Nonetheless, the Haggler is about to make the point again, this time — a first — courtesy of an institution of higher learning.

Q. In 2011, I transferred from LaGuardia Community College into Baruch College in Manhattan. Even though I have been a New York City resident my entire life, Baruch classified me as an out-of-stater and for the past two years has been charging me about 50 percent more for tuition than it should.

To its credit, the school caught the mistake and sent a letter telling me so. Officials explained that I’d be charged in-state rates going forward, but said nothing about a refund for the more than $7,000 in overcharges. So I visited the admissions office.

Why this was necessary is a mystery. The school had already concluded that I’m a longtime New Yorker, and it had proof in the form of my transcript from the Kew-Forest School in Queens. But I visited anyway, with my driver’s license and a car insurance document. A woman behind the counter expressed some doubt about whether I’d get a refund — something like, “Normally, if you paid, you don’t get the money back.”

Then I was instructed to file an appeal, with photocopies of my driver’s license and my voter registration card. I dutifully mailed that in recently, but I have the distinct impression that the school is using everything in its bureaucratic toolbox to hold on to my money.

Maybe the Haggler can expedite this process, if it is a process, as opposed to a dead end that only looks like a process.

MATTHEW LEVY

Manhattan

A. Let us say at the outset that it’s possible that Baruch College would eventually have sent Mr. Levy a refund. It’s even possible that the school was going to send that refund soon. We’ll never know. Mr. Levy wrote to the Haggler the same day he mailed in his appeal.

But one can understand why he concluded that the school was, at minimum, reluctant to part with his $7,000. It had all the proof it needed to know that charging him out-of-state rates was wrong, and that proof — his high school transcript — seems more compelling than either a driver’s license or a voter registration card. Either of those can be obtained by just about anyone who has moved to New York State.

All right, not everyone. The state’s Board of Elections says that to qualify for a voter registration card, you must live at your present New York address for 30 days, not be in prison, or on parole for a felony conviction and not be adjudged mentally incompetent by a court. Given that Mr. Levy has a voter registration card, we can probably assume that he is not criminally insane. Or rather, that he is neither an ex-con nor insane.

But big deal. Many people are neither nuts, nor onetime criminals. In fact, some of the Haggler’s best friends are neither nuts, nor onetime criminals. The compelling proof of residency here is not Mr. Levy’s sanity or lack of a felony past. It’s his attendance at Kew-Forest, and one presumes that his performance at that institution helped persuade the admissions office at Baruch to admit him.

So why was Baruch hassling Mr. Levy for documentation that he really didn’t need to produce? The school’s position seems a classic example of “We screwed up. What are you going to do about it?” Highly annoying.

The Haggler contacted Christina Latouf, a spokeswoman for the college. She needed a day or two to figure out what had happened, and then she wrote something rather remarkable. In an e-mail, she said that the school not only took responsibility for stumbling blocks inserted between Mr. Levy and his refund, but also that changes would be made so that such errors don’t happen again. Those changes include working with the City University of New York — of which Baruch is part — to review out-of-state designations.

“Further, if a student’s initial documentation indicates they have always been a New York State resident, we will no longer request additional documentation,” Ms. Latouf wrote.

Do you hear that, dear readers? It is the sweet sound of modest reform, a noise as rare as the quack of the Scaly Sided Merganser. (It’s a very scarce duck, according to the Internet, and the Haggler has no idea if it quacks. But you get the point.) The pleasures of consumer interventions in this space usually come in single servings — like those pudding containers that you ate in grade school. But Baruch is actually going to change its system.

“At the heart of this case was an incorrect coding designation,” Ms. Latouf wrote, in conclusion. “While we have put some measures in place (such as the one that triggered our initial outreach to Matthew), we will build and utilize new technologies to put more safeguards in place, and train staff to assure coding is accurate.”

True, soothing and conciliatory words are cheap. But Baruch is off to a good start. Two days after the Haggler called, the school contacted Mr. Levy, and that same afternoon he e-mailed the Haggler a photograph of a document waiting for him at the bursar’s office: a check for $7,245.

E-mail: haggler@nytimes.com. Keep it brief and family-friendly, include your hometown and go easy on the caps-lock key. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/your-money/a-right-way-to-be-wrong.html?partner=rss&emc=rss