The Hitting Zone

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:
The response given is falseWe were not told of a no refund policyThe owner's failed to repond until I left a bad review and filed this complaint.
*** ***

This is our account of the events that led to a complaint submitted against The Hitting Zone on 6/23/and assigned an ID of ***. Our business is an indoor baseball and softball facility that provides a number of services including batting cage rental, private instruction, and
select/club baseball teamsThe customer attended tryouts for our select baseball teams and their son was selected to be on the teamThese tryouts were held in mid-July of for the upcoming 2016-baseball seasonThis is a very common practice and all our major competitors also hold their tryouts in July for the next seasonAt tryouts, we outlined what the fees would be and what would be included, so that everyone would know what they were signing up for up frontThis is not as common and many organizations hit families with additional fees once they've already agreed to be on the team and have made paymentsWhen explaining the fee structure, we explained that some portion of the fees would be non-refundable in order to reserve player roster positions and protect our organization against players quitting or joining other teamsThe customer agreed to participate in our program, put down their deposit, and started making their regular paymentsFor this customer's team, the total fees due for the year were to total $ Over the course of the months August thru December, the customer made their scheduled payments totaling $paid toward their $dueThis money is used for several things before the season even starts: winter training is reserved and paid for, player memberships to The Hitting Zone are activated and paid for, player workout gear is ordered and paid for, player hats and uniforms are ordered and paid for, and team league fees and some tournament fees are paid to ensure that the team gets a spotIn December, the customer notified the director of our club teams that their son would like to quit the teamThe team director informed the family that although December might not seem late in the season, it is quite late in the year when considering tryouts are held in July (as is common for all clubs) and players commit to a roster spot by the end of July (also very common)So when a player quits the team in late December it is extremely late in the process, and at that point, the team is not likely to find an adequate replacement player because the vast majority of select level players joined teams in July or August and are committed to those teamsThis puts the team in a very bad position (because they now don't have a full roster to compete with), and it puts the organization in a difficult spot because certain financial obligations have already been paid as I described aboveThe baseball director encouraged the customer to talk with their son and really think about this decisionHe let the customer know that they would not receive a refund if they elected to quit and could possibly receive a partial refund if a replacement player was found to cover the $fee that the customer initially agreed to when joining the teamOur team director even suggested that this might be a good opportunity to teach their son the value of honoring his commitment and sticking it out for the seasonOur baseball director encouraged them to think it over for a week before making a final decisionUltimately, the customer decided that quitting the team was the right decision, and they did not participate in further activities with the team or at our facilityThus, the team remained short-handedAdditionally, The Hitting Zone did not collect the final $of their player fees which was factored into the operating budget for the team. Thank you for your help in resolving this matterPlease let me know if you need any additional information, and I look forward to getting an update on this from the Revdex.com. Thank You, *** *** Owner/Instructor The Hitting Zone

Quick correction to a piece of information in our official responseThe customers agreed player fees were actually $for the 2016-season, not $as I had mentioned a few times in our written responseThis leaves $uncollected by The Hitting Zone which was factored into the teams operating budget