I had signed up with Bally Total Fitness at the Mayfair Village in Hurst, TX in February when I first turned 18.
I wanted to start working out and going to the gym every day, so I tried to use a trial coupon that I had recieved from Bally's in the mail, but they would not honor it.
Instead, they sat me inside a room with one of their sales representatives to sell me a membership to Bally's because I had just turned 18 a few days before and now I was eligible to sign up for anything without any parental consent.
The salesman talked to me for about an hour and I repeatedly let him know that I don't want anything on contract, just a monthly payment that I can afford... And then also be able to cancel if I don't have enough money.
He acknowledged everything I had told him and assured me that I could cancel my membership at any time and that he would make sure of it, so he just told me to sign the bottom of the page and we would be good to go.
I was suckered into the way they sat me in a small room with a sweet talking, assertive sales representative and felt forced to sign.
A month went by and I was not satisfied with my membership at Bally's, due to the unsanitary conditions of the club and bad customer service. I called my club and let them know that I wanted to cancel my membership and that I was told I could do so upon signing the contract. They told me that there is a 50 dollar cancellation fee, but that it is standard practice for any membership club, so I finally agreed to have them debit the 50 dollars out of my bank account in order to cancel and they assured me that everything would be taken care of and thanked me for my time spent there.
That was 1 year ago. I checked my credit report yesterday and there is now a big collection amount documented on my report from Experian for the amount of 700 and something dollars. After viewing this, I immediately called Bally Fitness and wanted to know what was going on with my account. They said that my account had been forwarded to Perimeter Credit Collection Agency. I asked the Bally's customer service representative on the phone if he could pull up my account information but he said there was nothing on file. So he gave me the number to Perimeter Credit.
Now I've also spoken with Perimeter Credit... They don't have any of my Bally information either, only my name-social-address-and phone number. I asked them what I need to do to get this information in order to take legal action but all they said was that they would contact Ballys and have them forward me all my information.
This is totally insane... If Bally's didn't have my information in the first place, how is the collection agency going to have Bally's send it to me? This is hurting my credit so much that I can't even get a student credit card for college anymore.
I don't want something so negative to stay on my credit report when both of the parties I'm disputing with have none of my information or contracts on record. I was told to file a complaint here... What else can I do?
My contact email, just in case, is (ROR REDACTED E-MAIL ADDRESS FOR SECURITY PURPOSES)
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