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2.2 20 Reviews

Sylvan Learning Complaints Summary

6 Resolved
14 Unresolved
Our verdict: Engaging with Sylvan Learning, which has a below-average resolution rate, demands caution. Thoroughly assess their service reviews and explore how they handle unresolved complaints. If you encounter issues, document your experiences meticulously and be persistent in seeking resolutions.
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Sylvan Learning reviews & complaints 20

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7:17 pm EST
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Sylvan Learning Tutoring

I set up an appointment to meet with them for my children's tutoring sessions. The customer service was very rude and non-chalant. They were inconsistent, rushing me to complete the process, and not focused on my children's education well being. The director of the program informed me that I can not reschedule my appointment due to life's mishaps. I would never recommend this place to tutor anyone's child or children. They are full of distractions and unprofessionalism. One hand they say we are understanding but, in another hand they do not care. If this company is: focused on building academic confidence, igniting intellectual curiosity and inspiring a love for learning — all of which make a big impact in school and in life. For over 40 years, they have helped millions of students and families like mines achieve new levels of academic success. How are they so quick to turn away children in need of their services? How is that helping to inspire a love for learning when they pick and choose the children they want to help? TERRIBLE PLACE FOR ANY CHILD!

EMAILED SENT TO ME BELOW.

*,

We understand that life happens. However, we are not able to reschedule your appointment.

~J*

J* J*

Director of Sylvan Fort Wayne South

6227 Covington Rd.

Ft. Wayne, IN 46804

Claimed loss: 3 months of free service. My children really need the help due to struggling in a few different subjects.

Desired outcome: More positive about helping children in the community, better attitude with the parents when it comes to their children, and a shorter wait time to get into the door.

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10:10 pm EDT
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Sylvan Learning Tutoring

I was trying to help my 3rd grade son get better in reading. I, foolishly, got swindled into getting a loan for $2500 to pay for my sons tutoring. He went for a few weeks with no improvement to his reading grade whatsoever! So, I pulled him out and they told me that my other son can go whenever he wants with the money I loaned out! Now I’m paying for something I AM NOT EVEN USING! I tried contacting corporate office with no luck at all. I don’t want to pay for something I am not going to use. And, I am also going through a financial hardship right now, and that monthly payment would be helpful for things I actually use!

Desired outcome: To get the loan I received dissolved since I am not even using their services anymore!

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1:49 am EDT
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Sylvan Learning Tutoring service/loan agreement

My name is Ms. Tribble Condor, I signed my 13 year old grandson up for tutoring services at Sylvan Learning Center at the address; 4449 I-10 Service Rd, Metairie LA 70006. While meeting with one of the directors, Ms. Darcy Vallory, she explained a few documents to me in the folder she provided. However, after getting into my car, I noticed she didn't not once explain to me the Sylvan policies regarding the bank loan; such as what happens if you decide to withdraw from the program at any point. It appears that Ms. Darcy intentionally did not explain to me the terms and conditions of the Sylvan policies form. Since coming home from the meeting on last night June 27, 2023 (Tuesday) my son and I have agreed to not move forward with the tutoring services from Sylvan. I'm requesting a total refund of my bank loan in the amount of $4,400 back to my Capital One credit card.

Desired outcome: I WANT A TOTAL REFUND OF MY ENTIRE $4,400 BACK TO MY CAPITAL ONE CREDIT CARD EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.

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4:03 pm EST

Sylvan Learning Services, refund, failure to respond to repeated attempts at getting refund or hours

I am writing because my daughter received services over the summer in Topeka, Kansas. We paid thousands of dollars for her to attend. I told them I wanted to stop services in August as it was becoming too difficult for my daughter to keep up with school and tutoring. I was told I was not allowed to do this even though, as I said I paid thousands of dollars for her to attend. Since that time, I have asked how to get a refund for my money or how she can get those hours. I have reached out several times to Shay Nelson, Kimberly Mattox. I sent Kirstin Palemo an email today. I have been sending emails since 10/12/22.

