The state’s largest chain of karate schools has been belted with a $195,000 fine and ordered to pay refunds for what authorities called illegal business practices and “bait and switch” sales tactics.
The Tiger Schulmann Karate Centers agreed to pay $36,000 to 42 people who had been refused refunds or allegedly deceived about the cost of lessons.
“I feel like I was fooled. They weren’t up front with me,” said George McGrath. “I was never so angry in my life.”
McGrath said he was told at the Tiger Schulmann center in Nanuet last year that his son Patrick, 9, would earn three different color belts in the “beginner” level. He was told the program would cost $1,500 for 100 lessons – two a week for a year.
But after two months, the kid had mastered the basics and was introduced to wood-breaking in an intermediate class. At that point, the youngster and his dad were told that Patrick could not continue learning advanced moves unless his dad signed a contract for 250 more classes costing an additional $3,500.
“I told them they could shove it,” said McGrath, who yanked his son out of the program.
Ilana Grunwald, a Manhattan psychologist, said her 9-year-old daughter, Dania, had already taken Tae Kwon-Do classes when she came to Tiger Schulmann, but the staff recommended she be put in the beginner class.
Six weeks later, the center moved Dania into the intermediate class – “and she loved it,” Grunwald said. Only then, she said, did Grunwald learn she had to pay the extra $3,500.
When she objected and threatened to complain to authorities, she said, her daughter was kicked out of the program.
“She cried for weeks. It was terrible,” Grunwald said, adding that Tiger Schulmann shortchanged her more than $250 on a refund.
Under an agreement with the office of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the chain denied using “bait and switch” schemes but agreed to “disclose” its policies to customers – including the minimum cost and number of classes it takes to earn a black belt.
“We’ve explained everything and have everything in our contract according to law,” said Steve Bosyk, operations director and chief of instruction. “The only people who didn’t understand it was the attorney general.”