ComplaintsforRatanpur Tarana Dance School

• Initial Complaint

  10/19/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to inform you of a local business that we worked with from January to May 2023 and had an unpleasant experience. The name of the business owner is ********* **********, and the name of her so-called business is Ratanpur Tarana Dance School. There are several issues we have had with ***** and want to make sure these are documented so others are aware and do not go through the same. Additionally, we would like your agency to check the credibility of her business and whether she is following the appropriate laws. 1. Lack of paperwork, documentation, receipts or contracts. We signed up for dance choreography with her. From the beginning her ways of working have been dodgy. There are no receipts, contracts, or paperwork. When we request receipts, contracts, or documentation she refuses and asserts that is how she has been conducting her business for the past many years. She proclaims and continues to state that she is professional. She is the only professional we worked with during the planning of our wedding who provided no contracts, documentation, or receipts. Even our cake vendor and live musicians, who cost less than $1000, have professional contracts and receipts for us. She finally let us take a picture of the spreadsheet in which she notes down the payment details and said we can use that as a receipt. She also showed us that it is her way of conducting business practices with others as you can see the spreadsheet of her other paid clients. Is her business registered with the state government? Is this a legal or ethical way to run a business? 2. Mandatory CASH payments UPFRONT. She required us to pay her immediately upfront and ONLY in the form of cash. Yet, we have no receipts from her. We have paid her to date. $600: Jan 29th, 2023 (For 10 classes) $300: Feb 12th, 2023 (Recording for couples’ song mesh up) $158: Mar 23rd, 2023 (Recording for group song mesh up) All the above amounts to $1058. The disturbing thing is that each of those were only cash or via Zelle. Although full payments were given upfront and immediately, the work took weeks and even months to complete. We asked if we could pay after the work was complete, but she refused to do it. With most professional businesses, payment is made after the work is complete. Is she paying taxes on the business earnings? Is she documenting her earnings (in cash and via Zelle) in her legal/tax-required documents? 3. Legality of her business/company. She added a registration/studio fee of $25 to our overall cost. We were able to get that waived after much discussion. However, her reasoning for asking us to pay $25 was because we are using her studio. The thing that baffled us was that her studio is HER HOUSE. She was asking us to pay a fee for her dance studio because she has to pay for it. However, every practice we have had has been at her home location (8306 Orange Station Loop, Lewis Center, OH 43035). Is that legal or even ethical? Can someone charge a studio fee even though it is her home, and to add we are not allowed to use the studio at any time for practice (since it is her house)? 4. Time requirements. Though we paid for ten classes at a rate of $60 per class, most of our dance practice steps were complete by the 5th class. She made it very clear that there will be no refund of our money and that we had to attend all the sessions. She also would not give us the final recording of our couples’ song mesh up even though we gave her the full payment for that part on February 12th. It is like she was holding us hostage and holding our money hostage. Our impression was that as soon as we pay her the money, she will share the recordings with us. At some point, we just asked her to give us the recording for the couples’ song mesh up so that we can practice on our own and get ready. She refused to do that too. She said until we attend her 9th practice session, she will not do that. Is this legal? Can you take a client’s money (as full payment) and then refuse to give them the recordings for which they have fully paid? Can you bribe them by saying that only after attending the 9th session you will receive it, even though that is not something we agreed upon? 5. Practice sessions last less than an hour. Though our practice sessions were supposed to last one hour, they would usually last less than an hour because a significant amount of time was spent in ***** praising herself, talking highly about herself and telling us how great she is. In one session, I kept a tally of how many times she praised herself (within 20 minutes it was 5). During those times she stands and just tells us so we have to listen and cannot do anything else. I have never worked with a vendor or collaborator who spends as much time as ***** praising themselves. In contrast, she has no reviews and in fact I have heard from others in the community that she is pushy, boisterous, and difficult to collaborate with. Why are we paying for an hour-long session when half the time is spent on ***** talking about herself and how great she is? In addition to all the above issues I noted that once she takes someone’s money, it is hard for her to collaborate and understand the client’s needs. She is pushy so only wants to do what she wants to do and in her way. She is confrontational and combative when there are any suggestions from the clients that do not meet her wants and desires. Overall, I find her very disrespectful, especially after she collects all the clients’ money (with no records provided in return)! We will certainly NEVER work with her or recommend her and warn others in the community about her. Additionally, we hope you will look into the above issues. Working with ***** was a waste of our money, but more importantly, our time. If she can provide a partial refund ($608), we will be grateful. If not, I hope you will at least follow up to understand the ethics of her business and whether she is following important laws (including taxation and other business-reporting laws). I will be forwarding my complaint to the Consumer Protection Unit, Federal Trade Commission, and the Ohio Department of Taxation. I hope you will follow up with ***** and her so-called business accordingly. Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing back from you. Sincerely, ***** ** ****

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