Ashworth College

I'm studying criminal justice and hopefully will have my degree soon. Ashworth is a good school if you read the directions and follow instruction well. I'm learning a lot and only issues I've had are with calling the school but that's it. I think aside from that everything is going well. Getting good grades and a career soon!

For me this was the way to earn my degree. I hated driving to classes after working all day. At first I was very concerned about attending Ashworth due to the negative comments I saw on the web about customer service or that its a scam. But I figured I would give it a try as I have started and quit 3 different times. Signing up took a bit that that was expected. I took advantage of the chance to test out of some of the classes in order to save money and time. This took a bit to get going but it did work out great for me. I was able to test out of 7 classes which saved me a lot of time and money in the end. Some of the classes were very easy for me and others took me back to studying once again. I did have to contact the school but it was due to my own issues and there policies. I never once had a negative contact with their customer service. If I felt I was right I would explain why and to my surprise they listened and ended up siding with me. I have not used my degree to move up in my career but I have moved on in my career and I do believe having this degree helped me and gave me one more item that others did not have. You get what you put into Ashworth I believe. If you want A's then you must do the work to get them. If you want to just get by and earn your degree at your own pace and your own environment then that path is there as well. The best part for me is that when I could no longer afford to pay upfront for each term I was able to finance my education with Ashworth with no interest. Granted you have to pay this loan before you receive your degree but you are listed as completed until your loan is paid in full. I wish I would have done this 20 years ago but of course this was not around then.

I have attended Ashworth since 2012. All of my experiences with the school have been great. I would definitely recommend the school to others. The course work is challenging and comparable to any other school. My employer has no problem with the DETC accreditation.

