Magical Beginnings Learning Center

In early 2013, I was looking for child care services for my soon-to-be-born infant starting in November 2013. I visited several child care centers and settled on Magical Beginnings in Wakefield because they were very close to home, well-accredited, and reasonably priced. I was told that I should reserve my spot quickly before they fill up, so I sent in my deposit + application fee of $750 in late May. The deposit is non-refundable, which I figured wasn't a problem because we had every intention of using this child care center, and I figured even if something happened, they'd probably be reasonable and refund it if they were able to fill my spot (and if they weren't able to fill the spot, obviously they should keep the money). Unfortunately, something happened, and I had to relocate out of state for work and therefore couldn't use this daycare center. That's where I had a disappointing experience with Magical Beginnings. As soon as I found out in mid June, I notified Magical Beginnings that I wouldn't be able to send my daughter there. I wanted to give them as much notice as possible so they could fill the spot with a paying customer. I had only sent in my deposit a month earlier, and was giving them over 4 months notice, so I was hoping they'd do the reasonable thing and refund my deposit. In fact, when I spoke to them on the phone, they said they had a waiting list, so clearly they'd have no trouble filling the spot. I had to ask if they'd refund my deposit. I had hoped they'd just offer without me asking, since $750 is a significant amount of money to hold from me if they didn't have a logical reason to keep it. But they didn't. And after I asked (very politely), they simply said the deposit is non-refundable. I then explained why I had hoped they'd refund the deposit (again, politely), but I was just told that it's non-refundable and that they could have the director call me. Unfortunately, I never got a call, so instead I wrote an email to the director (again, very polite) with logical reasoning as to why it would be nice if they refunded the deposit. All I got was a response that they'd refund $50 with no reasonable explanation why they'd keep $700 of my money other than "it's non-refundable." They're within their rights to keep the money, since the paperwork I signed said it was non-refundable. And if I had canceled at the last minute or they were unable to fill my slot, of course it would make total sense for them to keep the money. But I gave them lots of notice. And they have plenty of time to fill the slot (and appear to have done so). And if it's worth anything, it's not like I canceled for no reason… the job relocation was sudden and unexpected. I can't speak to how well this child care center runs on a day to day basis, but I get a really bad feeling from anyone who would keep $700 of my money without a good reason. Just really disappointed in how they conducted themselves. That's a lot of money.