ComplaintsforThinkful, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  04/05/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I joined Thinkful's bootcamp on January 4, 2023. I am requesting a full refund of $8,500 as Thinkful has misrepresented their quality of service and company. The contract states: "A full refund of all tuition and fees is due in each of the following cases:(c) if the students enrollment was procured as a result of any misrepresentation in advertising, promotional materials of the school, or misrepresentations by the owner or representatives of Thinkful." I was unaware the school was taken over by Chegg in 2019. I based my enrollment on reviews and students who attended prior to the takeover. Since then, Thinkful has continued to receive 1-star reviews for its lack of service, communication, and support for "tuition reimbursement guarantee" for those who never received a job after graduating. The only time I talked to someone on the phone was when the called me to sign up. I was shocked that there is no phone number, but only one email address to contact if there is any issues in the program. The response time is 10 days. The course material was super confusing and when I showed it to other senior programmers, they asked me not to code that way. hinkful advertises 24/7 support, but majority of that support is outsourced and there is lack of communication. You are suppose to receive weekly support 1 on 1 with a mentor, which I received at the beginning, but two months later, my mentor informed me he wasn't being paid properly or on time. He eventually stopped showing up to our appointments. I tried using other support resources, only to be ignored. This bootcamp was advertised as a "flex" course, but due to the lack of clear instruction, each assignment would take hours and there wasn't enough support to get through the projects. Thinkful keeps changing their policies so they don't have to guarantee their "tuition reimbursement" for those who can't find a job after finishing the program. I stopped continuing the courses after a frustrating 2 months.

  Customer response

  04/27/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved. I filed a dispute through my credit card company and after they reviewed my case evidence and documentation, I was awarded the full refund.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************
  
  
  
   
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  03/06/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  In March 2022, I started Thinkfuls UX/UI Bootcamp/Cohort. During my last week of the program in August 2022, I started having issues with their online grading and submission platform. This issue continued for about a week of no one replying or helping me sort it out, I finally receive help and graduate from the program. The next few months after, I am actively job searching and reaching out to my assigned mentor but Im not receiving any responses, I contact numerous times through email but to no avail. Fast forward to January of 2023, I finally get in contact with someone and speak with them about the companys tuition refund and guarantee. I was told to complete a form and submit any evidence which I do and are told that Im not eligible. At this point Ive applied to over 300 jobs, reached out to the company numerous times with no responses but am expected to pay back a $22,000 loan. This is extremely unfair and confusing. Ive had issues with this company and almost everybody except for one person was unwilling to help me. I dont know what could be the reason for this. Is it because of my race, or the fact that they thought they could take advantage of me?

  Customer response

  03/30/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  At this time, I have not been contacted by Thinkful, Inc. regarding complaint ID ********.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********** *******
  

• Initial Complaint

  02/23/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  My experience with Thinkful started during the Pandemic and is still ongoing as I'm still on the hook for almost $20,000 and still deal with issues with each servicer they switch the *** to. A while ago I saw an ad for the Thinkful and so I checked out their website. I was unemployed at the time and admittedly, a little desperate. There was all sorts of stuff about how supportive they are, how you'll have a mentor to help you along the way, great curriculum, etc. None of that was true. When I started I was unimpressed with their curriculum. Their "classes" mostly seemed like babysitting people while they read walls of text with little instruction or video content, etc. Later on I discovered I had ADHD which only could have made these courses even harder. I was barely keeping up. Then my mentor started cancelling our meetings and eventually informed me that she was quitting Thinkful and said that Thinkful would give me a new mentor. Thinkful took almost two months to find me a new mentor and apologized profusely. They eventually offered to give me a new mentor but I knew there was no way I was going to be able to stay on track with my current cohort and eventually would have been dismissed from the program so I withdrew. It is my opinion that they prey on people with few prospects with the lure of the *** with living stipend and promises of jobs and now I'm stuck with a large amount of debt. A debt they've been shuffling off to different servicers what feels like every few months. Each one seems to make it harder and harder to apply for postponement, not letting you know that your most recent forbearance period is up and trying to collect over $1,000 from you all of a sudden. The most recent servicer that took over the Thinkful *** last month doesn't even have info about postponement in the portal. Thinkful is charging me not only for substandard education but for time when I wasn't even given access to the full program (no mentor). I don't think this is fair.

