<p>I desperately need some advice. I cancelled my gym membership in November 2012. I received something from the gym in May 2013 about their being unable to charge my account, so I called the gym and said I had cancelled and she said, 'oh yes, i see that" and I thought we were done. Now I have something from a collection agency saying I owe the gym $1400!!! I have tried contacting customer service numerous times and have actually spoken with 2 different people who said it was a glitch in their system and they would take care of it. I asked for an email confirmation that it was taken care of and haven’t gotten it.
Today my bank advised me that they are trying to charge my card! What do I do? They’re going to ruin my credit.</p>
<p>What did your original contract say?
How long were you a member?
My gym is month to month, but other gyms may have annual fees on top of that.
If it goes through a credit card, be sure to contact the company.
I would send them a registered letter confirming your cancellation along with a copy of your original request.
Most gyms require you to cancel in person or by phone, but I would recommend in person.</p>
<p>I gave them a letter bit I don’t think I retained a copy. It was right after Hurricane Sandy and things were a mess here.</p>
<p>Many of these gyms are scams in the way they operate. There’s no way I’d give them any account info or permission to automatically debit an account monthly. Many are setup that way because they know that most people will quit going after a month or two and this is a way to extract more money from them. If they can’t send me a bill just like any other service I pay for then I wouldn’t join it.</p>
<p>What happened between Nov 2012 and May 2013? Was your account being charged in between those dates without you noticing it?</p>
<p>You at least need to send them a letter by certified mail stating you canceled the membership in Nov 2012 and that they need to quit billing you for any period of time after that and that they need to pull this back from the collection agency.</p>
<p>If they ignore you then you need to start contacting whoever’s the highest management in that gym. Is this a big chain or a small local place?</p>
<p>Do you have any documentation indicating when you quit? This might include monthly statements for the account they try to charge that shows they didn’t actually charge you once you canceled (assuming that they really didn’t continue to charge you).</p>
<p>I suppose it’s possible they made a mistake and for some reason started up charging you again after a break but I’d be very wary of a gym due to their predatory tactics in this area - aka scam.</p>
<p>You could also always resort to a lawyer but that’ll have a cost.</p>
<p>Good luck with this.</p>
<p>If you used your computer to write the letter/ email, you could just print that out or resens it.
Also do you have any friends who are attorneys?
Cc them a copy.
;)</p>
<p>What is the name of the gym? Contact NJ Consumer Affairs</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/brief/healthclub.pdf[/url]”>http://www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/brief/healthclub.pdf</a></p>
<p>Send a registered letter. If you can get an attorney to send a letter, that’s good too. </p>
<p>Look at your original contract and see what the cancellation requirements are. Then look online and see if anyone’s posted anywhere about whether the addresses and original requirements are still accurate. You’ll find you’re not the only one dealing with this and may find out what has worked for others. </p>
<p>Find out if they have a Facebook page and post to them on that. Also, find out if they have a Twitter account and post a public tweet to them there. Companies hate having this stuff aired in public on social media. You’ll probably get a response in hours rather than days, weeks, months, never…</p>
<p>Okay, posted on FB and Twitter. I don’t know any attorneys, so I would have to pay someone. I will contact consumer affairs tomorrow. I am not a great record keeper. I hope that doesn’t come back to bite me.</p>
<p>Ask your bank to change your credit card number. You may have to work with the fraud department, but one thing you can do right away is make sure that there are no more attempts to charge your card.</p>
<p>Stand firm. You can protect your credit by getting free credit reports from each of the agencies and submitting a dispute if any claim shows up against you. </p>
<p>The collection agency is unlikely to pursue things once it is apparent that you won’t budge, but they may try to sell the debt to another agency. They know that these gym membership accounts are weak. </p>
<p>Don’t worry about calling customer service. Send a paper letter to the address on credit agency statement that says (1) you contest the bill and deny owing anything (2) request a detailed itemization of all amounts that they claim are owed (3) ask that all communications be in writing.</p>
<p>Go to [Debt</a> Collection | Consumer Information](<a href=“http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0149-debt-collection]Debt”>Debt Collection FAQs | Consumer Advice) and familiarize yourself with all the information on that web site.</p>
<p>I have had good luck going through my state attorney generals office or consumer affairs office in these situations. Tell the gym and the credit agency you are registering a complaint and then do it.</p>
<p>dkitty, in addition to all the above advice, you might call the “Bamboozled” columnist in the Star-Ledger. She’s really on top of these types of situations (and might have heard of other instances.)</p>
<p>I contacted better business bureau when I had a problem with TMobile. We did get the money part resolved, but they did ruin my credit scores. I was able to get it removed from 2 agencies, but not the third one even with all the proper documentation. You need to monitor your credit scores for a while to make sure the collection agency doesn’t report it.</p>
<p>Would you be comfortable taking it to one of the local TV consumer advocate reporters? Help me, Howard on channel 11? Arnold Diaz on channel 5?</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity , does this gym do business in Tom’s River ?</p>
<p>Also watch your credit report. You get a free annual credit report.</p>
<p>I asked my personal trainer about this and the first thing he said was, “Is it Xport Fitness?” I guess they have a reputation for doing similar things.</p>
<p>That being said (and this probably mostly applies to future readers of this thread as it is obviously too late for the OP to do this), he said whenever you want to cancel a gym membership, go to the gym, in person and do so, and get paperwork from them that shows your membership is cancelled.</p>
<p>I’ve heard the small, privately-owned gym I go to is fairly aggressive with people that don’t fulfill their contracts. There is a clause that you can break the contract if you move 30 miles away. If I ever want to leave, I’m telling him I’ve moved to my beach house, which is 42 miles away!</p>
<p>This was why I ultimately didn’t join Planet Fitness, which is a popular one around here and especially at my work because there’s one around the corner. There isn’t supposed to be a commitment but I read a lot of horror stories about people being unable to stop the charges from coming after they canceled.</p>
<p>I JUST joined PF last week! Where were you then?!?! (smile)</p>
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<p>Wow. If you don’t like the contract, then don’t sign it. The majority of our contracts are 12-months. It’s amazing how many people can’t understand that even after it is explained to them. Our normal memberships do not have a “statement” option. Because here’s what happens with those… people who decide they don’t use it just won’t pay the bill. Then we have to spend our time getting the money the member agreed to pay. Now we offer a month-to-month option, but that comes at a price.</p>
<p>It’s also interesting how many people don’t realize that our contract being “12-months” means at the end of that 12 months you have to sign another one. Some of them think it just keeps going…</p>