ComplaintsforBarbizon School of Modeling of Manhattan, Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  05/31/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  The date of transaction is May 27, 2023, and the amount of money I paid is $595. Prior to arriving at Barbizon I signed up for their Win the Modeling Experience of Your Dreams enter contest through their website. When I arrived at Barbizon for the interview myself and other candidates realized that we were tricked into a recruitment attempt to join their school and pay a hefty fee of $2,895.00 or a $595 down payment and a $95/week fee. This is extremely predatory and deceiving because they were attempting retrieve money from young adults and adults that do not know what they signing up for; the lady who recruited me slid the contract to me and wanted me to sign it without reading it. I was bamboozled because after asking her about cancelation and a refund she said that I have three days to receive a full refund. Then she rushed me to take my first class the following day, May 28, 2023; what I did not realize and what she did not state was I can cancel and receive a refund (provided the student has not taken any classes). Therefore, I was lied to and deceived in order to make a down payment. In addition, I witnessed several incidents of harassment and the recruiter and others turned a blind eye to these events. The recruiter acted like she did not know about the harassment; however, it happened publicly for many to see and right next to me. I did not want this to happen to me. In addition, the director of education did not want to delete photos their photographer had taken of me. I said twice, if I dislike my photos I want them deleted. The director of education said okay, the photographer will delete them. After, the photos were taken, I decided I didnt like them and the director of education said the photographer already took them and I said what does that mean? I had to beg 4 or more times for them to be deleted. So again, I was lied to. They also provide no background information on their instructors. Barbizon is fraudulent, predatory and they harass for $

  Business response

  06/02/2023

  To Whom it May ***************** are a school for performing arts that has been around since ****. If accepted into our program there is a fee for training as stated as well in the new talent agreement which states the cost, program details, student info and the student withdrawal policy as well. The agreement states that you have 3 days to cancel and obtain a refund provided the student does not attend a class. Nakayla  signed up on 5/27 and took a headshot with our photographer and when you had stated that you wanted them deleted the photographer deleted them. Then ******* came back the next day on the 28th to attend her first class and take another headshot as well. You had stated that you didn't like taking photos but we had showed you some images and tried to encourage you and show how nice they looked. We are very sad and disappointed to hear this feedback and have tried to call and speak with you further to no avail. We hope we can speak with this client soon and clear up any misunderstanding. 

   

  Customer response

  06/09/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# ********, and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

  [Your Answer Here]

   The recruiter said I have three days to cancel. I trusted what the recruiter said. She tried to get me to sign the contract before reading it that says a lot about the companys. The recruiter is  suggested that I take headshots the same day and take the first class the following day. I was not given anytime to choose a date if my choice and they knew I had scheduling issues. Again, I had to ask the photographer and director of education to delete the headshots 5-7 times. As a student or some on me who paid, my choices should be respected the first time and I should not have been lied too and rushed into signing a contract and taking a class the next day. Again, I witness yelling and harassment and the photos you take are Poor quality and not what agencies are looking for. I am requesting a full refund.

   

  In order for the BBB to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************
  
  
  
  
   
  

  Business response

  06/15/2023

  To Whom it May concern,
  
  Our policy is you have 3 days to cancel in writing provided the student has not yet taken a class. As ******* has stated in her response she took a headshot the first day and then came back the next day for her for her first class. If she had a terrible experience with us as she is claiming then why did she choose to come back the next day to take the first class. If she would have followed the cancellation policy and cancelled within the 3 days and did not come for the first class she would be entitled to a refund but she did take her first class with us and start the program,  therefore there is no refund due. 

• Initial Complaint

  04/04/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Barbizon lied about the program to attend the model place and refuse to refund the money after the 1st day. I sent 2 letter to cancel my contract and the people yold me to send it off which I sent a letter to wrong address to barbizon of ******* and they got my letter to forward it back to barbizon. One of the employee will not cooperate and hung up in my face. I'm not liking what they doing. All I ask a refund which my daughter never attend classes

  Business response

  04/07/2023

  To Whom it May ******************************************************* enrolled with us on February 26th, the same day she attended her first class as stated on the agreement attachment. The student withdrawal policy states that you have 3 days to cancel and get a full refund provided the student does not attend a class. ***** did attend her first class which is the reason why she is not due a refund.

