Secondary School application Fees

readmylips

Mods, please feel free to move, couldnt find anywhere else relevant to post

ok, so, looking for opinion on secondary school application fees..

when your child is approaching 1st year, applies to a few schools, goes to open nights etc...one school requests an application fee , to be paid with application, 100 euro. this was not documented anywhere just announced at an open night.
thats grand. we pay the fee.
so the "offers" come in (yes offers for secondary school !)..and one is accepted .

The school we paid the fee to also offers place but it is rejected.
application fee is kept, wont be refunded, but again , this is not documented anywhere and we were not told. if it was, then that school would have been off our list ASAP !!

Can they do this, even though its not written anywhere ! and believe me, ive asked and they said it isnt but "everyone knows you dont get it back if you reject the place" !! WTF...:eek:

anyone ???? tnx...

suitcasepink

Moved to Consumer Issues

Mods, please move if you feel this is inappropriate for this forum.

davo10

Op just so I have this right, you want to apply for a place at a school, to apply you are told at an open night you must pay €100, so prior to sending in the application you know you have to pay €100, you applied and paid, were successful but rejected it, and now you want your money back?.

Are you for real?, they told you that there was an application fee, you paid it and they processed the application, it's not their fault you rejected the school.

How is this a consumer issue?

Agent_99

OP was this a private school or state run school that requested the application fee? Also the area where you live is there a common application system? i.e you complete a form making a choice for preference as to which school/schools you would like your child to attend.

readmylips wrote: »

Mods, please feel free to move, couldnt find anywhere else relevant to post

ok, so, looking for opinion on secondary school application fees..

when your child is approaching 1st year, applies to a few schools, goes to open nights etc...one school requests an application fee , to be paid with application, 100 euro. this was not documented anywhere just announced at an open night.
thats grand. we pay the fee.
so the "offers" come in (yes offers for secondary school !)..and one is accepted .

The school we paid the fee to also offers place but it is rejected.
application fee is kept, wont be refunded, but again , this is not documented anywhere and we were not told. if it was, then that school would have been off our list ASAP !!

Can they do this, even though its not written anywhere ! and believe me, ive asked and they said it isnt but "everyone knows you dont get it back if you reject the place" !! WTF...:eek:

anyone ???? tnx...

lindtee

In the secondary school I applied to for my sons there is an application fee of €190. If you are not successful in your application it is refunded. If you don't accept the place as far as I know it is refunded too. But if you accept the place and then change your mind it is not refunded. I'd personally be a bit miffed if I applied to a number of schools (as sometimes you need to do) and my money was not refunded for the ones I did not accept....however you do need to go through the literature you got again and make sure that they specified that it would be refunded if you decided not to accept. Just to add that the €190 then covers rental of books until 3rd year, field trips, some stationery etc.

theteal

OP, i find it very strange that you would pay such a fee if you weren't intent on sending the kids to this school. Im sure had they rejected your app, they would refund the fee. I cant help but think this is akin to a change of mind on a purchased item, sorry.

Cheshire Cat

When we applied for a secondary school place for our older son we spent the guts of €400.- on application fees. But it was pointed out in all cases that we wouldn't get the money back if we turned a place down, only if the application was unsuccessful.
We didn't have a choice at the time, we had to apply to all possible schools as we are blow-ins and the enrolment policy was heavily in favour of siblings, children and grandchildren of former pupils and so on.
So we were reduced to the "any remaining places (if any) will be allocated by a draw" group.

We were lucky and got into the school we really wanted, but there were children in both my sons classes were the parents only applied to only one school and did not get in. Some children did not have a place until the beginning of the school year. One guy had to repeat 6th class.

borderlinemeath

theteal wrote: »

OP, i find it very strange that you would pay such a fee if you weren't intent on sending the kids to this school. Im sure had they rejected your app, they would refund the fee. I cant help but think this is akin to a change of mind on a purchased item, sorry.

It's nothing like the same thing as making a purchase and changing your mind.

