Zi Yi Lim
Here's the lightly edited review: This is the first time I've had such an unpleasant experience that I feel the need to write a review and express my thoughts. My daughter wanted a change in environment, so she requested to go to a tuition centre for group learning instead of home tutoring. We chose Tampines Confucius because it’s near our home. I went to the counter to check the availability of lessons and was told by the counter lady that most of the time slots were filled. My daughter was on the waiting list with another student in the group. They told me they would start the class once the third student's registration was complete. And I clearly remembered how confident the lady was, telling me, "很快的，每次课程都满" (Don't worry, the slots fill up really quick). We were asked to make a payment for 5 lessons (credits), registration fees, and another deposit of $200, and we did. Two weeks later, I received a WhatsApp message stating that they would start their class. As our lessons began in mid-February, I was told to pay for one outstanding lesson for March, as we would be using two credits in February and four lessons in March. And so I did. On the first lesson, I was shocked to find out that my girl was the only person who turned up in the group class. Upon checking with another counter girl, I was told that there wasn't any student who had signed up for this particular class. I felt upset because I had made changes in my work schedule to send my girl for this particular time slot and even cancelled the convenience of home tutoring for this group class. But we ended up in a one-to-one class again. All this hassle, for nothing. I was told by the young lady that we could change our time slot to a weekend morning class as they still had available slots. And guess what? There were only two students in the morning class. The lady who served me the other day was obviously misleading me. I received a call from her the next day and she said it was a miscommunication, as she meant other subjects were full, not Confucius classes. Not wanting to debate, I just listened to her explanations and ended the call. After the second lesson, my girl decided to change her “private” class to the weekend morning group. I informed the centre right away as I did not want to cause any inconvenience. I was told again to pay one outstanding fee for the weekend class as there were five weekends in March. However, this time around, I did not agree. My daughter had already taken her lesson on the last week of February, and the first weekend lesson started in March, which fell on the same week. I was told by the centre she would need to take two lessons on that particular week. So my question is: if I had informed them after the first weekend class, my girl wouldn't have needed to attend two lessons in a week, would she? They insisted we had to do two lessons for that week and repeatedly asked for the payment. As I wasn't really comfortable with such services, I told them I just wanted to finish up the remaining four credits and withdraw my daughter from the centre. I also told them we would not do any top-up for the fifth lesson as we would only be coming for four lessons in March. They insisted again that we had to pay the extra lessons as we needed to serve the 30-day notice. They pressed on and mentioned a 5% penalty fee if payment were not made on time. The whole experience was rather forceful, which explains the pathetic number of students in their group class. It seemed like a hit-and-run business. P.S. The group class teacher was not informed about anything when my daughter joined her lesson. It shows a lot 🫣
