Sylvan Learning Center is a ripoff. They play off of parents' complaints and have them enthusiastically sign on for tutoring, which is what happened to us at the San Antonio, TX office. Well, once they get your money, the directors you spoke to could care less the quality of tutoring received or the guarantees they broke. We decided not to go for their loan, pay cash, but half up front. Well, that was the best thing we did because our daughter's reading skills never increased because the tutors were reading to her, instead of allowing her to practice reading. We stopped going after 28 hours since it's basically a waste of time. When I asked my daughter what she did, she would say they just read to her or finished her homework. Our daughter's reading and math skills developed when we spent more time with her every night. Therefore, we're not paying for a service never received, now we have the tasteless San Antonio Director calling us demanding payment.

Parents: Take the time to work with your children or pay their existing teacher to do some one-on-one tutoring. Sylvan is just another shady corporation trying to make a dime off of concerned parents.

We are very disappointed in the administrative staff at the Hilliard Oh location. Please beware. Their hours are very limited making it difficult to take class 2/3 times per week. Our child rarely had the same teacher and when we saw no improvement in grades they did not honor their agreement. We did find a tutor for half the price and we are now seeing a great improvement in alegbra. You would be better off finding a tutor via the classified section then trusting either Sharon at that location.

The attitude of the administrative staff was very negative and indifferent.

Not what children should ever be exposed to.

On 1/23/2009 I signed by 4th grade son up for the recommended 100 hour program to bring him up to grade level in reading and math. I foolishly prepaid in full a total of $4790. 2 weeks into the program during an evaluation I expressed concerns that I did not see any improvement.. they said give it more time. By the time I gave it more time my son's report card came and it was not better and in some cases worse. I immediately called to cancel was told I had to give a 2 week notice and all these time lines given to me by Sylvan put me past the 4 week guarantee or full refund written promise. After a couple of conversations they "allowed" us to cancel w/only a week notice. Upon termination I was told my refund would take 4 months. During none of this did I complain - I took responsibility for trusting the program. After 5 months I called and was told "the owner" going through financial hardship I was 4th in line for my refund. 6th month I was 3rd, 8th month I was 2nd. I was ignored by Sylvan headquarters in November and yesterday almost a year from beginning this ordeal I was told "I will be talking to the owner about it tomorrow." After a 2nd email to headquarters last night I did get a response from them: "according to our notes John Weiss (owner) contacted you and agreed to pay you interest on the refund owed to you." Complete lie!! I have never had any such conversation with anyone at Sylvan that went beyond... your (blah) on the list... oh soon... you'll get it...

I couldn't believe that Sylvan as a corporation took the word of their owner/operator and didn't even follow up with the customer to confirm or deny the accountability. I am an 'independant contractor' for a national brand and our company would never speak only to us and relay the message after a second follow up 2 months later!!

Appauling - don't get sucked into the false success of Sylvan. Being located in So California my area is loaded with Title One Schools due to the overwhelming non English speaking students. TITLE ONE SCHOOLS PAY FOR PRIVATE TUTORS SUCH AS SYLVAN FOR ANY STUDENT THAT WANTS IT!! So not only do my tax dollars pay for all the children that go to Sylvan in my area but I lost my after tax dollars for my own son with no success!! I am now working on a full refund based on their deceptive business practices and loop holed written guarantee. Don't go to SYLVAN it is a trap and they will make you feel like less of a parent if you aren't willing to lay $5000 down for program that has no proof of success for anyone that English is their first language.

Sylvan Learning Center in Lincoln Village, Chicago, treats its employees poorly and takes advantage of its customers. Don’t even bother wasting your time. You work hard there, but for little to no money. They steal money from their employees by not providing them with paychecks for 6 months. You need to write tons of emails to them and leave messages on the voicemail in order to show them your interest in getting paycheck. Otherwise, they wouldn’t bother paying you, and they charge the students 90 dollars per hour. <br />
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The hiring and treatment of the directors is awful. It was their ethics that drove me away. Additionally, the directors have very little education experience -- one of them has an education degree but has never worked in a classroom or actually taught on a full time basis<br />
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They do hire absolutely everyone, make you go through training and take exams for your license. When you start, you have a rough time getting hours, and then they make you sucker in by having more people to come and work for them. I worked in the Lincoln Village office and the management is horrible!! They are rude, even to the point of being racist. Definitely, don’t work THERE!! It’s not worth the stress, mistreatment, and costs.<br />
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I have also witnessed quite a bit of incompetence and dishonesty there, including violating their own policies when it comes to employee regulations. This business is not, no matter what they say, mostly concerned about the welfare and education of your children. They are concerned about the welfare of their own pocketbooks. The materials they use are sometimes up to 20 years out of date. The methods they use are so rigid and lockstep. If your child has any unusual circumstances they will simply not know how to handle them.<br />
Avoid them.<br />
Good luck and don’t get suckered!!