The school system as it stands can be a lottery if you have no connection or ties to a school or an area. It's common practice to have to apply to maybe 3 schools in order to almost guarantee a place.

readmylips

@Cheshirecat, same sitituation here!! and couldnt put all our eggs in one basket! so applied to a few.
Trawlled through docs repeatedly, no mention on not getting fee back. If there was then I wouldnt have this issue as I would have been fully aware. Even rang the school and asked them directly where was it written and they said it wasnt !

Place WAS offered and rejected as we'd already accepted another the day before.

yes the fees go towards school year fees if the child accepts, i know that , thats not my issue.

Each school had their own application form and school isnt private

Jesus Shaves

Call/Write to them to ask for it back, If they refuse contact the department of education and explain to them, try and contact other parents who are in a similar situation and collectively make a complaint

There's loads of options if you really want your money back

readmylips

did all of that, no luck YET !! Dept havent responded yet but I'll call them again just to see.
tnx

Cabaal

readmylips wrote: »

@Cheshirecat, same sitituation here!! and couldnt put all our eggs in one basket! so applied to a few.
Trawlled through docs repeatedly, no mention on not getting fee back.

Place WAS offered and rejected as we'd already accepted another the day before.

Just playing devils adequate abit here.

At the same time there is no mention that you WILL get the funds back in the documentation so you are assuming you should have.

Additionally the school offered the place...you turned it down, this weas your choice.

P. Breathnach

readmylips wrote: »

...
Each school had their own application form and school isnt private

Obviously I don't know what school you have in mind, so I am not challenging what you say.

But I want to point out that the majority of second-level schools are private: the state does not own them either directly or indirectly. People sometimes assume that because a school is in the free education scheme it must be a state school.

davo10

I think the important point here is that the OP was informed in advance (at open nite) about application fee and that it was a requirement for application, there was no indication that fee would be refunded so OP was wrong to assume it would be. At that time, if OP did not wish to pay the fee, there was no obligation not commitment to pay it. The T&C were that fee had to be paid for application to be considered, nothing else.
I do not see why she would feel entitled to a refund especially as she rejected the offer.

Jesus Shaves

Of course the fee should be enrolled if the student isn't getting enrolled into the school
school costs are high enough without this sort of thing happening
They never said the fee wouldn't be refunded either
Everywhere in society where you pay a deposit for an event/game etc you pay a deposit and if you're not successful you receive your money back minus a small fee
Why should it be any different with schools?

davo10

darokane wrote: »

Of course the fee should be enrolled if the student isn't getting enrolled into the school
school costs are high enough without this sort of thing happening
They never said the fee wouldn't be refunded either
Everywhere in society where you pay a deposit for an event/game etc you pay a deposit and if you're not successful you receive your money back minus a small fee
Why should it be any different with schools?

Again, Op was told in advance that cost of APPLICATION is €100. No refund mentioned so not inT&C. This was not a deposit, it was a fee for a service ie processing application, the service was carried out and the offer of a place extended based on this process.

Cabaal

darokane wrote: »

Everywhere in society where you pay a deposit for an event/game etc you pay a deposit and if you're not successful you receive your money back minus a small fee
Why should it be any different with schools?

Yes, indeed if you do pay a fee as a deposit for an event or game and if not successful it is refunded. The issue here is she was successful, the place was offered however she choose to turn it down.

If you paid a deposit for an event and then turned down the event, would you get the deposit back?....of course not. If the event supplier turned you down you would of course get it back.

Jesus Shaves

Cabaal wrote: »

Yes, indeed if you do pay a fee as a deposit for an event or game and if not successful it is refunded. The issue here is she was successful, the place was offered however she choose to turn it down.

If you paid a deposit for an event and then turned down the event, would you get the deposit back?....of course not. If the event supplier turned you down you would of course get it back.

