ramona mcdaris
Google
My “cadet beginner” grandson and I were eager for him to study French with a native speaker and in a group setting. I signed him up 7 weeks before his session was to begin—and I duly ordered the two expensive books required. We rearranged, and even cancelled one of his other, conflicting Saturday commitments (cancelled dress rehearsal for upcoming piano recital), in order to be available for French class. I was told at sign-up time that his teacher “would be contacting me” before class. I waited a few weeks, until well after the holidays, then, not having heard from anyone at FIAC, I called a few times to unanswered phones, leaving a message for someone to call me, as I had a few questions re the class. I got no call-back. Then, FIVE DAYS before class was to begin, I received an email saying the class had cancelled, due to low enrollment. The same day, I finally got someone in the registration department to connect me with the supervisor (who had sent the “class cancelled” email that day). She agreed to refund my fee right away. Apparently, though, I am stuck with the two expensive books.
As Administration must have known, as time progressed, that the class had only ONE student (my grandson), and that it was very unlikely that a flood of students would enroll at the last minute—I feel that they should have given me warning much earlier, that the class would likely cancel. Instead, it was I who had to persistently call them—which finally prompted their contacting me, and then, it was only five days before class was to start. (I wonder if anyone at FIAF would EVER have notified us of the cancellation, had I not tried to contact them several times during the scheduled starting week?)
Bad communication!
