i been going to regency in southbend for the past year full time and ive seen it all personally with the scams. i took a maternity leave authorized by my doctor and i was terminated due to the fact that the campus manager at the time reported my leave late which resulted in me being terminated because of their 14 day absent policy. instead of them correcting it the told me i would either pay 100.00 dollars to restart or pay 3, 000 dollars for the time i had been there. i decided since i wanted to get my license i paid 100.00 dollars to restart not knowing i would have to pay for the days i was out, and they never told me i would be reponsible for it since i was so called "restarting". i restarted in nov of 09 and i couldnt clock in for over 14 days which i was terminated again due to the fact of me not being able to clock in through the computer to track the days i was there. they had the area manager come to get things straightend out which i was glad they had seen that i had actually wrote my times in and out manually on the attendance sheets for over 2 weeks which verified i was there. they turned that termination around but its so odd they told me they couldnt turn a termination around when it came to my maternity leave...yeah...bout that.now i have come this far and i havent heard from an advisor at all about anything concerning my financial aid or other fees ive occurred since. i dont know a school who has a unconcerned advising team than them. they dont tell you anything until a couple of days before its due. which its never a couple of dollars thats due...its always hundreds or thousands thats due and give you little or no time to pay which always results in termination.its never " let us help and see what we can do " its always pay or your terminated, or placed on financial suspension. now i have 5 days left before i clock 1500 hours and i cant clock in to complete the hours because im on financial suspension until i pay 4, 000 dollars...which i have 2 days to pay it or im terminated. ive made it through all the bull crap and still have a big lump sum that is due in 2 days!! i will be terminated. there is no way ive ever heard a school give you no help, payment plan, or efficient advising.low income families...run for your lives!!!

From a young age I have had a passion for the beauty industry. After high school I decided to enroll in cosmetology school. I did not know much about schools in the area so I asked around and toured several schools. They all lacked a sense of professionalism and looked like something straight out of the 1980's- bad perm and all. After some consideration I decided to keep my options open and try and find another school. This is when I found Regency.

I found Regency Beauty Institute online and scheduled an appointment to tour the school. The location that I planned on touring was the first in Arizona to open. I toured the school and it seemed like a diamond in the rough. Construction was still taking place but the school seemed to have much promise. This was very encouraging after my previous experiences. I met with the school manager and her supervisor who was visiting from Minnesota (where the schools headquarters are).

They knew the right things to say and promised me the world. They led me to believe that with good attendance, attitude, and grades, I would succeed. It was very clear to me that I needed to sign up and get the papers going so that I could be a part of this fantastic school. I was very misled. I began at Regency and was ready to take my future into my own hands. I felt like I was on top of the world. As school progressed i noticed that what was occurring was not what was promised to me.

The school was lacking staff, order, professionalism, EDUCATION, and the list goes on. There were many times when we would go to the mall across the street for the day and "pass out business cards" which translated into- students wondering around the mall, throwing business cards away and eating lunch while getting credit for an 8 hour school day. Which in translation means: for tuition, school is roughly $9.50 per hour. This means that I had to pay $76 to go hang out at the mall.

During my experience at Regency there were many days where there was a lack of instructors to lead a classroom so we were told to hang out on the salon floor and study. No direction was given of what to study or why- just study. This usually meant that half of the girls were texting or standing in front of the school smoking.

There were many basic skills that we were never taught. When i would ask a teacher when we were going to learn about them she would reply "well you can't learn everything at once". I did not ask her to learn everything at once; I asked to learn one thing at a time. If I wanted to sit around and do nothing I would have stayed at home. But I enrolled in school to learn and be taught. Not to mention, this is not a free education. You have to pay for it.

The lack of staff seemed to get worse by the day. The environment at school was very chaotic. Things like dress code, attendance, student conduct, and so on were rarely enforced. Cosmetology school is based on hours unlike traditional college which is based on credits. Each day students must clock in and out to track their hours, much like a job. At Regency we clocked in daily on a computer using our social security number. Almost every day students would be absent and their friends would memorize their ssn and clock them in while they were at home ditching school so they could get credit for an 8 hour day. Nothing was done to stop this.

To sum things up, the negative things about Regency highly outweighed the positives. Being fed up and see my money, time, and effort go to waste I decided to withdraw from the program. The week that I decided to withdraw I was one of FOUR out of my specific class who had made the same decision. We had had enough. Every day I was seeing my dream and the dreams of my fellow students slip out of our hands.

When I withdrew, my campus manager took me through the process. She led me to believe that I was free and clear and all that I would have to pay for was the hours that I had already attended (400 out of 1600). She also informed me that the student loan I had taken out would be covering that so all I had to do was sign on the dotted line. After that, my transcripts would be transferred to my new school and to the state board for when I was ready to test for my cosmetology license.

After leaving Regency and finding a much better school I found out through a close friend that the campus manager had been fired. Shortly after that I received a letter from Regency headquarters stating that I owed over NINE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Immediately I replied disputing these charges. I explained my situation at the school and that I had only attended for 400 hours. There was no way that I was going to pay over nine thousand dollars for something I did not receive in the slightest. Regency replied and immediately dropped the amount because they had no reason to charge me that amount. They also warned me that if I did not pay I would be terminated from school. This goes to show their lack of attention to detail. I informed them that I had already withdrawn and was attending a much better school. It was very clear to me that Regency obviously has no interest in the student or education (better yet lack of) they were putting behind their name. They want your money and then some.

