Arthur Murray is so screwy. Their instructors are more immature than your typical dancer. I'd write them a letter asking for the money back. Give them a due date. Send it certified mail. If they don't give you your money back by then, take them to small claims court.

The certified mail part is extremely important. If you end up having to go to court to get your refund, you have proof that your request was submitted within the 180-day period. More importantly, it will make them less likely to want to take it to trial, knowing you have that extra leverage.

Not all chain schools are bad, but if you do encounter resistance, don't back down. Talk to the better business bureau if necessary, and keep us posted on the situation.

Regards,
Jonathan Atkinson
www.ballroomdancers.com

"making me consider asking for a refund. I'm down to 10 lessons with them."

Something to consider: do you actually have 10 paid-for lessons remaning?

Or were you sold a package containing a certain number of paid for lessons, and then some free bonues lessons, which together amount to the number of lessons you generally think of having bought and the price you usually think of as having paid per lesson.

The reason I ask is that I saw a friend's contract that was structured this way (from the other camp, not that it matters) and the impact of the free lessons, which are saved until the end of course, is that you can't get a refund for those - you don't get them at all until you've taken all of the paid for lessons. If your contract is like that, you might not even be due a refund for 10 lessons, but some lesser number instead.

Do not give specific reasons when they ask, because there is no requirement to provide a reason in the contract. If you give a reason they will resist by debating with you whether your reason is a valid one or there is another way of handling it, like taking your final lessons with another teacher. The resistance is a hedache that you don't need. Just tell them you need the money for other things, nothing more. And the fee should be "fair and reasonable". Hopefully they will honor those words and not charge you more than $250.

Well, there's a social tonight and I think I'll go to that to see if it's going to be any different. If not, I'm going to write that letter this weekend and send it out monday. And I'm not going to give them any reasons because I don't want to deal with them trying to get me back. Good point Indy. Anyonymous, the package I bought did not have any free lessons. It includes 35 lessons, weekly socials, group classes and 3 video studies. We haven't done any of the promised video studies yet. Well, thank you everyone for your advise. I'll keep you updated if I encounter any problems with them.

After all those lessons, are you able to dance with people other than the instructors? If so, start looking around for other socials in your area. If not, look for a coaching situation stat. Arthur's not well known for making dancers.

I am an instructor for AM. I am sorry that your school seems to be marred by unprofessional teachers, however, that is not how we all are. You have every right to ask for a refund if you are unhappy. They are required to give it to you - that is why we have you sign contracts - what most students don't understand is that the contract protects YOU and your rights, not ours. Explain your unhappiness to the owner, and ask for a refund. We have had a few situations in our school like this, whether it be the student was unhappy, something happened in their personal life, etc., and we have always promptly given their money back, and never asked for a penalty fee or cancellation fee. Good luck!

He is absolutely correct !-- ask and you should receive . There might be a small adjustment for commissions pre paid .

"what most students don't understand is that the contract protects YOU and your rights, not ours. Explain your unhappiness to the owner, and ask for a refund."

And when they ask for the refund, they will realize that in fact the contract exists to protect the studio and chain, not the student.

They should get a refund, yes, but the refund they get will probably not be for the number of unused lessons they have left, instead it will probably be for the number of unused paid lessons they have left. Read the fine print and you will probably discover that all the bonus lessons that any reasonable person would count as part of the total lessons of the contract are simply forfeit.

That's how contracts are written to protect studios - what you are sold on sounds reasonable, but what is actually written is full of sneaky language to protect the business!

Pay as you go is so much better - teacher charges a reasonable rate, student pays it directly to the teacher. Anybody unhappy need not come back again. This is how the real dance world operates - no fine print, because there is simply no need for it. Don't believe the hype about contracts being required to protect students from take the money and run teachers - when you pay one lesson at a time as all the top coaches operate, there is no such risk! Packages were a great invention for dance business, but a terrible thing to do to dancing.

I do not know of any franchised schools within the UK, most dance schools are independent and you pay for the lessons as you take them, you merely make an appointment for a lesson and are charged when you take it.

I have not yet found anyone who charges a forfeiture fee or similar.

Neither, as far as I know (in my experience) do any schools ask you to sign a contract for so many lessons. They are generally happy to let their teaching abilities speak for themselves and rely upon your enjoying the learning experience enough to come back for more lessons.

I have only recently discovered the dance forums and am amazed at the apparently gullibility of the American dance pupils or is it the powerful advertising of the chain studios. Something that would probably gain little credit within the UK.

Sorry if this seems a little contentious, but the American scene is so different from that in the UK I find it hard to understand.

In my case I started lessons in order to be able to cope at social dances and enjoyed it so much that I continued (with a 2 year break due to a house move) for 23 years taking every possible IDTA medal test in Ballroom and Latin. Our school held very few social dances, and there are no pressures from them as to which dances we attend and we attend dances (purely for the pleasure of dancing) over a very wide area.

Altough my wife and I took every possible medal test, we rarely employ the more advance steps which can be difficult to perform accurately in a crowded ballroom, but find that the performance of really good basics will be enough to impress neary everone with just a few variations thrown in for good measure.

However, I digress, the question posed by "guestanon" suggst the answer that they should ask for the refund, if the school is not providing the service they have paid for then they are in breach of contract and are therefore liable to honour the contract.