[Resolved]  Billabong School - Thane — Avoid taking admission in Billabong

Address: Thane, Maharashtra

I had taken an admission for my daughter in Billabong, Thane and since then I have had a horrific experience dealing with the management of the school, especially, the principal (Rajani Pattabhiraman) and the trustee (Sandeep Goenka).
• During my wife’s stay at the school on the first day, she observed that one of the child was left behind by the transport bus. She was surprised by this incident and inquired about this with the transport manager, Mr Alok Sharma. He mentioned that it was the teacher’s fault and he was not responsible for it. He also mentioned that the teacher needs to be taught a lesson for this. When my wife further inquired if there are any controls to ensure all children have boarded the school bus, Mr. Sharma started shouting at her and was very rude. He also went on to say that we should remove our child from the school. After this incident my wife was shocked.

• In our meeting with the principal, she also mentioned that she has been witnessing this unusually rude behavior from their transport manager and that she has also spoken to him on many occasions. However, she could not explain on how come the school is persisting with such people when they have an important responsibility of transporting child to and from the school. May be the school has not given enough important to this extremely important element in the past.

• There has been an incident at Hiranandani Meadows, Thane where the parents collectively refused to send their children in the school bus because the bus was carrying more children then the bus capacity and seats
I fail to understand that even after paying so much of fees and other charges, my wife had to go through such a terrible experience. In such situation, we couldn’t risk our daughter with such unorganized school who runs on the whims and fences of a transport manager, who has even the audacity to even ask us to remove our child from the school. After the above incidents I tried to get in touch with the principal and rather than resolving the situation, she was comfortable in us removing our child from the school. When I inquired in the refund of fee, she had asked me to take an appointment from their trustee (Sandeep Goenka). In my meeting with Sandeep, he assured me to refund full fee. However, once I started asking for a refund cheque, Sandeep stopped answering my emails. I would have written at least 8-10 emails but neither the trustee nor the principal had any courtesy to respond to my emails.
Finally, after so long the principal’s secretary called me and asked me to visit the school for collecting cheque of refund. It was shocking to see that the school did not refund the admission fee of Rs.20,000. I have heard that they have done this treatment to many other parents.
Think twice before enrolling your child at Billabong, Thane because once you pay the fee, nobody would listen to you nor they would answer your emails / calls. In my mind the principal doesn’t deserve to be even a clerk at the school and don’t really know how she has become the principal of the school and I believe the trustee (Sandeep Goenka) is a liar and not really trustworthy