Private School Stratford Tuition Scam!!! beware

I have been wanting to start blogging for quite sometime but dint have a compelling enough reason or topic till now. I did not find any information about the private school tuition scam so thought would start this blog. So that I can share my experience which hopefully would help other parents from falling prey to private schools. Now my experience is only with Stratford School - Bay Area (specifically Los Gatos Campus), but anyone who has a job where you need to move should validate with school "in writing" that they wouldn't charge extra for mid term early withdrawal.

Here is some context as to what I am talking about, in brief Stratford school charges 2 months extra tuition fees (for me $2300+) if you want to withdraw your kid from school mid term. That is the challenge that I am struggling with. My daughter would be in school till December 06, so would be in school for 4 months. Given that they start charging the tuition from July, and wouldn’t stop charging till December so in all charging for 6 months. I spoke with the school principal and requested her to stop charging tuition from Nov, but she wouldn’t listen. Her stance is that its as per the contract which I have signed, and I was pointed to the contract paper couple of times. While contract doesn’t talk explicitly or even indirectly about 2 months extra tuition payment in case of early withdrawal from school. It talks about no refund policy, but I am not asking for refund just that don’t over charge. Well $2300 is quite a bit to let go for no reason.
The way its been setup is that school starts charging tuition from July even though the school starts in September. The reason they start charging early is to cover the costs for preparation for school year is what I was told. Its a 10 month school year and I have taken 10 payment plan. BTW one is not supposed to assume that its a monthly tuition that you are paying, its just a payment plan.

When my wife first discovered this in Sept 06, we approached the teacher and were asked to talk to the principal. So wife first spoke with her early October but in vain. So we both discussed our understanding requesting her to not over charge and were directed to re-read the contract and that I would be charged extra. Read the contract atleast 20 times now, but by no means can I derive the conclusion that that school wants me to. Following the 3rd conversation with principal, we were asked to talk to co-founder Sherry Adams to resolve the issue, but again the same conversation and no outcome. She gave me number to talk to president Matthew Wulfstat, but that number was answered by Esther Young who is Administrator - tuition. Again same conversation, its as per contract and was complete waste of time. Finally frustrated I wrote the below email to the principal and decided to take this up with small claims court and am current finding out what needs to be done to file a dispute.

Not sure if there is any arbitration that could help. So if you know of or have heard of such cases and what the final outcome was, what approach helped, any inputs would be of great help. I am planning to take this up with small claims court, hope it helps. Appreciate your inputs that could help me resolve this issue.



Here is the email that I had send to the principal on 10/30/06:

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Jitendra Banthia
To: dmaderis@stratfordschools.com
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 6:57:59 PM
Subject: Tuition discussion: Withdrawal of Tina in Dec

Dear Madam,

I really appreciate all your help and time in resolving the concerns around tuition been charged for Tina due to early withdrawal. I did get a call from Co-founder over the weekend and I have shared my concerns with her too. After that I was asked to talk to President but the number I was given was for administration office, where I had another round of discussion with Esther Young.
I am sure you would understand the constraints due to which I have to withdraw Tina from School. I would have never opted for this had I any option.
After about 5 rounds of discussion with you and other senior members of Stratford School Management I am still not convinced on paying 2 extra months (/payments) for 4 months of valuable service that I have received from Stratford school.

I would like to request you to please hold on the November Tuition charge till we mutually resolve this issue. As a fall back if that cant be done I would dispute the charge on my credit card.

Please suggest what the next steps should be. Given that this is the first time and probably the last time that I have would be going through this I have solicitated experience/ recommendation from couple of hundreds professional contacts/discussion board within eBay, Paypal, Cisco, Intel and others in bay area.

What came out I would probably have last resort to take this to small claims court, which I would be enacting on this week.
BTW in terms of other feedback I received from another parent who had to withdraw their kid from Challenger for 2 months for medical reasons and school was flexible to not charge to that time, wish I had know that before I enrolled Tina in Stratford. I would certainly share my experience on the internet with others via web blogs and other communication medium so that other parents do not have to repeat my experience.

Thanks again for all the patience and time with the issue. I wanted to come in person and talk but given that my new assignment needs me to be out of state till I move back to India in Jan, I want able to.
Please do let me know if there is anything that you would like me to do.

thanks and best regards,
Jitendra Banthia.

and response I got:

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Shirley Mace
To: xxx@yahoo.com
Sent: Thursday, November 2, 2006 9:14:37 AM
Subject: November Payment

Dear Mr Banthia,

Your wife stopped by our office to check on your November payment. Just a note to let you know it has been billed since Tina is still attending school. Her last day of attendance according to the withdrawal letter is December 22, 2006. Therefore, one more payment is due December 1st, then your payments will be cancelled. This is according to the contract which was signed.

If you have any further questions please contact our office.

Shirley Mace

Administrator

Los Gatos