After graduating from college I moved to a townhouse with 3 friends in beautiful Reston, VA. When I decided that I needed some time off my rear, I naturally decided to join the closest gym. I choose Golds Gym of Herndon/Clocktower, a quick 2 min drive from where I work. However it wasn't until too long that this paradise turned into a living nightmare.
Our townhouse was burned to the ground in its entirety late Feburary 2006 in a terrible fire. All 4 of us made it out within minutes of the place being consumed by smoke and flames. The Fairfax County Fire Marshal ruled the incident accidental and deemed us "very" lucky to be alive.
I still have not been able to recover financially from this disaster. The fire took everything I ever had. I realize it was time to cut financial corners anywhere I could. Utility companies were understanding of our loss and cut us a break. Then what I thought would be the easiest thing to deal with ended up becoming the almost as hard to endure as the fire.
I went to Gold's Gym the following March to speak with the Franchise Manager (due to the fact this is a Franchised business he is the only person with the ability to end this contract, I can't take this dispute through Gold's Gym Corporate from what I'm told, hence this "Manager" is my only way out.) He was understanding of what happened and said the best he could do was cut me a 2 month break, (maintenance fee free) to get myself together. Easy enough, so I thought. Couple weeks later I find the "waved" maintenance fee charge to my checking account. I called the manager next day and he explained he was at the mercy of their computer system. Ok, whatever. I just want out of this contract, I can longer afford these charges on my account, I have enough trouble budgeting already expensive gas, food, clothes, furniture etc. The Manager said I would have to contact the third party billing service they use "Conexion" to find out how exactly how to end the contract. I called Conexion that day was transfered to over 3 different operators each of whom I explained this circumstance to. I swear the only words out of these peoples mouths are "we're terribly sorry, unfortunately there is nothing we can do, followed by an ongoing stream of NO's."
Finally one of reps tells me I will have to contact the Billing Manager at Gold's Gym (sounds like a made-up title, but ok...). So I call the gym as for the "Billing Manager" and all I get is confused customer service reps, being put on hold 3 times from anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes, eventually I end up talking with the very same Manager I originally spoke with and he tells me I have to call Owner. I call the Owner next day, being that this has already been an all day affair taking care of this thing. He tells me the only way to end contract is to pay all the way through, $400!!! I can't pay that. Only options I have are to tell my bank to discontinue billing and of course then it get forwarded to collections, and then ultimately my credit report gets pulled, WTF!!! It's not enough that I don't have money, but I also won't be able to borrow a cent until this thing is resolved. I don't understand, just a few months ago I was so happy, now I feel like I've reached the end of the line. What am I supposed to do? I feel like I just made a deal with the devil.
0 comments