Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. 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.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/07/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  ***** ********* the owner and director of this organization ejected my boys, ******** ***** and ***** ******* from the **** tour on April 4, 2023 abandoned them 60 miles from home because he did not like the statement I made to his wife. specifically I stated Mr. ********* has a responsibility to parents and the community to keep lines of communication open. after putting the boys off the bus and leaving them an hour and a half away from home Mr. ********* stated you aint getting no refund you better read your contractbe advised he did not provide parents with a physical contract. A total of $2000 was paid to MTM foundation, including $1750 for admission mandatory skating and ***************************** event $100 and $150 for snacks he asked parents to bring to the bus which was not returned when the boys were put off the bus. this event traumatized my boys as they did not have any idea why they were packing their bags. this shattered their confidence as this is their very first **** experience destroyed by the very organization, and trusted to lead students to careers . I believe a written apology to the boys is in order as well as the refund.

  Business Response

  Date: 04/17/2023

  Good morning, 

  On April 4, 2023, MTM Foundation, **** organized and departed on a five-day and five-night Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) campus tour.  ****** ***** registered her son on this tour and prior to this she asked me if her son (******** *****) and his cousin would like to stay in the same hotel room during the tour.  I informed her that MTM Foundation does not take recommendations from parents we only allow students to choose their own roommates.  We had 96 scholars registered for our ************ tour.  We began registration and loading the bus around on April 4th at 6:45 am to 7:30am.  We had two 56 passengers charter buses so there was no way to guarantee bus assignments.  I also informed Ms. ****** on several occasions that we will be switching buses and seats throughout the tour.  This is typically the same conversation I have with every single student that was on my college tour.   I meet with parents on March 2, 2023, at ***************************** and virtually if parents lived more than two hours away from ****** and couldn't make the trip.   During the information session parent had an opportunity to voice their concerns and issues and we did our best to address them.  We also, meet with the scholars in-person and had two additional virtual tour meetings with them to explain the program in more details.  Every was clear with us switching seats and buses throughout the tour.  

  Ms. ****** brought her scholar to the departure location and from the beginning of the tour the two scholars in question were on separate busses and no complaints were noted at the time.  As soon as the busses closed its doors, we were off and began our programming (as noted to all parents previously).  We began with a fifteen-minute motivational speech from **** ****** via ******* and open discussion for 15 minutes about what they heard.  Right after that we all began working with the scholar on meeting new people with our "I know you, you know me" program where scholars would have to switch seats every 3-minutes, after asking with other a few questions.  This took us 40 minutes and by the time we reached our first destination I had a minute to look at my phone and saw that I had several missed calls and text messages from Ms. ************* I called her back as soon as we got to *********************** 

  Point of reference, our departure location where she allowed her scholar to get on the bus and the location of our 1st college tour (**********************) was only ****************************************************************************************************************************** our parents only group chat as if someone was hurt or in danger.

  After speaking with Ms. ******* I agree to switch the scholars so that they could be on the same bus.  She continued to be enraged and upset that the students would be switching seats and meeting new people while on the bus.

   

   

  Business Response

  Date: 04/17/2023

  Here is the full response to this complaint. 

   

  Good morning,
  
  On April 4, 2023, MTM Foundation, **** organized and departed on a
  five-day and five-night Historically Black Colleges and Universities
  (HBCU) campus tour.  ****** ***** registered her son on this tour and
  prior to this she asked me if her son (******** *****) and his cousin
  would like to stay in the same hotel room during the tour.  I informed
  her that the MTM Foundation does not take recommendations from
  parents: we only allow students to choose their own roommates.  We had
  96 scholars registered for our ************ tour.  We began
  registration and loading the bus around on April 4th at 6:45 am to
  7:30am.  We had two 56 passengers charter buses so there was no way to
  guarantee bus assignments.  I also informed Ms. ****** on several
  occasions that we will be switching buses and seats throughout the
  tour.  This is typically the same conversation I have with every
  single student that was on my college tour.   I met with parents on
  March 2, 2023, at ***************************** and virtually if parents
  lived more than two hours away from ****** and couldn't make the trip.
    During the information session parents had an opportunity to voice
  their concerns and issues and we did our best to address them.  We
  also met with the scholars in-person and had two additional virtual
  tour meetings with them to explain the program in more details.
  Everyone was clear with us switching seats and buses throughout the
  tour.
  
