Challenging times usually reveal true character...
In early March 2020, I paid Smith Street Workshop my son's 2020/2021 school registration fee of 3,500.00 US dollars.
Less than a week later my family and I had to leave the USA due to personal circumstances caused by COVID-19. We permanently left the neighborhood where we were residing and departed to another continent.
Roughly one month after making the deposit payment and more than 5 months before the school year started I requested a refund of my son's 2020/2021 school year deposit.
After various email exchanges with the school owner, I requested a personal phone call. The call was avoided and the situation was addressed by the school's lawyer.
To my surprise, given the global hardship felt by families around the world the school stated that the deposit will not be refunded. In fact, their legal team stated that the only compensation I will receive is the transaction costs charged when they received the deposit payment - how absurd.
Like most families, we have a set amount of finances allocated for our son's education per year. Due to this unfortunate loss and lack of sympathy from the school, we will not be able to enroll our child in any school for the 2020/2021 school.
I have committed to the full annual payment of our child's 2019/2020 school fees and understand that the school needs these funds to pay employees and running costs. However, it is incomprehensible that the school is reluctant to refund even a small portion of the deposit paid.
This is deeply disappointing and I truly hope our child is the only one who will be affected by the school's actions. read more