Kumon Math & Reading Centre

If you want to enter into a contract for one year that is extremely difficult to cancel, then Kumon is right for you.
My son has been enrolled for a year with Kumon. I have him enrolled in the Math and Reading program. I have to admit, his Math skills have improved quite a bit. But, I noticed that in the past couple of months that his progress has been a bit stagnant. I don’t think it was necessarily the fault of the program, but more so a fit with my son. It’s difficult for him to stay seated for an hour to do work after being at school all day. I wish it would have worked out, I had high hopes for this program, but it just wasn’t working out.
Recently our family experienced a death. During this time, I reached out to the Kumon center advising them that I needed to cancel and that things were working out. To begin, I emailed twice and explained that it was difficult for me to find time to call, and yet instead of emailing me back (which would make more sense) they had their receptionist call me and leave a voicemail. I wasn’t able to call back as I work quite long hours and am busy throughout the day. Also, I’m a single parents so I need an extra 10 hours added onto my day to get everything that I need done, done. In addition to that the death in the family made it quite hard to find the time to do anything. I emailed again advising I had received the voicemail message and that it’s hard for me to call, but to just let me know what to do to cancel. So… you would think in this case they would email back and just outline what to do, but nope. They got the receptionist to call, again!
I found a few minutes at work to call and the call went straight to voicemail. I forgot to mention that the center is only open 3 days a week for a few hours and you have to try to get a hold of them during that time. The receptionist called me again while I was at a meeting a work, and I excused myself as I knew that if I didn’t answer, I’d have to wait until the next day to try to get a hold of something again.
She told me she could ‘squeeze me in’ on Thursday at 6.15pm. I told her that would work and that I’d be there as I didn’t want to be charged any further for the program.
I showed up today and was told my appointment was actually for next Thursday. I told the receptionist (Pam) that’s not what I was advised on the phone and that we had a death in the family, I left early from work, and that I had to cancel one of my child’s activities to make it in. I was willing to sign whatever needed to be signed, but coming in again at a later time would be difficult. The receptionist didn’t not even offer condolences to the death, nor did she offer a work around solution. I offered to take the paperwork with me, or even have it emailed to me and I’d be happy to do that. She said that the meeting would have to take place in the office and «that’s how they do things». I explained that it shouldn’t be so difficult to cancel and that the amount of time that her and I went back and forth speaking on the cancellation, we could have completed the process. She told that I «signed a contract» and that it was detailed in there what I had to do. I explained that the contract does not state that you have to come in person to cancel, she just looked at me when I said that.
I have sent a very lengthy emails to the owners (who have not replied to my past three emails) and I hope to see a response.
Beware! Only sign up if you are ready for a challenge in cancelling! I’m also pretty sure it’s illegal for them to require for you to book an appointment to cancel. What are they going to do? Convince me to stay?