All-Star Your Opinion On Gyms Not Releasing Uniforms & Practice Wear?

[RaRaMama]

I always get a kick out of parents who say "Well, I wrote a check for Suzie's uniform, so I should get it". No. You wrote a check to the gym for $200, and you were $300 in the hole on tuition...so guess what? You caught up a little. You're welcome!

All kidding aside, and not talking about situations like job loss, illness, etc that cause a change in family finances....what makes a person join an allstar team when the prices come out well in advance of when tryouts are? If you can't afford it at tryouts, what makes you think you are going to miraculously come up with that money? I just don't get it. It just makes a frustrating situation for owners, coaches, parents, and most importantly, the kids.

 

[cheerisgood]

i can't even go there with this....

 

[xomckenzieee]

I agree completely but I think the hardest thing I ever had to do was tell a Youth girl she wasn't getting her uniform. Everyone was so excited to get them and I had to pull her aside and tell her she wasn't. The only time I've ever made an 8 year old cry. Her mom never told her that she hadn't paid for it yet. That should never have been put on me like that but it's business.

 

[coachlex1019]

I always get a kick out of parents who say "Well, I wrote a check for Suzie's uniform, so I should get it". No. You wrote a check to the gym for $200, and you were $300 in the hole on tuition...so guess what? You caught up a little. You're welcome!

All kidding aside, and not talking about situations like job loss, illness, etc that cause a change in family finances....what makes a person join an allstar team when the prices come out well in advance of when tryouts are? If you can't afford it at tryouts, what makes you think you are going to miraculously come up with that money? I just don't get it. It just makes a frustrating situation for owners, coaches, parents, and most importantly, the kids.

As a coach/assistant gym manager for a few years, I never understood this, either. Why do parents sign their kids up for expensive activities, prices given well in advance, when they know it will be near impossible to pay in full? Especially given so many cheaper options out there.

Sidenote: I love the families who say "oh, we are have such and such issue right now and can we have a break on this and can we pay this late?" and then buy their kids a bunch of sh*t at a competition. Yes, I can see you must REALLY be struggling...scammers.

 

[SarahS]

We had to put a credit card on file when we signed up with the gym, so that monthly tuition would be charged to the card if the tuition balance was not paid by a certain date. Is that not standard procedure? A couple of other gyms we looked into when we moved here do the same thing. I figured most gyms would do this to ensure payment. No?

 

[catlady]

We had to put a credit card on file when we signed up with the gym, so that monthly tuition would be charged to the card if the tuition balance was not paid by a certain date. Is that not standard procedure? A couple of other gyms we looked into when we moved here do the same thing. I figured most gyms would do this to ensure payment. No?

My guess is when they go to charge those credit cards, they're maxed out.

Our owners meet with us before our kids tryout. Every year they make the comment, "And for you parents that are allowing your kids to try out when you know you can not make the monthly payments, we will be taking them out of the program in the next few months and we will tell them why if they show up for the next practice." I was always under the impression these were parents that had lost their jobs after the season started or had unexpected medical emergencies, obviously not.

Our gym changed its payment structure this year. In years past we paid the monthly gym fee and then they would bill us for uniforms, choreography, music, entry fees, coaches fees, etc. as they came (they told you how much up front). Now you pay a monthly fee that includes everything, which gives a clearer picture to new parents, however, you still have some that are surprised traveling is expensive.

 

[cupieqt]

We had to put a credit card on file when we signed up with the gym, so that monthly tuition would be charged to the card if the tuition balance was not paid by a certain date. Is that not standard procedure? A couple of other gyms we looked into when we moved here do the same thing. I figured most gyms would do this to ensure payment. No?

We do this.

 

[Cheer Dad]

We had to put a credit card on file when we signed up with the gym, so that monthly tuition would be charged to the card if the tuition balance was not paid by a certain date. Is that not standard procedure? A couple of other gyms we looked into when we moved here do the same thing. I figured most gyms would do this to ensure payment. No?

Not done at the two gyms we have been a part of.

