WTFebruary, cont'd.

Remember I said the RE school was closing after our class was over, and I was disappointed but figured I'd be okay, because I've been scoring above 90 on all the tests and should be able to pass the class and state exam on my first try? And how we were one class (this past Thursday's) and then the class test on Tuesday from being done?

We had a dusting of snow on Thursday - maybe an inch fell in Asheville, 2 inches at higher elevations. It quickly warmed up to around 40 degrees and it melted away. I anticipated that we would do what we had done before, and start class an hour late to give everybody extra travel time/let it melt off the roads a bit. Instead, the message was posted on the school closings information via our local TV station - class was canceled. Odd, but okay, that would leave us with a class to make up plus the test, we could still get it done in this coming week.

Later that same day, I drove past the school on my way to the supermarket and the sign was down from the building. I emailed the instructor to ask what was going on - and the school website disappeared.

I left a voicemail at the school asking them what they intended to do about our class. Nobody returned my call on Thursday. Yesterday the email bounced, and when I tried to call the school again, the number was disconnected. I hunted down our instructor on Facebook of all places, and sent him a message there - no response so far, but it doesn't look like he's a very active FB user. I'm hoping the message will go to an email account he checks regularly. (He's just a semi-retired attorney and broker who teaches there part time, he appeared to be as startled as the rest of us about the news of the closing.)

But this looks really bad, and really shady - and I'm just floored, because this school has been around for over 15 years, and is of course approved by the RE Commission. It's owned by a local broker who (one would think) should care about his reputation in this little city, in a business where your reputation is everything.

I live very close to the school, so I plan to show up on Tuesday and see what happens. I don't have last names or phone numbers of anyone else in the class, so I have no idea if any of them have been trying the same things I've been doing, or if they've heard anything from anyone. At this point, I think the chance that they intend to honor their commitment to us and let us finish this class is down to maybe 5%. Shutting off the phone was really the last freaking straw. If nobody from the school shows up at that now anonymous building on Tuesday, you bet your ass I will be on the phone to the Real Estate Commission to file a complaint against the broker/owner, and make it my personal mission to get everybody's money back.

But I'm incredibly pissed off, because they can't give me back the last 2 months of my life. I signed up for this class in late December and committed to doing this because I felt that combined with my background and experience, a broker's license would be beneficial in finding a good long-term job. I could have been working doing some contract paralegal work during this time, but I was committed to this two days a week class, which was to be done on the 15th, because I thought it was worth it. We'd made up our missed snow days, we were on track to finish on time, and for them to just turn off the phones and disappear in the last TWO DAYS of the schedule is beyond comprehension. It's so incredibly stupid to open themselves up to the shitstorm of complaints and sanctions and bad publicity that will follow a stunt like this.

So, WTFebruary. It's just insane.