• Initial Complaint

  02/13/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I enrolled in the digital marketing course 6/8/22 through my employer. During that time work became busy I also personal issues that occurred that didn't allow me to complete my course. In September of 2022, When my advisor noticed I was struggling, she reached out and asked if I needed more time. We decided that a leave of absence would be better. I agreed. I was never given a date that my leave was up or any additional information. In November of 2022 I received an email saying that I was being withdrawn for failure to complete the program. I immediately began to reach out and advise that I was able to complete the program and just needed time. It was the week of Thanksgiving and I had a few days off which would allow me to complete it. My advisor and several other people told me no because I had exceeded the time allowed to complete the work. I advised that I had been given a leave and was not aware that I was at risk of being dropped. During the 3rd week of December a rep emailed me advising that had given me 30 additional days at the beginning of December. I was confused because I never received anything. This was the 3rd week and I now had until 1/9/23 to complete the work. She advised that she would not restart the 30 days even though I never received the emails. Every emailed I had received said I would not be *****ed any additional time. I told the advisor I would get the work done. 1/4/23 my original advisor emailed me stating that if I completed 2 weeks of the school work she would ***** me and extension. I did so and reached out to her asking to confirm the dates, but never heard back. I continued to work, but on 1/9 when I logged back in to complete more work, I was dropped from the program. I began to read the terms of the program and it stated that I would be given 1.5 additional months to complete the program. I was not given that and now they have stopped responding to my emails.

  Customer response

  03/10/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  At this time, I have not been contacted by Thinkful, Inc. regarding complaint ID ********.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***************************
  

• Initial Complaint

  01/19/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Full review here: ************************************************************************************************ Thinkful is mediocre and incompetent at best, at worst it is a predatory and heartless company that prays on the dreams and aspirations of young people for a better life and income on a tech salary. They failed at pretty much every point in the program and I'll try to go into every detail that I can but inevitably, I'll likely miss some things. If there are some class action lawsuits out there against Thinkful, please don't hesitate to contact me as likely not everything I wrote here is actually every single detail. Mentorship: I had one mentorship meeting over the period of 5 weeks (even though you're supposed to meet twice per week from the beginning). The reason for this is because my mentor kept cancelling over and over, or just simply not showing up at the designated time claiming he had forgotten. He was also just rather rude and saying that "I didn't try hard enough" or felt "dedicated enough" because I complained about aspects of Thinkful's teaching curriculum and if I really wanted this enough clearly I would just deal with him never showing up and deal with Thinkful's bad curriculum. The one time he did show up, he was driving in his car lmfao. My mentor had about 15 students at one time and eventually just sent out a mass email to all of his students apologizing for having no-showed so many of us (I was part of this email chain). It was honestly on Thinkful to have done some sort of screening on the mentors but as long as you have an impressive resume they don't care about anything else (source: asked an actual mentor about the process etc.). I finally did get paired up with another mentor, but they did not have time that week for me so finally we rescheduled the week after. Yes, I did contact ASM but they are awful. careers: there was no career support offered to me after graduation.

  Customer response

  02/13/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  At this time, I have not been contacted by Thinkful, Inc. regarding complaint ID ********. I have sent letters to them via NYAG, ODOJ, CFPB and have not heard anything from the business on those avenues as well. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** *******
  

• Initial Complaint

  01/17/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I attended Thinkful on the understanding that if I were unable to get a job after 6 months of job searching that I were to be reimbursed for my tuition. After graduation I started the career section of the course where I began interviewing and meeting with my career coach. It was told that we needed to track our job applications, which makes sense, and were given Huntr as the tracking application. I began my job search and jobs I applied for I selected the Add to Huntr button on the plugin. Jobs were being added in the tracker. The first week this was due, I missed tracking and was emailed by ********************* to let me know that I had missed, and I was only allowed to miss 3 more weeks of tracking before being dismissed from TR. In the email I was specifically told that I would be followed up with and alerted if I missed additional weeks and would get a final warning if I was at my 4th week. The next weeks came and went and I never got another notice. After 6th months of job searching and interviewing I decided to reach out to ********************* to see the next steps for TR, I was denied and told I did not properly track my time. I believe it was intentional that the career team intentionally mislead me by letting me know there would be additional warning if I were to miss further weeks, which lead me to a false sense of security regarding my tracking. I would appreciate if the company held up their end of the deal on tuition reimbursement, I am now left with a debt that I do not have a job to cover after being sold the idea from the company that I would have a safety net.

