Education Post exclusive: E-learning platform Oda class faces fraud allegations, complaints about unresponsive customer support

Oda Class, a Bangalore-based e-learning platform, has recently caught flak from parents who enrolled their children in various courses, accusing the company of fraud.

Many parents have accused the Ed-tech platform of making false promises on the pretext of offering an excellent learning opportunity.

One of the parents, Juthika Dasgupta, who enrolled her daughter in the Oda class program, accused them of misleading them with fake promises, saying the platform promised to provide support for the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) syllabus, but instead is providing her daughter lessons of the CBSE curriculum.

“My daughter is studying in the IGCSE Board. Oda class promised to provide professional teachers for online tuition classes for IGCSE students. However, they have not taken her IGCSE classes, instead, she is sent links for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) classes only," said Dasgupta.

“Oda class offered students the chance to join for just ₹29. My daughter was quite nervous about attending, but she managed it well. Later, Neel, one of their executives, informed us that their classes are also available for the IGCSE Board,” she told Education Post in an exclusive chat.

Expressing her frustration over not receiving any customer support, she said, "No one picks up calls, no reply from emails. Email is bouncing back,” she said. Dasgupta further accused Oda class of not responding to the provided customer support number.

The platform charges her ₹2,700 monthly, in addition to ₹6,000 at the time of admission.

“No classes were ever taken. They are charging ₹2,700 per month and ₹6,000 for admission. We paid the initial payment for admission. Later they told us to pay through Bajaj Finance EMI as they have a tie-up with them. We did it,” she added

“We asked every important question about all the facilities they claimed to provide us,” she added.

“Bajaj Finance has already paid money till August, but I will not continue to pay further. I am constantly getting calls from them asking to pay the overdue amount. When I am not getting the relevant class, why should I pay,” a distressed Dasgupta asked.

She further alleged the company of playing with the future of young kids. “They are playing with the future of young children. My daughter’s time is wasted; she is in grade 9 now. The moment they started the classes, they were only taking ICSE and CBSE. No class for IGCSE,” she said.

“Other parents are also complaining. My daughter's confidence is shattered, especially as she is about to take her first public exam," Mrs Dasgupta told Education Post.

Another parent, Narinder Aggarwal, who enrolled his child in the Oda class program, said, “I have been following with Oda Support for two months since the day I paid fees for my kid's enrollment in Oda classes, but neither the classes are being provided nor any refund has been made.”

“I am continuously sending emails, but no response from ODA support emails. Interestingly, their support numbers are also not connecting,” he wrote in a comment on a social media post.

Meanwhile, Oda Class Director has refuted all such allegations. While talking to Education Post, Vedant Hamirwasia, Director of Oda Class, said, “We follow a proper refund policy. We have refunded all the payments that fall within the refund policy.”

“We have a proper customer support team. We respond and resolve all the queries at the earliest,” he added.

Hamirwasia also promised to check internally who has made false promises to parents, saying, “We provide CBSE classes. If the parent wants to discontinue, it will be done immediately, and money will be refunded.”

Oda Class is a new LIVE class interactive platform, which began in 2019 with the most advanced technology and Dual Teacher System (DTS), to help school-going students get good online tuition learning.

Oda class provides experienced teachers from Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), National Institute of Technology (NIT), and other premier institutes to ensure better LIVE online learning for students of Class 1–11.