Toronto Dance Vibes, North York, ON

Our son attended the tap dance class and our experience was pretty terrible. Our son participated for a few months of classes and he found the class to be extremely boring and repetitive and there wasn't absolutely anything in it to engage or make it fun for him. He grew increasingly apprehensive towards going to the class and towards the end he did not want to go even when promised rewards like toys or chocolate. He has been involved in many activities ranging from sports, drama, french, music and has always been very happy to participate in them. In January we paid for a costume for his dance recital which was supposed to take place at the end of the course. When we realized that he wasn't going to complete the course, we asked if it was possible to get a refund for the costume since the recital was still 4-5 months away and the costume was not ordered yet. We were told that there are no refunds for payments made by cheque. Be very aware of this rule in case you pay this studio any money. We accepted it and told them that we're ok receiving the costume then and we were planning to donate it to a clothing bank. The costume was never delivered. We called the company a few times and they first said that they didn't have any record that we had paid them the money, but they would inquire and get back to us. They never did. So we called again and we were told that we didn't pay for the costume, so there isn't one available. My wife brought them our bank statement showing that a cheque for this amount had been cashed. They were rude and basically told her to leave the studio and come back with the police. The next week we asked our bank to do an investigation and provide us with the copy of the cheque. The cheque clearly showed that they had stamped and processed the cheque and deposited it in their account. When presented with this proof, they still didn't want to issue a refund saying that payments by cheque were not refundable. Be aware that if you pay them by cash you risk not having proof of payment made and payments by cheque are not refundable. When threatened with a consumer protection complaint they said they would now be happy to send the costume, 6 months after if was ordered and many weeks after the event that it was designated for. We still have not received the costume or refund to this day. Even though the dance lessons themselves were free for the few months that our son attended, the experience that we had was a terrible waste of time of money.