience Smart Tuition

Avoid doing business with Smart Tuition (“them”) at all cost. I strongly recommend to all the parents reading this to strongly recommend to your kids’ schools to stop doing business with them. This company is the most crooked company I have ever dealt with since banks started providing online bill pay to its customers in the early 2000. If you’re like me and you prefer to handle all your bills online through your bank versus providing your bank account information to every company or vendor you deal with through some kind of automated debit on your checking account, then this company will try to steal your money by charging you $40 late fees every month regardless of when your bank send your payments. I started setting up my bank’s online bill pay to send them tuition payments 7 days before due date, then adjusted it to 11 days prior, then to 14 days! Smart Tuition always tried to steal $40 of late fees from me every time. They wasted hours and hours of my time since I had to call them and complain about their unscrupulous practice. They had to waive each and every fee and gave me back my money but not after all the aggravation they have caused with their criminal tactics. I can only imagine how much stolen money they get away with this malicious business practice on others that either don’t have time to waste arguing with them or worse, do not notice this systematic, completely bogus charging of late fees on customers who do not want to be in their automated payment system. I am still actively trying to convince my school to stop using these crooks’ services and have now setup my bank’s online bill pay to send checks 17 days in advance but I’m warning all of you parents and especially schools to avoid this Smart Tuition Company like a plague if you can.

Mr. [redacted],My name is [redacted] and I am the Director of Parent Experience with Smart Tuition.  Iapologize for any frustration you have experienced during your 3 years withSmart Tuition.  Smart Tuition generates invoices 20 days before your duedate of the 1st of...

the month.  The school also provides a 7 day graceperiod.  If payments are received before that grace period expires, nolate fee is charged.  I have waived the late fees in the amount of $105and turned off the follow up service for the remainder of the year.  Smart Tuition offers many different payment options.  We offer phone payments throughour 24 hour help center (###-###-####). We offer web payments through our parent website ([redacted]).  We offer auto debits (ACH) which automatically withdraw the funds on your due date.  You can also make cash payments at [redacted],[redacted], and [redacted].  We also accept checks and money orders.  Paymentsmade by online bill pay are accepted however it is not the fastest way to paySmart Tuition.  The payment is actually mailed to Smart Tuition from your bank. The [redacted] advises customers that they should allow 7-10 days for regularmail deliveries.  If you have any additional questions, please contact me at ###-###-####. Sincerely, [redacted]Director of Parent ExperienceSmart Tuition

Good afternoon,
In reviewing your account with Smart Tuition, I see that your first 3 automatic debits failed due to the account number that was provided is not valid.  If those payments would have went through properly, there would not have been any late fees applied to the account....

 There is nothing illegal about this process.  You can avoid credit card convenience fees by using your checking or savings account to make payments. I have waived the 3 late fees on the account in the amount of $174.66.  If you are having difficulty in making your payments, you should reach out to your school and see if they can work with you to catch up on your past due balance.  I have attempted to call you today to see if we can update your auto debit.  If you would like to update your auto debit please call our parent help center or you can reach me at the number provided on your voice mail.
After waiving the 3 late fees, there is a past due balance on the account.  If the balance is not paid in full by the next payment, you will accrue a late fee.  Going forward, I will not be able to waive any additional late fees.   
Sincerely,
 
[redacted]
Director of Parent Experience 
Smart Tuition

Mr. [redacted] emailed Smart Tuition over the weekend and had questions about the Smart Admin fee.  He disagrees with when we notify our parents of this fee.  I have already advised Mr. [redacted] yesterday that I was going to work with our Tech department to advise parents of our smart...

admin fee and when it will be applied in our upcoming roadmap.  I have advised our team to make this a priority.  We will also work with our schools to communicate our services to parents better.  Each school has different school settings which require development time to implement a change of this nature.  I wish to thank Mr. [redacted] for his feedback in assistance with making our company better.

I am rejecting this response because:
Smart Tuition is not telling the truth. They say that my bank is not sending the payment on time or the USPS is slow in delivering the check. According to my bank's records the payment sent for August 1, 2014 cleared my bank on August 2, 2014. It takes 24 hours for a deposited check to clear my bank, so that means the payment had to be deposited on August 1, 2014 by Smart Tuition. I was charged a $40 late fee for my August payment. The payment sent for September 1, 2014 cleared my bank on September 3, 2014, which means Smart Tuition would have deposited it on September 2, 2014. It couldn't have been deposited on September 1, 2014 because that was a national holiday, Labor Day. I was charged a $40 late fee for my September payment.
The response I got from Smart Tuition seems to be the same response they give to everyone that has my same grievance. They blame every variable in the payment process except themselves. Stop charging late fees for payments that are not late.