Desired outcome: Refund

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2:28 pm EDT

Sylvan Learning Tutoring (Math)

My daughter who is 8 that has issues with Math and other subjects. Due to be on a autism spectrum. She has issues with comprehension and understanding what she is learning. When her father brought her in for her evaluation at Sylvan Learning Center. These things were spoke about to the lady in charge there. And she was also told that we were waiting on her school to test her for IEP. My daughter was going 5 days a week for 1 hour a day for math. Which I feel like an idiot for continuing after the 1st week. They work on laptops and the things she was working on were not things she was struggling on at school.

We were told that they (sylvan) would reach out to her teacher and that never happened.

I ended up just not taking her anymore even though she had 2 weeks left. In short at the end of her school year at IEP meeting her teacher stated that she seen how by going to sylvan set her back more. And she will now get the accommodations In school to get help. She has what they say is short term memory, and Auditory processing. Myself and her father are from from rich people..and now we are stuck with 4,800 dollars $115 dollars a month to pay off. With no help at all. I feel Sylvan just trys to lear you in for your money.

Desired outcome: Please refund

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6:52 pm EST
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Sylvan Learning Tutoring classes at Sylvan Learning Center 1930 SW Military Dr. SA, Tx. 78221

To Whom It May Concern.

My daughter (9th grader) has been taking tutoring classes at Sylvan Learning Center of South San Antonio for the past 6 months. She is coming up on the end of her hours without any improvement in the areas of concern. We are very disappointed with Sylvan, as we have spent close to $4,500.00 and it’s been a complete waste of time and money. The center is on their fourth educational director since we started. So, needless to say we can’t ever get anything done. Every time we discuss our concerns with the educational director and they agree to help us, they end up leaving and we are again left in the same boat that we started in. We recently had a meeting with the new educational director and we expressed our dissatisfaction and all she could say was sorry and that they would do their best with the time they had left. She did add six additional hours since my daughter is not showing much improvement, but how is that really going to help when they had 100 hours to work with and have not accomplished anything in the areas of concern. Of course, she did offer to sell us additional hours, which is great for Sylvan, but what about all the money we have spent up to now with no results. How is that fair to us and mostly how is that fair to my daughter. I just don’t understand how this company can be so careless with how they handled the needs of my daughter to the point of making her lose all confidence in herself. We are struggling on just one income and it just not fair that they took advantage of us by making promises that they couldn’t keep.

At Sylvan they say that they believe “Education is Everything” well If that were so, then why don’t they keep their promises? I feel like all they want is your money and once they have it, they don’t really care if your child is learning or not. Also, we were told by a Sylvan employee that they do not agree on how Sylvan makes promises to parents without fully understanding the needs of each child.

In conclusion, all we would like is for Sylvan to honor the promises they made and keep my child in the program at no additional cost, until she gets to grade level in reading/comprehension and writing skills. If that is not possible, then we would like a full refund. Unfortunately, I was unable to attach receipts, a copy of a recent Algebra test (failed due to not being able to read and comprehend the word problems), a book report, essay and journal (poorly written). All unattached Items available upon request. Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this serious matter.

Desired outcome: See above conclusion paragraph

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3:36 pm EST

Sylvan Learning illegal robocalls

I have received numerous illegal robocalls from your "center" while I have no children and do not intend to enroll anyone. The last call was before 8am; do something about the criminal activity taking place in your name.

This is completely unacceptable and attempting to call back only gets an automated system "Thank you for calling Sylvan". The number in question was [protected]

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6:16 pm EDT

Sylvan Learning bad choice... no grace... don't make the same mistake we did.

Whatever you do don't pay in full! We started our services at the Shawnee Ks location a week before the 15th of the month which is when you have to give notice if you are not going to continue. After 10 hours were used we determined it was not a good fit for our son. Unfortunately we didn't give notice by the 15th (which was a week before we started) and they took an entire month of our upfront payment which was ~$1000. Huge mistake on our part for thinking the owners (out of the Overland Park, KS office) would give us some grace and refund us 2 months back.

I would really consider a private tutor you can pay as you go vs. signing your life away at Sylvan. We (nor any of our friends) will recommend any of the greater KC area Sylvan Learning Centers EVER!

Thanks

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Micah K
MANHATTAN, US
Jan 31, 2022 9:54 pm EST

Same happened to me but I was more annoyed with the fact their ACT prep is sitting my kids down at a table and giving them a workbook. My kids check their work on an iPad. No instruction on doing the problems, on the problems they get wrong or why they got them right.