  Customer response

  02/11/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  At this time, I have not been contacted by Thinkful, Inc. regarding complaint ID ********.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *****************
  

  Customer response

  08/28/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  At this time, my complaint, ID ******** regarding Thinkful, Inc. has been resolved.

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *****************

• Initial Complaint

  11/21/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I signed up for Thinkful's software engineering program through **************** I completed everything except for the *** and backend 'mock interviews'. Since my mentor told me about the Frontend certificate, I decided to ask to be transferred to the Frontend certificate since I have finished everything within Frontend including the mock interview. My emails with ****** from Thinkful involved ****** just saying that the program isn't ready. I asked more questions and ****** completely ignored me. Another Thinkful staff member told me that ****** decided to just mark my ticket as solved instead of replying. ****** did the same thing a second time when I asked to withdraw and she ignored the email. Next, I emailed another time asking to withdraw. I finally received the withdrawal form and then I replied with questions, and Thinkful never replied to any of my questions for the third time.At this time, I have already submitted my withdrawal request and Thinkful has not finished processing it. Thinkful refused to simply reply to emails when I asked questions on three separate occasions even though *************** paid thousands of dollars for this program that supposedly has support. It has been a week since I requested to withdraw. Why did Thinkful staff ignore emails with questions in them, refuse to just give me credit for the Frontend sections that I finished, and then also refused to process my withdrawal request? At this time, Thinkful refusing to process my withdrawal request is actively blocking me from signing up for a competitor of Thinkful through **************** Since Thinkful refuses to give me credit for the Frontend sections I completed, then Thinkful needs to accept my withdrawal and finish the job by processing it.

  Business response

  12/05/2022

  Dear ******** ************ value your feedback regarding your time with us. We have reviewed your complaint in addition to your student account. ************ noted you enrolled into the Software Engineering Certificate Course on May 11, 2022. At the time of your enrollment, the Frontend Certificate Course was in development but had not been published in the Thinkful Catalog. The graduation and certificate expectations for the Software Engineering Certificate Course were detailed in the enrollment agreement and Course Catalog signed by you on May 3, 2022.  
  A member of our Academic Success team emailed you on October 26, 2022 explaining our policy that you could not transfer into the Frontend Certificate Course nor receive the Frontend Certificate based on the material completed in the Software Engineering Certificate Course. These are two separate courses and students are unable to transfer into a new course unless they are willing to complete an entirely new enrollment subject to new financing and terms. We reviewed your correspondence with us and have it noted you received follow up from our Student Success, Academic Success, or Academic Affairs team based on the inquiry submitted. We received your withdrawal form November 10, 2022 and you were removed from the Software Engineering Certificate Course that same day. This is reflected in our system as well as confirmed via the student dashboard that the enrollment was withdrawn.  
  Although we are unable to confer a certificate to you due to not completing all material required for graduation from the Software Engineering Certificate Course, we can write a letter of enrollment verification on your behalf to share with your network.  

  
  Thinkful Success Team  

• Initial Complaint

  11/07/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I paid $9500 for Data Analytics; they guaranteed me a learning experience with 360 support and tools to validate my learning for a career. First Tableaus problem put me 2 weeks behind. Next during Python, major issues with the tool preventing me from completing ******* It failed correct answers, and at times would not allow assessment submittal. After the first module was to be manually approved, because ******* took so long, the system approved on its own. The issue continued; ******* took days to answer. Hours with Technical Coaches (TC), the TCs deemed the platform an issue, ******** response was going to office hours. I asked, how will that fix the platform? No response. I asked this be elevated to someone competent. I presented written responses from the TCs my code was correct and examples of the issues on the Qualified platform; the ASMs continued to ignore my troubleshooting, the documented problems and the TCs troubleshooting. ********************, assigned me a mentor who was too lazy to read what I provided for availability; help I did not need. One mentor *******************, understood it was a Qualified program; they have not allowed him to communicate with me any longer. My last communications has gone ignored; theyve assigned another mentor, # 4 and they keep ignoring the problem. After more than 6 weeks of the tool returning wrong answers and the business refusing to fix it, I stopped working on the platforms. Right and wrong answers give the same result This non-responsiveness confirms they know the problem exists yet they refuse to fix it and they are bullying me to ignore it. They should feel guilt in owing me compensation for my troubleshooting and delaying my future employment.If the ASMs were capable of listening and had addressed the problem, I would not be this irate. Now, we are at an impasse because they were too complacent to listen and solve the problem.

