Dadeland Station Preschool

The administration of this school is truly unethical. I have a parenting family court agreement that states my child's father pays 100% of school. Last year he needed some assistance with payment which I gladly provided. I gave Ms. Alex or Alejandra my credit card info. On 10/17/22 I advised her to remove my credit card and continue charging the father's card. She did not do this and since then she has charged my credit card nine times. When the father's card declined, she did not call to advise him and ask for another form of payment. Rather, she just charged my credit card without even telling me.

When I first noticed a few of the charges in January, I told her to remove my CC on file (for the second time) and follow up with his dad if his card declines. In the office in January, I explained about the court agreement and the financial burden the CC charges were adding to me. She ensured she removed my CC which was a lie. In hindsight, I should have watched her delete my CC from the system and/or reported my CC lost/stolen. But I trusted her.

This past week (Feb 13th and 15th), my card was charged twice. When I called Ms. Alex, she hung up on me. I contacted the school owner, Sarat Dayal and emailed him about the situation with details and all documentation (bank statements, texts of me instructing my card be removed several different times).

During my phone call with him, Sarat's response was "If the father's card does not go through, we need to charge you. If we cant recoup payments, we will instruct you to not bring the child in". Ms. Alex never once instructed me or my child's father to not bring my child in, on the contrary, with his father owing back payment, she said I can bring my child in. My issue of me requesting my card be removed was never address; they just focused on recouping payments no matter what.

I understand the school is a business, however, when a person tells a vendor to remove their credit card info they should do so. And if payments cannot be made, then the school should inform the parents their child cannot return to school. My child has not been in school since 2/2. My CC was charged for the week of 2/6 and 2/13. Its their policy when a student is withdrawn, they will charge two weeks. It's unethical to charge for a week of school when the child is not even there. Again, I know this is a business but in my own opinion, its unethical to lie to a parent in their face, say the card info was deleted, yet charge the CC without informing the parent.

There are always ways to handle things in a way that everyone is okay with the outcome. Sadly, this was not the case. Even Sarat was combative on the phone when I was simply asking questions about the procedures in place. Again, they were just focused on the money. Attaching photos of texts for reference. Good luck to all the parents of little one's out there during these hard times!

Edited/update: on 2/16 I spoke with them about my issues at 11:30am. They said they weren’t going to refund and provided no explanation for why my cc was file. At 4 pm they charged my child’s father for this week. To recap: my child hasn’t attended since 2/2.