Consumers should not waste their money. 55$/hour for them to do a workbook without instruction is not teaching.

DO NOT DO SYLVAN

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5:17 pm EDT

Sylvan Learning tutoring

I wanted to really like this place for tutoring of my child. I found out that all the students do is work on iPads during their sessions without much guidance. Not even all of the problems are assigned in each section. Mastery my foot. Poor kids think that they're learning something. And then I found out that the parents send them there with homework worksheets in hand so that the teachers can do their homework for them. This place is a rip off. Get someone to tutor your child one on one and save you and your child the money and the heart ache.

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Sylvan Learning Closed - no refund

On Dec 31, 2013, Eugene Sylvan closed their doors without notice - after I had paid over $4, 000.00 for tutoring for my daughter. For over 8 months I have tried to contact the local owner, Jill Nolan, and also corporate office to get an exact accounting of what I paid - also to get my daughters educational records. Jill won't respond and corporate sends out a canned email. Of course corporate claims they aren't responsible and they also refuse to send me an accounting. How is it that corporate does not know how much Ms. Nolan made as she had to pay them each month based on her client take?! Sylvan may provide good tutoring but they took my daughter's funds for education and won't help me to get them back.

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SylvanDisallusion
, US
Dec 23, 2018 1:53 am EST

This abuse and closing of franchise, after marketing and paying folks in their office to recruit students and deceive parents into paying for many months in advance has not stopped. Please help us understand how to get some justice locally. SoCal (Orange County).

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Sylvan Learning Not Trustworthy as a company

Sylvan is sold out to franchisees. A lot of people don't know that. I didn't know people were paying for a reputable name, whether they themselves were reputable or not.

My daughter actually got a good education at the Longmont and Boulder, CO centers, even though we suspect she unnecessarily repeated things. She had a very good teacher.

However, Sylvan, in general, doesn't keep their promises and please don't trust them.

My daughter took Algebra 1 for credit, and it was approved by her school to do. At almost the end of her course in Longmont, CO she was informed that the center would be closing and she would be moved to Boulder to finish. She went to Boulder and finished, and had the same teacher that moved there, too, and the director there said he would get the transcript to the school.

At that time, the Boulder center was closing down, too, and all the people there were upset at losing their jobs.

My daughter went on to school and they allowed her to take Algebra 2 the following year. It wasn't until now that she is a senior that they informed us that Sylvan never gave them the paperwork. I do fault the school for waiting so long to let us know, because if we knew the year before, we could have enrolled her in different classes to make up for it. We had no way of knowing they didn't receive the transcript, because they allowed her into Algebra 2, and she finished it.

We contacted Sylvan's head office in Baltimore because the franchisee of this area completely closed down all his centers. The four centers had been owned by H&S Educational Enterprises, Inc., which is owned Bruce Hassan, Sherry Hassan, and Kristin Smith of St. Augustine, FL. I do not know if they own Sylvans in Florida, but they owned the ones here in Colorado, and will not acknowledge my emails.

The head office said they only recieved the progress reports as far as Longmont, but none of the Boulder paperwork. Last week, they agreed to send the transcript with a lower grade taking into account the part of math they didn't have credit for. So basically, they were averaging the 0% into the 100%s.

We didn't like that, but if she doesn't get some type of credit, she doesn't graduate.

Today, Nina at the information desk contacted us to tell us they changed their minds and couldn't in good consciousness give her a transcript based on something they didn't have, even though the director of this frachise area gave them a call and told them what happened. They want to do testing on Sarah (at my cost) and if she doesn't do well on material she studied back in 2009, I am fully confident they are going to offer their services, for more money, of course. I don't trust them; I don't trust their test to be honest and I refuse to have her take more hours from them. Fat chance of us paying them even more money.

In addition to to the principle of it, we've been affected by the recession greatly and cannot afford to pay them more money. They know our daughter is in a bad situation and feel we'll pay to get her out of it.

I don't trust their testing because every time my daughter took a test, they decided she didn't do well enough and that she needed to repeat almost everything at least once, and sometimes twice. That's how our bill got so elevated. We bought into it because she has never been strong in Math and thought maybe she WAS doing badly. Yet she went on to high school Algebra 2 in a highly rated school, did well and never had to repeat anything.

