One River School of Art + Design — Attraction in Town of Mamaroneck

Where to begin. Overall, this place is a scam. The art instruction was actually OK, and my kids enjoyed the classes, but this business structure is a total scam, and I warn people to stay away.

After talking with someone at pickup about getting clear on our account, and how it was pretty hard to cancel (RED FLAG), I got this insane email explanation (screenshot attached) that made my head spin. So I called and asked to speak with the director to clear things up — I remember needing a simple yes/no for a refund for an extra charge that was a mistake (RED FLAG). What I thought should be a 5-minute conversation turned into 30 minutes of him essentially refusing my refund. My head was spinning once more. Did the staff here all get trained in the same techniques of using word salad?

Emails to the staff about our account largely went unanswered (see second screenshot). Weeks after everything was cleared up and we canceled our account and made it clear we were upset, I got an email from them apologizing and asked if we'd like a free class for my children to make up for things. I replied a hesitant "yes", that we'll take a free course and if there's anything they need from us... and she never responded! I was done. I didn't even want a free class from them, I just wanted to be done.

Also, a friend was interested in having his child's birthday party there but couldn't find info on the website about the cost (RED FLAG). He called and asked for a ballpark cost, and the staff wouldn't/couldn't even give him that (RED FLAG).

Another parent friend experienced the same issues I did: the school just keeps charging you. It's easy to sign up and give them your money, but it's very difficult to get them to stop charging you (RED FLAG).

Oh, and they say that if you can't make it to a class you paid for, you can make it up... but you can't make it up at the same time slot the following week, for example. The make-up times are super inconvenient (RED FLAG).

Oh, and notice the other Google reviews, how they haven't replied to any negative ones? That's telling. I'm very suspicious of the positive reviews.

I'm happy to be done with these people. I wish I could give them zero stars, but I guess the one star is for the fact that my...

I DO NOT LIKE GIVING BAD REVIEWS BUT I’m a little confused by the good reviews here, maybe it’s just our particular experience… my 6 yo daughter had been going here for the last two months and she have not done anything that was in the description of the Art Shuffle class. My daughter has been given art paper and markers/paint and told to do whatever she wants. How is this art class?!!! What are they teaching her?! NOTHING. My daughter at this point doesn’t want to even go to class, our home have more art supplies than this place give in class. STOP ATTENDING CLASSES YOU SAY… We’ve decided weeks ago to cancel these classes by the end of August BUT that in itself seems to be an impossible task. The online “subscription” option doesn’t have an option to cancel. We’ve emailed TWICE in the last 4 days and got no response. Spoke to someone face-to-face and they said they don’t know how to cancel the subscription (which comes out automatically) We were told to give a call, with no answer for the past few days. And we can’t even remove our card information from our profile!!

Addendum: I’ve located how to cancel on the FAQ on their site and it’s says staff was supposed to give us a form to cancel subscription 300 DAYS AHEAD IF TIME. Why didn’t the staff give this to us...

My daughter has taken weekly classes as well as camps at One River in Larchmont with a number of instructors covering mediums from street art to photography to technical drawing to digital art. Not only have her artistic abilities improved but her knowledge of artists and interest in art has grown tremendously. Carol leads an incredible team of teachers and really knows what to suggest that my daughter will enjoy. We have enthusiastically referred many friends to One River because there really is something for every...