In football terms, the "Play Flag Football" league in the South Bay might be flagged for a delay of game penalty. The parent's efforts to get a promised refund took nearly a year.
Mark Brogan Jr. enjoyed an afternoon with friends doing what he loves, playing sports -- any kind of sport. He's competed in baseball, basketball, soccer and swim leagues and he wanted to try flag football.
"We thought it would be perfect because it wasn't the contact sport. It was flag football. So we signed him up and he was very excited," Mark's mom Linda Brogan said.
Mark was enrolled in a league forming in the San Jose-Evergreen area, where the family lives. But the "Play Flag Football" league didn't get enough players, so it put Mark into a league on the other side of town in the Almaden area.
The family tried it for one week, but said it just wasn't worth the drive.
"It took 35 minutes to drive there and 35 minutes to drive back, only to play for less than an hour," Mark's father Mark Brogan Sr. said.
Within weeks, the league sent the Brogans an e-mail saying all refunds would be processed by next week -- that was April 22, 2009.
"So we kept waiting and waiting and every month, no check, no comment. I would write them e-mails, we called them many times. And we just didn't get a response," Linda said.
"Very frustrating. We contacted them many times. And they never bothered to respond until Michael Finney and his team got involved," Mark said.
The league blamed the delay on staff turnover, saying the person the family kept e-mailing was no longer there.
The league sent the family a full refund of $120.
"Thank you very much for having such a thing as 7 On Your Side. And thank you to Michael Finney and his team of researchers," Mark said.
