Four Seasons Community School L.L.C.

October 31, 2015:  Print on FSCS letter head and business format Reference:  Complaint ID [redacted] Thank you for the opportunity to respond to these concerns. I worked directly with the Customer and her husband from September 2-18, 2015 via emails and phone calls in hopes of finding a...

mutually agreeable solution. We offered some options and concessions to the Customer’s family to address their situation, but we regret that we are not able to provide the monetary settlement they are seeking. Below is a summary of the situation from our perspective, along with attachments (e.g. emails and signed documentation) that provide details to support our actions. Basically, the Customer and her husband (with whom we dealt primarily through this relationship), completed our official enrollment forms on August 25, 2015.  On August 27, 2015 they submitted the forms to us along with $742.50 which reflected $175 to reserve space for their child in our 2015-2016 Infant class and $371.25 for the prorated September fees based on their anticipated start date. The Customer’s husband had carefully researched the amount he owed and prepared the check in advance of our meeting where he expressed strong desire to reserve a spot for their child.  The Customer is correct that their orientation days (8/27 and 8/28) were complimentary. We offer that to all potential families.  Tuition and down payments are not due necessarily at that time, but when they came in on 8/27/2015 the Customer and her husband made it clear that they felt comfortable providing the check and the signed documents.  Our assistant director who was with them that day recalls reminding them that the tuition portion of the fees could be paid later and that all fees are non-refundable.  This reinforced our communication from the school’s parent handbook, which the customer received in advance along with the enrollment forms.  There is a place on our forms which indicates clearly that the signer received the handbook and agrees to abide by its contents. In the handbook on page 3, it states that “tuition and fees are non-refundable and non-transferable.” The Customer’s signed enrollment forms and copy of our handbook are attached.  We all had a very good experience during the “free” orientation days for their baby on 8/27/15 and 8/28.  The family’s actions and words (in person and via emails) showed satisfaction with our services and strong commitment to a long term arrangement with us.  They even brought in enough diapers and other personal baby supplies to indicate they were staying.    The family communicated an approximate start-date of September 8th though the baby’s exact schedule had not been determined. They told us it would be a four-day per week arrangement. We considered their child enrolled and planned our staffing accordingly. Unfortunately, on September 2nd, the Customer notified us of her changing child care needs.  They were not going to need our services at all since we don’t offer part-time arrangements like they now needed (i.e. 2 days per week).  Their cancellation did not follow our required 30-day notice period, also clearly stated in the parent handbook. We did not press that point, but thanked the family for their consideration and wished them the best. Attached you will see our email exchanges at this stage.  The Customer and her husband seemed OK with our decision but then on 9/3/15 asked if they could at least bring in their baby for the two weeks they felt they paid for.  Our business model, staffing approach, and paperwork does not consider payment for or staffing of part time scenarios, including the two-weeks of care the Customer references. While we did seriously consider their unique request and we wished we could have accommodated their situation, staffing circumstances for us had changed as well.  Texas teacher-child ratio requirements along with our staffing mix at the time made it impossible to accommodate another child for only two weeks. We understand this was disappointing to the Customer. On 9/10/15, the Customer’s husband began asking for a partial refund and expressed confusion about the payment they made in August.  We explained our rationale and hoped he would understand our position.  We don’t believe policies are more important than people but we do depend on those down payments to hold spots for infants, especially knowing there may be multiple families vying for the same spots and making decisions that could change.  We feel there is little room for confusion regarding the enrollment process and the intent of the fees the Customer paid. We are confused about their expectation that some of their payment was only for two weeks of services and that they could be entitled to equivalent services and/or a refund of fees under certain scenarios.  The payment we collected from them was to hold a spot in the 2015-16 infant class along with the prorated amount for care in September; all of our families pay their monthly fees in advance like that and those fees are non-refundable, as indicated in the parent handbook.  Out of respect for our current, past and future customer families, we need to consistently apply our non-refundable down payment policy to hold precious few open spots for infant care. If we made an exception for this family, we would likely have even more complaints from other families who similarly had circumstances change causing them to forfeit their down payments as well.   The email exchanges with the Customer and her husband, along with the signed enrollment documents and several one-on-one conversations led us to believe that the Customer and her husband clearly understood our process and payment requirements. They even dropped off more than two days supplies for the baby which seemed to indicate a commitment to a long term arrangement. It was not until after the September 2nd email, when they told us changed their minds, that we became aware they did not consider the baby enrolled and that they expected a refund of some of their payment under their specific scenario.    Please know that we were very much looking forward to caring for the Customer’s child during this upcoming school year.  We enjoyed our interactions with the baby and with them.  We also understand the difficult decisions that parents are making regarding the best infant care solution for their families so we tried to be as accommodating as possible to the Customer’s family.  Should their situation change again, we would welcome them back and would honor the previous offer extended to them; this included an offer to apply the Customer’s down payment monies to future care at our facility. Finally, as the Customer alluded to in her complaint, we uncovered an error when we refunded $221 to them on xx date.  We are not seeking repayment but the attached spreadsheet lays out all funds exchanged.  We are hopeful this might clear up the confusion also expressed in the complaint by the Customer.  We also are not holding the Customer to the handbook requirement of a 30- day notice period when canceling enrollments; this also would have required additional payments, which we are not seeking. Please let us know if you have questions about the above summary or the attached supporting documents.  We take customer feedback very seriously and are evaluating at our internal processes to see if there are opportunities to improve our organization as a result of this situation.    Thank you.