Charles Gracie Jiu Jitsu Academy

Review: In June '13, our son enrolled in a summer special with a commitment of just for the summer. At the end of that commitment in Sept '13, my wife made a verbal commitment for another 12 month. It was her understanding that that 12-month commitment would ends before the '14 school year would start (Sept '14). In Oct, my wife signed a contract, failing to notice that the written contract differed from the verbal contract. The written contract had a start date of Nov '13 instead of the verbal understanding of Sept '13. I cancelled the enrollment at the beginning of Sept '14 and was charged for Sept & Oct '14 even though the verbal contract ends on Aug '14.Desired Settlement: Refund of payment for Sept & Oct '14.

Review: Charles Gracie Jiu Jitsu academy offers month to month jiu jitsu training. The academy offers a 10% discount if paid for a full year per our understanding and explanation from the staff is not a year contract but and advance payment. We are in our second year which was paid in nov/dec 2012. After 19 months our child is no longer interested in attending classes for various reasons including provided training at a level that he cannot compete to. The academy encourage students to sign up for tournaments including their own sponsor tournaments and tournaments from academies the Charles Gracie academy supports.My child is husky 6 year old and because of his weight and height he is force to compete against 8 and 9 year-olds. The Charles Gracie Academy lack to notified the parents of the fact that our children will compete with other kids with same weight regardless of the age all tournaments are like that including the Charles Gracie annual tournament. The Charles Gracie Jiu Jitsu academy forces my 6-year old child to train with 4 to 6 year olds who are half his size and weight training that does not prepare him for tournaments. After bringing this up with the trainer and suggesting multiple times to move my son to a 7 to 8 year old class, the trainer discouraged the suggestion again even though my child must compete against more mature kids.Inevitably, my son has lost interest You can't blame a child for not wanting to attend a class-level for which he will not be able to compete, and compete at a level he is not trained for. We approached the owner and trainers with this issue they all pretty much nodded and stated it is what it is. Finally, I personal walked into the academy twice and stated that my son wont be coming back and requested a refund for the remainder of his pre-paid training. It wasn't until I wrote a letter to the owner with my request that the owner responded he wont be issuing a refund and demanded to bring my child to his classes.

Product_Or_Service: Jiujitsu training

Desired Settlement: DesiredSettlementID: Refund

In good faith, Im only requesting refund for five unused pre-paid months minus the 10% discount a rough total of $483.85 (if my math is right -- originally paid $1350, adding the 10% comes to $1485 divided by 12 is a total of roughly $123.75 per month) based on the lack of appropriate training my child was encouraged and able to compete

Business

Response:

Initial Business Response

The Charles Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy does not offer month-to-month training. Our academy offers only 12-month programs for kids. Before enrolling at our academy any and all potential students are notified of the commitment period. The 10% discount is offered for students who would rather pay the tuition upfront instead of being billed throughout the year. Every youth student that is enrolled at the academy has an age specific class that they attend. The reason for this is specifically in order for students to keep from being discouraged, injured, or training with a group of students that they are not ready to train with. Since this student has been with us for over a year, we feel that the training and the class group is not the problem. If it were why would they renew their membership for another year? We believe the problem was that after an unpleasant experience with an unknown event, the parents of this child ignored the fact that he was uncomfortable with competitions, and disliked participating in competitions, but they continued to force him to participate not once, but as stated by the customer, on multiple occasions. As they are a healthy learning process of any sport, our instructors recommend participating in competitions, but from day one it is made clear that students should only participate in competitions when they feel comfortable doing so, and ONLY if they feel comfortable doing so. We believe that the loss of interest in jiu-jitsu for this particular student did not come from the lack of excellent instruction, or training, but from him being irresponsibly and continuously enrolled in competitions by his parents. Furthermore, this customer is not asking for a refund "in good faith" or "for unused time" as she claims. She has recently contacted her credit card company falsely accusing us of fraudulent charges claiming that she had no knowledge of what the charge could be for and had no recollection of why there would be a charge from our academy. This was clearly untruthful and proven a false accusation when we sent the copy of her signed receipt authorizing us to charge her account for the renewal of her sons membership to her credit card company.

To this letter we have attached several documents that we have in our records. These documents include the child's membership form (which he was enrolled by his father), an email sent to us by his father notifying us that his son was ready to return to his regular training, the signed copy of the receipt authorizing us to charge them for a year of Jiu-Jitsu, and the letter from their credit card company claiming that they had accused us of fraudulent charges (which the case has been dismissed and it was proven to be a valid charge).

