Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. 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.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/25/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am asking for assistance in securing a pro-rated refund from Decatur Healing Arts due to poor teacher quality. A brief summary of the situation and my attempts to resolve it are as follows. A full accounting of the situation is attached. During the ************* Teacher Certification course I experienced negative emotional and physiological effects after attending the classes. Eventually it became clear that it was interacting with the teacher through asking questions etc that was leading me to no longer safe to practice *************. I attempted to work the teacher to try different solutions, but she failed to consider her own attitude as playing a role in the harmful experience. Therefore the situation could not be resolved and I had no option but to withdraw from the course to protect my emotional and physical health. In addition to the teachers demeanor toward me, the teaching materials contained many errors, and the teacher herself violated the personal and energetic boundaries she was instructing us to have as future teachers. I am not the first student to have this experience with this teacher. The refund request was denied because I did not bring up with situation with *** the first week of the course (before the situation became clear). When discussing the situation with the owner of *** and explaining that attending the course was causing harm, she denied the refund request and told me I should complete the course. Stating that I should return to a course that was causing me harm goes directly against the Mission Statement of the *** which states that it seeks to to ensure physical as well as psychological well-being in part through creating safe, and brave space for physical, mental, and emotional healing. Having attended two of the six modules a pro-rated refund is a reasonable request in this situation. Therefore I am asking that *** act ethically and in accordance with its own healing directive and issue the fair and equitable $650 pro-rated refund.

  Business Response

  Date: 05/31/2023

  Dear Better Business Bureau, 
  We are writing in response to the complaint filed against Decatur Healing Arts by ************************* or (*****************) on May 25th, 2023.We appreciate the opportunity to address this matter.
  According to our records ***************** registered for ************* Teacher Training on December 29th, 2022,and the Teacher Training started on January 21st, 2023. We spoke with ***************************, ************* Teacher, and she confirmed that ***************** first took classes with her before she registered for the ************* Teacher Training at Decatur Healing Arts. This made us feel like *** liked her style and decided to register again with her to deepen her ************* practice.
  *** registered on September 13th, 2022, for the classes listed below paying a membership directly to the ************* Teacher, for a total of 6 months of classes with ******* before she decided to withdraw from the teacher training.
  September 2022: 12x
  October 2022: 20x
  November 2022: 20x
  December 2022: 18x
  January 2023: 21x
  February 2023: 11x
  Total Potential Classes: 102
  We spoke directly with *** on March 28 when she reached out to ** explaining that she wanted to be withdrawn from the ************* Teacher Training after taking 4 weeks of classes. We told her that unfortunately our cancelation policy doesn't allow students to request a refund after 4 weeks of classes. Please refer to our FAQs page ************************************************;
  We told *** that we understand that she is not happy with the teacher since it did not meet her expectations, and we apologize for any inconvenience, or frustration this may have caused. We also explained that Teacher Trainings demand a lot of physical and emotional commitment and in my personal experience having already taken two Yoga teacher trainings, I have seen people quit the training for different reasons. (We did not mention that we at the Center have had students that quit previous ************* Teacher trainings) our ************* Teacher has been working at the center for the last 19 years and this is the first time that somebody wanted to withdraw from her class. 
  On March 28th, we discussed alternative solutions to the issue, such as talking to the teacher to improve communication and watch recorded video of the classes. We also encouraged *** to continue with the Teacher Training but she declined any alternative to solve the matter.
  
  During the same conversation with *** on March 28th, she asked us if we knew of other online ************* Teacher trainings, she mentioned that it has been difficult for her to find another good teacher like *******.
  Also, she emailed the following to the teacher on March 22nd when she decided to withdraw from the Teacher Training: At this point we feel that it is better for both of us if we leave the Teacher Training program. Perhaps you can refer me to another teacher? Experiencing your practice form and your teaching instructions has inspired me to bring ************* into my life and we would very much like to find a way to further develop the practice.
  After my conversation with ***, on May 17th, we ran a customer satisfaction survey with the other students to evaluate the ************* Teacher Training to better understand the studentsexperience and these were the results, please see below:
  1. How satisfied are you with the overall quality of the ************* Teacher Training program with ***************************?
  100% Extremely Satisfied
  2. How would you rate the effectiveness of the instructor's teaching style and methods?
  50% Very Effective 
  50% Extremely Effective
  3. How would you rate the quality of the course materials and resources provided in the program?
  100% Excellent 
  4. Have you noticed any improvement in your own ************* practice and teaching skills since starting the program?
  100% Significant improvement
  5. How well does the program meet your expectations and needs as a ************* teacher or prospective teacher?
  100% Very well
  6. How would you rate the support and feedback provided by *************************** throughout the program?
  100%Excellent 
  7.Would you recommend this ************* Teacher Training program with *************************** to others?
  100%Definitely 
  We take all feedback seriously and are committed to providing high-quality services to our customers. Our commitment at Decatur Healing Arts is to help our community and provide holistic therapies and classes to support them on their healing journey.We value our customers and their satisfaction is our top priority, so we make sure that we partner with the best-in-class practitioners and teachers.
  We appreciate the opportunity to address this matter and resolve any concerns. If you have any further questions or require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us.
  Sincerely,

