Orlando Metropolitan Ballet Academy Reviews (%countItem)
Orlando Metropolitan Ballet Academy Rating
Address: 14846 Wyndham Lakes Blvd STE 11, Orlando, Florida, United States, 32824-4459
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My daughter sustained a back injury on 10/29/19 while rehearsing a number that the dancers were not properly trained to do. She was unable to dance for approximately two months, and continued through the third month doing physical therapy, and she is still having back flexibility issues. We paid November's tuition of $318, but she was unable to dance the entire month. We asked for a refund for November's tuition since she could not dance. First we were told, "yes, but it would be a few days." We never heard back and had to follow up again, then we were told, "No, as per their handbook, unless we quit due to medical illness or injury with doctors notes." We sent a letter withdrawing on 11/30/19. They responded on November 5th, stating that since we were withdrawing they would refund us the tuition on December 10th. December 10th came and went with no refund. We followed up two more times with no response, so we contacted our bank for a chargeback. The bank took down the info, and said someone would be contacting us for the many pages of documents stating that we would be getting a refund. The credit card company never contacted me after contacting the academy because the academy didn't give the credit card company the whole truth. They embellished it by telling them they don't give refunds on tuition, and underlining that one sentence, but neglected to highlight the next paragraph stating that they will give a refund if you withdraw due to injury with notes from the doctor, and also neglected to tell the credit card company that they sent an email stating they would give the refund. They did try to give an adjusted amount back of $234.93, stating that they were going to subtract all the fees for the previous refund from the production that my daughter couldn't dance in, and every credit card transaction that I had done there, so basically they would be double charging me as the fees are already factored into the tuition amount.
*Large file of documentation upon request.*
Product_Or_Service: Ballet Classes
Refund We have already lost $175 in tickets to see a production that my daughter couldn't perform in, $50 for a uniform that she only wore a couple of times, $53 for competition video entrance that she can't be in due to her injury, and many medical fees that we still continue to pay, but we are only asking for what we were told we would get on December 10th 2019. The tuition payment of $318 for the month of November without the adjusted fees, as we were told we would get our tuition payment back.
Orlando Metropolitan Ballet Academy (OMBA) student's handbook, on page 14 states as follows:"A student withdrawing from OMBA must provide OMBA with written notice. Tuition or
payments already made to OMBA are non-refundable" it also states the following:"If a student has to withdraw due to an unforeseen injury or illness, money paid toward
tuition may be deferred. In addition to written notification of the withdrawal, OMBA
must receive documentation from the student's physician confirming the injury or
illness. Payment for administrative fees (i.e. Registration Fees, Enrollment Fees)
cannot be deferred. Approval to defer payment is granted on a case-by-case basis.".
Because parents and students are important to OMBA, It was decided to refund them even-thought it is explained to parents that payments are not refundable and the student's handbook explains it. It was even accepted as justification for withdrawal the acupuncturist note.
We as a non-profit organization with more than 8 students in full or partial tuition scholarship (we only have 42 students in total) these 8 students represents %20 of the total amount of students and it is not financially feasible for OMBA to refund payments that were already compromised for productions or the scholarships.
Finally it was offered the refund for $234.93 which is the $318 of tuition minus the credit card payment fee the merchant/gateway charged and the refund fee the same merchant/gateway charged to this payment an other refunds done to this client.
Mrs *** in an email on December 9th 2020 stated: "Thank you for your kind words. Thank you for the refund, as we weren't expecting it", The check for the refund was made and it was informed to them that the check is at the office for them to pick it up, nevertheless they preferred to file a dispute with their credit card issuing bank, OMBA's merchant/gateway already withdrew the funds (plus a fee for receiving a dispute) from OMBA's bank account on January 13th. OMBA does not have the funds anymore, It was sent an explanation of the case to the merchant/gateway as well on January 16th 2020 because it was considered unfair to OMBA to receive a dispute when the check was made and it is still for them to pick up, also for a refund that they were not even expecting as the same client stated in the email. OMBA does not know what else to do for them since they already disputed the payment and the merchant withdrew and OMBA no longer has the money.
To the client, it is really nice to see *** dancing and rehearsing for Mrs*** coming performance, we can see that your dispute is still pending on the merchant's web page, if we receive the money back the check is still at the office for you to pick it up. We are very sorry for all this trouble. We have only answered formally to your complains, first to our merchant and now to Revdex.com.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Password to handbook is Orlandomet2018
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I DO NOT accept this response. As stated in my original complaint, after I filed a charge back with my bank, Partner's***, for services not rendered, they submitted the information to ***, who was supposed to ask for my file of proof, and they never did. *** did not do their job. They went straight to OMBA, and OMBA LIED to them by telling them that their handbook says that they do not give a tuition refund for any reason. OMBA only underlined that sentence in the handbook, and omitted the fact that the second paragraph stated that they do give refunds for withdrawal for injury or illness with a doctor's note. Because of that LIE the *** company sided with them, and *** DID issued them a refund NOT me, which is stated in the attached document, as OMBA claimed in their statement to Revdex.com. Their statement to Revdex.com says that they had the money withdrawn from them, and never returned. I spoke to Partner's***, my bank, and they assured me that they did refund OMBA the money, and that as OMBA has done all along, they were not telling the truth. They also didn't tell the visa company that they sent me an email dated 11/26/19 that said, "We checked our handbook after your mention to it and we found, as mentioned in our first conversation, that tuition may be deferred only if the case is withdrawal. That is why in said conversation I mentioned that we could do the exception only if you were considering withdrawal."
I sent an email on 11/30/19 withdrawing my daughter.