After going back and forth with Regency through several letters, I sent one asking them to explain to me what I was being charged for. I haven’t heard from them since. A short while after that, I received a notice from a collections agency. Regency failed to communicate with me, neglected my needs as a paying student, and ran from the situation. I am now in collections for something that I do not owe and no one can explain to me what it is for.

Since all of this has happened I have completed my 1600 hours total at another school. However, until I pay collections the money I do NOT owe, Regency will not release my transcripts. This is preventing me from being able to take my state exam and become a licensed cosmetologist.

The grief, disappointment, time, money, energy and frustration that Regency has caused me to have cannot be underestimated. Just like most young adults, I do not have the thousands of dollars that it is going to take to settle this. Regency Beauty Institute should be ashamed. It is an absolute poor excuse of an education. It makes my skin crawl to thing about how many young girls with a dream are going to get screwed over the way that I did.

Research schools and ask questions until you are blue in the face. Get everything in writing and do not take no for an answer. Trade schools like this stay in business because of situations like mine. How do they sleep at night? Shame on Regency Beauty Institute.

I'm currently attending school have 1100 hours in and definatly wish I would have looked at other schools and options. All they care about is money!!! I was not told untill I was about halfway through that there are overtime charges, and I'm at 75% attendence and if I drop down to like 70% in the time I have left ill be paying an extra $2000 approximatly. It is IMPOSSIBLE to keep 90% attenedence when your part time and there for nearly 2 years, which the ey expect you to stay above to pay no additional charges and be a "star" student. And they have this rediculous 2 a month late pass rule, and if you use them up you just can't go to school. And they are suppose to be worried about attendence???oh and I've been there a year, 1 same instructor. They go through them like flies. And most of them can't teach properly. Sure people can be amazing at doing things, but not everyone has what it it takes to teach. VERY DISAPPOINTED ESPECIALLY WHEN PAYING TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!

I'm a former student and I wouldn't recommend this school to anyone! They are focused on the wrong things, they make you sell products, wash, and fold towels, and clean up their building as if we were janitors. It's like you're at work. They waste so much time on product knowledge, especially if you don't plan on using Redkin products. As for the teaching, its okay I did learn things while in class, but I was totally lost when I was put on the floor. My attendance dropped and so did my confidence. I was in hell!!! They could be inappropriate when it came to their African American students, everything was black and white. They used the few black people for examples of coarse hair like they didn't make us purchase 5 manikin heads which was really stupid, and sometimes embarrassing. They just made everything so hard to do, we had to bring in models for everything!!! Why is my grade affected by my friends and family's willingness to drive all the way to my campus, and receive services that they don't want? (I don't know anyone who gets perms so what would I be failed because of that?) Our campus manager Miss Michelle is a total fake, she knows what to say to get you to enroll and then she couldn't care less about you after you're stuck. Our Floor manager Connie drives everybody crazy!!! She walks around looking for something to bitch about, she really has a problem. She has one of the worst attitudes I've ever come across, she's a rude know it all!!! The way she walks around telling people what to do, you would think she was the campus manager. Miss Michelle acts all nice, and uses Connie to do her dirty work because she doesn't want to look like the bad guy. They don't teach you anything about African American hair, because they don't know anything about it except that it's coarse lol I truly wish someone would have warned me about this school because it's definitely not worth the money, they charge way to much to be so basic. They don't even have to pay for janitors, or a front desk worker because we're forced to do that!!! Oh and the Advisers are lazy, rude, and very unprofessional! They lose paper work, and expect you to fax things over and over, it's just ridiculous!!! Regency is well below average, and one of my biggest mistakes. Regency Beauty Institute St.Peters, Mo is where this took place.

Currently Regency is opening new locations all over the United States. I became aware of them via the internet and decided to give them a call. At the same time I was also looking into another beauty institute of equal caliber. Regency doesn't have a campus here yet while the other place does.

I went for a tour of the other school and they gave me a lot of really great information. Even though the other school impressed me I still felt that Regency was more practical because it was going to be a closer location. I decided to call Regency back and ask them question about policies that the other school had presented that made me curious as to how they compare. My admissions person was Jamie Widmer but when I called she was busy on another call so I spoke with another woman whom was african american and proved to have a rather sour and rude attitude problem.

I started asking questions such as do you supply products or are students required to do so and is the price of the kit covered by financial aid. The lady acted less than thrilled when answering my questions and really wanted to rush me off the phone. I asked her if they had information they could send me that I could look over and she huffed at me then answering we don't have any information we can send you.

My last question is what set her off, I simply asked do you have a dress code and she went off asking me if I had been talking to other schools and if this is where these questions coming from. I answered honestly by saying I had looked into one other school but felt that I preferred Regency's policies she asked me to hold on. After about 1 minute or 2 she came back on the line and said didn't you just talk to Jamie and didn't Jamie answer all of my questions already and I replied yes but she just told me that I was accepted to the school and that I never got to ask her any questions.

I felt like I did something wrong and I was getting treated like a child. Regency's behavior honestly made up my mind. I am withdrawing my application and attending the other school. I recommend you spend some time talking with Regency before you give them a dime of your money.