The American Karate Dojo

After being involved in Dojo for over a year (which was positive) we had financial changes and our child was ready to move on. I could no longer afford a program my child’s heart wasn’t in anymore. We no longer had that kind of money. I met with Mr Gaffney and tried to plead our case. Needless to say I’ve been turned into a credit agency. Contracts are more important then anything else here and no matter what happens in your life he will never let you out of it. Buyer beware.

I took my son there to begin karate to help with his discipline and help with responsibility. My husband and I spoke with the manager/​owner (Mr. McGaffney). We signed our 10 year old son up, signing a contract to have a monthly fee of $ 130 a month for him to attend daily. Well, not knowing that I was signing my life away, I tried to cancel the payments because my son was not enjoying it and was also having a very difficult time in school and needed to focus on school. He has ADHD and and needed to focus on school, but that was not an acceptable reason to stop the payments from being deducted from my account. So, I asked his psychologist and ADHD doctor for a note so that it is a doctor’s recommendation that he stop the karate. This was still not a reason for Dojo to stop taking me $. My son stopped going to karate in September, but the year of payments would not be up until April. I spoke to Mr. McGaffney at the Dojo and he said that I should call an 800 # to speak about monetary questions, that he had nothing to do with it.
Well, according to our agreement, a written note would suffice to the Dojo to stop the payments temporarily until he returned to karate. After speaking with Mr. McGaffney once again, I called the 800# and the person I spoke with said that IN ORDER TO CANCEL THE REMAINING PAYMENTS OR BE REIMBURSED FOR ALL OF THE MONTHS THAT MY SON DIDN’T ATTEND THE DOJO, YOU HAVE TO HAVE DIED OR HAVE A LIFE THREATENING INJURY SUCH AS LOST A LIMB TO CANCEL THE PAYMENTS. At this point, it was now April, so he said that there was absolutely NOTHING THAT HE COULD DO NOW BECAUSE MY PAYMENTS WERE ALL PAID because it had been 1 year since the contract was signed.
In the end, my point is that unless you die or lose a limb, you ARE NOT ABLE TO CANCEL YOUR AGREEMENT WITH THE DOJO, SO PREPARE TO PAY A FULL YEAR NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS!