Hillsborough Community College - Dale Mabry Campus — Local services in Tampa

If I could give this place a negative star rating, I 100% would. I've been dealing with their billing department for almost TWO YEARS now for a class that I never registered for. I went to see an advisor, but never actually signed up for it the class. A few months later, I get a bill saying that I have an outstanding balance. I went it, explained to an administrator what happened and he told me that I needed to write a letter of petition to get it all taken care of. I wrote the letter, submitted it, and received an email a couple of weeks later saying that my petition was approved. That's all it said- it did not say that I needed to do anything else with this matter. So, I thought all was good. Well, fast forward a year or so later and I get a notification that I have a new collections account on my credit report. I look and see that HCC sent this balance to collections EVEN THOUGH I have an email clearly stating that my petition was APPROVED. I called them and explained what was going on. The girl (Kirsten) told me that she was submitting another ticket to take care of everything and that I should get an email in the next 3-5 days. Time goes on, I never got an email. I got really busy at work and with life and didn't have time to call again until about a month or so later. The next person I talked to (Heather) was somewhat helpful (but not really). In order to verify my account, she needed certain pieces of information. Since, I never actually enrolled, I didn't have all of the information that she needed. At one point, I thought she was on her computer typing something because she was saying anything. A solid minute goes by and I said, "Hello?" and she says, "I need (this piece of information)." I'm just sitting there like, "How long were you just going to keep me in silence?" Nice customer service skill- thanks a lot, Heather. Apparently, the first girl (Kirsten) entered in my email incorrectly. So, there was an email that I never got stating that I owed a balance of xx.xx even though my petition was approved. I went back and forth with her about how that didn't make any sense. She told me that I needed to come down to the campus to dispute it. I live in Clearwater and work full time. Nah, girl. I hung up and called back a little later. This time, I asked to speak with a supervisor. I was told that I had to submit a ticket and that a supervisor would get back to me within 24-48 hours (insert gigantic eyeroll). Fine. Whatever. Within the next couple of hours, I get an email from someone (Dominick Richardson) at the Help Desk telling me that I need to log onto their website and pay my remaining balance. Then proceeds to tell me where to do that. I responded and told him about my original email saying that my petition was approved and that no where in that email did it say I needed to pay the remaining balance. I even took a screenshot of it and attached it. He responded and said that even though my petition was approved, there was a document stating that I was still responsible for the charges.

I still have not heard from the supervisor that I asked to speak with. And my credit score is still being affected.

**Update: I spoke with Dominick on the phone and even though my issue wasn't effectively resolved, he was the most helpful person I've spoken with yet. He's super cool and understanding. He did an amazing job talking me down and really listening.

HCC is a joke of a school when it comes to their administration. I have no intention of ever going here and will always discourage everyone I know to do the same. Shame on them for how they're treating this situation and giving me the run around. They don't care about the students and it shows.

I have ZERO respect for this...

This place is horrible! I’ve been to the “advisors” twice and had horrible experiences BOTH times. The first time, I was sent to advising only to be sent to another advisor. The other advisor asked why I was there and I told her I was sent there by the first advisor. She then directed me back to the original advisor, and as you suspect, we accomplished nothing. The second time was the worst. I went to advising. He again, (same advisor) sent me to another advisor in a different building. The elevators weren’t working so I had to climb 4 flights of stairs. Finally got to the top, couldn’t find the room, so the Dean gave me directions. I get to the room and no one is in there. So I go to the closest office and knock on the door, as it was locked, and the instructor looked right at me and completely ignored me. Then, I went to the next room which was apparently connected to the room I knocked on, and I talked to the instructor that ignored me. She couldn’t give me instruction on how to get someone in advising so she told me to just knock on the door. When I told her I had already done that she asked another instructor that was strolling by. Finally, I get the area where I wait. I sign in, wait 11 minutes, see the advisor go into her office, wait another 11 minutes, then receive a text message from her with the wrong information on it, so instead of replying back and forth I figured I’d go see her in her office. She opens the door and so rudely asks why I’m there and tells me I have to wait. I explained to her the situation l and how I thought it would be easier to speak with her directly and that I had been waiting in that building for half hour, trying to figure stuff out and she tells me, “mmmm no you haven’t. You just checked in 11 minutes ago.” So I tell her I checked in 22 minutes ago, and that I was there waiting for her before she even got back and she continues to argue with me, “no you weren’t” I said, “I feel like I’m being attacked here. I’ve been here half an hour trying to see you.” So she says, “no you haven’t.” Ummmmm ….. HOW WOULD YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING WHEN YOU WEREN’T HERE!?! She would NOT listen or hear me out and was EXTREMELY reluctant to help and acted as if I was bothering her by expecting her to do her job, and then when she did finally offer to help me she continued to argue with me about the time I had been there AGAIN, so I walked out. She apparently LOVES to argue. So thank you LATRECIA RICE for being SO RUDE and UNPROFESSIONAL! You made my college choice VERY easy as I will NOT be attending this college, I’d rather pay 4x the tuition to get quality treatment by advisors who actually CARE about you. And if you don’t like your job, which is what it seems like, YOU should probably consider a career change yourself seeing as how you are SO MISERABLE. I hope you find happiness. Not to mention, this school is LITERALLY falling apart. Horrible management here. I understand why this facility has so many 1 star ratings! I would give it...

Hillsborough College is centrally located in the heart of Tampa boardered by the Tampa International Airport, The NY Yankee's Steinbrenner Field, and The Tampa Bay Bucanners Stadium. This means easy access from I-275 South (South Tampa, Saint Petersburg), I-275 East (Tampa, Brandon, Lakeland) Veterans expressway (Northwest - Clearwater, Carrollwood, Pasco County). This is a state college that is fully accredited SACS (which means your credits are transferable to State universities like USF, UF, UCF, etc and private universities like University of Tampa, Florida Polytechnic, etc) They offer a bachelor's degree ( that's a 4-year degree and it's the most limited offering at this time as it's only available for nursing ). They also offer the Associate of Arts degrees (those are the degrees you get when you intend to continue studying at a university towards your bachelor's degree after you graduate from Hillsborough College. They offer Associate of Science degrees (these are the degrees you get when you intend to go to work with your degree right after your 2-year graduation like sonography, dental assistant, etc) they also have certificates (which are our job specific skill sets, like mechanic, paramedic, etc). This campus can have over 25,000 students per academic Year yet their classes are small with no more than 30 students each so you can count on getting to know your professor. They have a volleyball team, a tennis team, a baseball team, a softball team, and basketball teams. They also house a beautiful art gallery open to the public. The range of study programs they offer is vast. Students can enjoy a cafeteria with a variety of restaurants like Pizza Hut and Starbucks, a student activity lounge, group study areas in the library, quiet rooms, campus visits from artists and special event speakers. Classes are offered year-round and are available in the mornings, afternoons and evenings. Hillsborough College offers offer different payment methods. It is a vibrant College with constant events, clubs for students to interact, and tons of academic support services like tutoring, library services, counseling, advising, an amazing career center, and...