A Canadian language school has failed so far to refund an Indian student more than CAN$10,000 in course fees after his visa application was rejected, despite promising to do so since mid-September, according to claims made yesterday. A Canadian language school has so far failed to refund an Indian student more than CAN$10,000 in course fees after his visa application was rejected, despite promising to do so repeatedly since mid-September, according to claims made yesterday.
Yadvinder Goyal from the Punjab had paid CAN$10,220 (US$9,785) for a two-year Hospitality and Education Management diploma at the Universal College of Language in Vancouver, due to start in July, when his visa application was rejected by the Canadian embassy in Chandigarh.
In August, Goyal wrote to Universal asking for a refund, to which the college agreed on September 12th. However the college has not made the payment since, despite numerous emailed assurances.
“Last time one of the college representatives promised to make a refund of fees within two weeks was on October 6th. Now I am waiting from more than two months and still did not get my fee back,” said Goyal. “They never gave any satisfactory reply and always kept making fake promises.”
Goyal said he now faced considerable debt. “One whole year of my life [has been] wasted within days. My parents are so upset with the college,” he said.
In an interview with the PIE News, Gary Traer, the CFO of Loyalist Group which owns Universal, disputed the claims, saying it had never been the school’s intention to withhold the fees and that Goyal had initially provided the wrong banking information. He said Goyal would receive the fees this week.
He said Goyal would receive the fees this week
“When we don’t have the correct banking information, it takes us forever to get the money back if we make a mistake. Which is why we have to make absolutely sure before we issue a refund.”
Goyal also complained that Universal’s site director, Cecil Lim, sent an email to his agency, Get Global Immigration Consultants, blaming the delay on funds being tied up in the
acquisition of the PGIC and WTC language schools by Loyalist at the end of the summer.
Traer reported no knowledge of this, but suggested that Lim may have been referring to Loyalist’s takeover of Universal earlier this year. “What could have happened is that the payment was made to the old school, and before we release a refund we want to make sure that the old school had received it because it [the refund] is now coming out of the Loyalist bank account,” he said.
He stressed that Loyalist had handled hundreds of refunds in the past without complaint, but did acknowledge that the process of refunding Goyal had been too slow.
A Canadian language school has so far failed to refund an Indian student more than CAN$10,000 in course fees after his visa application was rejected, despite promising to do so repeatedly since mid-September, according to claims made yesterday.
Yadvinder Goyal from the Punjab had paid CAN$10,220 (US$9,785) for a two-year Hospitality and Education Management diploma at the Universal College of Language in Vancouver, due to start in July, when his visa application was rejected by the Canadian embassy in Chandigarh.
In August, Goyal wrote to Universal asking for a refund, to which the college agreed on September 12th. However the college has not made the payment since, despite numerous emailed assurances.
“Last time one of the college representatives promised to make a refund of fees within two weeks was on October 6th. Now I am waiting from more than two months and still did not get my fee back,” said Goyal. “They never gave any satisfactory reply and always kept making fake promises.”
Goyal said he now faced considerable debt. “One whole year of my life [has been] wasted within days. My parents are so upset with the college,” he said.
In an interview with the PIE News, Gary Traer, the CFO of Loyalist Group which owns Universal, disputed the claims, saying it had never been the school’s intention to withhold the fees and that Goyal had initially provided the wrong banking information. He said Goyal would receive the fees this week.
He said Goyal would receive the fees this week
“When we don’t have the correct banking information, it takes us forever to get the money back if we make a mistake. Which is why we have to make absolutely sure before we issue a refund.”
Goyal also complained that Universal’s site director, Cecil Lim, sent an email to his agency, Get Global Immigration Consultants, blaming the delay on funds being tied up in the acquisition of the PGIC and WTC language schools by Loyalist at the end of the summer.
Traer reported no knowledge of this, but suggested that Lim may have been referring to Loyalist’s takeover of Universal earlier this year. “What could have happened is that the payment was made to the old school, and before we release a refund we want to make sure that the old school had received it because it [the refund] is now coming out of the Loyalist bank account,” he said.
He stressed that Loyalist had handled hundreds of refunds in the past without complaint, but did acknowledge that the process of refunding Goyal had been too slow.
