I saw this Costume Manager advertised in one of the Dance magazines. It seems too good to be true. Not having the headache of costume ordering? But it also seems risky putting the responsibility in the parents hands as far as the orders being placed. Anyone have any input or feedback?

both of the studio's I work for are using them, OMG is it ever easier than dealing with the &£$% we had last year.

We handed out our first eight boxes of costumes this week, out of over 200 students at the larger studio we have about 8 that have either not ordered or ordered well after our mid December dead line.

At the end of each class tonight I was asked to hand out the costumes to those who they had arrived for. I had 3 students who I had to give the,"No, you costume isn't here yet, you need to ask your mum/dad why" answer to. And one parent who decided that she didn't need to order the size that fitted her childs measurements.

The customer service is fantastic and it's so nice to be able to have the choice of all of those costume firms without it costing extra on the shipping if you only like one of their costumes.

This is the first year we've used them but so far it's a ***** rating.

This is my second year using Costume Manager and I HIGHLY recommend it! I have never had to do the old way of costume ordering since it's only my second season and I am SO grateful for that. I know it is a massive headache! Costume Manager saves you HOURS of time and stress. And yes, it does get worrisome when parents don't order by your deadline, but then any fault gets taken from your hands and placed in theirs if they order late and Precious can't be in the recital or pictures.

I am sending out a final note next week that costume orders that have not been placed not only have to pay the additional $5-$10 fee increase, but may not get to the studio in time if they are not placed immediately.

And yes, it does get worrisome when parents don't order by your deadline, but then any fault gets taken from your hands and placed in theirs if they order late and Precious can't be in the recital or pictures.

And that's exactly why I can't use Costume Manager. It may work for a bigger school that doesn't care if some of their students drop out of recital, but I'm a very small school and can't afford any drop-outs. For a variety of reasons, we have to make our recital optional, and this would give parents another exit point, to quit before June. If we give moms one more hoop they have to jump through, with a deadline and consequences, they'll be too happy to say "no recital = less hassle."

Dance recitals here are NOT popular because all of our local schools do their own Musical Theater shows, FREE for participants, three times a year - in beautiful new theaters (thanks to my tax dollars), with no costume costs, and $5 tickets. The schools make a very nice profit because they let anybody and everybody in, drawing entire classes, and selling out multiple shows. One of the reasons we have such a poor retention among preteens and teens; it's not just daily sports practice making them drop our dance classes.

For these same reasons, I can't keep tacking more overhead fees onto our costumes. Costume Manager would require a mark-up which would be cost prohibitive for us. Yes, it's nice to outsource this onerous task, but it isn't financially feasible for a small school like mine.

Thanks for the input! I too have a small school, and am concerned with parents who are not comfortable with "online" purchases or computers in general! I know in this day and age, it's surprising, but they are out there. We are possibly expanding and the second location is in a bigger area. If I go with Costume Manager, I'd like to do it for both, but worry about the "smaller" school... Again, any suggestions appreciated!

No one has to tack on fee's with Costume Manager, it's optional. One of my studio's is a business and one is a non profit organisation, they add no fees on top of the cost of the costume and the costume manager fee is very small if ordered at the right time.

^^^ Still wouldn't work for us, even with a miniscule Costume Manager fee to be added to our costume cost. (And sure, we don't HAVE to pass it on to the dancers, but could choose to eat it.)

In my locale, with too much competition from local schools' MT, and mega-competitors that can offer EVERYTHING at multipe-hours, I'm stuck with 8 week sessions of dance classes - just to stay in business. No mandatory sign-up September to June or you "lose your spot." Therefore I can't demand costume orders and payments in November, as we're at the opposite end of the spectrum - we don't know who will be in our recital until April at best. (Some families even demur until May.)

Finally, I'm sure Costume Manager is getting hefty rebates by batching your costume orders with everyone else's, so they can demand those 20% discounts from the manufacturers. And ultimately, the manufacturers will raise their prices to cover those same 20% discounts, as they become more common. I still sense that this scenario will favor the large dance schools, while driving the small ones out of business.