Schools should not be doing this. This is not a deposit for the school, if it was i would certainly expect it back whether i refused the offer or not.

davo10

Darokane, the rights or wrongs of the money is not the issue, what is the OP's issue is whether or not she is entitled to a refund. This was not a deposit, it was an application FEE, which again she was told about in advance and she still made the decision to apply. We would all like everything for free but that is not the way it works out. The application process was undertaken, the service provided as per info given at open nite, what more is there to this?

Jesus Shaves

davo10 wrote: »

Darokane, the rights or wrongs of the money is not the issue, what is the OP's issue is whether or not she is entitled to a refund. This was not a deposit, it was an application FEE, which again she was told about in advance and she still made the decision to apply. We would all like everything for free but that is not the way it works out. The application process was undertaken, the service provided as per info given at open nite, what more is there to this?

The OP was never told that the money wouldn't be refunded, therefore she has a right to request her money back.

davo10

darokane wrote: »

davo10 wrote: »

Darokane, the rights or wrongs of the money is not the issue, what is the OP's issue is whether or not she is entitled to a refund. This was not a deposit, it was an application FEE, which again she was told about in advance and she still made the decision to apply. We would all like everything for free but that is not the way it works out. The application process was undertaken, the service provided as per info given at open nite, what more is there to this?

The OP was never told that the money wouldn't be refunded, therefore she has a right to request her money back.

Rubbish, she wasn't told it would be refunded, she had no reason therefore to assume it would be. The T&C of this were simple, a €100 fee must be paid for application to be considered, nothing else, no mention of a gauantee that position would be given, no mention of a refund. If a refund was not part of T&C explained at open nite then it was not included.

Cabaal

darokane wrote: »

The OP was never told that the money wouldn't be refunded, therefore she has a right to request her money back.

Indeed she can request the money back but that doesn't mean she'll get it, she was never told she would get the money back either.

She merely assumed she would automatically get it back after she refused the position,

Jesus Shaves

davo10 wrote: »

Rubbish, she wasn't told it would be refunded

Riiiiiighhhhhttt
What we're both saying is the exact same thing in a different way:rolleyes:

Jesus Shaves

Cabaal wrote: »

Indeed she can request the money back but that doesn't mean she'll get it, she was never told she would get the money back either.

She merely assumed she would automatically get it back after she refused the position,

We can go around in circles all week saying "she was never told she would get the money back", "she was never told she wouldn't get the money back".

davo10

Roll your eyes all you want, OP got the service she paid for, nothing more, nothing less as per T&C's given at open nite.
Simples

Jesus Shaves

davo10 wrote: »

Roll your eyes all you want, OP got the service she paid for, nothing more, nothing less as per T&C's given at open nite.
Simples

There were no T&C's, that's the point!
you're answers are getting more ridiculous after every post, stop clutching at straws

davo10

darokane wrote: »

davo10 wrote: »

Roll your eyes all you want, OP got the service she paid for, nothing more, nothing less as per T&C's given at open nite.
Simples

There were no T&C's, that's the point!
you're answers are getting more ridiculous after every post, stop clutching at straws

Last post, if you can't get it after this I don't think you ever will.

T&C as per open nite: Application necessary to obtain place, €100 fee for application, application will be considered, place may/may not be offered based on application, no mention of refund therefore you cannot assume it is included in the T&C's.

Jesus Shaves

davo10 wrote: »

Last post, if you can't get it after this I don't think you ever will.

T&C as per open nite: Application necessary to obtain place, €100 fee for application, application will be considered, place may/may not be offered based on application, no mention of refund therefore you cannot assume it is included in the T&C's.

That would be all well and good if you knew the actual terms and conditions of the open night

wmpdd3

CAO charge €90 or whatever for application, you don't get it back if you decide not to go to college.

lala88

darokane wrote: »

That would be all well and good if you knew the actual terms and conditions of the open night

Do you know them? Seem to me to be yet another example of someone trying to get out of there own mistake and play the victim

useless

Plenty of Dublin schools charging non-refundable 'application fees' which aren't refunded if the kid isn't offered a place.