Complaint Review: USAthletic Baseball Club - Indianapolis Indiana

I found this organization through a web search for my son looking for a 16U summer team to play baseball with in 2017. We went to the tryout in the fall of 2016 in Austin, Indiana. After the tryout, my son was offered a spot on the roster for their 16U team for the summer of 2017. They told us we had a few days to accept and so my son accepted the offer that evening. My son was very excited about the opportunity. I paid a 200 dollar deposit to assure him a roster spot.

On 8/31/2016 the total bill came and was paid in full through sportsengine. The total cost to join the team was 1795 dollars minus the deposit already paid. I paid a total that day of 1595 dollars. What does this cover you may ask? Here is their official policy from them.

Financial Agreement

Revision 4

August 15st, 2016

What your Fee Covers

         All tournament entries

         Coaches compensation*

         Coaches expenses* *

         All coaching from USAthletic staff and coaches  

         All game field rentals

         All umpires fees 

         Diamond Kinetic's Diamond Club Membership (until 7/31/17)

         Practice field rentals

         Off-season indoor practice facility rentals (for program workouts)

         8 USAthletic specialty clinics (20 will be offered)

         3  Player Assessments (Jan, March, June)

         10 - 2 hour Program Developmental sessions

         Team Liability Insurance

         Website Portal

         Gamechanger Team Subscription 

Fee Does Not Cover

         Tournament gate fees

         Transportation expenses

         Player hotel expenses

         Uniform

         Individual lessons

         College clinics

         SwingTracker Sensor (required 13-18 yrs only)

         Fall tournament, games or workout costs

Let me start by saying this would all be great if I lived in Indianapolis to take part in all the clinics and program workouts but I do not. This is a satellite team based out of Austin, Indiana and absolutley nothing takes place down here besides Sunday practices. We can't make anything as my son's high school team goes 6 days a week. A bunch of the clinics take place through the week or Saturdays that he was interested in. Plus it takes me a 3 hour round trip to get him there and back. Not exactly ideal for a kid that has to go to school and cant get home from these till Midnight. This was not disclosed to me that nothing would be done here closer to home where the team is based.

On to the diamond kinetics sensor. The sensor was supposed to be added in during the checkout. As per their own website it is required to buy for ages 13-18. See below.

After completing your registration and selecting your payment option, you will be guided to check out.

At that point, you will pay:

10-12U families will pay $155 at checkout. 

13-18U families will pay $205 at checkout. 

(The difference is the $50 for the sensor)

The amount at checkout (minus the cost of the sensor) is deducted from your fees.

In October I received an email stating I had not paid for the sensor due to an error at checkout through sportsengine. I wrote an email to Rob Barber and asked if this was sent in error or is this legit because it seems I had already paid in full for the upcoming season. As of 4/1/2017 I am still waiting for a response from that email. I gave up and on 11/4/2016 paid $51.74 for a bat tracker sensor.

Received the sensor in January of 2017 and it was defective out of the box. I contacted Betsy from USAthletics and she advised me to give it back to the coaching staff and she would get me a replacement. A month later I asked my son to talk with his coach Nathan about the sensor and he had never given it back to Betsy in Indianapolis. Therefore he has been having practice for a month without this all important sensor they just had to have. Then my son dropped a few bombs on me. Apparently this South team isn't using the sensors because they either cant get them to connect or they are slinging them off the bats. Also they dont have enough kids to support a 16U team so they combined them with a 15U team. Jeez....now this! I called his coach and talked about these things at length. Needless to say I was not happy at all with wasting the money on a sensor that he will never use or the combined teams. My son thought he was going to play with kids his same age. Not the majority of the team being a year younger which will make them less competitive against an actual 16U team. I repeat....none of this was disclosed to the parents.

