ATC Martial Art Center ATC Gallatin Martial Art center ATC Martial Art Center scam ripoff Corona, California
My son signed up for Taekwondo with ATC MARTIAL ART CENTER in CORONA, CALIFORNIA. At first he loved it and worked his way up to "brown" belt. However after 2 years he decided he wanted to play other sports, since he was only 7 years old I told him that he had to pick up one. He choose the other sport. I called up ATC MARTIAL ART CENTER (K. Spillmann)& ATC BILLING SERVICE(Grandmasters wife Joanne Blair/Spillmann) told them the story, they said I had to put the request to cancel in writing which I did.
2 weeks later I received a call stating you have to give a THREE MONTH written notice to cancel and since I didn't I had to pay over $400 even though my son wasn't attending. I again explained the situation and said he's only 7 years old and most children don't know what they are doing tomorrow how can I plan the next 3 months. K. Spilmann & Joanne who owns this studio did not care....in stead I got a lecture of how as a parent I should make my son stay till the end....BLACK BELT. I went back and forth with them for a few weeks, I said I didn't have a problem paying for ONE MONTH which is over $130, but not all THREE months, they didn't care.
Almost one year later I received a letter from an attorney in the mail demanding the $400 plus dollars or they will be sending me a judgement against me! Really, so my 7 year old son decides he no longers wishes to attend Taekwondo after 2 years and this is how my family is treated! BEWARE before you join this Martial Art studio. There are many other Martial art places you could go to! Don't have the HELL I have had and continue to have with ATC martial art center. K. Spilmann &Joanne will smile and pretend to care about your child but believe me it's all an act!!!!
3 Updates & Rebuttals
ATC
Gallatin,Tennessee,
United States of America
Again we are more than happy to try and help you if you are still having problems
#4UPDATE Employee
Fri, July 06, 2012
Again we are more than happy to try and help you if you are still having problems, but our company procedures and policies must be followed. I really do understand your frustration and troubles, but a personal online attacks on all independently owned ATC branch academies is not needed or justified; it is obvious you are just out to attack all branches, independent owners or union masters for a personal vendetta to give us Hell as you wrote on many online sites months ago.
If you sign a contract with any company (cell phone, lease, car, cable) it is a contract. The martial art classroom and billing office have to be run different and rules, policies and procedures are important to keep structure at any company. Even though we love to teach, a school owner has to separate business from teaching to operate a professional successful business. Electricity and rent are not free and we also need to feed our families. You signed a contract and it says contract so it is treated as a contract. If you did not want a contract you did not need to sign it. Nobody lied or forced anyone to sign the paperwork plus everyone has a 5 day cooling off period and we offer cancellation options.
We are not perfect and are always trying to improve our schools. We believe in being fair to all students and having everyone following the same rules is important, even if a parent has overbooked a students events, finds it inconvenient to attend, doesn't agree with our policies or a student has lost interest in classes.
When a student is late or they dont pay, we send several letters and if needed after 90 days, we forward the paperwork to a collection agency. We always prefer to handle everything in house as saves time and headaches. Again, this is all explained in full detail on all student membership paperwork.
Please email us and we will try our best to work with you and contact the Corona owner. Thank you
Steve
USAIf you cave to your son's every whim, that's your fault
#4Consumer Comment
Thu, March 22, 2012
Listen - your son may be 7, but you are an adult, and should have known their policies. If you did not agree with them, and knew your 7 year old may want to quit at the drop of a hat, then you should not have signed him up.
Frankly, what I would have done is explained to the kid that he could quit, but only after the three month period, because those are the rules. But it would seem that you have passed your entitlement-driven, instant gratification world view on to your son. I think the advice to make him get his black belt first was good advice indeed. I Assume you are the mother; what does his father think about all of this?
ATC
Gallatin,Tennessee,
United States of America
We are sorry to read about your experience
#4Consumer Comment
Thu, March 22, 2012
As for your cancelation issues, everything is on the contract, and we offer a 5 day cooling off period. Additionally, we do offer non-contracts and contract specials. We go by the contract in order to be fair to all members. I have read your comment about a 3 month notice to cancel; on the contract it states in several places that you may cancel with a 30 day certified written notice; this prevents any confusion between the schools and the tuition office.
As for your comments on specific individuals, all schools are independently owned and operated, and tuition collection issues are handled by Greentree and Associates. They simply follow the contract that a customer reads and signs. We try our best to be fair, and all policies have always been written on the contract and posted online for all to read. Also, Greentree has never filed any judgments on any student, ever.
Anyone can cancel with a 30 day written notice and $100 cancelation fee. Tuition must be current as listed on the contract and any other past due fees must be paid. If somebody moves, the tuition company put the customers account on a 60 day hold to give time to receive the documents needed to cancel (new utility bill and new drivers license) for proof, and it is the customers responsibility to mail all documents within 60 days. If the cancelation is for a serious medical issue, we ask for verification from the physician and the same process of cancelation is followed. If the customer forgets, then the automated system starts billing again and the customer receives notice by mail. This is all explained on the paperwork and on the phone at the office.
Sometimes some students just dont want to pay the cancelation fee. But we need to be fair to all students and have everyone follow same rules even if a parent has overbooked a students events. When a student is late or they dont pay, we send many letters and after 75 days we forward the paperwork to Greentree. As with students, we are on a contract with that company, so after the paperwork is forwarded, to pull students out of their system costs us money as does the collection process. So we always prefer to handle everything in house. Again, this is all explained in full detail on all student paperwork. However, we are more than happy to try and help you if you are still having problems with them.
I really do understand your frustration and your troubles, but your personal attacks on me, my wife and my instructors are not needed. Additionally, attacking my family when I dont own or even manage the other masters locations is not warranted. Your continued comments all over the internet are just plain vengeful. If you really have a problem, you could have called me personally, and I would have seen how we could have worked things out. As it stands currently, you still have the option to contact the correct school owner directly.
I understand your frustration, but we have had hundreds of happy students over the years. I wish we could have made you happy, and we will keep trying our best. If you would like to work on the issue, call Greentree and Associates 760-489-0637, and they will call the correct owner so we can get this fixed ASAP. We will also contact all location owners and continue to work on making customer service better for all the students as we always have.