I apologize for any confusion in setting up your payments with Smart Tuition.  When parents sign up for auto debits we send out a Welcome Letter advising parents if they use a debit or credit card that a credit card convenience fee is charged.  We emailed you this Welcome Letter...

on 8/1/16.  The first payment for your account was made on our website with a credit card on 7/15/16 and at that time you were advised of the credit card fee before you submitted the payment.  I’m sorry that you did not notice the convenience fee charge on the website.  The second payment made on our website using your checking account on 8/10/16 and no convenience fee was charged because you used your checking account.  You can set up an auto debit to your checking or savings account with a routing number and bank account number to avoid the fee.  We also take one time payments on our website from checking or savings accounts.  These are the best options to make payments as we cannot control the transit times for mail delivery.  We have reimbursed you the $19.27 convenience fee one time.  Going forward, if you chose to use a debit or credit card there will be a convenience fee.  We have also switched your account over to mail in so there will be no more automatic debits to your debit or credit card.  If you want to change this in the future, you can update this information by calling our call center or by using our parent website. 
If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.
 
Sincerely,
 
Jim L[redacted]
Director of Parent Experience
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 [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
I do hope the changes are made.  Maybe throw in a " By the way, that does not apply to credit card payments." 
Regards,
[redacted]

I apologize for any frustration you are experiencing with delayed payments.  Online bill payments are not sent electronically to Smart Tuition.  Payments from your bank are sent by regular mail.  The USPS suggests 7-10 days for delivery.  We do plan of receiving online bill...

payments electronically in the future however there is no ETA.  We understand that many parents use online bill pay to make payments to Smart and this issue is important to us as well.  We offer many other ways to make payments in the meantime that are simply quicker than relying on transit times in the mail.  We offer automatic debits, one-time payment options, and cash payments.  If you have further questions about this please let me know.We have waived both late fees for you and apologize for any confusion with online bill pay.  We understand this is an important issue and we are making strides towards receiving online bill payments electronically.  If you continue to send payments by online bill pay you may wish to consider sending your payment a few days earlier.  If you do not, we offer other options to make payments.  
 
Sincerely,
 
[redacted]
Director of Parent Experience
Smart Tuition

Dear Mr. [redacted]
I would like to first apologize for any frustration you have experienced, thus far. I would like to assure you that all follow up fees have been waived on your account. Going forward payments received in the mail will be considered paid the day they are...

received.  We certainly want to make paying as easy and worry free as possible, so please don't hesitate to use any of our other convenient payment methods (online, mobile app, and phone). 
Please don't hesitate to contact me directly with any further questions or concerns.
Best regards,

I apologize for any frustration you had with our billing
process.  The fee added to your account
on 12/14/15...

for $50.  The school has
advised our account manager that their parents are aware of all the fees.  Even though that may be the case, we still should
have sent out a modified invoice after we added the fee to your account. 
We waived the late fee for $35 on the initial phone call to
our customer service center.  The phone
call was then transferred to our supervisor on a recorded line and you advised
our supervisor you did not want an explanation. 
You went on to explain that you we speaking on behalf of all the Hispanic
families in your community who cannot speak to us.  Just in case you didn’t know, we do have a
Spanish speaking reps at Smart Tuition, however we understand what you were
getting at. 
I will work with our account manager for the school to make sure modified invoices go out if billing is
added after the original invoices go out. 
I have sent a modified invoice out to your email address.  In the future if a supervisor call is
disconnected for whatever reason, I have advised our supervisors to call the
parent back ASAP to avoid any misunderstandings. 
 
[redacted]
Director of Parent Experience
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:
Re: complaint ID [redacted]
Wow, Smart Tuition has really gone above and beyond what I was asking for. I had assumed redistributing payments would not be an option at this point so I do appreciate the recognition on their part that this is where my frustrations began.  While I commend their actions and quick resolution, I regret that it took a Revdex.com complaint to feel heard.
With redistributed payments I can now pay directly from my checking account and not a credit card so I imagine the 'we do not honor' will not be an issue moving forward.  I will call Mr. [redacted] directly if I run into an issue as I plan to make payments this evening and also sign up for automatic monthly withdrawals to cover future payments. 
Regards, [redacted]

[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 [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
I will review the late fees policy directly with the School as well to ensure they don't overcharge late fees with no grace periods prior to any case being filed on them or losing students.
Thanks for the immediate response. I see that the Director [redacted] at Smart Tuition has been active in resolving cases quickly. Maybe cases should be escalated directly to you before it gets to the Public like this.
Thanks a lot Jim. Appreciate your help and intervention to get this resolved.
Regards,
[redacted]