In late January, I received an email outlining a list of required item needed to complete the uniform order which includes bags, team wear when not in uniform, etc. My wife totaled this up to being a little than 500 more dollars. Plus we received the schedule of 7 tournaments that are no less than 97 miles to 257 miles away from where I live. This will be overnight 3-4 day stays along with food, gas, gate expenses, etc. All to go see a team that may or may not even be competitive with the majority of the team being 15U against majority 16U teams. At this point, it was time to stop this money pit and start to backfill it. I called Betsy and had a long discussion about how things were ran down here in the South region. She agreed this wasn't right and offered to possibly move my son to 16U team out of Indianapolis. This was nice but not possible due to not being able to make their practices amongst other things. My son declined and my email is below regarding this:

Hello Betsy,

I gave you my word we would be in contact today about Tyler's status with the team. I spoke with him in detail about what we had discussed the other night. I asked him if he would like to be moved to an Indy 16U team. He had concerns over this coming in new to the team being that he doesn't have a defined role and doesn't want to disrupt their chemistry as a team or, not that he will or won't, sit the bench due to him not being there from the start on the team. He also stated since he couldn't be there for the workouts and all the practices due to our geographical location he doesn't want to be that "guy" that only shows up to play on game day. This is my fault due to my hard-nosed stance on if you don't practice, you don't play rules over all these years. Therefore he told me to thank you for the opportunity to keep him in the organization but he will have to decline the offer. He was very honest with me and said he has had conversations with a current teammate of his in the south and another kid mentioned this is not at all what we paid for. That made him feel a little better that he wasn't the only one that was viewing it this way. Again thank you Betsy for all you do. You truly are a gift to this organization and baseball in general. It was a pleasure speaking to you the other night, and I'm sorry to have kept you on so long. I don't know if there are any type of prorated refunds that can be given but if so let me know since we aren't into the season yet. Please let me know as in my situation, anything helps.

A few weeks went by and Betsy was having some difficulties getting with Rob about a prorated refund. This is the response I received from Betsy on 3/29/2017.

Hi Corey,

I apologize for the delay. I talked to Rob, and we can't issue any kind of refund until we can find a replacement for Tyler at catcher. Without Tyler, the team is down to 1 catcher from the 15U team. As you know, catcher is a critical position for the team. If we're able to find a replacement, and they pay the full fee, we can refund a prorated portion of your fee.

If you have further questions, please contact Rob directly.

Here's a copy of our refund policy for reference.

USAthletic Refund Policy

Every year, after committing, players decide not to participate or become injured. While one is a controllable decision and another is not, the problem for the team is the same; we need to count on every dollar from every player to meet our budget. We really have no margin to go without payments or issue refunds. As unfortunate as an injury is, the lost time and loss of fee are both part of the cost.

We’ve experienced some very difficult situations over the years and there is no doubt it’s heart-wrenching to not be able to issue refunds especially in situations where a player is lost for all or part of the season. The driving factor, however, is making sure the player’s teammates aren’t also additionally impacted by the unaccounted loss of the team’s budget. The team has already lost the services and contribution of the injured player.

We have never felt it is an option to go to the remaining parents and ask them to pay more due to a refund because of an injury. It’s also not an option to ask a team to play in fewer tournaments, play fewer games or take a player just to fill a spot because of a refund.

For that reason it is our policy not to issue refunds, for any reason, at any time of the year. That said, there is one exception. If we are able to replace a player with a new player of comparable skill and that player pays in full. If the player does not pay in full or has a different role, then our policy will be to not issue a refund of any amount.

Below is my response to this email. After all I had went through, I tried to get them to understand that this just wasn't right.

Betsy,

Thank you so much for replying back. Per our conversation that night, and we both agreed, the way things are being ran down here in the South is sub-par. This is not what I was sold originally. From the sensors not be utilized that I felt pressured into buying, to the combining of teams (15U/16U) when that was not agreed to by all paying parents. That's a matter I feel like should have been more transparent. After all my understanding and what was sold to me was my son was going to be on a team of 16 year old kids, not a mixed bag. We are beating a dead horse on that though so no need to talk about all that again.

