If there was a way to give this 0 stars, I would.
Aside from…read morethe fact that the teacher seemingly had no tact, I will give you a little break down on how the facility nickel and dime's you the entire way through the program.
First off, my daughter is 3 years old and takes the Tuesday Morning classes. When I started, I was told the fees would be $60 a month, and the classes would be 1 hour long. One hour turned into 30 minutes, even so much that my MIL took my daughter to dance ON TIME one day and since no one had been there (they all learned that the teacher wouldn't be on time), she left thinking there was no class.
When you register, you are required to pay a $40 studio fee, and your first and last month up front. The owner Julie, seemed nice and really dedicated to making this an amazing experience, so far, she hasn't even shown her face to our students or our class, so much that most of the mothers have never met her.
So let me break this down:
Registration/Studio Fee: $40
Monthly tuition: $60
Recital fee: $50
Uniform fee for the recital: $65
Recital fee: Now, these seem reasonable right? Well first, let me explain. In the beginning I was told that the recital used to be held at a different location due to space issues, however, now that they moved to a new studio, they had the space they needed... So we were all kind of confused when the recital fee was $50.. When we questioned it, they had no real answers, other than it was for the recital space. This makes NO sense. But that's not even the best part, one day us mother's of toddlers came in and we saw a HUGE RED SIGN on the door that said our recital fee was late and needed to include $15 late fee along with our payment.... confused we started to talk.. none of us even knew that this was due, nor were we prompted by our child's instructor.. when we asked her, she said " I don't really know what's going on"..Someone please explain to me how their very own staff member doesn't know what fees are due, yet she is so able to take payment? Due to this, we all started to call the facility, I can promise that EACH ONE OF US WHO CALLED had to call literally 4-15 times, and leave personal letters TAPED to the office desk to receive a call back. Once we got the call back, we were ALL treated like dirt, she went even as low to say when we signed up we "initialed" that we understood how things went about. She told us that we all received paper invoices as well as the monthly email.. I know at-least 4 out of 6 of us hadn't received either of these. Even went as far as calling a mother a liar. She also said that we are responsible for going to the website to check for information that we didn't even know to check for... I'm trying to paint the picture of confusion and shock that us mothers felt.
We all tried to put this frustration aside, mostly because this is about our children, they loved seeing each other and love going to dance...
we all dug into our wallets and pulled out our uniform fees, which is pathetic considering it's $65 for a toddler tutu... I just don't believe all the money is going towards the uniform..
So here we are in Feb, our recital is in march....The new office manager (apparently the old one quit and that's why some of us didn't receive calls back for nearly a month).. she gives us a xerox copy of recital information and tells us that they wont be giving us another one, because it's too expensive to print, otherwise we'd have to pay. and then came the cherry on top of this shitty situation... they told us that we could only have FOUR TICKETS to the recital (that includes children)...this was NEVER EVER EVER mentioned, and considering that we have given them $40 studio fee, $50 dollar recital fee, and paid $60 a month for tuition, this is absolutely not acceptable... we were all in shock... we've all spent over $600 thus far, and you're telling me that parents and both sets of grandparents can no longer come to the event? absolutely absurd. When we all objected, we got slapped with the disrespect we've come to expect from the studio. Take note that ALL STUDENTS OF THE ENTIRE FACILITY HAD TO PAY THESE FEE'S, MEANING THEY HAVE GOTTEN SEVERAL GRAND to pay for the "recital fee". Also, you can't take photos or video of your child performing, you MUST buy them from the studio..ridiculous
Oh, and did I mention I called about 6 times because they finally sent me a OUTRAGEOUS late fee and late tuituion bill.... for tuition I had proof of paying? well yeah, it took me 6 times and a note on the desk to get these ladies to respond back..I was also told I would get a call back that same day, and 8 days later I called to only receive an excuse... do what you will with this information.. but there it is, laid out and exposed.. PLEASE SEE ATTACHED PHOTO of the insane letter.. this proves that Julie is oUT FOR MONEY. only, never for the intent of making this a good experience! I NEVER EVER committed to removing this review and now I am happy I didn't