This is my horrible experience with Rising Stars: yesterday, just before her second class of the…read moresummer session, after completing her first year of dance there the year before, Rising Stars School Of Dance & Performing Arts, NJ dropped my 3 year old daughter from their school because I sent them an email expressing my thoughts about their horrendous customer service.
My email to them was in response to an email they had sent to me about late payment. My payment was late because I wasn't aware of when it was due, as the session hadn't begun yet and I hadn't gotten any other correspondence from them telling me so. Sometimes, when your husband has Stage 4 cancer and your kids are 3 and 6, you accidentally overlook things. Most people, even huge corporations have some empathy and humanity about things like that, but not Rising Stars. They dropped my 3 year old who has only known that dance school and is devastated that she can't go anymore.
Some of the customer service issues that we experienced there were
1. not being allowed back into the recital after picking my daughter up from the green room, following her dance number, as we were told was the protocol, while the rest of our family sat in the seats we paid for. This was the case for the ENTIRE two year old class. When the venue security asked @Rising Stars management if the 2 year olds were allowed back in, Rising Stars management told them, NO.
2. Because I was with my husband at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center the day dance class pictures were discussed I didn't have my check pre-handed in on picture day. So while they were accepting picture checks on picture day, and I stood there with my check in hand, they would not let my 2 year old have her picture taken until a brought the check to the desk in the front. My 2 year old who wouldn't let me leave the room because she has trauma because of her dads illness since she was 7 months old, was hysterical, but no one at Rising Stars would help us. No one would take my check to the desk while I stayed with my crying daughter, nor would they take her picture with me there and let me bring the check to the front desk right after the picture was taken. So as I stood with my check in hand and a screaming toddler, they just wouldn't take her picture until I handed the check in.
So following a nasty form letter email that I received from them the Saturday night before the Monday class started, telling me that my daughter would be dropped if I didn't pay within 24 hours (and they're closed on Sunday) my daughter would be dropped, I replied to their email telling them that they should look into their customer relations. Of course that Monday I paid in full for the summer session and my daughter had her first class. One hour before the second class was due to start, and my daughter was all dressed and ready to go, the owner calls me to tell me that my email was hateful (which it was not, although admittedly it was angry, but not inappropriate) and that they were dropping my 3 year old from their school.
I don't usually air dirty laundry but to me this is beyond. So I wanted to make it clear that this is how @Rising Stars may treat their paying customers and children/ students. It's how my family and my 3 year old were treated.
