In January, students of Jordanian universities, including mine were informed of the "laptop for each student initiative" which provides students with laptops that are to be paid for in monthly installments of 9.95 or 14.95 JDs, depending on the option you choose. Even though the specifications of the laptops were unclear at the time (we didn't find out the brand until later), I went ahead and signed up. I mean 15 JDs a month? That sounded pretty reasonable. And they had us submit all sorts of paperwork in time for deadlines, or else our applications would be ignored. It all seemed very professional and organized.
Come March, we had to confirm our applications. Again, in time for very strict deadlines. They changed their minds and decided that instead of monthly installments, they'd have the students pay 90 JD each semester, and demanded that a parent come down immediately to sign the consent form and make an initial payment. Fine. No one complained. We were informed our laptops would arrive in two weeks time. When we asked around after nothing happened in two weeks, the university blamed it on the Ministry of Communications but assured us they would arrive shortly.
And here we are, the second payment is due in 2 months and no laptops, no nothing. Frankly, I had forgotten about the whole thing until I read this on Osama Romoh's blog. Apparently, there are a lot of students who signed up and were told the exact same thing.
This is ridiculous! With prices of laptops going down, it would've been cheaper for me to just buy the laptop. Even if they deliver the laptops this week, they'd still be making money off them. And if we want to back out, we can't. This article says that the students' demands at a refund were refused by the universities. What a scam.
I'm going to go down to the university and demand the refund, and if they say no, which I'm sure they will, I'm going to take the laptop whenever it should arrive. But I won't be making a single payment. Ra7 anashef damhom. I don't care whose fault is it, this is absurd. Stop treating us like idiots.
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4 comments:
Seriously,
What did you expect Farah? But I can't believe they are refusing you guys a refund.
they also probably know that laptop prices are dropping and they wanna buy the cheapest latops possible.
that's exactly what i heard from my sister's friends.. jad, this all happens exclusively in Jordan!
hmmmm... this smells like some little funded project, or dipping into some kind of aid from somewhere. U should find out what orgs are part of this initiative, and just embarrass them on the blogs and international press.
The problem with such recurring behavior is that they do actually think they can get away with it! Sad.
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