On 12/5/19 they responded and said, "...since you are withdrawing *** from our academy I can arrange the refund of November tuition as discussed before and as our student handbook estates." They said they would do it on the 10th of December. That never happened and you can see the progression of emails on my attachment. By the time they responded to me about the adjusted rate of $234.93 on 12/18/19 at 4:46PM, I had already contacted my Bank at 4:00-4:15PM to disputed the charge. When I received the email, I did not respond, and I just allowed the bank to handle it. I did report to the bank on 12/20/19 at 2:50PM that they had sent me the offer of $234.93, just to keep them in the loop, but since I had already filed with them, I would let the process continue because I wasn't happy about the adjusted amount, and the original email dated 11/26/19 said that they would refund the tuition with no mention of an adjustment. As you can see from the letter from CO-OP Financial services, OMBA said that we agreed to the adjusted amount, so there again they LIED to the bank. I made note on page 2 of their letter. Also, on page 3 they said it was December's tuition, and it was for November, and they also said that may daughter took classes that month. She only took 30 minutes of a class when teacher *** told her to sit down, as she was in tears from the pain. Director *** questioned it, and was very unhappy that my daughter wasn't going to the Pointe class following, even though they had the Orthopedic Doctor's letter stating light dance, marking, and walking only.
I have documented her dancing timeline on the third page from CO-OP Fincancial Services.
I am also attaching a note from the Orthopedic Doctor, as well as, the Acupuncturist stating that she needed to be out, and to do light dance. Apparently OMBA does't feel that the Acupuncturist is a legitimate doctor, as they've mentioned it twice, but she is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine. Not that it's any of their business who I take my daughter to. The point is she is licensed to practice, and we use her for pain management. Following the withdrawal, we continued to seek medical services from the Orthopedic Doctor, and also sent my daughter to physical therapy.
The point here is that we were promised our tuition back, and OMBA never followed through on it, as can be seen from the progression and follow up of emails. It is also ridiculous that we have to go through this when my daughter was injured on their watch doing a lift in a haphazard way because they weren't trained on how to do it properly. Because of her injury, she was in pain for for exactly 5 weeks and 5 days without dancing at all, and we had 3 doctors tell us that it would take up to 6 weeks at least to heal. She was in pain when returning to dance, and had to have physical therapy for it, and still does not have her complete flexibility back in her back. She went through a depression because of it. She was depressed because her back is her asset in dance because of the extreme flexibility that she had, and because OMBA, that acts like they want to be "family" treated her and her family horribly. When the injury was sustained, she told them, and they didn't believe her, and sent her home saying that she would feel better in the morning. There is a lot more anguish here than just the tuition of $318 that we are asking for, as well as, many medical bills that we've had.
OMBA has continually lied, omitted information, and taken phrases out of context to make themselves look like they did nothing wrong.
As OMBA stated before (emails and Revdex.com) and explained to the customer over the phone today (24/03/2020) OMBA does not have the money in question anymore, it was withdrawn by the merchant/bank on January 2020.
As it was offered before via email to the costumer and in every reply to their disputes, OMBA has never refused to do the refund, and if the money is given back to OMBA it will be refunded to the client.
We have emailed the costumer a screenshot of our merchant's portal where they can check the status of the dispute. As the costumer says if *** did not do their work, it is not our fault, we have replied according to our word and we have never denied the refund.
Best Regards
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
On 3/24/2020 I received a call from OMBA wanting to know why I thought they were lying. I, again, explained the same thing that has been covered multiple times. They offered for me to go into the dance school to see their web portal, from what must be, their credit card/bank platform that they use, called "Stripe" I refused, as I do not believe anything they say, and what he was wanting to show me could be altered anyway. I did advise him to send me an email that I would forward to my bank, and allow them to look at while copying him on the email, which I did on 3/24/2020. My representative at my bank, again explained to me that the money never came out of his account through them or ***, as my bank doesn't have access to his funds, and *** doesn't remove funds unless they rule against them, which they didn't. My representative also called him on 3/25/2020 to explain the same thing to him. He wanted to know why she was calling him, and according to her she told him that she wanted to explain the process, and that she was representing me as their long time client. She also told him that this had been going on way too long starting back in November, and it was time to end it. He assured her that when he gets the money back he will give it to us. He told her he would give us a full refund.
As for the screen shot that he emailed me, it proves nothing. It proves that I paid them my tuition on 11/2/2020, and it show's that there was a payment disputed on 1/10/2020, that evidence was submitted on 1/16/2020, and that the dispute evidence was being reviewed by the cardholder's bank (being the *** company, not my immediate bank), and it continue's to say that they will email them by March 31, 2020 with their decision. It did NOT show any withdrawal of money. That is all their platform, "Strike" stated, so OMBA needs to take that up with their bank, because as stated over and over again, I do not have the money, my bank does not have the money, and *** never took the money.
Again, he has twisted my words in his rebuttal by saying that I said *** did not do their job, and it's not his fault. By me stating that *** did not do their job, if read in the appropriate text, I was saying they were suppose to ask for my proof, which they never did. They only reviewed his submission of proof which was severely lacking with misinformation, omissions, and lies. They never took his money from his account.
So, at this point I am willing to wait until 4/1/2020 for a response, since his cardholder platform, "Strike" stated that they would email him by 3/31/2020. At that time, I want a full refund mailed to my house. I want my agreed refund of $318, and since they are so cheap, I am O.K. with them subtracting the .55 cents postage to total the full refund at $317.45. I do not want to be inconvenienced anymore by having to drive down to the dance school to pick up the money, as well as, being in a mandated stay at home order by the Mayor, due to the current state of affairs, so the best option is to mail it, or do a credit back to my card for the full amount. If I have to go back to the dance school, I will ask for a police escort. At this point if we have to continue this back and forth nonsense, I will ask to go to arbitration, and I will be prepared, as asked at the beginning, to go to the news media.