Institute for Mediation 3207 Mercer Street, Houston, TX 77040

"Ripped off my girlfriend. Guy was rude, never held the course and kept her money. Do not come here! You will be ripped off entirely."

"This is a SCAM! Do not give them your money. Look them up on the Better Business Bureau website: they don't exist. Try calling them or emailing them: you won't get a response. I showed up for their October classes in San Antonio at the address listed on their website for the San Antonio classes and no one was there. If you have already given them money, call PayPal or your credit card company and report the fraud and try to get your money back."

"Very unreliable scheduling. Very poor service. Now I am stuck trying to get a refund."

"I have not even attended and the guy that runs this organization is rude, short and presents with an ugly attitude. I will attend next week because it is a non-refundable fee...but first impression is bad! He could not settle a dog fight with his attitude."

"I took two basic mediation courses, one with the National Institute for Mediation, and the other I won’t name here. I’ve now had a request to mediate about 15 cases, and have done well. National Institute for Mediation was a good choice, but wouldn’t be my first choice if I had to do it all over again with the same agenda. It’s a good course but read my review. I decided to take the second basic mediation course at another location for a reason. I've also now taken a family mediation course that I was going to orginally take here, but decided to go else where. For the most part I thought this was an informative course to learn the basics of mediation. Tracie Zimmerman is an excellent instructor for basic mediation, and keeps the class interesting. I would say I got what I needed to understand the mediation process and conduct mediation with additional practice. The big issue is Dr. Bob Geiger, although he was knowledgeable, he had a tendency to disrupt the class, and Mrs. Zimmerman sometimes couldn't control that, it was very frustrating. Even speaking to a past student who came in during one of our sessions, I recall him warning myself and the other students how annoying and rude Mr. Geiger could get. They also spent a lot of time telling the class how bad other courses were, and mediators who didn't attend their courses. If they got away from that and Dr. Geiger could control himself to not be so disruptive, I would recommend this course. Otherwise, spend your money elsewhere. Their course is good, but there are other basic mediation courses in Houston that are just as informative and helpful in putting you on the right path to mediating, if that's your goal. Just research, I took this one and another one, and to compare, I rank this one second, but only because of the reasons I mentioned. Also notice that all their Testimonials are five stars. Trust me when I tell you, after speaking to my fellow classmates, they wouldn't get five stars from everyone,because of the issues I mentioned. These are most likely the testimonials they picked to sell their services."