Possible fraud? Breach of contract etc??

Jurisdiction
Virginia
Below is the battle I have had with ECPI University after a hard-past few years and this year without being able to go to classes because of Covid. It's also an accelerated program and now I'm being told because of their employee just didn't do her job and waited 4-5 months to respond or even mention it and then waited till THE day or so before graduation she just didn't submit or even look at my financial aid and NOW I owe them money? So, a long waiting game the director, the admin and financial aid departments of my college says to me sorry it was her mistake so what we will do is just tack this balance onto your existing balance and charge you no interest.. I don't see in any shape or form how this helps me in any way. This also seems illegal and like you trying to steal money from the fafsa company.. So now it seems I will receive NO diploma, I owe them 9000$ and I am jobless.

How do people like this keep getting away with these things?


6/3/2020- M informed me that she was able to get me and extra 2000$ grant.


10/19/2020-M waited until a few weeks or so before graduation to mention I need to do my fafsa. I submitted my fafsa on that day and afterwards I asked Melinda if everything was in the right order. I received NO response.. (confirmed by Wesley B November 21st) she said I did the wrong FAFSA year because she didn't specify what year needed to be done. So I asked her does it always take about two - three weeks to do your job on average because how else am I supposed to know? Wasn't it due in June 30th in the first place? So, was it just a mistake on Melinda's end? She agreed that it shouldn't take that long and she didn't know why? (nearly 4-5 full months late on M's end)


11/4/2020- M repeated the same email saying she needed my FAFSA, I am very confused at this point I asked her why and didn't I already do it? Which I just re-did again, then no response ever since.

11/17/2020- Tried emailing financial aid again because I have been given NO response to my past email. And I and lost as to why I am being ignored by my financial aid department, school president, and the director of my program. No one was willing to say a word back to me until the following day.

11/18/2020 W reaches out to me and say Tuition options had reached out to her about my payment loans etc because my extra pell grants should have covered that balance plus some. I found it strange how she had all the info about everything so quickly so my guess is that was a lie she is about to cover for M's negligence. The end result was her telling me tough luck its passed my last day of class and the is nothing they could do but have a meeting with the President of my school to see what can be done.

11/23/2020- W called me again after the meeting took place to tell me they want to attach in full the debt plus interest. Even knowing it was M's complete fault for not doing her job said it was a better offer because it's a lower debt interest than the student loans interest?? what??

So, I asked her are you trying to steal money from the government here? I would feel more comfortable receiving my GRANTS and my FINANCIAL AID that I should have but I DON'T have that now because YOUR employee just didn't do her job. Didn't even deny it just did nothing at all and I'm already graduated?? Regardless of any mistakes on my end isn't it her job to find them, because we ARENT the people who went to school for that. What you aren't supposed to do is wait until the deadline YOU knew was up and say her do this for me and sorry I waited so long and because I did well tough luck but you can pay us 9000$ out of pocket now??


11/23/2020 K with FAFSA, provided me with a case Number instructed me to speak to ECPI'S Financial aid admin J, and inform him before seeking legal assistance.
FAFSA also instructed me to report them for this incident as this is completely unfair.

11/23/2020- I re-contacted W to ask why I was charged tuition and my financial aid didn't apply back in 11/4/2019 and I was charged tuition again in 3/2/2020 without it aswell? Only reason I noticed if because my financial aid kept bringing me to a zero balance and then all of a suddenly I was 20k in the hole?? (doesn't add up to me when it always zeroed out each time tuition was coming out each time). So, I asked her why does this seem to be a trend of wait till the last minute because now I cannot see where it was posted at all? SHe told me they just added it in before my graduation date so everything is okay. So, are you telling me you can just wait till whenever you feel like it? That's NOT what I agreed to.. That is NOT what I signed my FAFSA for. And that is NOT what the government allows you to do I'm sure.

She said it was all and well because "they applied it later down the line" which I cannot see on my ledger so I asked her how am I supposed to know the numbers if you have added 2-3 different timelines together with no other explanations of those totals or amounts? She proceeds to argue with me telling me it's was all my fault in the first place because I didn't fill out the forms correctly and only because it was the Incorrect year, but, how could I have known that regardless because it's NOVEMBER and YOUR employee waiting till November to try to finalize things 5 months past the time she should have?? So now The FAFSA that I did wasn't going to be given to me, my grants from the previous semester are also going away.( very suspicious ) As she is telling me my last day of classes was on the 5-6th there was nothing they can do except my last exam was ON the 8th and I signed my exit sheet on the 13th of November? which I also have proof of..

11/24/2020 again speaking to W. Right off the bat saying instead of charging me interest they will do an interest-free loan as long as I keep my payments steady of I think 200$ and we can give you the grants from financial aid but we will not give you the rest?? Ma'am that I know for a fact is illegal. but let me ask you this.. Why is it I received the first email about it on 19th of October when its due June 30th and THEN why was the next email to me on the 4th needing me to re-do it but didn't specify what I had done incorrectly? If they are saying my last day of classes were supposedly to be on the 5th or 6th why is it you have waited this long to tell me anything at all but after the 4th she just never responded to me again? (Seems suspicious AGAIN) If I made any mistakes how could I FIX anything if I don't know they were wrong in the first place?

So after a heated conversation over the phone , I Asked her how do you expect me to know how to do Financial aid's job and magically fix things that I cannot know about if never told anything was wrong? At this point she was noticeably frustrated and blurted out the truth that if I just did it on time this wouldn't been issue it the first place so I said to her that is exactly why we're having this conversation.. how and when am I supposed to do your employees job? It up to HER to notify students ON time about very important things and thank you, thank you SO much for that exact statement because obviously no one can do this job and you all should be terminated. you cannot just say hey ohh our bad but now you owe us 9k AFTER you already have done all the classes and graduated lol..
 
Sorry, problems like that, that take so long to explain, require the services of an attorney.

Though I doubt you'll be able to successfully sue for an employee's alleged incompetence.
 
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