Posted on 07/16/2015 7:45:30 AM PDT by rickmichaels
All Stacy Latham wanted to do was end her gym membership after one year without penalty, as promised in her contract, but what she got was nine months of fees after she quit — and a lot of grief.
Her ordeal with a company that took advantage of her pre-authorized credit card payment plan ended with Total Body Fitness in Chilliwack being fined $1,600 by Consumer Protection B.C. and ordered to fix its contracts and stop payments from customers who legally cancel contracts.
After an investigation CPBC, an non-governmental independent agency that regulates gyms and other businesses and governs consumer contracts under provincial law, found that owner Scott Midgley had continued charging Latham after she had properly cancelled her contract within one year.
But Midgley disputed the CPBC’s conclusion that he did anything wrong, He maintained that Latham signed a contract agreeing to pay a $90 cancellation fee if she ever cancelled the lifetime contract.
He said in return she received a lower monthly rate (then $29 a month, compared to $69 a month for a month-to-month contract with no cancellation fee), a practice that he said is standard in the fitness club industry.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalpost.com ...
I’ve heard similar horror stories from friends who go to gyms. They always want you to sign up for automatic monthly draft withdrawals from your bank, or automatic credit card charges. Then when they try to quit, there are always issues with stopping the automatic charges.
Just saying,I’ve heard this same story from a number of people. It’s a black mark on the gym industry, in my opinion. They are all too quick to sign you up for automatic monthly payments, but very slow to stop the payments when your membership is over.
Hell. I’ve read that its part of their business model. Create a lot of hype to get people to sign up and then make it extremely difficult to terminate the membership. Many gyms aren’t in the business of providing a place to work out. They are in the business of inducing people, through guilt or shame, into signing up with the full knowledge that they won’t go after a month or two.
I had to cancel my debit card to get the charges to stop.
Gee, what a business model. Sounds like the business model is that the money flows in month after month, regardless of whether people use the gym or not.
Just one of the many industries that are full of fraud and corruption.
In the future, you can offer this advice. Call the credit card company and tell them what the issue is about. They will cancel/put a hold on the initial card while you get a new numbered card in the mail (then you activate it). The old charges are transferred to the new card. We did this after the “free” offer from Ancestry.com If you didn’t contact the company within 30 days, you were billed. I started calling at day 20... no responses at all. Emails weren’t answered either. So, I transferred the credit card another card with a new number (which they didn’t have) and wasn’t billed.
Bally’s won’t even let you cancel in the gym with the manager or online. You have to send them CERTIFIED MAIL with WRITTEN STATEMENT that you want to cancel. Then you have to wait 6-8 weeks for ‘processing’
There are sites dedicated to how to properly craft your cancellation letter with the right legalese so that they can’t use any loopholes & continue charging you.
Sound advice. I note that a thread was mentioned called General/Chat forum mentioned this. I have never used it, but will now. Perhaps not this general thread to air one's own personal experience with this type of thing.
I had used Norton Security and had myself installed a disc. I was deducted yearly. I junked the pc and got a new pc. I was sold a plastic card at a local store. to install a Norton Security system. I was directed to a 179 dollar security system (Norton) by GuraAid of Mumbai . They "assisted" me to install the more expensive one . I lost my money. I phoned the credit card company MBNA. They quickly cancelled the number and sent a new card. Repeated calls and e-mails to Norton got nothing. Then out of the blue came requests to activate the old Norton disc. Now defunct of course. Absolutely no interest in my lost money, no explanation why they use (if they do) Mumbai India.
This should be on General Chat though. Please excuse this rant.
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