Re: Breaking an ATA contract?

padbrown@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Sir/Ma'am...

My wife and I are white belts in our local ATA academy, and we've just
been recommended for the Leadership program.

After reading numerous threads in numerous forums and groups, and from
the feeling we're getting from our own instructors, we're beginning to
look for a way out.

On ATA-related threads that I've started, people have suggested
high-tailing it out of ATA, and have asked "how legally-binding is the
contract"?

I always assumed the contract (6 months) is binding by the fact that I
signed it. Is this not the case? Can we break the contract, and cut our
losses?

We're getting that "cultish" feeling, and it gives us the creeps. We
just wanted to learn TKD, not get drawn into something that strongly
resembles a pyramid scheme.

Has anyone out there quit ATA mid-contract? Is it possible to tear the
contract up, and be free to start our learning anew somewhere else?

Or, are we stuck like chumps for six months at $200 a month?

Thank you in advance for any information...

MLA

Ah yes, "the Leadership Program". You've shown such dedication and
enjoyment, and such leadership skills that you've been recommended to
the "next level" of participation. Which is probably a 3 year(!)
contract at $250 a month!

Your current contract probably has 2 termination conditions that you
can use (if it's anything like others that I've seen): moving more than
25 miles from the dojang, or becoming medically unfit to practice (that
requires a doc's letter). The only way to really know that though is to
have your family attorney read it through and find you an out, if one
such exists.

Otherwise, you signed a contract and agreed to pay $1200 per person and
they will hold you to it. The reason that they will is because if you
stop paying, you aren't depriving the dojang owner of $200 bucks for
the month, he or she has to pay back the entire balance of your
contract to the financing firm through which the contract was paid -
the owner's gotten the entire contract amount (minus fees, of course)
paid ahead.

After you're done with that try to find a nice cheap judo club. TKD
buggers up the leg joints pretty well...

Kevin

.

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