Parents Beware, Martial Arts Nightmare

By Thom Singer

Earlier this year my eight-year-old daughter became involvedwith Karate. It has overall been a good experience for her andshe has enjoyed learning the martial arts. We selected the dojobased on a location close to our home and from the beginning wehad some issues, but we liked one of her teachers... and he dida great job of relating to the kids and the parents.

As my daughter's involvement grew and we were asked to sign along-term (three year) contract in order for her to move up tothe intermediate level of training and to be on the "black belttrack". (They would not put her in this program without thecontract). Soon thereafter is when it everything went south. Theteacher whom we liked and respected left the school and webecame less satisfied with the level of instruction. Someparents spoke to the owner, who insisted that he himself is a"great" teacher. But like art, opinions about instruction aresubjective. While he may think he does a fine job, we just werenot as pleased as we had been. Additionally, a fifteen-year-oldgirl, who was obviously new to instructing martial arts, taughtthe two classes



I recently observed.

My wife has tried to get out of the contract, only to find thatthe "financial services" firm who handles the billing will notallow us to terminate, and the owner of the business says wemust talk to them. My assumption was that we would have a one ortwo month cancellation fee...but NO.... they expect us tocontinue to pay $150 per month regardless of if we want to bethere, or even if we ever show up again (they told my wife thatour satisfaction or participation had nothing to do with thecontract).

Other parents in the neighborhood have told me about similarexperiences with this karate school. I checked with the localBetter Business Bureau and discovered that the school has an"unsatisfactory" rating. There have been three complaints withthe BBB since February regarding "sales practice issues" and"billing or collection issues". In each case the owner of thedojo has simply ignored the BBB (no response to the complaint),which means he did not even attempt to work with thedissatisfied client. This is a bad sign.

I work in a professional environment where good and ethicalbusiness people want happy clients, not just those locked intocontracts. This is my first experience with someone who does notcare about customer service.

About the author:Thom Singer is the author of "Some Assembly Required: How toMake, Grow and Keep Your Business Relationships" (New YearPublishing 2005) and an expert in business development andclient relations. He can be reached at www.thomsinger.com,