Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  11/08/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On October 8th 2023 I paid $124.80 for a 6 week volleyball training program for my special needs 16 year old daughter. We had a long discussion and she was so excited. I never had any intention of canceling. So in October 10th we showed up in person and my daughters anxiety hit and after over an hour she wouldn't couldn't get out of the car. The ********** Family owns this facility and they have a very bad reputation online for gauging people and not caring about their facilities family basically. I went into the facility and explained and the ladies said someone would get in touch, a week went by nothing, then I received an email declining my request for a refund due to the policies which I could understand if these were normal circumstances. So clearly this wasn't enough so I kept reaching out and telling them I was going to make complaints because now it's November and yesterday on the 7th (over a month later) and the director got ahold of me to tell me that they'd offer me a credit again not listening were not using this facility especially now. She said they don't even offer credits because they pay coaches and another kid loses but if you pay attention you will see that's an excuse to take our hard earned money discriminatory against special needs kids yet traveling and posting lots of fun photos everywhere on the internet and with a *** major player as a backing you'd think they'd value their reputation but they don't. The director Andrea was so rude and said she has special needs family member but still didn't care. They're policy doesn't pertain to me or this situation and at this point they're just stealing our hard earned money. Mind you I'm a single mom of 7 kids with 3 of us battling terminal cancer and lots of mental health challenges so a place and staff like this ****, *****, *******, Andrea etc just to name a few. I simply asked for a refund because again my daughter never used their facility but did try to at least show up. Very very bad business!

  Business response

  11/27/2023

  Impact Athletic Center is owned by an ownership team of eight who have helped develop policies that all are asked to follow. The complainant is accusing Impact Athletic Center, myself/my family, another owner, ******** M*****, and our staff of discriminating against her daughter because we did not give her a refund. In fact, we did not discriminate against anyone and, based on her threats, this is happening because the customer was unhappy with our refund policy and felt it should not apply to her.  Our policy regarding programming states: Please note that full payment is due with registration. If cancelled at least 48 hours prior to program starting, 50% will be returned. Once a program has started, no refunds or pro-rating will be granted. **** has stated that on the first night of the program she entered the facility and informed staff that her daughter would not be participating because she refused to come inside. I am not aware that any staff member was informed prior to their registration/payment or prior to the start of the program, that ****** daughter suffered from anxiety. To my knowledge, neither her physical nor mental health was discussed. It is not our practice to ask participants in any of our programs, leagues, or events about their mental health status as our doors are open to everyone in our local communities and beyond.  I first heard about this situation on 10/20/23 after one of the other owners, **** H******, received a message that **** called. Initial communication to **** regarding our policy came from our Guest Services Lead, **** *., after he communicated with **** who had reached out to me. On her 10/20/23 phone call, **** mentioned her daughter’s anxiety to **** who took the initial phone message. It was because she mentioned her daughter’s anxiety in that call that we offered her a credit, even though that is not in our stated policy to do so. In his email to **** on 10/21/23, **** explained our policy and informed **** that we would like to offer her a credit of equivalent value to be used for a future program. After the initial email communication from ****, I’ve learned that **** then spoke with **** (again), ******** and ******* *., our Operations Coordinator. It was communicated with me that all informed **** of the policy and indicated that we would be willing to offer her a full credit so that her daughter would still have volleyball related opportunities. I was informed that **** was not happy with them and made threats to contact the BBB. After hearing this, it was at that point that I told our team that I would connect with ****.  After returning to the office, I contacted **** on Tuesday, 11/7 (the date she was told I would contact her) to discuss. She was upset at the onset of the phone call. I attempted to explain that the reason for our policy is because when someone signs up for a program, they take the place of another potential participant. When canceling the night of or after a program has begun, we are unable to fill the spot because registration has now been closed. In between interruptions, I attempted to explain that the registration payments from participants are used to pay the coaches who lead the programs. I also attempted to explain that we could offer her daughter one-on-one volleyball lessons with one of our coaches or she could utilize for open gyms and **** could come in and play with her daughter. In our phone call, **** mentioned that she was also a business owner. I stated to her that as a business owner, I’m sure she understands the importance of having policies in place.  ****, after sharing her opinions of our facility, threatened that she would tell people we were discriminating against her daughter. At that point I told her that’s not the case and attempted to share that I also have family members who have struggles with mental health and would never discriminate. **** was frustrated with me and did not like that I was trying to communicate what others in the organization had already communicated. She told me that she was going to post about us on social media naming everyone she’d spoken with, report us to different entities and said she was going to do a chargeback with her bank to have the charge reversed. **** also stated, at the end of the call, that she was recording the conversation and had recorded each conversation with the others.  I believe we are being falsely accused of discrimination because **** feels our policy should not apply to her. In fact, we did the opposite of discriminating against her child by offering to give her a full credit. Impact’s policy regarding programming is fair and in line with the policies of similar facilities. The offer for a credit to **** was reasonable. I can understand if **** does not agree with our policy but to accuse us of discrimination is baseless and a disservice to our organization and to our individual characters.  Because **** stated she was going to have her bank do a chargeback, no further action to reach out to **** regarding the offered credit or to give a refund has taken place since our phone call on Tuesday, 11/7. If she has not already done as she stated, we are open to continuing the conversation with **** and finding resolution. 

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