     

As far as the refund policy goes, the organization seems to have gone to great lengths to get the money up front and in a hurry with no possible way to get any type of refund. Injuries aren't covered. Finding a player of comparable skill level, well who would judge that? LOL. I'm pretty sure if Yadier Molina replaced Tyler we wouldn't be given a refund because that's all subjective to the person's view holding the checkbook for the organization I'm sure. Plus they have to pay the full fee which lets face it. If you discounted it a dollar that would also not entitle anyone to a refund. Not being accusatory, but honestly this organization has been dishonest with paying parents not in everything but a lot of things as far as its gone down here in the South. Therefore I'm not "out in left field" as far as thinking it could be that way...not that it is but its not out of the realm of reality either. Needless to say in closing on that, yes there is definitely a trust issue.

    

There are 14 kids on this roster in the South. At nearly 2,000 dollars a kid to cover nothing but tournaments, coaches expenses, and I'm sure some facility fees, that comes just for this team to a grand total of approximately 28,000 dollars. The 7 tournaments on the schedule total up to 6,150 dollars in entry fees which leaves an organizational total just from this team approximately 21,850 dollars to cover coaches expenses and facilities. These teams in the South practice at Austin High School where Coach Nathan Chandlier is an assistant coach on their high school team. Therefore I have a hard time believing that there is any facility costs associated with this said team, if there is it would be low. That's a pretty good chunk of change for coaches expenses. I understand that some of this money goes to Indy which is where all the best training is provided and per our conversation everything is utilized such as the 50 dollar sensor I had to purchase that is not and was never used in the South. Geographically we are just too far away to take advantage of these trainings due to school being in and high school baseball which is ran 6 days a week. Great for anyone in Indy, bad for us down here. That was not made clear either in the beginning.

   

In closing, I would again like to thank you again Betsy. You have been the only reliable contact I have had since we joined the organization. I can't and won't email Rob again because I'm still waiting to get the response from the first email I sent him from Oct/Nov of 2016. LOL. That being said I'm really disappointed in the organizations way of handling this and I will do my best to make sure no parent has to deal with what I've been through. I fully intend when I am on vacation next week to research all baseball related team review websites along with ripoff report to simply put my story online with the supporting documents you have provided. Nothing but the facts, so if any parent researches USAthletic baseball they will really have a true understanding of what they are getting into if they live outside the Indianapolis area. This is a classic "bait and switch" situation in my opinion. This organization got me, as a Christian and a good-hearted person, I just don't want this to happen to someone else. Bottom line is the policies in place allow the organization to pretty much do whatever they want with no penalty. People need to know this and understand it before accepting an invite on to the teams. Again this is only speaking for people who live away from Indianapolis where, per our conversation, things are done the correct way. Unfortunately here in the South, nothing is enforced organizationally and lets face it the money has already been paid, right? With no responsibility taken from what is going on down here in the South from the organization. So it is deal with it or leave. We are leaving to cut our losses but I'm not leaving quietly as I feel I have been duped. All I asked for since the season never started and mathematically I can see the numbers from just this team only, was a prorated refund. I didn't ask for all of it...take 500-700 and keep it for your troubles...but keep it all? With that kinda bottom line? No one ever said I would pay twice the amount for half the product because that is exactly what this is per our conversation. It's a half-assed attempt at making a satellite team too far away from home base yet paying full price for half the benefits. Again I wasn't greedy and wanted it all back. I was willing to pay for what we received and the penalty since I'm the one walking away. That's why I asked for a prorated refund and not a full refund. Very disappointing after listening to the organizational beliefs and values presented to me the day of tryouts. I tend to remember the Christian term being thrown around in that spill. Not that the team was Christian based or anything just remember hearing it uttered. Being greedy and stealing is not at all part of Christian values. That is what is happening here from the organizational side of things. Just business as usual I guess...nonetheless still very disappointing.

I am simply writting this as a warning to anyone outside of the greater Indianapolis area who are looking into this organization. Very misleading and obviously as can be seen by their policies outlined, they can do what they want with no recourse. They have never responded to my last email sent (as expected). Make sure you ask the questions and get informed before paying the money. Once they get it, kiss it goodbye. The season never started. He never went to a clinic. Between all the fees and the sensor I'm out 1846.74 dollars with not even a consideration of a prorated refund. I'm sure I'm not the first to get taken by this organization but my goal is to be the last. That is why this report to inform you of my situation and keep you from making my mistake. Thank you.