American Dojo Martial Arts

Review: I enrolled my son in the 6 week free trial with American Dojo. During that time they offer incentives to sign a contract with them and if done within the first two weeks of the free trial. At that time, after two visits to the Dojo, my son seemed to enjoy his time there so I was encouraged to sign a contract with them. Within two weeks after signing the contract I was rather concerned over the treatment that my son received during the lessons. There are different levels of enrollment and we had enrolled in the "lesser" level of enrollment and it became very clear that the instructors were more concerned over providing good service to those that paid more. My son was passed over several times for different reasons for favor to be put on those that pay more. My son left the Dojo in tears and felt demoralized and defeated instead of encouraged. I spoke with an office woman who worked at the Waukesha location and explained my concerns to her. She mentioned that she would talk to [redacted] to try and resolve the situation. I spoke to several people calling from the Hartland location questioning why my son hadn't been in classes. I explained that my situation was being reviewed and they said they would follow up if needed but I never heard anything back from anyone. I finally emailed [redacted] and he replied that he hadn't heard of my situation from anyone. During this time I was continuing to be charged the monthly fee. [redacted] and I conversed via email several times and attempted to connect via telephone but were unsuccessful. Since then I have emailed [redacted] several times with no response. I received another call from the Dojo in Hartland and I explained the situation and said that I thought it was resolved and I shouldn't be receiving any more charges. The gentleman I spoke with said he would follow up with [redacted] and one of them would get back to me. I received no response again. I noticed on my bank statement that I was still being charged and again reached out to [redacted] for assistance. My son refuses to go back to the Dojo, so I am paying for something that I am not using. I'm a widowed mother and don't have the finances to pay nearly $200 a month for something that I'm not using. I asked if there were alternatives to the enrollment so possibly I could take my other son as a last resort so I'm not just wasting money.Desired Settlement: I want the charges to stop entirely, and since we never attended the Dojo outside of the 6 week trial I'd prefer to get my money back. The incentive I was supposed to receive for signing up within the two weeks I never actually received and thus have nothing to return has incurred benefit.

Business

Response:

Dear Ms. [redacted] (Revdex.com representative),

When Ms. [redacted] initially sent an email requesting info about

cancelling, she sent it to the wrong email address for that type of request, which is why there was initially a delay in reply. As stated

in the policies which she signed, this type of correspondence must

either be mailed via regular post to our office in Waukesha or sent via

email to [email protected]. (This information can be found on page 1B of the policies).

Once I received Ms. [redacted]'s

request/ complaint, I responded within less than 3 hours by both calling her

(left a voicemail) as well as emailing her & asking her to call me.

When I did not hear form her I emailed again letting her know that I

would be out of the country the following week but that I would welcome

her return call any time that day. I received no such call, nor did I

receive any further emails. The last correspondence I had from Ms.

[redacted] was on June 21st.

According to Ms. [redacted]'s original email sent inquiring on how to go about cancelling membership, her reasons given for wanting to cancel were 2 fold: the first being cost, and the second being her son having one negative experience in a class. Ms. [redacted] never returned the multiple personal phone calls from myself (Dean [redacted]), I even provided her with my personal cell phone number so that she could reach me directly at most any time of day. I was hoping we could have a conversation about the situation so that I could better understand the problem and offer a solution. I expressed this sentiment in the voicemails I left for [redacted].

In addition to this, Ms. [redacted] (as she mentioned in the complaint) was contacted multiple times over the course of a number of months by members of my staff, seeking to reach out to her & her son, offering to give special attention for the purpose of helping him re-engage in classes. Ms. [redacted] never afforded me or my staff the opportunity to do this or attempt to restore the value of the membership to her.

Because of the difficulty I was having in making contact with her, I proceeded to freeze the payments on her membership for a period of 3 months in the hopes that we could reach some type of understanding within that time. My staff & I continued to try to make progress with her via phone to no avail. Being that the membership was contracted for 11 payments of $149 each, the payments resumed after the 3 month freeze expired.

Ms. [redacted] never took steps to formally freeze or cancel her membership in accordance with the membership agreement or membership policies.

Please see the attached documents regarding the cancellation policies

and membership terms Ms. [redacted] signed at enrollment. She was also given

a printed copy of these documents at the time of enrollment.

I am sorry that Ms. [redacted] & her son seem to have had a negative experience with my business. I wish I had been able to have the opportunity to remedy that. I do not believe that I have dealt unfairly with her, in fact I have made concessions over & above what is provided for in any of the signed agreements (3 month payment freeze).

In hopes of finding a resolution which would be acceptable to [redacted], I would offer 3 options:

1. To cancel out the remaining balance on the membership contract (currently $745.00). In addition, I would offer to refund the payments drafted after her initial complaint in June (that would be 3 payments- a total refund of $447.00).

