Growing Footprints Education Center, Inc.

On [redacted] my wife was notified that she was to laid off effective [redacted] she immediately notified both of the day care centers we utilize in Charlton In the email sent to Growing Footprint, she gave a two week notice and requested if there are any refund, to please let us know. There was no response from the owner Ms. [redacted] When my wife went to the day care and ask her if there was any refund, she said that she need a four week notice in order to issue a refund of any kind. This layoff was completely unexpected, and out of her control. My wife offered to pay the daycare 1 mo. in advance because she was charged a late fee from the daycare because she did not pay the Dec. payment by its due date [redacted] the owner followed her contract to the letter, and charged a late fee.....We fully understand and respect the fact that she signed into a formal agreement, under these terms but, this layoff was very sudden, unexpected and devastating to our family in addition to being far beyond our control. Please help get our [redacted] back.Product_Or_Service: Daycare ServiceDesired SettlementThis layoff and the lack of notice she received was completely out of my wife's control, under these conditions she was unable to provide a 4 weeks notice per the day cares requirement we should receive a full refund of the 2 weeks (upfront) payment she made in the amount of[redacted] Business Response Prior to [redacted] the customer informed me that her employment position was being cut down to part time and that she had the option to accept a part time position. She inquired about how much part time childcare would cost, and I gave her tuition rates for various schedules. On [redacted] the costumer emailed me informing me that after taking everything into consideration, her family decided it would "better off" to receive a layoff. She then informed me that her child's last day with us would be [redacted] which only gave me a two week notice. Upon enrollment, and with each schedule change, the family must sign a contract which states "If you decide to change your child's schedule or withdraw them from the center, a 30 day notice is required". This customer was well aware of the contract and policy, which she acknowledged in her email that I received on [redacted] 8 stating "I'm not sure if there will be any refund at this point". I did inform the customer in person when she was picking up her child that unfortunately we need to follow the policy, and that no refund was going to be issued. The family decided to in fact have the child's last day be [redacted] which when taking into consideration the date they gave their notice, only provided a one week notice when a 30 day notice is required. Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)After reviewing the e-mail thread originally delivered to Growing Foot Prints, the first correspondence notifying GFP was dated [redacted] at [redacted] The manner in which the lay-off was conveyed to my wife was; her position maybe cut down to 20 hours per week or to accept an entire lay-off. We did explore and evaluate the part time option but, due to the expenses associated with "part time day care" combined with accepting a 50% cut in pay verses opting for an entire lay-off, and not having to pay for the day care the decision was not hard to make in fact, it was no-brainer. The financial aspects of working part time would have made a bad situation, even worse she would have been working just to pay for day care expenses with little or nothing left. When my wife originally approached Mrs. [redacted] via e-mail notifying her of the situation, she also asked her about a refund for the day care fees paid up-front, she never had the courtesy of responding, or replying in any way to her e-mail. She did however, indicate to my wife verbally "she had to run it by her business partner and she would get back to her with an answer" Well, this never occurred. As far Mrs. [redacted]'s comments about our daughters last day being [redacted] this is because "it was the end of her billing cycle" her payments are due on the 25th' of each month. Does it make sense to Mrs. [redacted] that we bring our daughter to her day care center for that entire week, and waste gas transporting her both ways when my wife will be home all day? In addition, we were informed by a parent of a child that still goes to GFP that our daughter's spot was immediately filled so, Mrs. [redacted] has made out very well for herself at our expense. Mrs. [redacted] fails to acknowledge or recognize is, her contract is very ambiguous, and does not specify that a refund will not be given. Is it the $100.00 deposit that will not be refunded, or the fees paid upfront for services not rendered? The contract clearly specifies "If you decide to change your child's schedule, or withdraw them from the center, a 30 day notice is required, and there is no guarantee that the original schedule will remain available". We paid a full month upfront that was submitted on July 25th where does her contract state a refund for pre-paid services will not be given for those services not rendered.Mrs. [redacted] has no legitimate reason for not issuing a refund for pre-paid services "never rendered" other than a poor work ethic and business practices, and based on selfishness, and greed. From the get go, Mrs. [redacted] has repeatedly demonstrated poor judgment, by enforcing petty policies to include charging a late fee for not submitting our payment on December 25th CHRISTMAS!! In the real world, holidays and weekends are not viewed as business days and generally "due dates" that do fall on weekends and or holidays get pushed to the following business day. We will be further pursuing this situation, to include; filing a detailed complaint with the Attorney General's office, The Department of Consumer Affairs, The Department of Early Education, & Care and if it ends up escalating to small claims court, so be it and when properly presented and we demonstrate a pattern of poor judgment this whole situation may very well back fire on her, and we will seek triple damages. Overall, [redacted] made our entire experience and services at GFP satisfactory at best, she, and her staff repeatedly misrepresented "her policies", as FDA regulations, and when questioned about these FDA regulations, she was forced to back pedal, make up excuses to cover up for these untruths, and in the end "she was unable to locate these fictitious FDA regulation but she knew it existed" then simply avoided us because she refused to follow our request by giving our daughter whole milk as requested by her pediatrician. These will be just a few of the topics in the complaint I have drafted and will be submitting to the mass licensing board and Attorney General's Office. Sincerely,[redacted]Final Business Response I am willing to refund 50% of the tuition they are asking for. I hate to see clients leaving on a bad note, however I need to keep consistency serving this many clients. As they gave me half of the notice I required, I will refund them for half of what they are asking. They are asking for $557.74 back, and I will refund $278.88.