As we are a very reputable and respected business in our community and around the world these accusations are of high concern to us. We have never had any complaints of this nature before, and have never been accused of wrongfully charging any of our students. Since Mr. [redacted] is the one who signed his son up, and informed us that his son was excited to be back to training, we do not understand why Mrs. [redacted] is claiming otherwise. Until today we have yet to hear the same from Mr. [redacted] himself.

We would like to request that before anything be publicly posted, that you contact our attorney. His contact information is listed in this letter. Thank you for the opportunity of allowing us to explain our side of the situation, as you is a highly respected Bureau; we trust that this will be resolved in the most fair and honest way possible.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me any time at (XXX) XXX-XXXX.

Sincerely,

Final Consumer Response

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

I do not accept the response from Charles Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy.

In modern age, either parent can advocate for their children. If the Academy has not heard from Mr. [redacted], it is because the Academy has ignored his phone calls and emails this past summer. In any case, Mr. [redacted] and I are in agreement with our claim.

This business is untruthful. Mr. Gracie states that this has not happen to the Academy before - I have spoken to several parents, two of them had similar issues and had gone through the same struggles with this Academy. Both parents lost out four to five months due the Academy unwillingness to work with them, delaying and lack of responses, bad communication and simply not sympathizing or understanding issues. The business claims it specializes in kids but they don't understand kids. Yes, the Academy may separate the classes by age group but there are several kids that are being trained at a level they cannot compete due to weight. The Academy stresses participation in competitions to help with belt promotions. Competition is talked about regularly during training. Not providing my son with proper training with the age group which he must compete due to his weight is a breach of implied warranty, which my son will be able to learn skills at a level in which he can put them test in competition and earn a belt promotion.

Additional evidence that the business conducting itself in a deceitful manner is Mr. Gracie stating having a 12-month contract. However, after completion of the original 12 month contract, the contract itself states it will continue on a month to month basis. Our issues with Mr. Gracie's Academy arose during the 15th - 18th month, we don't believe we have signed a second year contract, thus, we are month to month customers. Our request for proof of contract has been consistently denied by Mr. Gracie and Staff - otherwise we would have gone through different approach to obtain money back. The Academy staff pushes the parents to sign a new contract, but we did not. This nagging gimmick from the staff happened to me and to other parents I have spoken to. Most parents I have personally spoken, many which I regret referring to the Academy, have indicated they were unaware of this month-to-month after initial contract and the Academy conveniently fails to explain it to them when signing initial contract. Luckily, the parents now understand and they won't be renewing contracts with the Academy in support of our claim.

The business is irresponsible. The Academy was aware we signed up our child for a several tournaments- tournaments they sponsored by advertising it with fliers in their Academy and via email to the parents. Before signing up and attending any of the tournaments we spoke to the trainer for his feeling in our son readiness to compete. The trainer stated "He is ready" and suggested private lessons to brush up on some technics. We agreed and purchased private lessons. To our surprise on the first tournament, my son was placed to fight 8-9 year old kids, rather than fighting 4-6 year-old which is the age group he trained with for the initial nine months. Upon our returned we spoke to the trainer and explained the situation, he acted like this "weight" requirement was news to him. I would have expected the "weight" information detail from the trainer at the time we originally express interest in the tournament after all they claim to be the experts in the business and "world known."

Having 15 months into the Academy and after purchasing 30 private lessons, our son lost interest in the Academy due to his lack of preparation for competition. You can't blame a kid for not wanting to train at a level he cannot compete in and put skill into practice. In many occasions, the trainer ignore our requests about having our son train with older kids - after several requests he only agreed to one class. The Academy failed to provide competition-appropriate training to our child so that he could compete and put into practice the skills he learned in class and in 30 private lessons.

This business is fraudulent. All 30 private lessons were purchased cash-only paid to trainers of the Academy to which I was denied a receipt, even after repeatedly requesting one. When I purchased the last 15 private lessons I paid with a check, but I was told "private lessons are cash only but we'll take your check this time." I am sure there are few Government agencies that would love to hear about these "cash-only" transactions happening at this business.

Regarding the credit card dispute Mr. Gracie brought up. I'm only disputing the unused portion for services not rendered - this is the same amount of this case with the Revdex.com. I can't control how the credit card disputes those charges. Mr. Gracie is welcome to contact this true world-known credit card company if has any concerns. The case still open and if the Revdex.com needs any information from me, I'd be happy to provide it.

Bottom line, I do not accept the Academy's response and still reiterate my request for refund. The amount being requested is $483.85 which is roughly the total of 4-5 unused pre-paid months, minus the 10% discount received for the used 8 months. A membership application and advance payment are not proof of contract - it only shows my interest in the Academy and that I have paid in advance.

Sincerely,

P.S. Mr. Gracie provided the Revdex.com with a lot of PII, we would appreciate it if our personal identifiable information is protected since his business has failed to do so. Thank you!