Okay, you guys are smarter than me....
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Topic: Okay, you guys are smarter than me....
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Subject: Okay, you guys are smarter than me....
Date Posted: 13 May 2013 at 12:39pm
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I need a few brain-waves sent this way because I'm at a loss. Before I joined the Academy, the town I live in, and their department decided to sponsor me, which was great, because tuition went form $4400 to $2100. I was told that I was responsible for that $2100, which I agreed to, and paid it. A few weeks ago, I get a message from the college....wanting the rest of it. Essentially what happened, is nobody told the DEPARTMENT that THEY had to be the ones to pay that $2100. Basically, I give them the $$ and they cut a check with it to the college. Now, I know that the department didn't know this because one of the other guys in the class is in the same boat, and he's sponsored by a different department - meaning it was articulated to NEITHER department that they were the ones the $$ was supposed to come from. Somewhere along the lines, communication broke down, and I'm having to pay for it. I'm not sure how to even BEGIN to iron this out. There's 4 parties involved here, the college, the academy, the department, and me. I've told the department what's going on. I've told the academy what's going on. I've told the college what's going on. The college tells me "Too bad, tuition's due." The department tells me "We'll contact the academy." The academy told me "We'll contact the college." .....and nothing has been changed so far. Where would you start? I'm NOT paying them another dime, since I'm technically not responsible for it. But this needs to be hammered out because I'm 6 weeks from graduation and in danger of being bounced out because somebody above my head failed to communicate properly. ------------- ? |
Replies:
Posted By: tallen702
Date Posted: 13 May 2013 at 1:07pm
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If it were me, I'd set up a meeting between all three and have them hammer it out be it in person or a conference call. Stay on them until it gets paid. But don't shell out yourself. ------------- <Removed overly wide sig. Tsk, you know better.> |
Posted By: evillepaintball
Date Posted: 13 May 2013 at 1:57pm
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Do what he said. ------------- 
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Posted By: *Stealth*
Date Posted: 13 May 2013 at 2:14pm
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Skinhat? ------------- |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 14 May 2013 at 7:20am
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I'm being told by everyone that this is a "Oh well, too bad." situation. So because someone else failed to articulate some of the details, I'm supposed to cough up $2K? I'm pretty pissed about it. I have no trouble owning up and paying for my mistakes, but this is literally me paying for someone else's. Skinhat indeed. ------------- ? |
Posted By: tallen702
Date Posted: 14 May 2013 at 8:02am
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Soooo, exactly what did the department think "sponsor" meant????? ------------- <Removed overly wide sig. Tsk, you know better.> |
Posted By: scotchyscotch
Date Posted: 14 May 2013 at 5:45pm
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Yeah that's pretty poor. I take it these different parties don't have very good direct communication then, I would talk to everyone in the process step by step until you find where the break in the chain is. Then proceed to bollock the person responsible. I don't know the process so it's difficult but If you get it narrowed down to one guy telling porkies/neglecting to do his job then you have it nailed. A good dousing of "I am dissapoint" and colourful language should sort it. Definitely sounds like they agreed to sell you a horse so It's really down to the first point of contact to sort/ communicate the process for you. With funding etc there must be a legit paper trail (meeting minutes, letter of acceptance/sponsorship grant or humorous limericks scrawled in toilets) which shows intention of the people responsible for the funding. Your agreement really started with the town/department so just demand they take ownership and get it dealt with. That's your kids dinner there messing with. Did the Academy/college not know that this is how you intended to pay for the course? I would think it's noted in your application etc So they should be able to cut some slack for you considering I guess you would have named the town/dept on your paperwork. Did you even at any time even think it was not crystal clear to everyone how the funding was working? It might be the unrelated parties can't be arsed waiting for the others to sort their stuff out so if the college guys are dicks you'll often need to cough up and claim reimbursement later. Which from what I can see will be no problem whatsoever as you've got an agreement and 6 weeks should be plenty time to get a plan in place and money paid. To be fair it seems from the summary of conversations you gave that everyone is indeed doing what they should be doing but a bit slower than it could be. Keep everyone in the loop as well. If you show that you are working to fix this then the college should hopefully take you on face value and make arrangements. I've went on a ramble but to sum up it's a breakdown in communication. If you want this sorted then you might want to do the communicating yourself after shouting at people at each step then passing what they say they'll do to the guy at the next step thus turning it into his problem.