• Initial Complaint

  12/28/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  My daughter was scouted inside of a Mall from a company named Barbizon. The woman saw her, said that my daughter was beautiful & asked if her hair was real, given that my daughter has quality long hair. I stated yes & she proceeded to give me information. I gave her my daughters fathers number because I was returning to work & knew that I wouldnt be able to make any casting calls during the week. He received a call from ****** asking for ****** to learn a skit in which she was going to tryout for a commercial skit, skittles to be exact. He was told that our casting call would be for the week on December 17th at 10:30am in Manhattan. We were given directions & the skit again for our daughter to remember. Since it was Saturday I decided to join the travel to Barbizon. Upon arrival, we noticed that a class was just being let out. So we were given a small tour of their wall of fame & the director asked my daughter to repeat any actions, movements or words that she said in preparation for the skittles commercial. Once she claimed that she did well, we were asked to go inside of a ************* representative was named ******. She decided to ask my daughter the same questions that the director did. She then said that it gave her great pleasure to welcome my daughter into the school as she was able to keep up with their tasks and questions. We were then told that if we wanted our daughter to learn more about the industry & have first calls, that we needed to put her into their etiquette school that would allow her the benefits of having casting calls. We were told that classes would start for her on Sunday & that we had to put down $695.00 on that day to ensure that she was registered for the next group starting that Sunday. We did & then we realized that Barbizon wasnt for us. We canceled within the agreed 3 day timing only for them to say that out initial meeting date was a class and we are not going to receive our refund. Orientation as defunded doesnt mean class

  Business response

  12/28/2022

  You will be receiving a full refund of ******. ****** did not participate in any class and we received your certified letter within the 3 day cancellation period. We apologize for any confusion but you will be getting your full refund. Hopefully this clears everything up and in the future we would love to have ****** as a student with us. Have a lovely day! 

  Customer response

  12/29/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***************
  
  
  
   
  
  

• Initial Complaint

  09/26/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  After signing the agreement they changed the classes schedule without any notification or our approval The reason the the *** decide that although we disagree yet they dont care and passed a wrong schedule that caused to miss many classes ,Also they racked promised my daughter to get contact with the producers to have chance to get popular, and thats causes her a hard time to pass over it especially shes just 11 years old. We emailed them to cancel that agreement on April since then they still collecting the monthly payment and ignore all our complains Your help is required

  Business response

  09/28/2022

  ***** ****** was signed up for our program on 1/9/2022 and continued to take classes though 6/12 which was the 2nd to last day of the program. The last class would have been on 6/26 which they did not attend, however they did take the entirety of the program with us. In this response *****'s parents states they withdrew in April but that is not the case. ***** was present for class on 4/3, 4/10, 4/24, 5/1, (5/8 the student was absent) 5/22 and 6/12 were present for all of these classes. In the new talent agreement it also states " Barbizon reserves the right to change class dates and/ or class times". We have tried to be accommodating and we wanted ***** to complete the program and graduate since she only had one more class left until her graduation ceremony. We would love for her to be able to complete the program with us since she has come so close. 

  Customer response

  09/30/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************
  
  
  
   
  I attached here the email stating that ***** missed 2 classes of the conference 3 hours biweekly classes (one month) in additional to the last last class (3 hours) so they stated that she didnt attend 6 classes for regular classes or three of the condensed classes 3 hours as they called it, actually she missed more and Ill check from the evidenced email
  
  The agreements work that changing the schedule is for outstanding condition not they have the right to change as mentioned 
  I attached the original schedule and their respond where they mentioned its their CEOs decision 

  also we handed them a cancellation letter by end of April and our email on **** was asking to refund our payment as we didnt receive their response 

  lasetly were not sure with who were dealing as the agreement with Barbizon Manhattan yet the classes was in ** downtown  and the payment to Barbizon NY

• Initial Complaint

  01/10/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I signed two separate contracts for IN PERSON CLASSES for *************************** and *********************************, Barbizon breached the contract changing both classes to virtual only attendance. Modeling classes are not valuable nor useful via online only. There is no hopes for success with this method of learning modeling, they just want to keep clients money without results and I demand a refund of BOTH deposits totalling $1300 , I was scammed.

  Business response

  07/13/2022

  ******* ****** and ********* ******* enrolled with us on 11/27 and cancelled on 12/18. ******************************* requested a refund from the initial deposit which was not refundable at the time of her cancellation, we have a 3 days cancellation window granted the students did not begin classes and both students had also participated in a class as well. We did however offer to scholarship the rest of the program tuition cost and have the girls take the entire program. ******** said she would be discussing that with the girls and get back to us, at this time we have not heard back from ******** regarding this matter. If she does decide to return we would love to have the girls back for no further cost. 

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