Krav Maga Academy

This customer signed up with our gym December 1st, 2017. He signed a month to month contract which requires 30 days notice for cancellation. He twice initialed the 30 day notice clause in the contract as is our policy. He was also advised verbally of this clause when he signed up. He phoned us on...

January 1st, 2018 complaining that he had been charged for membership dues. I told him of our 30 day notice policy but agreed to waive it for the following month, unsatisfied he demanded a refund of the amount already debited, I told him our policy was not to grant refunds if we are not informed in advance of the desire to cancel. However I asked him to email us and put his request in writing and I would review his case. Prior to emailing us he posted one review under his name on [redacted] dishonestly stating that he had money stolen by us, and also dishonestly stating that he was in the Armed Forces. He then created 6 fake accounts and proceeded to leave other dishonest reviews. He then emailed asking for his money back, he said that if we did not refund his money he would continue to spam our [redacted] listing with fake reviews. I refused to be blackmailed and had our attorney issue him a cease and desist letter citing libel statutes as the claims he was making were both public and patently false (the legal standard for libel). In this letter we included a copy of his contact, and copies of his emails attempting to blackmail us. We also contacted [redacted], we produced the threatening emails for them as evidence and they removed his “reviews” the following day.This customer claims he did not know his contractual obligation, even though he specifically initialed the clause. Despite this I waived the clause so he would not be charged the following month. Furthermore he lied about being in the US Armed Forces (I challenge him to produce a copy of orders issued by his command) in order to publicly embarrass our business. This is beyond shameful, misrepresenting yourself as a member of the US Military can be considered a criminal matter. These dishonest reviews have the potential to adversely affect our business upon which people rely for their and their families‘ livelihood. If the money we debited was unauthorized he would simply need to go to his bank and issue a chargeback, we would then be contacted for a response, and if it was illegitimate his money would be refunded by law. He chose not to go this route because he knew he was in the wrong, and instead of being accountable for his actions chose to defame our business by lying about the entire event publicly.Our legal counsel has issued this customer a cease and desist notice and our intent to pursue legal redress as his actions constitute libel. The claims a false, they are public, they have the potential to damage our business, and were accompanied by written threats of blackmail which were included in supporting documentation.[redacted] Owner, Krav Maga Academy San Diego