ComplaintsforCalifornia Society of Certified Public Accountants
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Complaint Details
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Initial Complaint
01/20/2023
- Complaint Type:
- Product Issues
- Status:
- Resolved
California Society of Certified Public Accountants (DBA CalCPA) has a program to buy prepaid continuing education hours called Value-priced education (***). The marketing materials emphasizes that a member would save money by buying continuing education hours in bulk rather than buying each course individually (see screenshot). However, less emphasized is that the hours expire after a year. In my case, I bought 80 hours of education classes, but only was able to use 20 hours because the hours expired. I seek either a refund or that these hours be extended. When I called CalCPA, the representative indicated that I should have received an email right AFTER my purchase explaining their expiration policy. Even now, I still cannot find the email with their policy as CalCPA sends excessive emails (see screenshot). And the fact that the representative makes the argument that I should have received an email explaining the expiration policy AFTER my purchase shows just how much CalCPA hopes that I did not see the expiration policy BEFORE my purchase in the marketing materials. Even now CalCPAs detailed policy on hours expiring is a separate webpage link that can only be found in an asterisk after their marketing material rather than being available at the same place where you add the *** program to your cart. In addition, the asterisk comment implies only self-study program expire (see Screenshot). It seems that ******* offering of *** and their business model depends on the loss members experience when their *** hours expire. CalCPA is a nonprofit that is supposed to serve its CPA members, and yet their hidden policy just hurts their members and their reputation. When members buy 80 hours, they hope to use those hours for fulfilling the entire CPA continuing education requirement over 2 years as is the rule. If the member's lose over 15% of all purchased hours, then this is a major litigation or class action suit waiting to happen.Business response
01/30/2023
ggBusiness response
01/30/2023
Hi - Thank you for this information. In response to his call on 1.20.23 we extended his VPE Discount, which had expired 9/20/22 to 3/31.23, which was 6 months from the expiration date, which is an exception to our policy. As he was not satisficed with this and filed this complaint, we've extended his VPE until 9/21/23 - 2 years from date of purchase. We called him today and left a message, as well as sent a follow up email. Both attached are support on this. Also attached is a samples of disclosures on the expiration policy for our VPE and the email that was sent to the member upon purchase. We will revisit our verbiage also see how we can make it more clear going forward for all members. I hope this clears up the matter. If you need more from us, please let us know. Thank you.
Customer response
01/30/2023
Better Business Bureau:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference tocomplaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. Thank you.Best regards,
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Contact Information
1710 Gilbreth Rd
Burlingame, CA 94010-1317
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Get a QuoteCustomer Complaints Summary
1 total complaints in the last 3 years.
0 complaints closed in the last 12 months.