ComplaintsforPaint Lab

• Initial Complaint

  01/20/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Got tickets to January 1st and to my surprise the studio was closed. Drove to Santa ****** only to find out nobody signed up for the class, they decided to cancel but "forgot" to contact their one and only student, which happened to be me.After reaching out to her, sending emails, calling her and using social media, she finally called me saying she didn't know I signed up for that class and asked me to reschedule it. I did and a week later I got a call saying she had to cancel that class because ( again) nobody signed up. Very frustrating but I gave them another try and reschedule AGAIN. Took the class and the painting was not done after 2 hours, which was also a scheme because the instructor barely gave me any advice/ instructions since the intention is to keep the students coming back to the studio. With that being said they said I had to come back next week to continue working on my project. I paid 48 dollars in advance and on Tuesday I got a call from ******* saying I had to pay an extra 25 dollars to take private classes because (once again) no students whatsoever. I paid for general admission, not private classes, it's not the clients fault they don't have any paying customers, if they only had one client, they should still have run the program that I paid for. It's called professionalism to honor what the client paid for on that day. I asked for a refund since I was pretty much done with the studio plus I'm gonna be out of the state for a few months so rescheduling was not an option. Asked for a full refund and the owners response was that she can't do it because it's gonna cost her money. After everything that happened, I'm not in the mood to do business with this studio anymore and all I want is to have my money back which is rightfully mine. Rescheduling, or even if they offered me free classes out of courtesy wouldn't be an option. The only option and the only thing that I want is my money back. Nothing more nothing less. Thank you

  Business response

  02/06/2023

  On Dec 31st, the customers sister purchased a ticket through a third party vendor (eventbrite) for a workshop on Jan 1st. Unfortunately, we were closed on Jan 1st to observe the New Year, and the third party vendor did not update the ticket sales to reflect our holiday hours. On Jan 1st, I spoke with the client via telephone explaining this and we rescheduled her appointment for Tuesday 1/10/23. After her rescheduled class 1/10/23, she purchased a ticket for the following Tuesday 1/17/23. On 1/17 we reached out to the client to let her know no other students were enrolled in the 1/17 workshop, and our company policy is to reschedule workshops with only one person. Our policy is stated on our website as follows "Please note that all classes must be reserved in advance and are subject to availability. Individual classes may be canceled due to insufficient enrollment 24 hours prior to event.". We offered to reschedule the client or that if she wanted to come in the evening of 1/17 by herself, we could register the class as a private workshop which is 75$, 27$ more than the public workshop, and we would reschedule her 48$ to another time she was available. The client then yelled at the employee who had called to reschedule and then hung up. The employee then reached out to me (the owner) to see if we could refund the client, as it is our policy to not refund but give store credit. I did not see the message immediately. The clients sister then phoned in threats to the employee saying that she would come in and take product worth 48$ and cause other damages if we didn't refund the client. At this time I saw the messages about the refund and the threats and called the client directly from my home phone. She did not answer. I sent a text asking if we could speak, as I planned to have the 1/17 class with only her or refund her as I wanted to ensure my employees safety from her sisters threats. The client never replied. The clients sister and other friends then submitted 13 one star yelp reviews and ****** reviews about false encounters with studio.. some even making allegations that we are closing, which we are not. Our refund policy is listed on our website as "The Studio does not issue refunds. Studio credit is offered for returned merchandise or canceled workshops and camps within the restrictions outlined above.". I would have broken our policy to quell the clients threats but she has not responded to me directly or to the studio. Moving forward, I will say again: I am happy to refund the client.

  Customer response

  02/10/2023

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***************************

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