Ashworth College the most deplorable customer service I have ever had to deal with. I have taken over a dozen on-line diploma/certificate courses through various institutes, including a couple from the UK. And Ashworth’s customer service was bar none the most inept I have had the displeasure in dealing with. 8 months to receive an accurate contract. Now we’re not talking about just a couple of bucks here, we’re talking hundreds of dollars. Originally when I called the enrollment operator (which by the way this number they will answer almost immediately, big surprise), my request was fairly simple and straight forward, or so I thought. I informed the operator I was a returning student (to get the returning alumni discount of $200), and that I wanted to pay for my class in full (to receive the “In Full” pay discount). All sounds easy enough, not even close, not only had the operator sit me up on a payment plan costing additional fees, but they didn’t even get the discount for returning student right. So now your thinking as I was no big deal shoot them an email and move on, wrong. • First I was informed that a supervisor would have to listen to my recording (evidently the on-line operators were not capable of doing the math that was presented, believed what I was saying, or permitted to act on their own), and that it would be more weeks before I hear back. • After 30 days of silence, in hopes to draw someone’s attention to my plight, I disputed my credit card fees and returned my books. And yet again nothing, no why did you do that, hey we’re going to charge you a cancelation fee, nothing. Now to my surprise I started receiving email notices requesting address up dates. Evidently this is a completely different department that does not communicate with customer services. So I again sent an email to let them know my address is correct, but my Enrollment Agreement contract was not. • This time I was told the “Accounts Receivable Deportment” would be addressing why I could not receive an accurate Contract. Figuring that maybe I rushed the school to much originally, I allowed 90 days this time to hear a response from someone, again nothing but silence. At this point I figure I need to take this up the chain o command a little. • I contact and file a complaint with one of Ashworth’s accrediting institutions the “Distance Education and Training Council” through their on-line complaint web page (http://www.detc.org/complaints/index.html). They were able to make contact and put me in touch with the Business Services Manager of Ashworth. Ahh, finally someone who can help me, Wrong again. • I call this “Business Service Manager” and explain my dilemma and she assures me there’s no problem everything will be taken care of and accepts my credit card information for full payment (for the second time). Well a week goes buy and I email the Business Service Manager and inform her that nothing has changed with my Enrollment Contract. Her response to me was, and I quote “unfortunately I cannot change the Enrollment Agreement, You will have to sign it to be able to access your program, and there is relevance in regards to the cancellation fee etc.” Now first of all is there anyone who doesn’t think that if this Business Service manager was unable to change and provide me with an accurate contract, she should have told me so prior to collecting my monies? Second, I question the education of a Business individual (of any status), who would recommend that someone sign an agreement NOT agreed upon, and then in the very same sentence they are telling you not to worry about the monies describe in the contract threaten you with enforcing said contract with cancelation fee if you do not sign said contract. I don’t think even Judge Judy could bail you out of that one. • My email response is pretty close to my above noted retort and I admit may be a little cynical but I’ve been through allot by this point and as if being threatened to sign the very contract I have been disputing for almost 8 months hasn’t pushed me over the top, this “BUSINESS SERVICE MANAGER response is about to. One guess as to the response I received, that’s right nothing, absolute silence. I receive a threat to sign on surfer the consequence of cancelation fees and end of conversation! Of course after the way I was previous ignored by supervisors and the Accounts Receivable department I am becoming quite aware of the Standard Operating Procedures (S.O.Ps.), of this organization, Ignore the problem and hope it goes away! • So now I go back to the Distance Education and Training Council and forward my emails from the Business Service Manager they had put me in touch with and again plead for some kind of assistance or avenue of direction. To my surprise it seems that the S O P of Ashworth is the same as that of their accredited institution because now they seem to be out of answers for I receive only silence from them as well. I can only assume that this accrediting institution isn’t concerned if I was receiving my education legally or not and just because I was being told to sign this inexact contract or suffer the reprisal of cancelation fees was no big deal, or that this might be happening to other students and was worth looking into. Now I figure I need to escalate this situation, I’m not getting support at this level. So I attempt to locate someone who’s in charge, I pull up the Better Business Bureau and locate the Owner/President/CEO of this corporation. I then locate him on media web site “LinkedIn” and search for contacts located at the place of business. • I contacted the Chief Operating Officer (COO), via email on LinkedIn and attempt to recount to him my predicament (in 60 words or less). Instead of contacting me directly and investigating the problem, he passes me off to yet another individual how contacts me by mail and request I call her. And of course no follow up from this individual was ever made as to whether or not my problem was ever resolved, surprise, surprise. • I attempt to contact this entity (title unknown), and I am intercepted by yet another person (title unknown), who proceeds to inform me that the individual I am trying to contact does not have the authority to help me, but he does. I again recount my tail of woe and I am reassured my situation is a simple matter and can be cleared up easily, if I would just call back again after he has had a chance to talk to his supervisor Yes I have still not ranked the level of a supervisor. • I call the following day only to find out this appointee was NOT able to fully explain my state of affairs to his supervisor and I would have to talk to that person myself. But they would not be available to talk to me until the following day. • I call AGAIN the following day to find the supervisor is again not available and to call back in the afternoon, at which time they were still not available. Never did hear from this supervisor, was evidently to busy for my IF they ever existed. I finally received a call from a very charming lady who indicated she worked on second shift and would address my situation, and in which she did, by starting my account from new (which is what I had specifically requested 8 months earlier. I was a little disappointed after learning by this time the course I was taking had reduced in price and not only was not offered the new discount price (for all my troubles), but was denied when I requested the new “As advertised” Price. 12 weeks to receive my Diploma/Transcripts Ahh, finally graduation, I completed all my lessons, or so I believed. My “Student Portal” indicates I have indeed passed all of my course work. I awaited notification as to the conclusion of my course, some kind of announcement that all work was complete, none ever came. All of the other distant learning institutes I have been associated with immediately sent me notification of achievement upon finishing my course work, not this one. • After a week of nothing but silence, I had to send an email inquiring as to whether or not I had actually finished my course work or if perhaps there was something I hadn’t attended to. Of course I had to wait a week for any kind of response, so no it’s already been 2 weeks of uncertainty. At this time (although absolutely nothing was noted anywhere within my student portal, or any of the “welcome” documentation, or any of the course material), I was now notified (after another week), that I had a “Semester exam” to take, and that I would need a Proctor (a third person involvement), and must supply contact information. • I opened my portal to address these concerns, only to find out that NOWHERE in my portal is any information about a semester exam and/or where to input proctor information? What kind of system demands information but doesn’t provide for its input? • Off goes another email requesting where/how do I provide the requested proctor information? Response; “there is no online source where you could add this information”, One might have thought the Education Specialist who provide the information about the exam might have at the same time provide the information that this information was not located on their web Site and requested the proctor information directly on the original email. Now I have completed my semester exam, all is good in the world, not! Again nothing but silence, not one word to whether or not I am actually complete this time. • Again, I sent an email inquiring as to whether or not I had actually finished my course work or if perhaps there was something I hadn’t attended to. Of course I had to wait a week for any kind of response, so no it’s already been 2 weeks of uncertainty. I was informed that on the day I completed and passed my semester final that my diploma request HAD BEEN processed and that it would be 6 to 8 weeks. Another 2 months before I would have documented proof to be able to present a potential employer evidence of a furthered education! Every other distant learning institute I have been associated with sends out Diplomas/Certificates without delay. Of course 8 weeks came and passed. I sent yet another email requesting status as to my account. Another week to await a response to find out the only intention was to submit the very same request again (because it worked so well the first time), and that it would be another 4 to 6 weeks. • Trying to expedite my documentation, I sent yet another email describing my frustrations in hopes that someone would look into my case and accelerate my paper work. The only response received was that they had no intentions of deviating from standard practice and I would have to wait the allotted time. 7 days to receive a response to an email inquiry. Now, as you can imagine by the above noted memoirs I have almost 6 dozen emails back and forth. 1 week per email is not hard to figure out how long this process took. And the best part (NOT), if while you’re waiting for an email response you attempt a phone response (whether or not you make connection with a real person), this evidently automatically sends a notice stating you’ve been taken care of and now you get to wait another whole week to get an email response. It is unknown to me the average amount of time it takes to receive a response to a phone inquiry. Every time I attempted phone contact I gave up after waiting more than 10 minutes each time. Evidently we all have unlimited talk time plans. you need not just take my word, you can reference the over 250 Billing/Collection and Product and service complaints listed in the last 3 years with the better Business Bureau and compare them to other Distant Learning institutes like Sullivan university online at only 1 complaint in 3 years, Kaplan University at 2, Strayer University online at 2, Stratford Career Institute at 5 and Virginia College online at 7.

