Keep All Your Kaplan Correspondence

[Yukos]

This is a PSA for everyone using Kaplan. They will do their best to avoid giving you any money back unless you have definitive proof of every part of what you say you're owed.

When you send your books back, you must get a tracking number or they may deny you your deposit back (I have heard this from others and my own experience strongly suggested it would've happened to me).

Make sure you keep your order form and any mail-in rebate form you got. Keep all your correspondence with your student reps and the Kaplan regional people. Send that correspondence to an email address that won't be discontinued when you graduate. They were refusing to give me my mail-in rebate until my student rep came to the rescue with all the needed records. Then they tried to give me a rebate ~$200 less than I deserved until I pointed out that the rebate form contradicted them.

This stuff is regular practice for Kaplan; it seems to be a part of their business model. I think it's disqualifying for a prep company but since most people, I imagine, have bought their bar study course I thought this is the most useful PSA I could provide. For what it's worth, I thought the prep itself was pretty good and the people preparing you are very responsive. It's just everything else that's sketchy.

[ManoftheHour]

S@#$. Knew I should have signed up for Themis.

[Mr. Archer]

This isn't really a PSA. Kaplan tells you that you need the tracking number, so requiring someone to have a tracking number just means Kaplan enforces its own policy. That's what a good business does. What happened with the mail-in rebate is unfortunate, but you don't have any proof it's a "regular practice" or part of the "business model." That's just bullshit. It sounds like you were required to provide proof that you got a rebate, which is good business, and someone just made an error. Should they have just given you money without proof you were supposed to get it? Don't be paranoid and think it's some conspiracy to get people.