On January 31st, 2007 I entered Tiger Kim’s Tae Kwon Do Academy looking to become a student of Tae Kwon Do because my 5-year-old son attended classes there. Prior to sign a contract with Mr. Sung Kim, the Co-Owner of Tiger Kim’s Academy, I asked several important questions regarding the terms of their contract(s). First and foremost I asked about the different options that were available regarding length of time. Mr. Kim abruptly informed me that they only provided 2-year contract and that everyone signed the same contract. I asked him if he could do me a favor and offer a 1-year contract instead and he denied my request. Since my son was already a student I decided to sign-up so that he and I could practice martial arts together. After some time, maybe 1 year 3 months went by, I found out that Mr. Sung Kim was allowing new students to sign shorter-term contracts and I became angry. At that point I decided that I was not going to honor the original agreement because of Mr. Sung Kim’s deceptive sales presentation. Clearly, if I knew about the shorter-term 1-year contract I would have signed that instead of a 2-year contract. Upon further research I also found that on the FAQ page of Tiger Kim’s Academies website it clearly states:
“Do I have to sign a contract?
No, but most of our students do commit to an extended-length course. Depending on what rank you wish to achieve, we offer various short-term and long-term course plans”. Please note that this information has been saved as a screen print on my desktop for proof.
None of the information in that question regarding course plans was presented to me. I was lead to believe that a 2-year contract was all that was available. Mr. Sung Kim knowingly used high pressure/deceptive sales practices to persuade me into signing a 2-year agreement as opposed to a shorter-term contract. It had also come to my attention through past Tiger Kim’s Academy employees that Mr. Sung Kim used these sorts of deceptive sales practices when he felt that certain individuals could afford longer-term contracts then average person.