I want to highlight my recent negative experiences with USA Dance Company, which operates at 1530 S Gilbert Road in Gilbert, Arizona. I had been associated with the dance company for two years, and before now had long suffered a lack of transparency in billing, a bothersome demonstrated lack of organization concerning the scheduling of events and practices, and inconsistency in instruction due to several instructor resignations during my daughter's two year enrollment at USA. Things began to look up this August when a new, highly motivated instructor/assistant director came on board; the parents and students immediately felt her positive impact on instruction with hopes for organization to the chaos. Our children were learning new things and looked forward to each practice. This all changed at the end of August when this same instructor quit suddenly. Our experience with her has brought into focus our dissatisfaction with USA Dance Company.
A group of us decided to explore other dance companies in the area. At each one (six in total), I saw greater transparency with billing and costs for supplies in 20 minutes than I ever saw at USA Dance Company. At USA Dance Company, I paid for a uniform in August ($350), I paid monthly tuition of $210, I paid a $300 team fee in June, I paid $420 in "fees" in September for future competitions, costumes and choreography, and I paid a special fee of $140 for trio choreography. A few of examples of a lack of transparency include the discrepancy between the Internet-listed team fee of $250 and the actual $300 team fee that we paid, this $300 'team fee' was unexplained (the other dance companies we toured either had a minimal fee or a larger fee which was later applied to competitions), parents paying different fees for the same dance hours (I paid $210, but there others paying $140 for the same instruction), as well as getting charged for a backpack that was supposedly optional (and we opted out).
Since the aforementioned instructor quit, trio choreography practices were cancelled for September 9-14. General classes were cancelled or rearranged due to not enough instructors being available, never mind the fact that many of us had already arranged our lives and work schedules to meet the previously published class schedules. This pushed me, and others, over the edge and we severed our relationship with USA Dance Company. They have a "no refund" policy, so no matter that instruction was not available as originally arranged, no matter that the choreography we had contracted for was no longer available from the instructor we had been so impressed with, and no matter that the year's upcoming competitions and recitals have not been held; our money is in the possession of USA Dance Company and will not be refunded.
I, along with others, did seek compensation for the uniform that we purchased. We reasonably wanted either a full refund of the uniform fee or the physical uniform that we had paid for. We have been given no indication that we will receive either. One parent was allegedly told by Tina Taylor-Schmidt, Director of Dance, that USA Dance Company would not be issuing a refund or items for the uniform fee nor for the costumes. I tried to verify with Marchel, billing administrator, via email on September 29 and again on October 3, but I have received no response.
This stonewalling is not only annoying and unprofessional; it seems illegal. We paid for a physical product, the dance company received/will receive the physical product, and that physical product should, at the very least, be provided to those of us who paid for it. I will continue to pursue this matter, but in the meantime I felt it my duty to warn others of this business's shady operating practices. Once we made our intentions known (to seek out membership with a new dance company), the relationship with USA Dance Company turned sour. This is not the professional demeanor one should expect from a legitimate business venture. read more
