PERCOMOnline review: Unprofessional, lazy and incompetent instructors 27

This is the most unprofessional program I have ever been a part of. I would not recommend it to anyone. I was under the impression that it was the only online program for Paramedic available, but that is not the case. There is an additional one in Massachusetts that offers onsite skills training and visual recordings of classroom activity. Some of the instructors at PERCOM are ok, but it is really the administration and program directors that are out of touch. The program directors don't even live in the United States. Hindsight is 20/20.

The program was an absolute joke. I finished(somehow) but won't recommend this to any one unless you want empty promises, and having to turn paper work in 50 times. The longest part of the program was sending Mr. Royder papers I had already sent him 3, 4, 5 times. Although I obtained my EMT through this program I would not recommend it. Everyone was extremely difficult and I felt as if I was on my own or that I was a bother to the instructor(s)

I completely agree! I tried PERCOM with horrible experiences. Administration is extremely difficult to get a hold of and if I receive a response it was never within a week. Ridiculous. I paid for the course but wasn't able to access it and by PERCOM's standards that wasn't enough for a refund. I lost a lot of money and was a huge headache. This happened a few months ago and I still feel completely ripped off : (

Percom was a waste of money! The owners take your money and go on MULTIPLE vacations all the time and then give the students hell about not being able to reply to the students many emails. Enrollment was joke! I had to email many times to get proper access. They put my name incorrectly in the system. They waited almost a month to order my books and made up lies about not knowing why they hadnt arrived.. My instructor NEVER graded my work even after confirming receipt and asking multiple times. DO NOT take this program. It is a joke.

I'm currently in the PERCOM AEMT to Paramedic Program with my instructor being Mr. Gandy. I'd have to completely 100% disagree with the remarks that have been made on this forum. I did a ton of investigation in regards to online Paramedic programs before enrolling. I'm glad that I was able to take my Paramedic program through PERCOM.

I am currently in the program and agree that it does not prepare you for Paramedic. That the homework assignments are ridiculously long drawn out and a complete waste of time. As for the instructors and director I agree that they could care less about our satisfaction and/or completion; PERCOM program is not worth the $10, 280 some odd dollars spent on it. I to also feel that they are rude and unprofessional.

This course is a complete waste of time and is not worth the money. I wasted several thousand dollars on this "school" only to be told that my self pace wasn't fast enough for their liking. I absolutely regret ever trying PRECOM. Teaching takes more than "just read the book."

I had a bad experience with PERCOM as well. It happened a couple of years ago but I am still upset about it. Once they had my money they would no longer help me. The director belittled me when I asked for a refund. She was incredibly rude and took offense when I asked for my money back. It's extremely difficult to talk to anyone at the "office". I would call 10+ times a day with no luck. The program director took weeks to respond to my e-mail and she was very rude. I spent over a thousand dollars for a massive headache

Horrible, horrible absolutely terifyingly horridly disgusting school. I fought for months trying to just get registered. I have to date sent over 60 voicemails, 70 emails and 5 written letters of which only received 17 answers/responses. They wouldn't answer my phone calls or reply to my messages even to pay tuition. Everybody is always off on vacation trips. My books were ruined in the mail and I said I'd pay to replace them. Never happened. Absolutely incompetent these people are. Biggest waste of my money ever. I encourage everyone to lawyer up. I will have their scam school taken down if it's the last thing I do.

I took an AEMT class with PERCOM several years ago, and it still is my number 1 worst business transaction. When I asked for a refund they made up a policy rejecting it, looking back I'm sure that is illegal. They routinely missed "chat sessions" and as I was getting ready to set up clinical rotations, I got a form email that they were leaving the country and so I wouldn't be able to schedule. The skills instructor was several hours late for every session, always giving an excuse (I thought I told you we changed the start time..., my granddaughter was in town..., my wife decided I should sleep in...). When Jane and Jerry were informed about this they shrugged it off, "oh well that's just Greg". I have worked my way through a graduate and professional degree and have never encountered instructors or program directors who were so rude and apathetic.

Jane and Jerry always have great excuses (we were the only one's who could man the county ambulance, one of our instructors cancelled, our new instructor doesn't know what she's doing yet...), and for all I know these may be true and they may be decent people who are just overwhelmed by running a part-time business that is probably expanding too rapidly. What I do know is they have no business being in health profession education: if you don't have the ability to effectively manage your program and people, you need to quit taking peoples money.

