I’ll go first, and this is not slander, this is what I heard from my dear friend who can’t get a break.
So if you wsnt to join these places, go right ahead.
http://www.shito-ryu.net/
A friend of mine was there for roughly 6 years (at the Nikkei National Museumand Cultural Center, Burnaby, BC). After an e-mailed agreement, the instructor gave him some more tasks to complete two months before he was ready for his shodan. He wasn’t perfect, but he kept his head down because he knew how manipulative and controlling the instructor was, out of fear that he might get demoted. After a brief discussion of saying that he has more than three years experience, the instructorctold him to hold onto the notice. So he told the instructor that he has enough experience, and then went home. A week later, he e-mailed the instructor, saying that he quit and wasn’t interested anymore.
He tried this one out, but didn’t bother stepping in the door. He was given several e-mails, and a PowerPoint Presentation on how great the club was, not to mention WHY the price is $250 and that it’s like “paying for 5 monthly payments of gas money per month”. As the weeks went by, snd after he called them, telling them to stop sending emails of discounts, he got a birthday email, so he blocked them altogether. The website itsself, was asking for his medical information (which to me, is very impersonal).
“the-powerhouse.ca”
The reviews he saw on google, impressed him, but wait, there’s more. He took a trial class, had fun, but then, the instructor tells him that while registering, that the credit card number must be sent through email. Now this to me, is a federal offense. Another reason he did not join, was the belt ranking confusion: Was it card A? where it had 16 belts to get to black, or Card B? (as it says on the website AND on the poster he saw on the wall) that had 16 belts to black belt.
My friend and I can list several more, but it might flood this dear forum 