In early July I walked in to Xsport in Darien, IL because I was interested in joining a health club near my home. I spoke with Matt who explained the various membership prices and immediately told me that I could cancel at any time without having to give a reason by just writing a letter to corporate requesting to do so. This was one of the reasons most people joined the club he said. His boss Dave walked by and sat down to ask me what my fitness goal was and that I could benefit from personal training. I asked if the personal training was something I could cancel if I had trouble fitting that in with my busy schedule or if I lost my job and couldn't afford to continue to which he confirmed that it was not a problem. Again I was told that I could cancel at any time. The sales pitch went on for another 30 minutes or so and after asking several more times if I could cancel if I wanted to and being told time and time again that I could I went ahead and signed on and also signed up my teenage daughter.
After working out for a little over a month with the personal trainer and deciding that it was much more time consuming that I could handle at this time I tried to cancel the training only. My trainer sat me down with the manager that was on duty this afternoon and I was told that the contract for the training is a no cancel contract. I explained to him that it was news to me since both Matt and Dave had sold me on and all the manager could do was email corporate on my behalf and said it must have been a "misunderstanding" on my part. I told him that was not the case and he simply kept repeating that it was a no cancel contract and that I simply had misunderstood the statement the guys had made. He added that in IL there is a 3 day contract cancellation clause just like when I sign a mortgage and therefore because I did not cancel the contract within those 3 days I had no recourse.
Reading the contract doesn't give a clear statement on what the cancellation policy is for the training sessions and since I signed all the paperwork at the same time, both Matt and Dave did not clarify, point out, state or informed me that the policy was different for the membership versus the training session. They made no reference to the 3 day contract cancellation clause either. So while I may be on the hook for the contract, I will make sure to tell everyone within Facebook, Twitter and email reach that Xsport lies in order to make their sales goal and then goes on to be as helpless as possible by forwarding me on to corporate. Oh, and of course I will file a complaint with the BBB.
Stay away from Xsport at all cost and give your business to a company that doesn't resort to lying repeatedly to its customers to make a living.
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