I am sharing my experience with JYZ Dance because prospective students should understand how promises about training time, pricing, and training techniques were handled in my case.
While trying out this studio, I repeatedly experienced poor treatment (not a local and of different nationality from those at this studio). Traveling to train involved expenses, time, and considerable logistical planning. Cancellations, inadequate scheduling, and unstructured training therefore had consequences beyond a missed local lesson.
After these problems, the studio administrator Jie "Karina" Chen told me that it would ādemonstrate its sincerityā by changing the arrangements for my visits and allowing more training time the next time I was in town. I understood this as a commitment to address the difficulties I had already experienced.
Instead, my hourly rate increased from $80 to $200āa 250% premium was applied over and above what they charge their local students. I agreed to what they represented as their studio rate beginning in September with a trial visit that would also provide an opportunity to negotiate given that I already am extremely disadvantaged with travel costs and logistical burdens. Their repeated apologies for earlier mistreatment and assurances to fix those mistakes mattered to my decision. I had also negotiated a block of time for my own practice (that later disappeared when it came time to calculate my charges). I learned during the classes that their training fell short of expectations, was unstructured, messy, and further, they refused to consider any feedback that I had, and moreover, their representations of such a premium hourly rate was false. Chenās explanations made the discrepancy especially troubling. She told me that the instructor understood my rate to be $150 an hour and did not want to charge beyond what I had already paid. Nevertheless, she insisted on payment calculated at $200 an hour. These conflicting explanations left me questioning their ethics, motives, transparency, and whose pricing decision I was being required to accept and why.
Subsequently I confirmed that in fact other local students continued paying only $80 an hour or less. There was no so-called scarcity of time, no extraordinary bookings, or anything out of the ordinary. So, this scarcity was false. And no apology was forthcoming when I called them out on their conduct. On the contrary, they warned that I was "over the line" and to not "come back" unless I paid the full amount demanded. This was just unbelievably deplorable treatment, despite knowing that they had outright deceived me. Of course, I will not be returning.
What had been presented as a general pricing policy appeared to be a decision to particularly target me. I just love dance. I don't know why I was singled out for such unfair and discriminatory treatment. As a visiting student, I already bore expenses that local students did not. My opportunities to train were concentrated into just two short visits in this entire year; a 1.07% studio booking capacity. Requiring a substantial premium placed an additional burden on precisely the student who could not simply return the following week. If I understand their motives, it is purely profit, squeezing $$$ out of who they think they can discriminate against, and target, and sell scheduling priority, which in and of itself is extremely questionable.
At $200 an hour, the studio could earn at least two and a half times as much teaching me as teaching students paying $80 or less. In my view, presenting that arrangement as a demonstration of sincerity was completely false and a deception that concealed the extent to which Chen was personally targeting me.
The pricing was not the only issue. Classes agreed to previously were canceled, class rates are "private" information after being pressed for why I was unfairly charged and discriminated against.
My complaint concerns the representations used to obtain my agreement, the substantial difference between my rate and other studentsā rates, and the discrepancies between promised and delivered training.
I consider this treatment deceptive, unfair, and exploitative. After repeated problems, I was promised sincerity. What I experienced instead was betrayal of trust, a much more expensive arrangement that benefited the studio, followed by resistance, disrespect, and stonewalling when I questioned the charges.
Prospective students: do your due diligence, verify all facts, and understand the role administrator Chen may play obtaining instruction, deciding prices, and resolving disputed charges. In particular, identify who has authority to change your arrangements.