To Whom It May Concern:
I hope that after reading this letter you will fully investigate my complaint. (Giving me the time to refute anything Kathy or Holly have said when you questioned them and to provide witnesses for my allegations.)
My name is Jeremiah and I, until just recently, was enrolled as a student at the San Antonio Aveda Institute. I was enrolled in the Institute's first cosmetology class until I challenged one too many of Kathy and her daughter Holly's unfair policies. But I guess it is best to start at the beginning
After 6 years as Director of Human Resources and Training for Omega Cable and Communications, Inc., I decided that I would use my experience to start my own cable company. I found some investors, bid on a contract with Time Warner Cable, moved to Texas and started Pulse Cable and Communications.
My company did really well for a year or so, I had over 100 employees, until Time Warner Cable reneged on their contract by moving most of their installation work in-house. My lawyers filed a 10 million dollar breach of contract lawsuit while I laid off half of my employees and moved into private corporate bidding of fiber optic contracts. About the same time my doctors informed me that I was terminally ill and would probably only have 3 or 4 years to live unless they could stabilize my condition.
I don't know about you, but being told that you're going to die makes a lot of things look very differentall of a sudden you realize that there are things you've always dreamed of doing, but that you've never quite found time for. I looked at the last ten years of my life and decided that I didn't like the cable industry, I had never liked the cable industry, and that I would sell my company and do what I had always dreamed of doing hair. (I know, I know it's quite a career change, but a friend gave me this book about becoming a Daymaker and I knew right away that it was what I wanted to be.)
After researching the idea, I went to visit a number of different schools here in San Antonio, to look them over, and talk to the students none of them were quite what I was looking for. After deciding that I would move to San Francisco in order to go to the Vidal Sassoon Academy, a friend told me that they were going to open an Aveda Institute here in San Antonio. I was so excited! I started doing the research and discovered Horst, the Aveda philosophy, and what a great reputation their schools had in the cosmetology industry I was sold, I had to go to an Aveda school!
The rest was easy, I got the email address for the Aveda Institute, sent an email to Di, and within a week I had an informational packet for the Institute.
After looking the packet over I had a couple of concerns:
1) The attendance policy was very strict, miss 10 days and your terminated from the program. (I knew that I was going to need more than 1 day a month off from school because of my illness between visits with the specialists and the disabling nausea I experience every now and then, 10 days would never be enough.)
2) The school seemed a lot more expensive than the other schools I had spoken with here in San Antonio
I decided that I would talk to Di about my concerns when I scheduled the interview/tour. The interview and tour were wonderful! The school was beautiful! Di was awesome! (She seemed like a real southern lady, like the women I grew up around back in Virginia.) I discussed my concerns with Di. She explained the increased tuition by telling me how experienced the instructors were and how expensive supplying all of the product for us to practice on each other would be. Then she explained the financial aid packages, that there was not any real aid, but as long as I had a credit score of 640 or above I was guaranteed a loan from Sallie Mae to cover it.
Then we discussed my fears about the attendance policy, so she called in Holly Zapada, the school administrator and owner's daughter. Holly was very understanding about my condition and assured me that as long as I could provide documentation from my doctor then the school would not penalize me for my attendance. She felt that it would be easy for me to make up any missed work, assignments, practice, or classes with the way the school would be set up, so that my request for exemption from that policy seemed reasonable under ADA.
I also explained that I might have to go to court for my breach of contract lawsuit against Time Warner Cable and that trial could last up to a week. Holly patted me on the shoulder, made a joke about taking on the big guys and told me that as long as I had documentation from the court then it would not be held against me. Holly then told me to get a letter from my doctor explaining my need for additional absences while she found out what other documentation would be necessary.
After that I was really excited about starting school! Di explained that we had to wear black pants and either a white or black shirt, so I want out and bought every cool shirt I could find. (Okay I admit it, I wanted to be the best dressed guy in my class and look like a stylist.) Finally, after being postponed a couple of times, the first day of schooled rolled around. The school was BEAUTIFUL! It was just like I had imagined a cosmetology school to look like. The other students were great, I had made friends with many of them within minutes. And the instructors seemed very nice and hair-stylisty.
Seeing a number of us wearing all black, Holly told us that we were expected to wear black pants and white shirts only. I raised my hand and explained that Di had told me, (and after looking around and seeing many girls in all black), other people that we could wear either black or white shirts. Holly said that she had decided to reserve black for instructors and that those of us who had purchased black shirts would be able to use them in a salon after we graduated.
Since I had spent over $1000 dollars on mostly black shirts I appealed to Kathy, Holly's mom and the owner of the school, but was told that I could write a challenge/solution. I didn't feel it was the end of the world that I couldn't wear my black shirts but I also didn't think it was right for them to tell us we could wear them, then just change their mindsso I requested a complaint form and turned it in.
The first few weeks of school were great, the media was there regularly. I was in the newspaper and even interviewed by two different television news reporters! It was fun to send my family back in Ohio articles from the newspaper and video clips from the 6 o'clock news that had me in them. (They weren't totally sold on me switching careers or living in Texas instead of closer to them since I was diagnosed.)
While the media attention was great and the novelty of learning new things was even better, there were problems from the start. For one thing, only one instructor in the whole school, (cosmetology or esthiology), had any experience as an instructor! Di had told me that part of the reason tuition was higher was because we had experienced instructors who knew and used 4 different teaching methods to make sure that everyone's learning style was covered.
Complaint | Aveda Institute Complaint Review San Antonio, Texas: 154507 // OpenXvar OX_ads = OX_ads | [];// Googlevar googletag = googletag | {};googletag. Cmd = googletag. Cmd | [];googletag. Cmd. Push (function () {googletag. DefineSlot ('/190302506/RR. Report-Page. Zone-1.300x90', [300,90], 'div-gpt-ad-1362801746254-0'). AddService (googletag. Pubads ();googletag. DefineSlot ('/190302506/RR. Report-Page. Zone-3b. Special. 300x250', [300,250], 'div-gpt-ad-1362801746254-1'). AddService (googletag. Pubads ();googletag. DefineSlot ('/190302506/RR. Report-Page. Zone-4a. 300x250', [300,250], 'div-gpt-ad-1362801746254-2'). AddService (googletag. Pubads ();googletag. DefineSlot ('/190302506/RR. Report-Page. Zone-5.300x250', [300,250], 'div-gpt-ad-1362801746254-3'). AddService (googletag. Pubads ();googletag. DefineSlot ('/190302506/RR. Report-Page. Zone-2.728x90', [728,90], 'div-gpt-ad-1363745413582-0'). AddService (googletag. Pubads ();googletag. DefineSlot ('/190302506/RR. Report-Page. Zone-5. Special. 300x250', [300,250], 'div-gpt-ad-1367531115503-0'). AddService (googletag. Pubads ();googletag. Pubads (). EnableSingleRequest ();googletag. EnableServices ();}); #d_fFH{position: absolute;top:-5000px;left:-5000px}#d_fF{font-family: serif;font-size: 200px;visibility: hidden}#pressed419dc1c0, #Princee9661358, #electronicsd746d613, #Princee9661358{display: none! Important} Woodruff new HelloBar (28188,34388); complaint | Complaints Reviews Scams Lawsuits Frauds Reported. File your review. Consumers educating consumers.™
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