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LT fitness fyi & vent (long)
short version: LT can bite me. They altered a contract after I signed it and overcharged me several hundred dollars, only half of which they have agreed to refund me.
long version: I joined li fe ti me fitness over a year ago. After you have been a member for a year, they give you some LT "bucks" that you can use toward a training session or swim lessons, etc. I signed up to use my bucks for 4 private swim lessons (when I thought I'd swim laps for exercise instead of run), took them, great. But the lessons were $20 more than I had bucks so I filled out the swim lesson form and authorized them to debit $20 from my account. I specifically wrote in that I was using bucks, plus $20 billed to my account.
Stupid me wasn't being vigilant with my account (and DH didn't know enough about it to question it) and they charged me for 3 more months of swim lessons that I never took. When I realized it, I was told to talk to the swim director guy. He said, "Well, you filled out the form & agreed to ongoing lessons, so sorry." I explained that I signed up for 4 lessons using bucks and only authorized debiting $20. I asked for a copy of the form. After two weeks of bugging him about the form, he gave me a copy of it. It had been altered. Where I wrote $20, someone wrote in a "1" before it so they debited $120 x 3 months. I am pretty convinced that they made a mistake and when I asked for a copy of the form, realized they had been making unauthorized charges & altered it.
When I told him it had been altered, he said, "Prove it." Bastard. I went to the manager & told her the whole story and she offered to refund me half. Bastards. So now I have to take it to corporate. And I really don't have any way to prove it. I immediately gave my 30 day membership cancellation notice. What a royal PIA.
I guess the fyi is to be careful when you're using your LT bucks that they don't keep charging you. And to make them give you a copy of the sign-up form. I was stupid not to get a copy of the contract and keep better tabs on what they were charging me. I feel silly for not catching it sooner, but that doesn't excuse what they did. Bastards.
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Re: LT fitness fyi & vent (long)
That's just wrong.
I went in for a membership consult and was totally turned off by the sales girl. No, thank you. Liar.
Holy illegal, batman.
Bastards.
I don't know if someone in the library conservation program at UT could help you, but I'm sure there's a way to prove that the inks are different or were deposited at different times. I have a friend in NOLA who does conservation/preservation work. I'll ask him!
I had the same thing happen at G O LD's. I had cancelled in April but threw away my signed cancellation paperwork. I noticed every month that they were still charging my credit card and called every month to be reassured by the manager that it was being cancelled. After 3 months of still paying fees, went into see them and was told my cancellation was lost. How nice for them! :-) .
But they would cancel it and refund my money. When I got the check, I only got one month's refunded. I lost like $60 bucks on that stupid place.
I think alot of gyms are really slimy. Reminds of the Friends episode - "I want to quit the gym!"
Haha, bluestreet, that would be awesome to go all CSI on their butts. Let me see what corporate says before I whip out an expert handwriting/ink analysis.
I'm hoping they will just do what's right for customer service's sake. We'll see... Thanks though!
mollie - yes, $120 is the "right" amount. I had 100 LT bucks and 4 lessons were $120 so there was a $20 balance. Had I just been paying out of pocket, it would have been $120.
Do you have a lawyer friend? Even someone on this board (LLCG, perhaps?) could just send them a strongly worded letter on their law practice letterhead and they'll probably bend. It's not worth it to them, hopefully, to take it to court or anything.
My husband is good friends w/ a judge and when they have problems getting stuff from subcontractors, they have this friend write letters on his letterhead and it's funny how fast sh!t gets done after that...
That sucks...I'm sorry.
When we cancelled our LT membership, they charged our account $10-something every single month. For what, I have no idea. It took about 3-4 months of us calling and telling them to stop charging our account before they finally quit.
i think its around $10 a month to suspend your membership rather than cancel. maybe thats what they were charging you. weird. gyms are weird.
Whoa! That is crazy. I agree about trying to find a lawyer friend to send them a letter.
You could also try contacting your cc company and seeing if it's too late to do a charge back.
Sorry I'm just now popping back in. Feisty - it is the S location.
Joyce, that's what's embarrassing - *I* am an atty. I definitely know better than to not get a copy of a contract. I just didn't think 4 swim lessons and $20 could turn into such a big headache. I haven't played the "I'm an atty" card yet b/c sometimes that rubs people the wrong way and can backfire. My plan is to send a letter CRRR to the manager who offered me half (and copying corporate), citing applicable Texas statutes and sign it with my Bar card number. Hopefully, they'll realize it'll be a much bigger PIA for them if they don't refund the money & will just do it.
I'll keep you updated. Thanks for the commiseration!