My wife attempted to enroll for a summer program at the New School university in New York, using their website. There was no indication that her enrollment had been accepted, nor an email confirmation. She called the next day and was told she was not enrolled - the program was full. She tried several times in the next week to pursue the matter by phone with various offices, none of which seemed to be clear whether she was enrolled or not. At the end of the week she was clearly told there was no place available for her. On the same day her credit card was charged for the full tuition, $2,535 .
She called to cancel the enrollment, as she felt that this was an abusive credit card charge. She was told that no refund could be made - the withdrawal date had passed (the day the charge was made). We disputed the charge through our credit card issuer, who did not receive any response from the university, and charged-back the amount to us.
A few weeks later the university refunded $2,028 to our account, without any communication to us.
Now they are claiming that she is an enrolled student, who owes them the whole amount of $2,535, and have refused to negotiate with us. The debt has been sent to a collection agency. We have repeatedly offered to repay the $2,028 that was erroneously refunded to us, but see no justification for their charging us $507 for a non-enrollment. The service we requested was education; it was not provided. My wife withdrew before the program began, and attended no classes.
Do you have any advice about how we should handle this matter? We live in California, the university is in New York.
She called to cancel the enrollment, as she felt that this was an abusive credit card charge. She was told that no refund could be made - the withdrawal date had passed (the day the charge was made). We disputed the charge through our credit card issuer, who did not receive any response from the university, and charged-back the amount to us.
A few weeks later the university refunded $2,028 to our account, without any communication to us.
Now they are claiming that she is an enrolled student, who owes them the whole amount of $2,535, and have refused to negotiate with us. The debt has been sent to a collection agency. We have repeatedly offered to repay the $2,028 that was erroneously refunded to us, but see no justification for their charging us $507 for a non-enrollment. The service we requested was education; it was not provided. My wife withdrew before the program began, and attended no classes.
Do you have any advice about how we should handle this matter? We live in California, the university is in New York.