  
  *********************
  Decatur Healing Arts. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/05/2023

  Re: Complaint ******** concerning Decatur Healing Arts
  
  Thank you for forwarding the response from *** and allowing me this opportunity to respond.
  My original request for a pro-rated refund stands as well my original complaint details which were not sufficiently addressed. I am concerned that perhaps *** might not have read my full letter of complaint as the response addresses issues that are not in dispute while failing to address the specifics of my complaint. The response letter does, however, expose some areas of disagreement. It is my hope that my response will lend clarification and assist with resolution.

  Overall my complaint is about three issues of poor teacher quality: inappropriate emotional energetics in response to me personally;errors in teaching materials; and boundary violations concerning confidentiality and energetics. I will address these three in order while including responses to some of the content of ***s response letter before addressing the areas of disagreement.

   As acknowledged in my original complaint, I attended classes with the teacher prior to the teacher certification course. I explained that those classes were just follow along classes which are very different from a teacher training course in which the ability to have questions answered is at the heart of the training. As explained in the full complaint, there was an issue with the teachers demeanor towards me specifically when interacting with her that she did not have with the other students and which did not become clear until the teacher training. As explained, this likely included projection of her frustration with a previous student. After several attempts to discuss it the teacher was unwilling to acknowledge it which means that it could not be resolved. It does not surprise me that a survey of the current students would show satisfaction. I am impressed that *** initiated a student survey, even though it was not until after I reported in May an additional student having a similar experience to my own that they undertook the survey. The details in the response letter do not specify, but I imagine the survey was of current students, and thus excluded the previous student who had experiences similar to mine (and, as explained in my full complaint, had her own reasons for not withdrawing from the course).

  While the survey inquired, How would you rate the quality of the course materials and resources provided in the program?, this is a very broad question that can be answered from a number of perspectives. For instance,the sheer volume of information, much of it with foreign terms, can lead one to believe that the materials are of quality. However, at issue here is the reliability and correctness of the teacher generated content, as is her lack of concern in correcting the mistakes and providing corrected materials.
  
  The issue of boundary violations concerning confidentiality and energetics was not addressed in the response but is a true issue of teacher quality. It is not appropriate to discuss the requirement of confidentiality and clear personal and energetic boundaries and then violate them during the class.
  
  There are three areas of disagreement concerning the March 28 conversation with ****** as described in the response letter: alternative solutions, commitment, and policy.
  
  From the phrasing it sounds as if ****** proposed alternative solutions to the situation that I then refused, when in fact I had spent many weeks in discussion with the teacher trying to problem solve prior to withdrawing (as was detailed in the full complaint letter). The only solutions from *** that were encouraged during that conversation were to either continue the training as is, or fully withdraw. No other solutions were suggested by ******. Instead, the solutions mentioned in the response letter were the ones I brought into the conversation because I had already tried them. In fact, when I told ****** that with the teachers agreement I had tried watching recorded videos of the class while only attending live once a month, ******* response was that such a limited level of class participation would not be sufficient to certify a teacher. As explained in the full complaint, while this solution would have worked for me, the teacher felt that it did not provide enough observation.Once this became an unacceptable alternative I had no choice but to withdraw.
  
  Interestingly,in that conversation I was told that I should have come to *** the first week of the course instead of trying to find solutions with the teacher (thus the details in my full complaint about the confusion around the responsible party for the course and why it took me so long to make contact with ***). But in this response, it sounds like the opposite, that I should have tried to find solutions with the teacher, which I did, rather than just decliningsolutions.  
  
  The response mentions the physical and emotional commitment required for teacher training courses and her own experience with teacher training courses. I acknowledge that training courses can be intense experiences that require commitment. I have taken other teacher trainings so I too am aware. But that is not the issue here. This is not about the common reasons that people quit trainings like being challenged by the course materials or the energetics of the form, being pushed physically or emotionally, or having difficulty leading a group, teaching, or receiving feedback. Instead, this is about my unusual experience with this specific course and with this specific teacher in which my withdrawal was very appropriate because of the unhealthy energetics directed at me, the confusing errors in the course materials, and the lack of a safe learning environment due to the violation of boundaries.
  
  The response mentions the cancellation policy of *** which is a standard policy that is based on the assumption that the teaching quality and teaching environment are sound and that the reason for cancellation is entirely on the student's side. Again, this is not the case here. This situation is an exception to policy.
  
