I wanted to follow up on my *unbelievable* customer experience with this studio.
TLDR:
They suddenly enforce "no-show fees" on me upon my "bad review", disabled my account, and canceled all my remaining 7 classes. Against my wishes.
See below for the full story:
Upon writing my previous review with this studio, to which I made sure to *fairly* highlight both the things they did well in but I also did not hold back on the things I had a problem with, this studio emailed me directly back with my bad review and suggested that I get a refund of my remaining credits while paying for "no show fees".
I want to quickly touch on this clever but deceiving business policy of a so-call "no show fee". How this studio works is that they arbitrarily enforce a zero-tolerance late policy where if you're late for a minute, you cannot join class. This is irregardless of whether or not the actual class instructor agrees with the policy or not, it's just a arbitrarily studio policy in the name of "student safety." Let's not discuss whether or not those intentions are genuine. What I want to focus on is the fact that if you're late for a minute, you cannot join class. And therefore, you're considered a no-show. And therefore, for the value of a $30 class, you just accumulated a $20 "no-show fee" *in addition* to losing the $30 class value you've already paid.
This means that they win no matter what. If you show up, they make $30 from you. If you're late, they make $50 ($30 class + $20 no show) from you. Any reasonable person can see the skewed incentives in this policy here.
I've previously joined others studios that ask for no show fees, for unlimited monthly subscriptions which I can understand because accumulating constant no shows on a unlimited package is like ordering 10 plates of AYCE food that you can't finish. That makes sense.
However, I'm on a prepaid 12-class package. That's like charging me fees for not finishing "a la carte" food that I *already* paid for.
They only asked for these fees after my bad review, and have never previously asked for it. Which makes me wonder regarding the true intention.. At this point, I still have 7 classes left in my 12-class package that I already prepaid. I go to class, and a new admin person who I've never met before asked to see me privately, requesting for these fees. I tried to reason with her, but she insists that she's simply the messenger and management is enforcing these fees on me and I cannot join class unless I pay. While I'm reasoning with her, the music was specifically turned up make it really hard to communicate. She tells me to not "raise my voice" and I confusedly said "do you not hear the loud music? We can go outside to talk if you prefer because we can't hear each others..." She declined this offer and prohibited me from joining class. I unbelievably asked her "Are you saying, if I don't pay for these fees today, I can't join this class, which means I will accumulate *another* $20 no-show fee and for all the following 7 classes that I have registered for?" She replied, "You've asked me this question for the third time, and my answer is yes, no matter what your reason is, if you're not in class then you have to pay a $20 fee per class." I was dumbfounded by this ridiculous policy and left the studio after.
Shortly after, I found that my account was disabled, and could not log in. Somehow I managed to reset my password and get access to the account again, and it indicates that all the remaining 7 classes I had left are canceled by admin.
This exchange also included them accusing me of "threatening" them with a bad review. To which I can only reply:
A review is not a threat.. I'm only fully expressing my experience. My experience *will* be publicly reflected because honestly, that's the only power as a consumer in a capitalistic society. What's the point of reviews/Yelp if customers are restricted from reviewing negative experiences? I feel nothing wrong with my position, especially when I have also taken the time to reflect on the positive parts of the studio which are real. But the questionable business practices and customer service are equally real. Customers can make their own decision moving forward, and my opinion is only one of many. If a business takes feedback and improves, that's respectable and reviews are no threat. In my opinion, only bad businesses will feel threatened by reviews because they're reluctant to improve their poor practices, and resort to power-tripping behavior. Just my two cents.
For full transparency, they did refund me half of the money I paid, but at this point, I've only technically taken 5 out of the 12 classes, which is less than half. But that's an insignificant detail. read more