Parents Beware, Martial Arts Nightmare

Earlier this year my eight-year-old daughter became involved with Karate. It has overall been a good experience for her and she has enjoyed learning the martial arts. We selected the dojo based on a location close to our home and from the beginning we had some issues, but we liked one of her teachers... and he did a great job of relating to the kids and the parents. As my daughter's involvement grew and we were asked to sign a long-term (three year) contract in order for her to move up to the intermediate level of training and to be on the "black belt track". (They would not put her in this program without the contract). Soon thereafter is when it everything went south. The teacher whom we liked and respected left the school and we became less satisfied with the level of instruction. Some parents spoke to the owner, who insisted that he himself is a "great" teacher. But like art, opinions about instruction are subjective. While he may think he does a fine job, we just were not as pleased as we had been. Additionally, a fifteen-year-old girl, who was obviously new to instructing martial arts, taught the two classes I recently observed. My wife has tried to get out of the contract, only to find that the "financial services" firm who handles the billing will not allow us to terminate, and the owner of the business says we must talk to them. My assumption was that we would have a one or two month cancellation fee...but NO.... they expect us to continue to pay $150 per month regardless of if we want to be there, or even if we ever show up again (they told my wife that our satisfaction or participation had nothing to do with the contract). Other parents in the neighborhood have told me about similar experiences with this karate school. I checked with the local Better Business Bureau and discovered that the school has an "unsatisfactory" rating. There have been three complaints with the BBB since February regarding "sales practice issues" and "billing or collection issues". In each case the owner of the dojo has simply ignored the BBB (no response to the complaint), which means he did not even attempt to work with the dissatisfied client. This is a bad sign. I work in a professional environment where good and ethical business people want happy clients, not just those locked into contracts. This is my first experience with someone who does not care about customer service.