I've been McDojo'd

**Jettatore** · Posted On: 5/29/2006 11:55pm

So I've been McDojo'd and I'm here to admit my shame, get some sense smacked into me by the crowd here at Bullshido, and in the end hopefully find a replacement gym in Southern California where I don't feel like I'm getting robbed while I work out.

It's your standard McDojo story. First the $100 Gi (which turns out to be a generic white Atama JuJitsu Gi not sure how much they retail for). Then the $125 registration fee/insurance fee. Ok, so I figure it's a hefty investment not even including the first months $125 fee but I'll jump into it and I'll be in better shape for it. So I go a few times my first month, it's not bad, definately a good workout, the people are friendly and the instruction is I guess about average.

Then comes the kicker. An annual contract which I had absolutely no knowledge of from the get go. I just found this out tonight, as I attempted to stop next months charges from going through, since I will be out of state for the month and can't afford to waste $125.

I'm not quite sure how I'm going to handle this. But I am quite certaint that I can't afford $125 a month, every single month for the rest of the year. So needless to say I doubt I'm going back and I need to find a new gym with more flexible dues. I don't even care what the art being taught is, but if you guys know of a good gym in the Southern California area with solid instruction and reasonable fees and dues please let me know. Otherwise, feel free to smack some sense into me so I don't foolishly let this happen to me ever again because seriously, I should have smelled this coming from a mile away. But really, I need to find a replacement gym to feel better about this and put it behind me, so if you guys could help I'd really appreciate it.

**Poop Loops** · Posted On: 5/30/2006 12:01am

Wait, did you sign the contract not knowing it was a contract, or did they say "oh, by the way, you need to sign a contract" and you haven't yet?

Judo and Boxing should be pretty cheap... Do you do boxing at the same place?

**EternalRage** · Posted On: 5/30/2006 12:01am

What the hell is a Western Boxing or Wing Chun school doing making their students wear ATAMAs... or is that not the systems that were trained at that school (just lookin at your style field)

**Jettatore** · Posted On: 5/30/2006 12:14am

I dont' even know if I signed a contract in the first place, I certaintly wasn't informed that I would be charged for a month wether I attended or not and. And I certaintly didn't see anything of that sort mentioned when I filled out my address, information and signed for what I thought was just for insurance/liability purposes. If I did, it was completely unintentional as I would have never agreed to something of the sort had I had that knowledge to begin with.

As to the other question.

The boxing/wing chun were completely different schools altogether, both had reasonable dues. I Boxed throughout Highschool and that was $20 a year you had to join the Junior Olympic Boxing Association which paid the clubs insurance costs and then it was something like $40-$70 a month (free if you couldn't afford it) and it was 6 days a week, one on one personal training from dedicated, unpaid trainers who volenteered there services for the better of the community. Then in college I took Kung Fu which had no registration, you had to buy a $15 T-shirt as a class uniform and the pricing was very flexible, but it wasn't nearly as unlimited a plan as the boxing was but it was cheap, especially for Manhatten prices, flexible and it fit my school schedule nicely.

Now I'm on to my third form of study and I figured ground fighting would be something worth learning since everything else I learned so far involved standup work, and I feel like I'm being robbed instead of training. What I need is to find something local to Southern California that is as reasonable as my prior good experiences were otherwise this is just going to bother me for a long time.

**Jettatore** · Posted On: 5/30/2006 12:14am

edit: Double post.

**Poop Loops** · Posted On: 5/30/2006 12:18am

Originally Posted by Jettatore

I dont' even know if I signed a contract in the first place, I certaintly wasn't informed that I would be charged for a month wether I attended or not. And I certaintly didn't see anything of that sort mentioned when I filled out my address, information and signed for what I thought was just for insurance/liability purposes.

Lawsuit? If they never mentioned it, then you have a good case.

As to the other question.

An the boxing/wing chun were completely different schools altogether, both had reasonable dues. Boxing was $20 a year you had to join the Junior Olympic Boxing Association which paid the clubs insurance costs and then it was something like $40-$70 a month (free if you couldn't afford it) and it was 6 days a week, one on one personal training from dedicated, unpaid trainers who volenteered there services for the better of the community.

This is very good. Stick to it if you can.

Wing Chun had no registration, you had to buy a $15 T-shirt as a class uniform and the pricing was very flexible, but it wasn't nearly as unlimited a plan as the boxing was.

Whatever. If I payed $1/month for a pile of ****, I'd still only get a pile of ****.

Now I'm on to my third form of study and I figured ground fighting would be something worth learning since everything else I learned involved standup work, and I feel like I'm being robbed. What I need is to find something local to Southern California that is as reasonable as my prior good experiences.

What style/school is it? Do they have a website?

**Jettatore** · Posted On: 5/30/2006 12:43am

The style of the school is Brazillian JuJitsu and they're part of a larger well known organization and they do have websites but I'm not ready to go giving them bad press simply because I don't know how the situation will end up being resolved, but needless to say I can't afford their classes, I definately had some less than up front tactics pulled on me as far as the dues were concerened and I'm going to have to look elsewhere for instruction. If I still lived on the East Coast I go back to my little hole in the wall Boxing club but I'm currently living on the other side of the country so thats not possible.

**Poop Loops** · Posted On: 5/30/2006 12:45am

Just give the website. BJJ is respected here, but BS and scams are not. Nobody is going to jump on them just because you said you *might* have been scammed. We are smarter than that (well, we'd like to be at least).

We obviously need some more information, and you still do, too. Just tell us how it plays out.

Note: BJJ is fairly expensive. My old school was $100/month and that was a very good price for it.

**BFGalbraith** · Posted On: 5/30/2006 12:45am

"Southern California" is a very big place, can you be more specific?

**Jettatore** · Posted On: 5/30/2006 12:51am

You payed $100 a month. To me, thats fine, but were you locked into an annual contract? I mean like, could you just come in the beginning of one month, give them a hundered bucks and train unlimited. Maybe take a month off and come back or what? If thats how they all are I'm simply not impressed enough with the style to adhere to that kind of standard but at least I'll know not to go bother looking anymore. The bottom line is that an annual contract wasn't explained to me and I didn't read anything of the sort on the document I signed. There was a point during the middle of training when I was asked to fill some information in on a laptop, but I didn't note anything of an expressed contract on that either and it wasn't explained. I found this all out after the fact when I called about being away for next month as I'm preparing for my vacation.