MY daughter got admission to Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering at the Lahore University of Management Sciences this year.

Being residents of Rawalpindi, we submitted her hostel dues on June 25 as we were in a hurry to ensure her accommodation on the university’s premises.

However, we had not yet deposited her semester fee. In the meantime, she was offered a place at a university close to home and she decided to go there instead. It was decided that we would ask for a refund of the hostel fee.

What was supposed to be a simple and straightforward task turned into something quite cumbersome due to the poor design of the university’s online portal.

The online portal was designed to handle refund cases only when the hostel and semester dues had been paid. When we applied for the hostel refund, the system failed to respond.

When I called the university, I was redirected to the portal. When I called again, the operator diverted my call from one department to another. Days after my multiple calls, I was asked to write an email. I wrote an email on July 15 explaining what had happened. I also received a response. I was directed from department to department writing more emails, sending proof of payment and other documents.

Finally, I received an email claiming that my case had been closed.

On Sept 23, we reached Lahore. Once we were at the university, we were told to wait in a small room beside the gate. Here we were asked to explain our query to an official on the phone.

Again the official directed the call from department to department instead of letting us enter the university. After spending an hour at the gate, we met a man who informed us that a refund was impossible as we were late.

We were then directed to a woman who understood our case and told us that we would get a refund after we provided our account details on email and that we should go home now.

We did as we were told, but instead of getting a refund, the university officials started investigating the case from scratch again. We are now in October and I have given up on that money. This is how hard earned money goes down the drain.

Dr Fatahiya Kashif
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2019