Just to summarize Percom's 1200 word diatribe for those of us who ain't got time for that:
- Sure we make mistakes, we're human, but our mistakes are never *that* big (despite what you as the customer may think). We have good excuses for all of our mistakes, even if they cost you time and money. We are after all a small company that's just in way over our heads, we really shouldn't be managing 300 students at once, but we can't turn down the money. Please come be student # 301
- If you make a mistake, you need to be grovelling at our feet praying for forgiveness. Understanding is not a two way street in our books.
- Sometimes we're rude to students, but not all the time, just when they ask us questions we don't like. When that happens we have every right to demean and ridicule them, because we believe that's what EMS and education is all about.
- I hate sites like this one that allow individuals to express their opinions, without giving me the ability to target them directly. We could use these reviews to make substantive changes to our program, but instead we're going to defend our turf and call everybody who doesn't agree with us cowards and losers.
Signed,
Percom

I would like to inform everyone of my terrible experience with Percom online. After spending a few thousand on the program I find out that I was mislead from the start on being able to take clinicals in my state. I signed my contract contingent on the clinical site list that was emailed to me and come to find out that list was completely wrong. That's strike one. I also had a very poor instructor from the start who wouldn't grade assignments, respond to emails, and any time I had a question would defer me to the student handbook because they didn't want to take time to explain anything. Jane Dinsmore has also been very rude in previous contacts and always seems to be on vacation. I have nothing against vacations, but when you cant even properly manage your program then maybe you should take a little time to improve things. Another issue was that half the time their administration emails wouldn't work, I would get an undeliverable message most the time. I also tried to get the program to submit my paperwork to have the GI bill to cover some of the costs, that was a dead end as well. So after dealing with the rude, incompetent, and unprofessional staff I am out of around $3000 and a lot of wasted time. I would advise everyone to not take this program as an option, I know it sounds inviting and easy to get into, but you will surely waste your time and money.

Excellent seller. A+++++++. Highly recommend. Item as described, fast shipping.

PERCOM Online has a new site with new management, they brought in a consultant team and made big changes in the everyday procedure. Due to multiple complaints in the past, some staff adjustments have been made and are currently being made. PERCOM Online is dedicated to our students and alumni's success. Now with job leads posted everyday on our Social Media, and a vast growing network of professional emergency service members. I would like to take this chance to offer anyone in this thread or on this page that feels they lost their money to contact me, Sarah, the Creative Director and Consultant Lead in the new site/new management launch. Contact info below. During this process due to not so hot systems in place we have lost some communications off our server (emails/VMS), this has been a family owned business that yes, grew too fast. THIS IS A GOOD THING, I'm not saying the new system is flawless, but I'd sure like to get it there. With the input from people like you, serious changes have been made starting 6/1/2015 continuing through until August 31st 2015. PERCOM Online is only around a month into the first wave of changes but can already feel the collective relief from students and staff. PERCOM Online has had some struggling since its doors opened in 2007, but with 100+ years of experience, real-life EMS professionals teaching, and non-stop momentum .. numbers don't lie. PERCOM continues to have NREMT successful students every year, and are always well over the national standard rate. The program is the only self-paced program (of course you have a cut off set by the accrediting body but they won't slow you down!) and is dramatically comparative to any other program in the states, taking little profit to ensure the best possible price to students, nearly half the price of others! Once coming on board I saw some of what was mentioned here, but saw solutions. Every student signs a clear no-refund policy after the first 30days in the course, which is like every other school and fair due to the immediate costs made in behalf of the student. I'm here for solutions, PERCOM Online is the Online Leader in EMS Education, but the students are the true leaders. . PERCOM wants them 100% happy.

sarahmichelle@percomonline.com - Email
{325} | 480 | 2114 - Leave a VM

Having been in the PERCOM program studying for over a year now, I thought I would offer my view points.
Enrollment was quick, easy and pain free. This course needs extra work put in to get the max out of it (as they say right at the beginning in their introduction videos). If you are relying solely on the slides to get by, you are going to miss a lot of important information. I find the best thing to do is to use the slides as a guide and then research further by using textbooks or the internet. Obviously this course is not going to work for you if you expect everything to be spoon fed to you.
I learnt A LOT from the research exams/assignments, but again, you have to be willing to put the work in. A lot of times it can be repetitive though and they ask a lot of the same questions over again in each scenario, but if you research the other questions thoroughly, so much can be gained from them.
I went through a bad phase with one instructor who never graded/ or who took months to grade assignments and would hardly ever reply to emails. (around Nov/Dec 2014) and I was seriously considering leaving the program. I cc'd Jane into some of the emails and she did look into it in a timely manner.
I'm not sure what happened to that instructor, but I was then transferred to a new instructor, Brian Cross. Difference was like night and day. Assignments were often returned a day or 2 later and he actually takes the time to add in his own thoughts and opinions on some of the questions. This was a turning point for me in the course and the instructor you are assigned to makes a huge difference.
Of course, being an online program, there have been a few niggles here and there, and yes, sometimes it does take people a while to sort problems out. Nothing major though. Their new website/system seems to be better than the old one and am enjoying it so far.