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Posted By: oldsoldier
Date Posted: 14 May 2013 at 7:28pm
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Welcome to public service....promise the moon, and then forget the cheese (ask someone on the force the definition of 'cheese', then you will get it.) Your options are few, you have the bag in hand, empty of course, and the department will not be in a hurry to put anything in it, nature of small town politics, someone somewhere forgot to ask someone to do something somewhere else. Having dealt with VA delays in payments to college for myself and step-kids, they don't want to hear it, you need a formal 'letter' generated based on your understanding of the original offer, go to the city/county funding organization (county or city council will usually work). MY guess is you are out another 2K and need to pray you get reimbursed after this fiasco is settled. ------------- 
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Posted By: choopie911
Date Posted: 16 May 2013 at 9:26pm
| Get Rambino in here |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 17 May 2013 at 9:09am
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Whelp, I rattled the balls out of some cages. I contacted a very close friend of mine who works in the accounts office at another college, and he not only gave me some advice, but HE called the college as well. I emailed the lady in the SA office, and she didn't bother to reply to me, just send my email along to one of the advisers there who is setting up a meeting with me and one of the academy directors to discuss the matter. Two members of our department have contacted the office as well. On an interesting note, I found my copy of the hand-written notes that the chief took when she was on the phone with someone, which clearly state $2100 for sworn. AND a copy of the letter that the department had me sign stating that I acknowledged that I was sworn and sponsored, and would be responsible for the costs of the academy....which based on those notes...was $2100. So, I'm not going into this meeting unarmed. My only fear is, that since one of the academy directors is going to be there, that they're setting me up for failure since as a recruit I'm not going to come out and argue with one of the people who holds my future at the academy in his hands. I don't know if thats what it'll come to, but they may know that if he starts to put a bit of weight on me, I'm going to have to squirm. The kicker is, that I'm fighting this fight for three of us, and the other two are completely mute on the matter. One shut up and paid is, and the other is scrambling around to find the funds so SHE can pay it too without getting into trouble. I'm the only one left saber rattling, and its becoming a matter of principal more than money. Onward. ------------- ? |
Posted By: usafpilot07
Date Posted: 17 May 2013 at 9:48am
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The costs of ya'lls academy in general shocks me. I can't believe they charge sponsored recruits anything other than uniform costs. Hope it all works out for you though Reb. ------------- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 17 May 2013 at 11:01am
Since its college tuition for a 30 credit hour course, therein lies the major cost. Atop of that though, are the uniform and gear expenditures, which ran close to $500. Phase II can get expensive too, depending on the department. Some departments will issue a firearm, I had to buy mine (subject to reimbursement after hiring) And you need a vest ($$$, but I was given one.) Did I mention the 1500 rounds of ammo for practice/qualification? Yeah, it all stacks up, but the help you guys gave me in the beginning, and the gear/ammo that I was given by family and friends on the job ate a lot of my additional cost. ------------- ? |
usafpilot07 wrote:Posted By: usafpilot07
Date Posted: 17 May 2013 at 11:11am
I guess it's just a baseline difference in education costs there vs. here. Our tuition cost is 1300, but sponsorships work differently here. If an agency sends you to an academy through a sponsorship, the state pays for your tuition, not the department. My uniforms/books cost about a thousand total, but it still doesn't come close to your costs. I was lucky, though, to be sent to an academy that supplies the ammunition for firearms training. A friend of mine is in the academy about 45 minutes north of me, and had to pay for all of his own. ------------- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 17 May 2013 at 1:21pm
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They supply ammo for training? That's awesome. Our department can't even supply the ammo for us, its all out of pocket...hell it took them over a YEAR to requisition service ammo. I think right now for Phase 2, I have more ammo ready for me than my sponsoring department even has. But again, I lucked out with my uh...contact being able to give me most of what I need, although he's holding it for me for now. I don't need it, and I don't want that much ammo stacked in the house for right now. We also need a bunch of shotgun ammunition which I need to start buying. Thankfully, the dept. is going to loan us the shotgun we need because I told them flat out that I wasn't buying one like I did the sidearm, that was just moronic. ------------- ? |
Posted By: impulse418
Date Posted: 17 May 2013 at 6:30pm
1,500 rounds is a lot to store? 
