Branches of the Tesla Education educational centre in Astana and Almaty have unexpectedly ceased operations, leaving thousands of students who paid around one million tenge for annual courses without lessons. According to parents, centre staff suddenly left work chats, and the offices closed.
According to Informburo.kz, branches of the popular UNT preparation centre were actively advertising their services on social media. Parents paid up to 1 million tenge for a year's tuition. As reported, at the beginning of November, staff began to mass-delete themselves from work chats, causing alarm among clients.
"The teachers simply deleted themselves from the chats, the headmistress deleted herself, everyone resigned. It happened literally within a couple of hours. The manager told us: go to the office. No one was there; the security guard said the office is completely closed," said one of the parents.
Some of those affected claim managers pressured them to pay. For several families, children managed to attend only one or two lessons before the educational process stopped.
"We were told that from the third of November there was one place. 'Pay urgently,' the staff said. The amount for eight months was 700,000 tenge. I hear from people now that many centres already knew about Tesla's bankruptcy. But no one told us, no one knew," said Zhanna Amanova, mother of a student.
The centre's founder, Aidos Seksenaly, recently addressed parents in a video statement.
"The company Tesla Education is forced to temporarily suspend its activities. All obligations to clients will be fulfilled and fully paid. All funds for the remaining lessons will be refunded in full. This process will take time, but I personally guarantee that every sum will be returned in full," the statement reads.
Parents have begun to file numerous reports with the police and the prosecutor's office. The Committee for the Protection of Consumer Rights noted that the law allows for a class action to be initiated if the number of affected individuals exceeds ten people. Agency staff are prepared to act as representatives for the group of parents in court to recover damages.
It is noted that in total, more than a thousand families in Astana and Almaty could have been affected. The estimated total amount of damage could reach hundreds of millions of tenge.