Back in Nov my husband and I signed up for a membership under my SS#. The guy showed us around and the place seemed sort of empty that day and it seemed ok. We wanted to get in shape. The guy showed us 3 plans.
We picked the lowest cheapest plan. It came out to about $75 a month and it was a 3 year membership. I paid about $200 for the initiation fee and first month membership.
The following day I am looking online and I notice that Bally's at that time had NINE (9!!!) different membership plans and the guy showed us only the top 3 plans.
So we go in to exercise and we grab the salesguy and tell him that we want to change our plan. He says that we have to talk to a manager but there isnt one available (other location?). So we exercise. Go home.
The next day later we go back to exercise and the manager is not there. The place is hot and not ventilated well that day. There is alot of guys and I drag my husband with me to every machine as I was getting looks (being a 20 yr old female)
2 days later we go back again and the manager is there but he cant change it for us. He says we have to call the district manager.By that point we are pretty upset. We exercise and it is dirty and not tempting since we are pretty upset. We leave early.
I call the district manager the next day and leave a message.
I do this for the next few days and then I finally reach him and tells me that we have a contract and it cant be changed. He refuses to change it and doesn't believe his sales people would trick me into getting something that I did not want. That if I didnt want to pay that amount in the first place then why would I want to change it.
So I call my credit card and tell them to stop the auto payments by Bally's and they say they can't. So I cancel the card. That is when I started to get the harrassing phone calls at my home and work for the next 2 years.
They stopped for about 5 or so years and now I get a summons for next month.
Right now I have 3 kids and an unemployed. I expect to get a foreclosure notice as there has been wage cuts for my husband. How can I defend myself?
I know technically the debt is valid as I signed a contract but they basically screwed me over. I wish Illinois did not have a 10 year statue of limitations. Ugh.
I was so close.
Beware of this place.
Since then I have done research and I see this is sort of a national epidemic with this company. I have had alot of people tell me that the location we went to is a meat market and which is why alot of women avoid it since management doesnt seem to do anything about the harassment by their male customers.
I wish I had been smarter and sued them in the first month. Sigh.
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