  Business response

  11/28/2022

  This complaint has been resolved with the student.
  
  Sincerely,
  The Thinkful Team

  Customer response

  12/02/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  The business has not responded to the BBB but they wrote me independentaly.  I have accepted their terms in reference to complaint ID ********.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************
  
  
  
   
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  10/12/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I am filing this complaint for Thinkful **** (owned by Chegg ****) People and consumers need to know about the educational fraud that this company is committing. They are scamming innocent people who are just trying to get ahead in life. They are targeting people like myself who want to take a quick BootCamp without having any previous experience in the tech industry. This company sets students up for complete failure. I enrolled in Thinkful's UX Design course and ended up finding out after a month that this company is a total SCAM. I wish that I had done some research before I committed to the program and checked out the BBB and other social online platforms. The course materials and teaching methods are both far below standard. Basically, you're doing well and going through your schoolwork, and then you realize that the program is complete and utter garbage. You ask to withdraw and they try to say that you owe them money and that they will not refund you. They are saying that I owe them $2,555,52 when I most certainly do not due to the clause stated in their Course Catalog as follows:"A full refund of all tuition and fees is due in each of the following cases: (c) If the students enrollment was procured as a result of any misrepresentation in advertising, promotional materials of the school, or misrepresentations by the owner or representatives of Thinkful."This is what Thinkful does, you take the course, and realize it's below-standard course material and teaching methods. Then you withdraw and they say you owe them $2,000. It's all a part of the huge scheme that they have going on. This is part of how they make money off of scamming people. I know I am completely within my rights with this. Thinkful is required to refund the full amount of the tuition and fees due as a result of any misrepresentation in advertising along with promotional materials of the school. I was procured as a result of misrepresentation in advertising on Thinkful's behalf.

  Anyone out there seeking a tech boot camp, PLEASE beware of Thinkful **** Their program is an elaborate educational scheme. They target young individuals who are just trying to better themselves and their careers. This was exactly my story, after leaving 15 years of being in the beauty/service industry, I decided to take it upon myself to go back to school in the tech field for UX/** Design. I was going into something I had never done before with good intentions and pure innocence. I was completely fooled and vetted by Thinkful. The company sets its students up for failure. You go along taking the program, you're doing great, and then you come to the point where you realize the course is a complete utter farce. There are literal typos all over the online courses. The course materials are below-standard, along with the teaching methods are subpar. And when you want to withdraw from the program, they will tell you that you owe them $2k for the lessons that you have completed. This is not stated in their Course Catalog ANYWHERE. This is exactly how they are scamming and banking on students. This needs to be out there and known. I want to protect anyone that I can from Thinkful ***'s negligence, cheating, and lies.
  
  
  
  (c) If the students enrollment was procured as a result of any misrepresentation in advertising, promotional materials of the school, or misrepresentations by the owner or representatives of Thinkful."
  
  
  
  

  Business response

  11/16/2022

  This complaint has been resolved with the student.
  
  Sincerely,
  The Thinkful Team

  Customer response

  11/16/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *********************************
  
  
  
   
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  10/04/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  A year ago I signed up for an online coding class. It came with an *** saying that after the course, if emade a certain amount of money I would have to pay them for the course. There was a one week trial period. I called and emailed this company a few times the last day of the trial period requesting to end the trial period. The course was a joke, most of it you could learn on ******* for free. They didn't get back to me til the next day and are trying to charge me over $2000 for the trial period! This place is an absolute scam! I have seen many people saying the same. I can't believe this place hasn't been shut down yet!

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