What ARE they doing?

Since you're in the United Kingdom, my original thought about it being Labor Day weekend doesn't work there. It works for the USA, but not there. Here, we have a college that only has morning hours between semesters. They believe a full day of secretaries isn't necessary because there aren't any students or classes. The answering machine will come on because they only have a couple of lines and when they're used up, the machine takes over. But they usually call you back the next day. I don't know if you're between semesters there or not. Are you sure this is a legitimate college? Maybe their machine is broke and not taking calls while the secretary is on vacation or out sick or something. In other words, I don't know either. Frustrating when you're trying to get things done and you hve limited hours.

Hi hvedra, I was just accepted at a local university where I live. I am in my third week of evening and Saturday classes. Getting everything done in time, the paperwork, proof of income, citizenship, state residency, etc. was a pain. I had to calling different campuses to be able to talk to a person. Because I didn't get all my papers in on time, I had missed most of the classes that I want to take, so I had to take what was left open. If you don't have to do a ton of paperwork, you should be able to register for classes online. I suggest, if you live near the campus, your best bet is to go there to speak to someone face-to-face. The heavy paper load at the beginning of the semester is probably what is keeping them from answering the phones. I just put the number on speed dial and kept calling until I speak to someone.

THAT is definitely bad business. I'm way behind in my e-mail, so I'm reading this a week after you've posted it. I'm answeing from my e-mail like I said, so I can't see if you have updated the situation through another person's response. They are kind of nuts for not making themselves more available. I hope things worked out for you.

School and government offices are all the same. It doesn't matter to them whether they call you back or not. They get paid either way, so they have no reason to care whether or not you get what you need, because they are not affected by it either way. You would really be surprised at how good these people are at making themselves LOOK extremely busy, when in fact, they aren't really doing much of anything at all. They only thing they really care about is filing their expense reports so they can get more money from the tax-payers...

I wonder if they are understaffed and getting too many calls to be able to take care of their customers. After inrollment is over they will probably answer the phone. I would make an effort to go to the office. I really doubt that you will be talking to anyone on the phones and unless you go to the office you might be out of luck.

It's hard to really tell what the administrative or financial aid people are doing when you are trying to enroll in college or trying to get scheduled for your classes. I recently went through the same annoying and flustering process that you went through. It's definitely a lot of bullcrap to put up with to just try and further yourself through education. You would think that we should be working on making the process of going to college as easy as possible so there will be more educated people in the world to either help reverse the damage that we are doing to the earth daily or at least to help try and prevent it. Even though it's stressful you have to put up with this ridiculous process to try and hopefully get to where you want to be in life. Good luck with your future and I hope that the people in the office of your college will stop dinking around sometime in the near future. lol

My quick quip would be that they are doing their nails and hair. That does not provide any positive input to the discussion, though. I would e mail them with an inquiry as to why you cannot get someone by phone. Either that, or I would send snail mail with "return receipt requested". I would suggest to them that you may have to look elsewhere for a class if they cannot oblige.

Watching soap operas, playing video games, out to lunch since last semester. It can be so frustrating when people don't have the decency to call back, especially a business. You would think they would welcome new clients and more money. If there is an email address send them a note to let them know you've tried to contact them to no avail, maybe someone will wake up and answer the phone.

They must be still in 'hoilday mode' and partying!! I HATE to have to wait like that, I am not the most patient of people when it comes to getting dealt with by these types of people! Hope they get back to you soon!