I have not yet had to do any field rotations etc. so can't comment about that.

Overall though, I would say I am pretty satisfied with the course so far and it suits my needs and requirements quite well. They are pretty flexible and understand I am working and studying at the same time so accommodate me where they can.

The program director is a total [censored] and is out to get money and start drama and make peoples lives completely miserable. I hope she gets in a horrible wreck and no one shows up to help her or they just leave her to suffer. That's how much of a horrible lying kniving [censored] she is.

This has been a nightmare from day one. The instructors I have dealt with - with very few exceptions - have been lazy, rude and borderline incompetent. The student guidelines state that "most of our instructors are part time, please allow them a week or two to return graded assignments." One month, two months go by, and when you inquire as to the status of your work, you are either ignored entirely or briskly reminded that "we are part time, you'll get it when you get it." When you do finally get your work back, who knows what grade you are going to have, because odds are by halfway through the first term, you've been bounced around between three, four, or five different instructors, all of whom have vastly different ideas on what your grade should be - and it isn't like you can refer to the original assignment for a clear standard, because there aren't any. Assignment descriptions are typically "read this and write a summary." That's it. So you ask for clarification, but you are ultimately ignored, so you just do your best, write a summary and try to cover all the key points. Four weeks later when you finally get it back, it's ungraded and "needs to be redone" because you didn't cover this long list of highly specific points that you had no way of knowing you were ever supposed to address. So you keep your mouth shut and redo the assignment, and another four-six weeks later when you get this version back, it's still wrong because, without your knowledge or consent, this time it was passed off to and graded by yet another different instructor, who - surprise, surprise - also is using a totally different standard to grade by.

This kind of treatment is only the tip of the iceberg with these people. I didn't write this review until I had already made four different attempts to politely and professionally bring these concerns to the attention of the instructors and program directors. At no time was the content of my complaints ever addressed - I was instead told to "lose the attitude" and "stop being unprofessional." I was expected to shut up and just deal with whatever bare minimum effort they elected to expend on me.

I have already given these people $2, 600 of the total $6, 000 cost of the program. I have been ready to take the first term final for nearly two months, and here I sit, still not cleared to take the final, because there are at least three different versions of the syllabus that all give different lists of assignments that must be completed. Point out the fact that you have completed everything on List A, and you are rudely told that List A doesn't count, you need to refer to List B. Complete the extra things on List B, and you are then rudely told to refer to List C - which you haven't even seen before because it's buried deep somewhere in the confusing maze of links that all lead to nearly identical pages of poorly written nonsense.

This reminds me of yet another red flag. Every single instructor or staff member I have interacted with on this website, with the exception of one, typs liek dis n sez stuf like LOL! I'm sorry, are you a paramedic instructor or a 14 year old girl?

I could go on and on for several more paragraphs, but you get the idea. At this point, I have a difficult choice to make - do I drop out of this worthless course, cut my extreme losses of money and time and find something else to do with my life, or do I push forward through what is guaranteed to be at least another year and another $5, 000-6, 000 of this ludicrous nonsense and just hope against hope that it somehow works out? I don't know yet, but I need to do one or the other soon. If you are thinking about enrolling, DON'T. Do something, ANYTHING else with your time and money.

It's worth noting that I am posting this review under a false name, because I am absolutely certain, based on their behavior so far, that they would take punitive action against me if they were to discover a negative review attached to my real name.

This has been a nightmare from day one. The instructors I have dealt with - with very few exceptions - have been lazy, rude and borderline incompetent. The student guidelines state that "most of our instructors are part time, please allow them a week or two to return graded assignments." One month, two months go by, and when you inquire as to the status of your work, you are either ignored entirely or briskly reminded that "we are part time, you'll get it when you get it." When you do finally get your work back, who knows what grade you are going to have, because odds are by halfway through the first term, you've been bounced around between three, four, or five different instructors, all of whom have vastly different ideas on what your grade should be - and it isn't like you can refer to the original assignment for a clear standard, because there aren't any. Assignment descriptions are typically "read this and write a summary." That's it. So you ask for clarification, but you are ultimately ignored, so you just do your best, write a summary and try to cover all the key points. Four weeks later when you finally get it back, it's ungraded and "needs to be redone" because you didn't cover this long list of highly specific points that you had no way of knowing you were ever supposed to address. So you keep your mouth shut and redo the assignment, and another four-six weeks later when you get this version back, it's still wrong because, without your knowledge or consent, this time it was passed off to and graded by yet another different instructor, who - surprise, surprise - also is using a totally different standard to grade by.

