Mad Science Camp

Bottom line: I paid a $50 "cancellation fee" that I am not sure was fair, but it was a bargain to keep these people AWAY from my son! The security problems and alleged assaults that I am now learning about would have kept me from ever considering this camp IF I had known!

I arrived at a church for camp last month to find no camp taking place there that week. After finding emergency care for my son, I talked to a pleasant woman at Mad Science, Deepla. She did some research and said that I had registered for another camp a few weeks later instead of the camp that I thought that I was registering for. Their site is pretty complex, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and accepted the responsibility. Deepla said that she would have James at her office process a refund to my card "within seconds". I called James to verify that he would process the refund. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. No refund. I called James and he said that he verified with Deepla to process the refund. (I was getting a bit irritated with the run-around, but kept my cool.) He advised that he would complete it on his end on that day (Friday) and to give it a couple of business days. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. No refund. Thursday, I again called the office and spoke to an (initially) pleasant man, Andy. After doing his "research", he called and said that James didn't remember even speaking to me about the refund, clearly implying that I was lying. Andy also said that since I was talking to Andy on a Thursday and the camp that THEY SAY I registered for was the next Monday, I wasn't due a refund at all and that I should really have my son attend "our great camp". He became very pushy and high-pressure. At this point, I quit being kind and flexible and put on my firm voice. I said that the ONLY thing that I was interested in was a refund of my $299, told him to work it out and hung up the phone. A few minutes later, he called back and said that he talked to Deepla and confirmed that she had promised a refund. He said that he would process it, minus a $50 "cancellation fee". I did receive the refund today.

Take-home lessons:
Me - thoroughly check out a camp before you commit, ask around at church, don't be impulsive.

Andy - never imply that a customer is lying. Either way, you come out looking like a fool. The keyboard is mightier than the sword.

Deepla - good luck. You are the "good cop", but your "bad cop" is getting you some costly bad publicity.

James - don't lie about interactions with a customer. It's bad karma, gives you acne and makes hair grow on the palms of your hands.