  Ms. ****** brought her scholar to the departure location and from the
  beginning of the tour the two scholars in question were on separate
  buses and no complaints were noted at the time.  As soon as the bus
  closed its doors, we were off and began our programming (as noted to
  all parents previously).  We began with a fifteen-minute motivational
  speech from **** ****** via ******* and open discussion for 15 minutes
  about what they heard.  Right after that we all began working with the
  scholar on meeting new people with our "I know you, you know me"
  program where scholars would have to switch seats every 3-minutes,
  after asking with others a few questions.  This took us 40 minutes and
  by the time we reached our first destination I had a minute to look at
  my phone and saw that I had several missed calls and text messages
  from Ms. ************* I called her back as soon as we got to Bowie State
  University.
  
  Point of reference, our departure location where she allowed her
  scholar to get on the bus and the location of our 1st college tour
  (**********************) was only 45 minutes to an hour away and she
  called or texted over twenty times and had her friends and sister call
  and text and text in our parents only group chat as if someone was
  hurt or in danger.
  
  After speaking with Ms. ******* I agreed to switch the scholars so
  that they could be on the same bus.  She continued to be enraged and
  upset that the students would be switching seats and meeting new
  people while on the bus.  While we were speaking, I received several
  calls and text messages from several of my friends and colleagues
  about her complaints.  She then threatened to come pick the boys up if
  I could not guarantee that the boys would be together on the same bus
  sitting next to each other.  I could not guarantee this as this would
  be a disruption on our programming and what we planned to teach the
  scholars.  After the second threat to come pick the scholars up, I let
  my team know the issues as they began getting many calls from and
  messages from the group chat which gave the impression as if the
  scholars were in an unsafe environment.  I then informed Ms. *******
  if this is what you would like to do, please make it fast because we
  are only at Bowie for two hours.  That comment irritated her and she
  began to say she wanted a full refund, and she would be picking up the
  kids from *****.  I spoke with my team of chaperones and we all agreed
  to let the boys, go home because we had 94 other scholars that we were
  responsible for and we could not continue to put this much negative
  energy into just two scholars and a parent with so much animosity.
  
  I spoke to both the scholars and apologized for the decision that
  their parents made to remove the scholars from the tour because they
  would be seated on the bus with 94 other scholars.  I also informed
  both parents and scholars that although the payments made for the tour
  are non-refundable, we have another tour in August that is smaller
  (one bus) that would be a better fit.  They both understood and
  informed me that they were both ok with being on two separate buses
  and wanted to stay.  I apologized again and informed them that Ms.
  ****** no longer wanted them to continue the tour.  We left our
  security staff with the two scholars as the parent inform us she was
  on her way.  I spoke to the father to explain as well as she was lying
  to him saying we kicked them off the bus.
  
  I have attached a few documents that go over the payment policy and
  refund policy.  Because these scholars started the tour and did not
  finish does not allow them the 50% reimbursement for the tour.
  However, they are allowed on our August tour for no additional cost.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 04/18/2023

   
  Complaint: 19909112
  
  I am rejecting this response because: I believe a full refund is in order since it was Mr. *********** decision to terminate the boys from the tour for no reason other than as he stated "negative energy from me". After the boys clearly stated they wanted to stay and agreed to the seat changes Mr. ********* still denied them.  Mr. ********* intentionally allowed the boys to briefly participate in order to refuse a refund. Mr. ********* is not a man of integrity and I decline the offer to allow my boys to attend the August tour. Furthermore, this issue rises to the level of court mediation and that is where the truth will be reveled.  
  
  Sincere
  
  ****** *****