[fancynancy]

Hi ladies,I'm trying to help an overseas student who currently lives with us.
He received sms few days ago from his school (college) telling him that he needs to pay his school fee as it has passed the due date. He went to the school the next day and was told that he has been late in paying the fee for 5 weeks and was charged $500 ($100/week). The school said that they already sent 3 sms prior to that, however he has never received them. They didn't send any letter or email because their policy has change since October this year and that all communication with students will be done via sms.
He checked on the installment plan that he signed before he started this course and he realised the payment was due on the 5 November, however there was no information given by the school that say they will charge $100/week penalty for late payment.
He already pay the school fee but try to dispute the late fee as he never received any prior notice about the late payment and late fee. The school insist that they have checked with vodafone and 3 sms sent to him was delivered and that it was some kind of notice. He need to give some kind of evidence that he didn't receive any of them.
I was wondering what kind of evidence he can give to school as he didn't receive any message. FYI the only message he received only mention that he was late but didn't mention any late fee. Do you think it's legal for the school to charge late fee just like that? The fee due was $1750 so $500 late fee is ridiculous I think. What do you think he should do?
Thanks

[*Lib*]

Sounds like bullsh*t. How would they know to check with vodaphone, and vodaphone shouldnt be giving out information. They might have told them the message was delivered, but not if it was to the right phone. I'd be asking them to prove they sent it and he got it.

[Mousky]

Complete cr@p. If it's not in the contract, they cant charge it. Phone companies can't disclose information without the persons permission, so would not have told them that. I'd contact the education ombudsmen and let the school know you are doing it too.

[mummaorange]

i call bullsh*t!!!! he owes them nothing!

[dogsneaker]

If its not in the contract it's not legal.

I think the school can prove that they have sent it if they have set up 'received receipts'.

Why not an email to follow up? Especially when there are $$$ involved? SMSs are notoriously unreliable.

[LK1]

He should call Vodaphone himself, and also the office or fair trading or similar (whatever his school would fall under). He needs to get educated on his rights before he goes in there "unarmed".

[MakkaPakkaDad]

SMS is not guaranteed delivery (part of the GSM standard) and there's no way to verify final delivery, only that the message was initiated by the sender. The mobile phone network will try to deliver for up to 3 days, then the SMS is forever lost to the ether.

I agree with PP and call bull@#$% on the late fee - if the late fees are not explicitly defined in the contract then they can't charge them. I'm fairly sure they need to provide written (as in snail-mail) notice for that sort of fine, too.

Good luck, hope you get it sorted!

[fancynancy]

Thanks everyone, I too believe that the school can't do that. I was going to suggest to him to just ignore the late fee as the school never send anything in writing (statement) that mention the fee, however he is worry that they will add more late fee. I will try to call the school on his behalf tomorrow.

[Zoskie]

I had my 2 brothers studied cookery as international students. They both got a letter saying that we owed them payment and they had contacted us previously bla bla and we had to pay late fee. We had paid for the term fee and we never received any notification before been served with a letter full with threats. I think they are very dodgy trying take advantage on international students.

[casime]

What does his contract say about payment of fees?