Sylvan Learning
reviews & complaints

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.

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.

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.

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]

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

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!

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.

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!

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!