Martial arts school contract. Owner is a Fraud?
Last May I signed a 1 year contract to an mma school based on their website and information given to me during the tour.
-The school is part of a large franchise throughout North America.
-On the website it states that you can cancel at any time with a written letter and a small fee.
-I was told by the owner that their instructors are locked into a 5 year contract and can’t leave until they fulfill their time there.
-I looked at their website and saw all of the instructors, and these instructors were verified as the instructors by the owner.
-1 month later half of their most qualified instructors left because the owner was not paying them correctly. There was no 5 year contract.
-The franchise owner forced the MMA school to take down all signs and change the name of the school because he no longer wanted that school in the franchise because of how bad it was run.
-Now the school is under a different franchise but is the same facility. I am still being charged even though it is a different company now. On my statement, it shows a different name that is withdrawing from my account(the new name of the school).
-Half of the instructors that were on the website never set one foot into the school.
-I can no longer learn because the quality of instruction has gone down.
-The employee’s there have looked up porn and illegal drug information during the day while people were training, (some below the age of 18)
-Sexual harrassment towards females, which caused their womens class to fall apart.
-Racist remarks from the owner.
-He did not give his members a copy of the membership contract, but I happened to find a copy from an irrate ex-employee. She sent it to me via email.
-The contract has the franchise logo on it, but whenever people went to cancel their memberships, he stated that the contract was to that particular school and not the franchise.
-While going to the new website, the rate of this particular franchise is 99 dollars a month with a 1 year contract compared to the 149.99 that I am paying now.
-When I first signed up the class schedule had about 2 times as many classes and was open Saturday and Sunday. Now, during the week there are fewer classes and it is no longer open on the weekends.
-Where do I go from here? Is there anything that I can possibly do to either cancel, or stop paying and threaten to take him to court? I have no idea.
-This is the information I have.
-Screenshots of the webpages with the cancellation policy
-the changes in their class schedule
-their instructors that never stepped foot inside of the place and were being advertised
-a copy of the contract
-screenshots of the new website with the different rates
-as well as my bank statements that now show a different company name that is withdrawing from my debit.
-Web history, showing pornography and drug research.
Thank you very much for your time. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Jennifer
January 25th, 2010 at 5:25 am
Taylor
Stop paying immediately. Send them a letter saying you are canceling your contract on your attorney’s advice, and that they will never get another dime from you, and for them to stop contacting you. In the letter detail all the incidents you have listed here.
If even half of what you are saying here is true, there is no way they are going to sue you for the balance. They don’t want these things coming out in court.
Stop paying, get the letter out, and forget about this.
January 25th, 2010 at 7:16 am
Anna
Time to make a phone call the the
Better Business Bureau BBB
?
And make up a letter send it by special delievery be signed upon receipt
.
noting all your complaints and that with the new school not as the one you had the original contract with makes the first contract nall and void
.
And that you will notify your bank to stop all payments to them an if necessary you will take them to court to stop any and all harassment’s to pay on an old contract to a school that does not exist any longer
.
January 28th, 2010 at 3:27 am
Christopher
I love questions like this…
You can do anything you want to do… If you want to stop paying, then stop. It’ll be up to them to try to enforce the contract. It’s not illegal to not pay something. You don’t go to jail.
The longer you pay, the stronger HIS case is. Stop paying immediately.
If what you say is even close to true, they won’t lift a finger to pursue this fraudulent debt. It’s possible that out of spite they could put this on your credit report, but if they are as unorganized as you claim, I doubt he’ll be able to get his crap together to do it.
January 29th, 2010 at 2:32 am
Addison
A contract for a martial art school? that was very unwise. I’m black belt myself and I can tell you that reputable schools don’t try to take you hostage for a whole year.
Stop paying and quit and put a formal complain in the BBB. If your contract were to the original franchise then your contract is void. If they try to threat with leagal acction sue them in small claim court for breach of contract and false advertisement and ask for the money you already lost pluss cancelation of contract.