This kind of treatment is only the tip of the iceberg with these people. I didn't write this review until I had already made four different attempts to politely and professionally bring these concerns to the attention of the instructors and program directors. At no time was the content of my complaints ever addressed - I was instead told to "lose the attitude" and "stop being unprofessional." I was expected to shut up and just deal with whatever bare minimum effort they elected to expend on me.

I have already given these people $2, 600 of the total $6, 000 cost of the program. I have been ready to take the first term final for nearly two months, and here I sit, still not cleared to take the final, because there are at least three different versions of the syllabus that all give different lists of assignments that must be completed. Point out the fact that you have completed everything on List A, and you are rudely told that List A doesn't count, you need to refer to List B. Complete the extra things on List B, and you are then rudely told to refer to List C - which you haven't even seen before because it's buried deep somewhere in the confusing maze of links that all lead to nearly identical pages of poorly written nonsense.

This reminds me of yet another red flag. Every single instructor or staff member I have interacted with on this website, with the exception of one, typs liek dis n sez stuf like LOL! I'm sorry, are you a paramedic instructor or a 14 year old girl?

I could go on and on for several more paragraphs, but you get the idea. At this point, I have a difficult choice to make - do I drop out of this worthless course, cut my extreme losses of money and time and find something else to do with my life, or do I push forward through what is guaranteed to be at least another year and another $5, 000-6, 000 of this ludicrous nonsense and just hope against hope that it somehow works out? I don't know yet, but I need to do one or the other soon. If you are thinking about enrolling, DON'T. Do something, ANYTHING else with your time and money.

I am not of the option the owner of the school set out to make life miserable for the students . The problem they have right now is that of administrative and set up . In this age and time, I don't expect students to be given paragraph long essay as an assignment . That alone is extra work on a part-time instructor . I took my emt-basic class 10 years ago with a different school while working full time on an assembly ( I work as control systems engineer now ) but I can't remember getting homework of work of any kind . All we had was multiple choice quizzes and exams which were graded instantly without instructor input . I mean there are programs automatically grade exams. Homework is necessary in my own opinion . If you don't know the material, you can pass the quiz . The management should self itself the head ache ; the part-time instructor already have too much teaching the class .

My name is Kelly and I am a Texas EMS Coordinator. I have students who have had similar issues with Percom. I would like to ask you a few questions if you don't mind? Here's my email address and my phone number.
krmillican@att.net
[protected]
Thank you.

Revision for Previous Reply to Comment - First Note: That was not a PERCOM student writing the previous comment.

@They owe me money The previous post was created by a representative of a contacted company whose contract was cancelled and was replaced by the Admissions guy. This company has a reputation of attacking prior clients who cancel their agreements on social media and other sites like this one, in an attempt to discredit and damage the company out of retaliation.

This comment shows the type of mentality of the contact company that left them without a contract in the first place. The Admissions Director is the "fool" that replaced this company, who also happens to be married to a Latin woman ( real racist huh? )! Question, if a "fool" takes your job, what does that say about you?

Legal options against this accuser are currently being pursued.

"Excellent" example of how to not run an EMS program
"Impressive" that a company this poorly run can stay in business this long

I would like to give my 2 cents worth of opinion about PERCOM Online. I have been associated with Percom from the beginning. Yes, the program has grown immensely but this is due to the quality of the program. The company maintains a 1st time pass rate on the National Registry examination in all areas, EMR, EMT-B, AEMT, and Paramedic. This is far above the National average of 70%.

In 2016 there were some problems with the online access and other areas related to the Internet. The company quickly got on this and the course has been rewritten and is top notch now. One of the course authors/editors has been a paramedic for more than 30 years and has taught EMS for that length of time. All of the instructors are highly experienced in the field and have been teaching for many years. One instructor is a lawyer who is also a paramedic and another faculty member is a physician and a lawyer. The program director has over 30 years experience in EMS and is highly qualified to teach all areas of EMS. She, too, has college degrees.

I am simply telling the PERCOM story from my personal experience and know the program to be a quality program.

There is no one there for your to make you study. This is a self-paced, self-study program. Quit the whining and start reading you book. I mean all of your book. You can pass the National Registry exam without any problem if you will only apply your self to that goal.

Have a wonderful day.

I have been trying to contact someone at PERCOMOnline for almost two weeks now and have left several messages. Up to now, I still haven't received any call back. I have several questions that I'd like to be answered by a live person over at PERCOM. I'm starting to have second thoughts about registering with this online EMT course.

BE VERY CAREFUL.
This program only wants your money. Once they have it they are very unhelpful. Also lots of their program is outsourced to other companies and if you have any problem with one of those companies PERCOM will not help you out they will just drop you from the program and take your money.
They look for any reason they can to drop you so they don't have to do anything other than keep your check.
The instructors are hard to contact and their phone answering system still doesn't work right.
I wish I never took this program.