For the second time in six months, Colorado-based Westwood College has been hit with a class action lawsuit.
The college has physical campuses in both Dallas and Fort Worth, but it’s their online offerings that have the school in hot water.
Jillian Estes is a Florida-based attorney whose firm filed the newest suit Monday. “Our biggest concerns with Westwood college are the deceptive practices used to lure students into their school. The way they bring students in by promising them everything, but delivering them not nearly what they were promised.”
It seems like every few days there’s a new investigative exposé about something else at Westwood College. This time the spotlight is on Westwood College Online in Texas. The Texas Workforce Commission, a state government agency which oversees career schools, recently informed Westwood College they are operating an online school program in violation of Texas state law. According to the law, students are entitled to a refund of their tuition, because the school was operating illegally. KHOU reporter, Lee McGuire, examines this issue.
We’re on top of it. The James Hoyer Firm filed a class action suit on behalf of Westwood Online students in Texas to seek restitution for you. We’ll also be updating you on the status of that case as it moves forward.
Posted by Jillian Estes on Oct 12, 2009 in Media Coverage
Hope you all had a great weekend. We thought we’d share this new skit with you from Saturday Night Live, since it might just seem familiar to you guys! The logo is based off of the University of Phoenix, and we think the name and colors are a pretty thinly-veiled reference to Westwood College. Westwood…Westfield…you decide!
We know this isn’t a laughing matter for many of you, but we hope you can find some humor in an otherwise dark situation. It’s also a great sign that the deceptive practices of schools like Westwood are getting national attention. That means all of your efforts in telling your stories are working, so keep going!
I went there for one year paid $2000.00 a month and felt they did not care about how we were being taught and failed to tell me i was in debt with them when I dropped out and then reffered my account to a loan company that i didn’t approve them to give them my information which caused them to place me in collections when i refused to pay them.
I was ripped off, and taken advantage of by Westwood College Online. The school is a complete fake and phony! The financial aid department at Westwood Online NEVER could give me a straight answer on what I owed for each term. They are completely disorganized and the school should be shut down.
I’ll never recommend Westwood Online to anyone. Everything that you guys are investigating is True. The school doesn’t offer what they say they will, the financial aid department rips people off.
The President of Westwood Online should be ashamed of himself!!!
It was unbelievable how many times they called and harrassed me about that application, leaving demanding messages about how it had to be signed that weekend. I told them about my Internet situation and they still kept calling, trying to pressure me into signing this application. On one occasion, my Rep., Carri, asked if I wanted her to sign my application for me! I told her NO and that I would take care of it when I was able… Today, I received an email confirming their receipt and acceptance of my application that I had not signed!
As soon I was officially out of the school, I get slammed with a $150 dollar payment on a 3000 dollar loan that I knew nothing about. When I called and asked what it was for, they said that I owed them money because the loans and grants didn’t cover the whole tuition. Of just that one and a half term, when all the loans and grants I had were supposed to cover the whole first year.
Now I am stuck with a $150 dollar payment that I can not afford and it is putting a dent in my credit score every month it goes unpaid. Also I was told by another rep from a different college, that this loan that I knew nothing about would greatly affect my eligibility to get financial aid at another college. And to top it off, because it is ruining my credit, I wouldn’t be able to get loans to go back to school.
From the KTVT Report:
