Threatened by college?

pineapplepink

Hello,
I need some help regarding a facebook inbox I received.

One of my tutors at my dance college has inboxed me saying I owe £800 for a term I didn't attend.

I had attended the college for 2 terms- and had to leave due to unforeseen financial circumstances.

The college is a bit like a university- however all fees have to be paid by the students as it is not government funded.

I paid all my fees for the two terms I attended, and never attended the college without paying my full fee amount.

However, my tutor inboxed me on facebook on Wednesday stating:

'I am writing to you as we never received your final payments for the fees owed. I am contacting you now as I wanted to give you the opportunity to settle the debt prior to your information being sent to a Debt Collection Service. You left with £866.66 owing. Please contact me at your earliest convenience. Thank You'

How did I owe this amount when I never attended the final term?

Here was my reply:

'As discussed previously I left the college having paid for all time I was attending and due to unforeseen circumstances I had to leave. I have explained all this previously and paid weekly for the time I attended the college. At no point was I attending the colleague and had outstanding fees. I still have all my receipts of payment from the time I was attending if you need these from me please let me know'

I then had a reply of:

'Thankyou for a quick reply. As you know as per terms and conditions we require a terms notice and that was not received therefore a term is owed. We require that, so that we can advertise and look to fill the space. When people leave suddenly with no warning we can't do anything about it, therefore losing one paying student. I wanted to contact you directly prior to the Debt Collection Service contacting you. Please note that this message has not just been sent to you, we are in contact with all students who have left without notice. Please let me know how you would like to settle this. Thank You'

I wasn't aware of this rule.

Have they got a leg to stand on or should I be worried?

Thanks in advance

whitewing

I think this is a standard clause for private education.

I guess the teachers also have to give a term's notice too.

Perhaps you could come to an arrangement to pay them over a number of months.

somethingcorporate

Ignorance of the T&Cs you are signing up to is no excuse for not paying.

I suggest as per post #2 your best course of action is to try and come to some arrangement.

pineapplepink

Thanks for the replies

Aren't requests like these supposed to come via letter?

I just don't know whether to take an inbox on facebook seriously.

downnotout

I would certainly ask for a copy of the terms and condition that you signed, and then I would ask for all communication to be done via letter and not on face book. Sadly I fear that you may HAVE to pay, and getting some kind of arrangement in place to spread the cost.

rartherinv

Sucks to have that bomb dropped but you have breached a contract. It is extremely unprofessional of them to send this message by social networking but it could be a blessing in disguise that they're contacting you informally and explaining why they are seeking the money, instead of forwarding your account straight to a debt collector and letting them deal with the aggro.

You can either confront the problem and arrange to pay now or bury your head in the sand in the hope that it will go away (but then there is the high risk it will soon be at your doorstep, in court and on your credit file for 6 years).

I've got plenty of experience of picking the wrong option and it is not a good experience that follows so I would advise anyone to confront their debt problems as soon as possible. Even if you do not have any money an agreement can still be made to satisfy both parties. It is the unwillingness to make any agreement which gets you up credit creek without a paddle for the rest of your youth. Let us know how you get on! :j

[Deleted User]

request everything in writing, and come to an arrangement, say 50 per month. Don't worry about DCA; they're easy to deal with, especially for a small debt like that