Apparently, according to a woman named Glenda at the main office in Baltimore, they needed three or four days to sift through paperwork the franchisee 'might' have sent in when they closed, and it 'depended on what condition they sent it in'. It totally flabbergasted me that there isn't a requirement for submitting paperwork regularly and in a certain order, or when a franchise closes.

They didn't locate any paperwork, and would only go with the numbers that had been entered into the computer system, which was only the work through the end of the Longmont center.

So...basically I paid over $8, 000 for a product I didn't recieve and my daughter gets to pay for the mistake by not graduating with her friends and being embarassed. She is devastated and she worked the hardest of all on this. Three days a week for two hours at a time for almost a whole year.

The main office blames the franchisee, and the franchisee won't speak to us. It is the main offices' issue, though, in my opinion. It was their Sylvan name we trusted...and no longer trust. They want to sell their franchises, but they don't want to be responsible for them. If your franchisee screws you over...tough luck.

Even getting my money back for a product I did'nt recieve won't take the pain away from my daughter not being able to graduate. They have even refused to do that; they only refer us to 'Legal'.

My daughter is sweet and kind to everyone, shy and sensitive, and she works so hard at everything, even things she finds especially difficult. I've been blessed to have such an usual child who didn't take me through the teenage trauma of most girls...and I am more angry than I can ever convey.

Don't buy the lie that they care about you or their students. You are just money to them, and if you aren't paying at the moment, you don't mattter.

I am posting this everywhere I can because I think people should be warned. You are putting your child in the hands of a franchisee that you know NOTHING about. It isn't the same thing as eating a burger at a McDonald's franchise or playing a game at at Laser Tag franchise. It is much more important than that. Unfortunately, Sylvan doesn't run franchises and keep records with the same diligence and responsibility McDonald's does.

Ask the teachers at school for recommendations for a tutor that other kids have worked with and had good experiences with, or ask other parents. It'll be cheaper and more reliable, and since the teachers and parents aren't usually making a living off selling the product, it will be more honest.

And it should be a lot cheaper to find a tutor that way. We began by being told this was going to cost us $4, 500 for the school credit, and it kept elevating to almost $9, 000. They knew we needed it as a credit, and took advantage of that, and are still trying to.

I am posting this everywhere a review is possible, just to warn people. The reason you read good reviews in one place, and bad ones in others is because the franchisees are all different people and the company as a whole is not cohesive or discerning.

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Sylvan Learning Employees Treated Poorly

The owners of this Sylvan are greedy and treat their employees like crap. They get as much out of them for the least amount of money and take advantage of California labor law loop holes to use and abuse everyone. Beware before applying for a position here! They charge families $41-52 per hour plus a skills assessment fee and registration but only pay their tutors $8-11 per hour! Their salaried employees get paid according to their closeness with the boss and by how much ### they kiss! Beware!

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jgj
Pomona, US
Oct 16, 2011 8:53 am EDT

Came across this and yes, when I worked for them it was a horrible experience. Employees suffer while owners take vacations and micromanage.

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11:17 am EDT

Sylvan Learning Rip off

Sylvan Learning Center is a ripoff. They play off of parents' complaints and have them enthusiastically sign on for tutoring, which is what happened to us at the San Antonio, TX office. Well, once they get your money, the directors you spoke to could care less the quality of tutoring received or the guarantees they broke. We decided not to go for their loan, pay cash, but half up front. Well, that was the best thing we did because our daughter's reading skills never increased because the tutors were reading to her, instead of allowing her to practice reading. We stopped going after 28 hours since it's basically a waste of time. When I asked my daughter what she did, she would say they just read to her or finished her homework. Our daughter's reading and math skills developed when we spent more time with her every night. Therefore, we're not paying for a service never received, now we have the tasteless San Antonio Director calling us demanding payment.

Parents: Take the time to work with your children or pay their existing teacher to do some one-on-one tutoring. Sylvan is just another shady corporation trying to make a dime off of concerned parents.

