The owner is a thief and liar. Let me explain.. the head coach at the time, Coach Lisa, decided to leave the gym because of issues with the new owners, plus more things I probably do not know of, so I can't speak to that. However, what I can talk about is my personal experience. We decided to leave the gym in October and follow the coach since it was in the best interest of our daughter. Our daughter was thriving both physically and mentally under her leadership and that has nothing to do with the facility. In the meantime, we had paid our 2025 meet dues ($1,500) in August, for the upcoming meets in January, plus our daughter's custom competition leotard and warm-ups ($650).
Unfortunately, the owners would not refund for the meet fees, and would not give me the leotard we paid for.
My first mistake was withdrawing from EBG before picking up our leotard. I never assumed that the owner would keep the leotard, especially since it's custom and skin matched to my child! We paid, for it, they had it but chose not to give it to us.
The leotards arrived at EBG, on Saturday, October 5th - Most Optional gymnasts picked them up that day/weekend, we did not since we were out of town that weekend for a level 5 meet (my daughter will be competing as an optional in 2025).
Monday, October 7th - Head Coach announces she's leaving the gym
Wednesday, October 9th - We withdraw from the program. My mistake, I didn't think someone would be so vindictive to steal from a child. I should have got the leotard, then withdrew.
Friday, October 11th - I went into EBG with my daughter to pick up the $650 leotard we paid for.
Dennis' (owner) response - we don't have it. I don't know where it is. It's not here.
Then later hearing from another parent, he said he didn't know what he was doing with the custom leotards he still had but regardless they were the property of EBG now.
Now, how does that work out? In my mind when you keep something that doesn't belong to you, that's called theft.
(inner monologue).
Umm...okay, so you're just going to steal the leotard that I bought because you're so bitter that people decided to leave and follow a well-respected and loved coach?
Of course, we requested our money back that was being held for the 2025 meet season. The money is held in reserve until meets have to be paid for. Keep in mind that I requested the money back in October 2024, and the first meet of the season wasn't until January 2025. So NO MONEY was put towards meets at this point.
The response I received from the owner Dennis: He said my CHILD signed a CONTRACT stating the funds were NON-REFUNDABLE.
I even asked my daughter (11 years old), did the gym ever have you sign anything? Not that it would ever stand up in court, but I was just curious. As expected, my daughter said no, so he just LIED about it, trying to find a way to justify keeping our money.
You would think, this is a joke, or an exaggeration, but's not, I honestly wish it was. It's just an unethical person taking advantage of a family that made the best decision for their child.
People can't always control circumstances, but you can control how you respond to them. In this case, I just feel so sad, sad, that something would stoop so low, and have a lack of character and ethics.
When leaving the gym, I never asked for a refund for the rest of October's tuition, in my mind, that was a loss. Nor did I ask for the money that was being used for the current 2024 meet season (October - November). My daughter was in her level 5 season. I only asked for what was held in reserve, $1,500 for her level 7 2025 meet season, and the leotard we paid for but never received.
When signing up, ask yourself, do you want to support a business that is willing to do this to a family that's trying to make the best decision for their child? read more