My story relates to almost everything everyone has said about BoC, except that mine has had a triumphant outcome. I wanted to realy my experiences in the hopes that it may help some of you get results with this horrible company. It's long, but may help you out!!!
My wife and I signed up with Body of Change for personal training services in January. We contracted for one year for two sessions per week at a cost of $200 each per month.
When we signed, we explained to the manager that there was a good possibility that we would be moving to Florida towards the middle of the year. I explained we were concerned about being locked into such a contract, and pointed out the cancellation clasues in the contracts, along with the stiff cancellation penalties. He waved off my concerns and said that it would be easy to transfer my service to another location or cancel the contract without hassle if we moved to an area in which BoC did not provide service. I bit. And shelled out the first and last month payments for each contract ($400 per contract) plus an additional $25 application fee for each.
Our sessions actually went fine, once we were hooked up with our steady trainer who seemed interested in helping us acheive our goals. The trainer actually researched and brought to us materials specific to some of our areas of improvement, training, etc. However, I was upset when she informed us that we would have to change the time of one of our sessions due to her schedule conflict, or we could continue with her and a second trainer on the day she could not attend. We opted to stick with our trainer.
In May, my wife had to leave for Florida. I contacted our trainer to put our sessions on hold and sent Affiliated Acceptance Corp. A letter stating our desire to discontinue service and close the account along with our May payment.
Having not heard from AAC or BoC Corporate, I contacted BoC and they told me they had not received the letter. My father, an attorney, sent BoC a letter dated May 20 explaining out desire to termiante the contract and that, according to the contract, we wanted a refund of all the sessions we had not used.
A person from BoC wrote me and my wife back saying that we had to pay $460 each ($200 for the current month $10 late fee $250 cancel fee) to cancel the contracts and said that there were many clubs in the area to which we could transfer service and included a list with the letter. THE PROBLEM WAS THAT SHE INCLUDED A LIST OF CLUBS THAT WAS IN THE AREA OF WHERE OUR ATTORNEY IS LOCATED, NOT TO WHERE WE WERE MOVING.
We contacted her by phone to explain what she did and my wife faxed her a copy of our new phone bill with our new address. THe lady then said we now owed $360 ($200 for the current month $10 late fee $100 cancel fee). I told her this was absurd and illogical as we both knew that I couldn't utilize the service for the month they wanted me to pay. She said that the contract WAS LEGALLY BINDING but that she would check with her district manager and get back to us.
I reviewed the contract and found that the last line of the BUYERS RIGHTS TO CANCEL states that any funds that have been paid by client for services that have not been used shall be promptly refunded to the client, less any cancellation fees. I called back and left her a message saying that I would be expecting them to pay me back for all the services we hadn't used less the cancel fees which came out to about $1000 total for both contracts. This was according to her contract and it was legally binding.
The lady left us a message saying that this was only in the case of a death or disability of the client. She stated that the last months deposit was not refundable anyway, citing an example of an apartment contract deposit being used to pay for the last month. Again, she stated that the contract was legally binding. SHE WOULD ALWAYS RETURN CALLS AT THE END OF HER WORK DAY, leaving us unable to speak with her directly.
Fuming my wife called back and left a message saying that she wanted tour contracts terminated, our refund issued and for this lady to contact us by end of the next day. She reiterated that our refund was due according to their contract and to stop playing these bullshit games.
Needless to say she did not. I then took to calling BoC and for two hours in the morning, could not reach this lady. I then called back and began to dial random extensions, never able to get anyone on the line. I then began to leave message about my problem on anyone's voice mail. When I finally got a hold of the operator and asked her who the Pres. And VP of the company were, she explained that she couldn't give the info out because they were a private company. I asked who would handle all corporate legal matters because I was getting ready to sue them. She gave me a name and transferred me to this person's voicemail where I left a message.
About an hour later, the original lady we had dealt with called to say that although it was not their policy, they were willing to forego any fees due to them from my wife and I, including the cancellations fees, but that we would have to decide to forego any refunds that we THOUGHT were due to us.
We didn't to let BoC keep the money they owed us, but we were tired of dealing with this company, so we accepted their offer. Although the lady said that we would get a letter from AAC stating the closing of our accounts, I explained that I wanted a letter from her faxed to my attorney detailing what we had all agreed to over the phone. With a great pause and an annoyed HUFF, she said to give her a few minutes to send it.
About an hour later, the letter came through to my attorney, and a few days ago my wife and I received the letters from Affiliated Acceptance Corp. Stating that the accounts were both closed.
The service rep we dealt with at BoC was named Deanna Lott. The Office Manager we were told handled all legal corporate affaird for the company was named Linda Gregg at extension 110.
Do not let these people bully you! Their service is horrible and their tactics are illegal, and they think that just becasue you sign a contract you have no rights, even though they constantly lie and deceive you. Be willing to continue fighting them and inundating them with phone calls and letters until they are so sick and tired to seeing your letter and hearing from you that they'll do what you want just to get rid of you.
Good Luck!
G
Miami, Florida
U.S.A.
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