I recently completed my BA in Criminal Justice and fould the program 100% worth the time. I read the reveiws of former students and if any of them state that the BA program is nonsense then they did not have a drive. Great instructors and very reliable and professional books. Without a doubt I felt like I was in a Brick and Morter school. I have already recommended the school to sevral friend and would do it again. Great job Ashworth

I recently completed my Associates Degree in Criminal Justice. I was very happy with the program from start to finish. I was nervous at the start of the program as I was not sure how I would do academically since I had been out of school for a long time. The course material and course assignments are very user friendly, and with a little study good grades are easily attainable. I would recommend Ashworth to my family and friends. My dream was to obtain a College degree and thanks to Ashworth College I have attained that dream.

Before I enrolled I read all these same reviews, horror stories about books and customer service and blah blah blah. Well these are obviously [people] who only tried using the phone line. I have never once called their support number. Whether you use the online forum, facebook, twitter, or whatever, their support and response is quick and helpful. My books have always been shipped right away so far, and even if they aren't you can just post on the facebook page that you're almost done and they'll ship your next class. Steph from support is great and very helpful. All in all, this place is NOT the horror story I was half expecting. I delayed enrollment for 6 months because of the reviews I read, and WISH I didn't. You can get a bachelors in a year here if you put in the time. And cheap!