Shippers Choice in Manassas, VA

On December 2, 2010 my husband and I walked into the local office of Shippers Choice located in Manassas ParkVa. We spoke with a person by the name of “Mack”. He sat us down in the office and informed us of the program and what it had to offer. We asked a few questions and then Mack then provided us with a photo-copy of an application and refund information. He had informed us that the class would start on Feb 7, 2011 and it would be a full time class. I decided to choose the full time class because I was unemployed at the time. So we filled out all of the application and turned it in to Mack. Mack then requested that a $1500.00 check be provided to the school. On December 18, 2010 I went to PNC Bank and had them provide a cashier’s check in the amount of $1500.00 for Shippers Choice and then presented the check to them on December 20, 2010. Well after Christmas I decided that I was going to wait on taking the class because my husband's mother had just died on November 3, 2010 and the money that I used came from her insurance company so I was having second thoughts on taking this class. On December 29, 2010 I contacted the company and informed them that I had changed my mind and requested a refund. My wife spoke with someone in their Laurel, MD office and he said that it would take at least 30 days before the refund would be processed completely.

Well we waited for 30 days and tried to locate the Laurel, MD office number but it was removed from the website. So when I called on January 29th and spoke to Barbara at the 1-800-874-7131 number and asked to speak with Charles Longo, she said “I’m sorry Charlie isn’t here and I don’t see a refund request for you”. I proceeded to ask when Charlie will be returning and she said “I don’t know he can come and go at anytime. Sometimes he is in Richmond, sometimes he is in Newport News. I just don’t know where he is”. So I asked her “Does he have a cell phone number that I can call?” She said “No, only his friends have that number.” I immediately hung up. I called back later on that day and received the same response “Charlie isn’t here and I don’t where he is.” About two hours later I called her back and Barbara said that “she had a withdrawal form from me but no refund request was ever processed”. So I then called the office in Manassas, Park and spoke with David and he said “Let me tell you something, the only way that you are going to get to talk to Charlie is to tell him that you want to make a payment and then he will call you back.” So that is what I did and Charlie called back and said that he would process the request and send out a check. That was on January 29, 2011. I called the following week and I was told that the check was in the mail. Still no check so I called my bank and they said that the check had indeed been cashed so, there was any way to do a stop payment on the check. I went to their office on February 2, 2011 and asked to speak with someone and the guy behind the desk asked me to leave and told me that they didn’t have my money. So now here it is two months later and still no check after Charles keeps telling me that the money is in the mail. I assume that this is his way of shutting me up. They act as though they have no intentions on repaying my money and that is all I want is a refund. I am hoping that you can help with this issue.
Outcome: All I want is a refund of my money. I was told that there would be a $100 processing fee if the cancellation was after classes had started but classes had not even started and the request was made within a 15 day period, so I am entitled to a full refund according to the information they provided to me.
I called the company again on February 16, 2011 and was told that they were having problems with their payroll and would be reissuing the check. The check did not come this week. I contacted Shippers Choice again on February 22, 2011 and was told that they had to resend the check again because of some complications with the last check and they wanted to make sure that the original check that they sent was not cashed before they stopped payment and reissue another check. All this was done because they said that they supposedly had the incorrect address on it.
Stay away from this company!!!!!!!!