 

[DropAndRun]

We have to have a credit card on file as well, but it is for tuition only. It's the $1000ish in cheer specific fees (uniform, warmup, comp fees) that aren't included that are what people have to write those individual checks for.

 

[dawgshow]

We had to put a credit card on file when we signed up with the gym, so that monthly tuition would be charged to the card if the tuition balance was not paid by a certain date. Is that not standard procedure? A couple of other gyms we looked into when we moved here do the same thing. I figured most gyms would do this to ensure payment. No?

We have that option but its not required.

 

[SheCheers]

We have autodraft for tuition. If you use it, you lock in your tuition rate for subsequent seasons. Uniforms and comp fees, etc are paid by check or cash only.

 

[cheermomforever]

We had to put a credit card on file when we signed up with the gym, so that monthly tuition would be charged to the card if the tuition balance was not paid by a certain date. Is that not standard procedure? A couple of other gyms we looked into when we moved here do the same thing. I figured most gyms would do this to ensure payment. No?

Our gym does it thru paypal and it is mandatory to sign up for it.

 

[TheVipersMom]

Yes we have the auto draft for tuition.

And like SheCheers said everything else is cash or check only.
I know our gyms wants everything up front. Like the $1000 dollars in comp fees, the practice wear, choreo, uniform, make-up, shoes, and whatever other charge we had had to be paid in full by Oct 1. They were all due May-Oct and there were scheduled dates for each. So as of now we only have tuition for the rest of the season. My problem with this is me paying $200 a month in tuition plus AT LEAST 300$ plus each month on top of that to make up all those fees was a struggle. I get paid every other week and at least one of my 2 paychecks a month in full go to cheer. (I don't make a whole lot) lol


All season I have managed to pay every fee on time except 2; I also had to forego getting my daughter the optional warm ups that she wanted so much. My practice wear of $175 I was exactly one week late on that and she knew about it ahead of time before it was even due that it was going to be late. Also the last installment of competition fees of $322 I was about 2 weeks late. She also knew ahead of time and she was ok with it. The first week it was late I went to her and said I know I told you I would pay it 2 weeks after the due date but I would like to at least go ahead and pay you $100 so that way you have something now. She has been completely ok with it and never had to approach me for it.

Anyways at the end of September I was walking out with a mom who went to pay. When she got to the desk I heard her say here is some of the payment for August 1st competition fees. I immediately said omg, I felt so bad for being a week late and felt like I was an inconvenience to ask of such a thing but I felt so much better realizing I wasn't the only one who was late and there are people still 2 months behind. I understand people getting behind as it is a struggle for me but I never realized how many people probably do it to them and I feel bad.

I made sure I always told her and kept her aware of what I was doing; I would feel flat out embarrassed if she ever had to approach me for it.

 

[luxerae]

If somebody is in the situation where they could afford everything during tryouts, but for whatever reason have started to have some trouble paying the tuition, the bottom line is to go talk to the owners about it than to ignore it, go on about your life, and hope it gets fixed soon. When people don't know the reasoning behind certain situations, it is human nature to assume the worst. So if you're late on tuition and you don't inform the owner as to why, they're just going to assume that you just don't want to pay it, rather than assume that you might be having some trouble, especially if you go and pay for the uniform and practice wear instead. I can say right now that for the people who don't go talk to a owner straight away that it's probably a matter of pride, which is frustrating because now that parent's pride is interfering with their child's participation in a sport that they love. It is not fair to the owners of the gym for your child to use their facility and be coached by their employees for free while everybody else is paying their dues. It also not fair to your child to not get the things that everybody else is getting or not competing just because you're too embarrassed to admit that you're having some trouble. Like everyone else is saying, at the end of the day, it is a business and they expect to get paid. Put yourself in the owners shoes and just imagine how frustrating it would be work so hard and half the people don't pay tuition in time or at all. So long story short, just shove your pride out of the way and go talk to an owner, it'll save you a lot of stress and punishment.

 

[Pittsburghfame]

What happens if they don't have a credit card or refuse to do paypal?