My professional and completely appropriate response

Ok, so if you read the below email chain you'll get the gist of the situation. This guy Darren is a stand-up guy. One of the owners (Mike) of the this 1on1 Mandarin place is a weasely, passive aggressive twerp whose head I almost ripped off. I scolded this guy as bad as one grown man can scold another grown man. I left the verbatim "scolding" out of the response to Darren, but you use your imagination. This email could have been a lot more scathing, but I think I got my point across. Pretty unfortunate that Mike from the great city of Chicago in the US of A has such questionable business practices. Read from the bottom, as Darren emailed me sometime this morning after he got wind of what happened.

Darren,
Let me preface this by saying that you seem to be a very nice and reasonable man. You have been friendly in the office and I appreciate you taking time a couple of weeks ago to help us out in the real estate office.

Just so we're all on the same page here I will outline the chronology of events and fill in the details:
The day I came into the office for the first time I requested that you charge my entire 100 hours on my credit card. The woman behind the desk swiped my card, gave it back to me, and as far as I was concerned I was set. Mike approached me 1 week later saying that I only had been charged a 30% deposit and that I owed a balance. I was confused, but after checking out my credit card account online that evening he was correct. No big deal.

So the next time I was in the reception area I told Mike that I wanted to pay the remaining balance in cash, but it would take me 3 or 4 separate trips to ATM machines due to the maximum limit they all have (some have 2000RMB limits, some 3000RMB). I told him the balance would be paid in full over the course of the next three business days, and I offered to give him 2000RMB on the spot. He refused the 2000RMB and said that the policy was to have the entire amount paid in full by this time and that I could not take classes until it was paid. I said fine, charge my credit card right now just refrain from factoring in the 4% processing fee and you will have your money. He refused to do that too and stated the 4% service charge was policy as well. So two times that day I offered different amounts of money, and two times he refused. On top of that, he stated that I could not have class until it was paid. I told him that I was highly irritated and that he was being quite unreasonable and absolutely inflexible. He just mumbled, "that's policy, that's the way we do things around here" and walked away. Keep in mind, that this situation all could have been avoided days ago if the woman behind the desk originally charged my credit card in full. The only way to view this situation is that it is 1-on-1's fault and not mine. Essentially 3 times I offered to pay (2x in full via credit card, and 1 time with cash as a partial payment to my balance with the promise of paying it off in full over the next few days) and 3 times I was either charged incorrectly or Mike refused to take the money. I was absolutely stunned that this was the way your business operated. This all took place on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.

I arrived at your offices today with cash equivalent to approximately 80% of the balance I owe. Then, to my surprise my teacher does not show up. I go to the front desk to investigate, and apparently Mike told her not to come in because I still had an outstanding balance. This is absolutely unacceptable action to take without notifying me in advance. I spoke to Grace today (who was also very nice and reasonable). I told her that I had most of the money with me, but quite frankly I did not feel comfortable giving it to anyone, because as a reflection of Mike 1-on-1's character has been tainted in my opinion. I said to Grace that I may be back on Tuesday with my entire balance, or I may decide to discontinue my classes. Either way, I told her I would extend the courtesy of giving your office at least 24 hours notice if I was not going to show up on Tuesday of next week. In contrast, this was a courtesy that 1-on-1 did not extend to me this morning when my teacher was a no-show for my scheduled class.

I am not sure if I look like a "sucker", or why Mike treated me the way he did. I do not want to sound arrogant, but the value of the money I owe to 1-on-1 for my 100 hours of lessons is completely negligible. And if ATMs allowed withdrawals of larger values, then you would have had your money by now. Instead, because of the way Mike acted and the way he treated me I am unsure I will continue with my lessons and your business will not receive any more money from me.

I have completed 19 hours of the 30 hours that my deposit payment covers. If, in fact I choose to terminate my lessons with 1-on-1 I would appreciate the value of those 11 hours credited back to my card. It shocks me that Mike acted as if your business was the only operation in Beijing that offered Chinese lessons. There are plenty of other options out there for anyone looking to learn the language to investigate and become a patron of.

Again, you have been nothing but professional inside the office, as well as friendly and helpful outside the office. ShanShan (spelling?) and Vicky (Zhao Ying) seemed to be quality instructors as well. Grace whom I met today seemed to be cut from the same mold as everyone I just mentioned. It is very unfortunate when the actions of one person can have such a negative affect.

Whatever my decision is, I will be in touch with your office no later than 1pm on Monday.

Thank you,
John J. Dorrian


----- Original Message ----
From: Darren
To: jdorrian2334@yahoo.com
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:56:40 PM
Subject: Continue your Chinese classes

Hi John, First, we apologized that you teacher didn't show up in your class today.We totally understand your frustration with us so far, but we will do our my best to get you stay and have you as our student.so we will continue your classes next week without interruptions. Please come by whenever you are convenient today or next week to talk about more. By the way, Mike is no longer doing Customer Service, so I will do my best to answer your questions and help you out now.If you have any thoughts, please feel free to let me know.Thanks.-- Darren