  In conclusion, I wish to be clear. The teacher is very knowledgeable and has a lovely ************* form and I truly hope that she is able to ignite ************* practice in others. But that does not mean that she is devoid of areas for improvement specifically, the willingness to acknowledge that not all people who come to her should be her students and that she can respectfully ***** them to another teacher where they may thrive rather than continuing to teach them and exposing them to the energetics of her frustration; the close editing of teaching materials; and the close monitoring of the information she is disclosing about others and only connecting with others physically or energetically after explicit permission has been given.
  
  I am not surprised that in the previous iterations of this course no one withdrew. It is quite a financial investment, and only a few of the students seem to frustrate the teacher, have issues with the correctness of the materials, or understand enough about energetics to be concerned about the boundary violations. I, unfortunately, was one of those students.
  
  I am requesting the refund because by keeping my funds *** is telling me I should pay you for the experience of having a teacher be continually frustrated with me, to the extent that I was not able to learn, to the extent that I was feeling unwell (being harmed). To be blunt, this would be equivalent to telling me to stay in an abusive relationship. This goes against the stated mission of the *** to create a safe environment and to help ensure physical as well as psychological well-being. I hope the *** may be willing to consider that this has been my unusual and unfortunate experience.
  
  To that end, I am asking again that *** act in accordance with its own healing directive and issue a fair and equitable $650 pro-rated refund.
  
  ***********************

  Business Response

  Date: 06/10/2023

  Dear ********************,
  
  We are writing to address your recent complaint regarding your participation in the Level 1 ************* Teacher Certification Program at Decatur Healing Arts, taught by ***************************. We understand that this issue has caused you inconvenience and we want to ensure that we address it appropriately.
  As per our cancellation policy, refunds are only accepted when a cancellation is made with at least 24-hour notice prior to the scheduled activity. Additionally, events, workshops, and certification trainings are non-refundable and cannot be rolled over.
  After carefully reviewing your case and taking into consideration the time and effort you have invested, we have decided to proceed with a partial refund as a gesture of goodwill and to bring this matter to a close.
  The total cost of the Level 1 ************* Teacher Training is $980 for 21 classes. Considering the 6 classes you attended, totaling $280, and the 15 classes that were not taken, for a value amounts of $700. Therefore, we will be refunding you $218.5, which represents 50% of the $700 for classes no taken, minus $100 for digital training materials, and minus credit card transaction fee of 4.5% of $31.5. This refund will be processed within one week of this letter to the original payment method you used.
  
  We would like to emphasize that it is customary within the yoga/tai chi/qigong teacher training certification arena to have a no-refund policy once a certification program has commenced or within a couple of weeks thereafter. However, given the circumstances, we have chosen to make an exception and provide you with this partial refund.
  If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us directly. We highly value your feedback and are committed to resolving any outstanding issues you may have. We are now closing communication on this portal.
  Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

  
  Sincerely,
  

  *********************
  Decatur Healing Arts

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/16/2023

  BBB of Metro Atlanta
  Re: Complaint ******** concerning Decatur Healing Arts
  
  Thank you for facilitating this conversation with DHA and allowing me this opportunity to respond, especially in light of DHA stating they are ceasing communications.
  
  While I am grateful that DHA has come to the table to hear my complaint, I must reject the refund offer from DHA in order to be able to comment on the offer for future patrons to read on the BBB site. 
  
  While I appreciate DHA has delineated how they arrived at the proposed refund amount, no rationale was given for reducing the pro-rated value of the unattended classes (basis of refund) by 50%. Perhaps this is meant to imply shared responsibility for this situation? However, as has been detailed in prior communications I alone worked for weeks to attempt to resolve the situation through open communication and problem solving and met little to no support from the teacher and DHA.  
  
  In addition, no explanation was given for deducting $100 from the refund amount for digital training materials. This deduction is quite curious considering part of my complaint is about the poor quality of course materials. This deduction perhaps implies that the course materials were all given at the beginning of the course, which was not the case (with the exception of a pdf of a book that is freely available online, and an 8 page pdf of Energetic Anatomy that contains summarized information available on many Chinese Medicine websites and in introductory books). Based on this deduction, I can only assume that this complaint has not been fully read nor understood.
  
  A fair and equitable refund amount for this situation is more appropriately set at the originally requested amount of $650. Accepting that the unattended portion of the course is valued at $700, the difference of $50 allows for the sunk cost of credit card processing fees plus a bit of goodwill. 
  
  I deeply hope that DHA takes seriously their statement that they highly value your feedback and are committed to resolving any outstanding issues you may have. I hope that they hear and understand the three aspects of my complaint (inappropriate emotional energetics in the classroom; errors in teaching materials; and boundary violations concerning confidentiality and energetics) and utilize the details of my experience to assist the teacher and DHA to improve the course so that others can truly be benefitted by the healing art of *************.
  
  ***********************