My advice to anyone looking for MMA or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instruction would be to eliminate Team Third Law Jiu-Jitsu in Naples, FL due to a pattern of dishonest dealings. Robert Torrablas is a person who stands up in front of our communities children and he speaks of honesty and hard work - meanwhile he refuses to terminate several memberships as he continues charging credit cards through a third party. This outfit was told verbally three times and we even gave him the supposedly "required" written notice of termination - not once, but twice! My son, Koda, had achieved green belt and we more than fulfilled our 1 year contract term. After finding out that Koda had a hernia which probably stemmed from Torrablas harshness in pushing the students, we asked "master" Torrablas (who is all of 28 or so years of age and only has a purple belt) to FREEZE our membership indefinitely due to the fact we had to follow doctors orders. We also pointed out that our membership agreement was 100% fulfilled and we conveyed to Torrablas that the dojo was to stop charging our CREDIT CARD. He agreed. When we saw the THIRD LAW charge appear again (the charge appears as NACEFT.com) the very next month we walked into the dojo to work out the refund. Of course, Torrablas told us that he "did't remember" agreeing to the release or freeze, and that we had to send it in writing to someone he calls "member services" - which of course, is a PO BOX without a telephone number. Since we had our children with us we didn't want to make a scene so we wrote out a simple cancellation and handed it to him. He offered his "suggestion" that we should call it a FREEZE so we could avoid all of the "high enrollment fees" in case we came back to train. He said the best way to do it was if the letter included specific dates, but he also told us he understood our situation. He said the freeze would actually be indefinite since it was a "medical excuse" and the surgery would most likely mean my son would be out for more than 3-4 months. We agreed since trust had not been a big issue as of that moment in time. However, we recently were told that the reason the dojo had not initially stopped charging us had to do with our contract which they say clearly states we must give them a 60 day notice for freezing the membership or for cancellations. The excuses to WHY they kept charging us $139.00 per month have become exhausting! Anyway... Back to the timeline - Not knowing all of this at the time my wife agreed to take our son Koda to the dojo since he wanted to "visit" his friends. While at the dojo, Torrablas encourages Koda to "warm up" with the class. My son asks my wife and she begrudgingly says okay but tells him to be careful (it was 50-60 days after surgery). After the class my son explained to my wife that his incision area hurt, thusly my wife reiterated to Torrablas to remember to keep the original agreement since Koda would definitely need much more time to heal up.in other words... Terminate / freeze / interrupt / stop the membership as it is supposed to be paused right now anyway. Torrablas smiled and responded - OKAY. The next thing we received was a certified letter from "member services" saying Koda was "spotted" in class, so they'd have to begin charging us again. WHAT?! Immediately, my wife called the dojo and told them this "game" of impossible cancellation is FINISHED... PLEASE STOP and WE ARE TERMINATING this membership for the 5th time! The dojo staff-member would not even allow my wife to speak to Torrablas since he "doesn't deal with contracts or billing" - we were told you must send another letter to "member services" to terminate membership. At that time, my wife sent a written email through Facebook asking Torralbas to honor the agreement as our son's injury felt worse since his short visit and after the stretching Torrablas encouraged him to do. Torralbas "stonewalled" yet again by responding via Facebook private email saying "he doesn't understand what she means and to write a letter to member services or call Joey at the dojo" in order to explain. Since we had already gotten the run around trying to indefinitely freeze or terminate this darn membership via phone, email, and in writing we decided to hand deliver a letter canceling the darn membership! Thusly, we dropped off a written letter to Joey and they stopped charging us for a month. After not seeing these charges I stopped looking only to discover something BIG at tax time. My wife's AMEX card was over-charged close to $2,000.00 (14 months at $139 per month) as this "small business owner" blatantly refuses to get his obviously "weak hearted soul" on the phone to discuss what happend. I have called every single day until we finally received a certified letter from "member services" stating that my family does not have to the necessary documents to PROVE we cancelled the membership. This "honest" "hard working" "role model" offered to refund all of $278.00 (2 months) for our troubles even though my son has not been to his school in over one (1) year! Plus, we tried to cancel this membership over 5 times... He says we only froze it citing the 1st letter was submitted correctly. Is this a $2,000.00 technicality? I'll see you in court! I am sure I will submit the Jiu Jitsu "master" in the area of having brains... Plus, I'm NOT the only person he's doing this to. After fulfilling your 12 month contract (we did 14 or 15 months) he should treat you better as a member... Throw in a serious injury potentially sustained under his watch and STILL find out you've been overcharged $2K?! This guy will lose... If anyone else wants to contact me please connect ASAP. I'm filing suit before May 1 if AMEX doesn't fix the problem.
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