Kenneth Thornberry

Review of Varsity Tutors

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. We signed up (and of cou...

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. We signed up (and of course were made to pay up front for a package of hours at a cost of nearly $900) for on-line tutoring for our son who is away at College, as he needed some intensive support for a math class and had a test he needed help for in 10 days. We spent a long time on the phone speaking with the agent explaining exactly what help he needed and she insisted they would be able to help via an on-line tutor. We signed up, provided our son's contact information and gave him theirs. As the 10 days clicked away, no contact for several days, then slow responses from the assigned tutor and we missed the test prep completely. We then decided to try to use it for the next exam.... but continued delayed response from the tutor (as both the parents and the son tried numerous times and we have documented e-mails sent and no response) and finally 2 days before the next exam they scheduled a session only to have them unable to connect due to technology issues. The varsity tutor technology support team also tried to assist but was unable to get the session connected. Upon contacting varsity tutors at this time, they stated we could have him see someone in person when in town over Thanksgiving week.... we let them know that we would have to talk to our son but did not know if that would be an option. We were never informed during this call that a refund was an option because we were in the 30 day window still and had not rec'd any services. We finally had to secure other tutor arrangements from someone closer to him to get him the assistance he needed. After missing the next test prep and securing other tutoring, we contacted Adriana at Varsity Tutors in St Louis. She informed us that there were no refund options, as we were outside our 30 days window, although we were never told when we contacted them earlier numerous times about the issues that there was a deadline for reimbursement. Even after informing them that due to our other children's ages, we would not have any use for a credit, she stated "it's fine, you can use it in a few years when someone else in your family needs it." When we explained that we were never told earlier that we had a deadline on getting a refund, she stated that we were a outside our 30 day window and there were no options. When we reminded her that we had completely discussed with the initial agent before signing up that we needed specific help for our son and his math class test prep and that they were completely unable to provide the service we signed up for and WE NEVER USED 1 hour of the package. She stated that we could surely find a way to use the credit as they have people from age 1-90 using their services. It was a simple request - we were unable to use their service in the way they promised, did not use any of the package and had a very valid request for a refund but were denied because they just didn't want to do the right thing! AND now they are holding nearly a $1000 of ours with no services rendered - Beware!!