I have joined NMIMS Global Access School for continuing education for a distance MBA course in mid-2020. I was told that there is no refund policy existing if I discontinue the course for whatsoever reason. Immediately after enrolling and making sem1 fee payments, I realized that I am unable to cope up with the online classes due to COVID 19 scenario WFH and also due to my kids’ online classes & no schools, it was difficult for me to continue the course due to time management problem. So I did not attend even a single session and had to discontinue the course, even before it could even start. On joining the course I was immediately made part of a WhatsApp group of that course 1st Sem students with the course enrollment agent as admin.
Nearly after a year, I just happened to message and re-check on the same group by enquiring about any refund policy existing in case a student could not continue post fee payment and wants a refund. The answer was a straight NO( I have the screenshot proofs). I somehow doubted the answer and ended up sending a mail to the university about the same and in turn, got to know that the timeline to request a refund is already over. I immediately escalated the issue as I was misinformed by the enrollment agent while registering for the course that there is no refund policy and I could not ask for my money back. Due to this misinformation, I never asked for a refund. Now on escalation, they are asking me to share the recordings of my conversation with the enrolling agent which of course I didn’t record that time. I am surprised that when the university is itself not bothered to record its agent’s conversation while running this big business how they expect a student to record it unaware of what trap is he/she entering into. Also, the university didn’t even bother to send a mail to opt-out of the course if not interested in the course anymore. No one even bothered to track that an enrolled student is not taking the classes anymore including the student enrolling agent. After enrollment & fee payment no one bothered to check on the reason for discontinuing the course immediately post-enrollment itself, the agent also did not bother calling or mentioning anything about this. There was no SMS or WhatsApp message from them in this regard. For everything, the agent used to call immediately, but not for this important one once the fee is paid and they get their profit cut. Maybe they deliberately want the student to miss the refund application timeline and not request it. so that they can get their student enrollment quota money.
Now they are not refunding my money though I am not continuing the course. I wrote to someone in the student support council and I am being told that I am at fault for not requesting the refund on time while I kept insisting that their enrollment agents are misinforming the students on no refund policy existing then how will someone ask for it. I asked for escalation in regards to this and there was no favorable response from the top student support authority. I am unable to do anything about this.
And more importantly, the same agents are still saying no to refund policy if enquired now and the same is submitted to the university as proof of misinformation. But the university is not acknowledging those as valid proofs.
I don’t know where else to go though I am losing a full fee of 25K+ literally during hard times. I just want to warn others about their pathetic support and if I at least save a couple of others from this fraud university.
Thanks & Regards,
Nitu Sharma
emailnitusharma@gmail.com