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Ras2189
, US
Dec 16, 2015 11:15 am EST

Not sure about the specific case above but in general Sylvan is a rip off for parents and the teachers that work there. Old copyright free curriculum that doesn't meet individualized needs, policies that ensure no kid gets too much attention, almost no corporate support as far as training goes, underpaid and undervalued teaching staff = one hot mess. Forget it parents get a private tutor.

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mhearn
, US
Jul 29, 2015 3:04 pm EDT

The parent that wrote this complaint was upset because I called her about her bounced check- she never paid a penny. She changed her phone number - but her ex-husband who had paid his half of the bill and was very happy with our services, gave me her new phone number because he knew what she was doing was dishonest.
This parent never expressed any concerns and in fact when in the office for a progress conference said she was happy with her daughter's progress. She is just upset because we were trying to get her to pay her bill.

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3:08 pm EST

Sylvan Learning Stay away

When we called to make an appointment for an assessment, they asked for a credit card number. We had no papers, nothing in writing, we certainly never signed or agreed to anything with our quick phone call to make an appointment. We called back the next day to cancel and they told us that they "may have forgotten to mention" that the fee was not refundable. They are refusing to refund the assessment fee when we called to cancel withing 24 hours of making the appointment and weeks before the scheduled appointment. The woman on the phone insists that only "corporate" can issue a refund. She has offered some free hours "when you sign up" for tutoring as if this is some kind of reasonable offer to us. We have no intention of ever going there! Free hours on top of a big contract is hardly a solution to this. Sylvan is a scam.

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Sylvan Learning Very poor place

Sylvan learning center did not do what they contracted to do in my daughter's ACT preparation. At least one of the two or three teachers who were signed up to come to Sylvan to teach her did not show up. Also about half of them were poorly qualified to teach the subjects they were supposed to know. The "practice tests" they gave her were nothing like what the actual exam was, so she had a lot of surprises to deal with on the actual test day. In summary, the ACT prep class was nowhere near worth the 700 dollars we paid for it. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY THERE!

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Florence P.Parker
Baltimore, US
Jun 12, 2013 9:58 pm EDT

what I don't get is this is a center to help you learn to read and spell. I am an adult and old enough to know when something
is not working. My teacher was great and I would work with him again but the people working on my listen need help. They had no clue on how to work with an adult. How to plan my listen. It took them a month and a half to work out the bugs which means I wasted all that money for nothing and now after three months they still can't get the bugs out. I had planned to be in this program for six months but that will not happen. You need a reading listen for adults and that means you do have to go back to the first grade but when you see that the person is working a little faster then you thought move them up. I was still working in the first grade even when my teach new I needed to move up but what I found out is that he does not plan my listen and they don't ask him about me, which he is the person who knows me best. I don't get it. I loved working with him but now I have to find another learning center to do what sylvan could not. I don't have a lot of money for this and now I have to start all over again with another center. Sylvan you need to look into this.
Florence P.Parker

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Sylvan Learning They don't care

We are very disappointed in the administrative staff at the Hilliard Oh location. Please beware. Their hours are very limited making it difficult to take class 2/3 times per week. Our child rarely had the same teacher and when we saw no improvement in grades they did not honor their agreement. We did find a tutor for half the price and we are now seeing a great improvement in alegbra. You would be better off finding a tutor via the classified section then trusting either Sharon at that location.

The attitude of the administrative staff was very negative and indifferent.

Not what children should ever be exposed to.

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Sylvan Learning Failure to live up to their guarantee

Can not get anyone to talk about refunding the unused sessions as was stated in a email. I am paying a loan that will take 8 years and I won't be able to pay for eduacation after high school. If they would just refund what wasn't used I wouldn't fill so angry . Even though they failed teach him .He tested lower after a full summer of work, 2hrs a day 5 days a week .After they said they couldn't tutor him in his classes when school started. He needed the time to do his homework. ANGRY!

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Sylvan Learning - Beware and stay away

On 1/23/2009 I signed by 4th grade son up for the recommended 100 hour program to bring him up to grade level in reading and math. I foolishly prepaid in full a total of $4790. 2 weeks into the program during an evaluation I expressed concerns that I did not see any improvement.. they said give it more time. By the time I gave it more time my son's report...