2. To cancel out the remaining balance of the membership contract ($745.00)

while welcoming [redacted] back into classes at American Dojo for

the 6 months of membership time already paid, which has gone mostly

unused. In addition, I am willing to set up a couple of private lessons (free of charge) to help him re-engage in the program. My priority has always been and continues to be customer service. I would very much appreciate the opportunity to service [redacted]'s membership, and partner with [redacted] in helping him reach the goals she expressed to me when he enrolled.

3. To cancel out the remaining balance of the membership contract ($745.00)

while welcoming [redacted]'s other son into classes at American Dojo (this option was proposed by [redacted] in her complaint). He could attend classes for the 6 months of membership time already paid, which has gone mostly

unused. I would also throw in a free uniform for that child.

I look forward to reaching a resolution in this matter.

Regards,

American Dojo Martial Arts

Consumer

Response:

I appreciate the response from Mr. [redacted]. I'm slightly frustrated though because the details provided aren't entirely accurate. I don't believe that Mr. [redacted] is intending to provide poor customer service, and I don't believe that this is how the business is conducted on a day to day basis. I do believe that this situation has been one of unfortunate miscommunications. With that said there were several times I verbal spoke with members of both the Waukesha and Hartland Dojo locations questioning me when my son was returning for lessons. I would politely explain the situation and their response would always be that they or Mr. [redacted] would get back to me, which I would receive no response for either party. So the impression that there were phone call after phone call with no response from me is inaccurate. Yes, Mr. [redacted] provided me with his direct cell phone and while he claims I never contacted him that is inaccurate as I did call and leave a voicemail indicating that it's extremely difficult for me to sit down and have a conversation via phone. I am widowed, a full-time mom of two boys ages 7 and 3, a full-time student, and also work part-time. I have no daycare, no babysitters, and no family in the area, so it's not as though I have a lot of free time to sit and have a detailed conversation over the phone. I attempted to explain that in my voicemail to Mr. [redacted] in the hopes that we could communicate via email, as that is a more practical means of communication for me. In addition, as you can see from my original email to the email address titled "info" I was looking for information on what to do about my membership. At no time did I believe that I was cancelling my membership via that method, however I was attempting to gather information on HOW to proceed. I never received any guidance on such subject however. I was trying to gather the information because I could not locate my contract in order to reference the detail. This is the first time I'm actually receiving details about how to cancel or suspend the membership. I had spoken to a woman from the Waukesha Dojo about all of this in FEBRUARY, and she said she would have to speak with Mr. [redacted] about what to do with my membership and either she or he would get back to me. That phone call never came. When I emailed in June it was a follow up from that original conversation which is even mentioned in my original email. I have no problem going back through my phone records if necessary, but that's a painstaking process that I really don't see the purpose of.

So while I would SETTLE for the first option that Mr. [redacted] presented, with canceling membership and refunding 3 payments, I'd prefer to be refunded back to February when I originally formulated my complaint verbally. I spoke with the woman on the phone for nearly 10 minutes, and we spoke personally about our lives including that her children also go to the Dojo. Had I known the situation would have transpired to this I would have taken down more details, however I never imagined I would be pursuing this method of resolution. Again, I don't believe that Mr. [redacted] intended for this to happen, and I don't believe that this is common place for their business, this is a specific situation to my child that resulted in a stream of miscommunications. However at this point I wish I would have never stepped foot in the door of the Dojo.

Regards,

Business

Response:

I do appreciate the customer providing additional information to me on her concerns. The information I have provided is 100% accurate to the best of my knowledge and according to the records that I have. I still feel confident that we can reach an agreement on this matter.

As an instructional academy/ service-type business, I rely heavily on verbal and in-person communication to address concerns and get feedback on how to improve the experiences of all my students (similar to the way school teachers communicate with parents via regular conferences). In the nearly 20 years of being in this profession I have experienced much success in this area with this approach, so I would again invite Ms. [redacted] to have an actual conversation with me.

I am open to discussing a different resolution than the 3 options I had proposed, but I would need to have a verbal conversation with Ms. [redacted] in order to better understand where the breakdown in communication initially occurred as well as to iron out the details of processing a possible refund. All I would ask is for a 10- 15 minute phone call. If she would prefer an in-person meeting, I would be open to that as well. Children of all ages are welcome in my academies and I could even arrange for a staff member to play games with/ entertain the kids while we chat. I view this as an opportunity to improve business practices and staff training at American Dojo.

Ms. [redacted] has my personal cell phone number & that is the best way for her to contact me.

American Dojo Martial Arts