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Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 18 May 2013 at 1:01am
In NY, its probably a Class D Felony. ------------- ? |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 18 May 2013 at 1:05am
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Got called into the Academy Director's office tonight. Took a rare win! Someone acknowledged the foul up and is issuing refunds to those of who are sponsored and sworn. That refund is going to the respective departments, and sent BACK to the college from them, qualifying us for the tuition break. So I'm no longer on the hook for another 2K. The killer is, if I hadn't raised hell about it, nobody would have said anything, and the college would have walked away with the extra tuition money from the three of us, since the other two already paid the tuition in full. It was a strange thing to hear the AD tell me "You were right." and lay out the situation exactly as I wanted it to go. ------------- ? |
Posted By: procarbinefreak
Date Posted: 18 May 2013 at 1:23am
| horray. |
Posted By: RoboCop
Date Posted: 18 May 2013 at 2:39am
| Good job! |
Posted By: impulse418
Date Posted: 18 May 2013 at 2:54am
 Good job Reb. |
Posted By: StormyKnight
Date Posted: 18 May 2013 at 2:53pm
I dunno. My buddy had to pay $3000 for his academy 20 years ago AND he had to pay for his equipment (boots, belt(s), keepers, holsters for pistol, gas and cuffs). The only thing he didn't have to pay for was the vest. In some respects, I still kick myself for screwing up one of the best shots at getting into the academy for free. The local department was so desperate to get recruits, I was going to go for free and at starting pay of $15/hr. If I hadn't messed up the dummy drag, I'd have made it to the academy. But, in hindsite after seeing what happened in that department, I'm glad I didn't make it. ------------- 
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Posted By: StormyKnight
Date Posted: 18 May 2013 at 2:57pm
I think the other two recruits OWE you big. You at least deserve "motorboat" priveleges upon request from the female. -------------
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Posted By: Mack
Date Posted: 18 May 2013 at 3:26pm
Hey, he's a rebel, he lives on the edge . . . he doesn't care who he has the motorboat privileges from. ------------- 
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Posted By: DeTrevni
Date Posted: 18 May 2013 at 4:30pm
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Congrats on the victory. Shake some hands. Let 'em know you appreciate the acknowledgement that there was a mess up. Subliminal butt kissery is the best butt kissery.
------------- Evil Elvis: "Detrevni is definally like a hillbilly hippy from hell" 
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Posted By: evillepaintball
Date Posted: 19 May 2013 at 9:03am
If you're a big fat man, he's a booby fan, and he'd love to see yours too. -------------
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Posted By: tallen702
Date Posted: 20 May 2013 at 10:28am
As I said, it was probably a test. Something tells me you're going to wind up on the IA squad due to your fine internal whistle-blowing skillz! ;) Good job sticking to your guns buddy! Glad to hear it all worked out. ------------- <Removed overly wide sig. Tsk, you know better.> |
Posted By: Reb Cpl
Date Posted: 20 May 2013 at 10:52am
I don't think the people I'm dealing with are coordinated enough to orchestrate a test of that magnitude. I'd like to think they WERE, but in all likelihood, it was more like: A. College 'left out' the pertinant information in an attempt to collect 6K more in tuition money B. An actual error in communication somewhere along the line. If it WAS a test, I went ahead and cheesed off a few people who probably didn't know anything about it. As for working IA, that's never a permanent placement anyway, and you get assigned there for 'x' amount of time, because nobody wants it. Up to and including me. ------------- ? |