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Sylvan Learning Education

My son failed 8th grade miserably so my husband and I decided to hold him back, change schools and get him a tutor and someone suggested Sylvan Learning Center. It was just down the street from his school so we figured it would work perfectly. Sylvan does not allow you to pay as you go, you have to get a student loan that is NOT tax-deductible at 10% paying $105 every month for the next 10 years. They figure out how many hours it will take for your kid to catch up to his grade level and they tell you that they will give him the skills needed to succeed in school. I asked the center’s manager, “What if he doesn’t succeed, what if he still fails?” She told me he wouldn’t and again I asked, “But what if he does?” She assured me that he wouldn’t because they would give him the tools to succeed. BULLPUCKY! Twelve thousand dollars and six months later, he was skating by with D’s in classes he had already taken the year before so I pulled him out of Sylvan with some 50 hours left on my account because they hadn’t taught him anything except how to get reward points for junk toys. I figured we’d get about a $1000 back and I’d put a balloon payment on the loan. I was getting the lowest price per hour that they offered, combining the fact that we were military and that my parents co-signed for the loan making it a “grandparents” special they took off some $20 or $30 per hour but because we stopped his learning early they pushed it back up to the full price and we only got some $100 back.

Bottom-Line, Sylvan Learning Center’s are not worth your children or your money. Find a local tutor that won’t soak you for every penny you have and will actually teach your child.

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Nascargirl
Battle Creek, US
Mar 01, 2010 1:40 pm EST

My son is currently enrolled in Sylvan's. We pay by the month with no obligation to continue after the month. They also guaruntee he will go up one grade after 36 hours of tutoring if not he receive's 12 free hours. He has been doing Sylvan's for about 2 months now and has allready went up a grade level. He is gaining confindence in himself & his ablility do be a great student, which I have never seen in him before. I would recommend Sylan's to anyone. It does cost a bit per month but you get what you pay for. As far as the issue's you had. Sorry but you got swindled by someone.

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hulinmr
Brandon, US
Feb 19, 2010 3:27 pm EST

I am military and just recently visited the local Sylvan center for where I live. They offer a monthly payment plan, a one-time payment or they had info about loans I could get. She also mentioned that people can get a loan through their bank. I paid the one-time fee and it was less than $2000. Once my child has gone through 36 hours of tutoring, if she has not excelled enough, they will give me 12 hours free. I was also told that by paying this one-time fee, it was non-refundable. I'm not sure what happened at your center, but you got swindled if you paid $12, 000. I know someone who went for a year and they only paid about $5000.

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Sylvan Learning BAD EMPLOYER and THEFT

Sylvan Learning Center in Lincoln Village, Chicago, treats its employees poorly and takes advantage of its customers. Don’t even bother wasting your time. You work hard there, but for little to no money. They steal money from their employees by not providing them with paychecks for 6 months. You need to write tons of emails to them and leave messages on the voicemail in order to show them your interest in getting paycheck. Otherwise, they wouldn’t bother paying you, and they charge the students 90 dollars per hour.

The hiring and treatment of the directors is awful. It was their ethics that drove me away. Additionally, the directors have very little education experience -- one of them has an education degree but has never worked in a classroom or actually taught on a full time basis

They do hire absolutely everyone, make you go through training and take exams for your license. When you start, you have a rough time getting hours, and then they make you sucker in by having more people to come and work for them. I worked in the Lincoln Village office and the management is horrible! They are rude, even to the point of being racist. Definitely, don’t work THERE! It’s not worth the stress, mistreatment, and costs.

I have also witnessed quite a bit of incompetence and dishonesty there, including violating their own policies when it comes to employee regulations. This business is not, no matter what they say, mostly concerned about the welfare and education of your children. They are concerned about the welfare of their own pocketbooks. The materials they use are sometimes up to 20 years out of date. The methods they use are so rigid and lockstep. If your child has any unusual circumstances they will simply not know how to handle them.
Avoid them.
Good luck and don’t get suckered!

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Sylvan Learning of Lincoln Village
, US
Oct 06, 2009 11:59 am EDT

The Sylvan Learning Center of Lincoln Village deeply values the relationship it has with employee's both past and present. We would greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. Please contact the center at [protected] or let us know the best way to contact you.

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Sylvan Learning contacts

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+1 (888) 338-2283

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www.sylvanlearning.com

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