Grave Incompetence.
We are moving to San Dimas in few days. Our new house is at walking distance from Dove Day School. We thought it is ideal for our son. Six days ago (Tuesday) we called Dove Day School to learn about the preschool, and to check availability. We talked to Miss Garcia (Vivianna), the Assistant Director. She said there is an opening starting at the end of November. We thought it was great news. Everything else we heard during that phone call was positive. Vivianna mentioned we could take a Zoom tour of the preschool. We were fine with that. She said a Zoom tour would be available the next morning already, and we should send an email to the school's email address to schedule the tour itself. We did so. Then we immediately started looking at the enrollment forms we found on the Dove Day School website. We spent time reading them and preparing a list of questions. The main comment we had about the forms was that they were outdated, as they still referred to either the summer of 2020, or the school year 2020-2021, but it is now November 2021.
On Wednesday morning, we did the Zoom tour. We saw the preschool classroom. The tour was quite brief, because there was only one classroom to see, and nothing else. Also, Vivianna did not really provide many details. Before ending the meeting, we pointed out that the Dove Day School website still has outdated paperwork, and we were wondering if there is up to date paperwork that we can fill up to enroll our son. She said she would talk to the school Director to prepare updated documentation, and then she would email it to us. Right after the tour (around 11:00 AM), we sent an email to Vivianna, thanking her for the tour, and stating explicitly that we wanted to proceed and enroll our son to the school.
The next day, Thursday, was Veterans Day, and the school was closed. On Friday, we called both in the morning and in the early afternoon to check status, but both times we were told Vivianna was busy and she would get back to us when she can. By 3:30 PM, still nothing from Vivianna, so we called again. This time Vivianna answered. She said she was sorry for not having gotten back to us yet, but the reason was that her Director was still updating the enrollment paperwork. So we asked how long it would take for her Director to finish to update the paperwork. Vivianna said that actually we could bring over the registration form and the deposit of $230 any time, because the updated registration form was already on the website. We pointed out to her that the registration form on the website was still the 2020-2021 form, and it was still the same registration form we had seen last Tuesday. Vivianna said it is actually OK to fill that up, because it is still valid. We wish she had told us sooner. We told her we were planning to come to San Dimas on Monday, and we could come by to turn in both the deposit and the registration form in the late morning. She said that would work. Then, we said we can come back one more time later, when the rest of the paperwork is updated. Vivianna said the rest of the paperwork would actually be ready by the time we visit on Monday morning.
On Monday (which is today) in the late morning, as agreed, my wife and I went to the school in person to drop off the deposit and the registration form. We arrived around 11:30 AM. We rang the door and Vivianna came to open. She let us in, and she introduced us to her Director, who was sitting at the front desk. As soon as we finished the introductions, Vivianna said "unfortunately, this morning another family came in and gave us their deposit, so we gave the spot to them. Unfortunately, that was the last spot available, so there are no more spots available for your son." We thought she was joking. We said "OK, but you know we told you a week ago that we wanted to proceed and enroll our son, right?" She answered by saying something like "sorry, but things work on a first come, first serve basis here. The other family gave us their deposit first, so we gave the spot to them." After everything we have gone through, the Zoom tour, the many emails, the many phone calls, which all made it very clear we wanted to proceed, and the agreement we would come on Monday, they still did not hold the spot for us, and gave it to somebody else. Vivianna never told us that that was the last spot available, and she never told us another family was planning to come to give them the deposit. Instead, she told us it was OK to come on Monday morning, and we trusted her. We followed all her instructions, because we trusted her. But we were stabbed in the back.
We started complaining, saying that they were not behaving professionally with us, and Vivianna said "if you feel that way, you should not enroll your son here". Is that the way she should talk to us? Shouldn't she try to make things right instead? We believe we have been treated very unfairly and unprofessionally. read more
