I entered Bally Total Fitness in Willow Grove because I had signed up online for the $19 TRIAL (first off, why do you have to pay for a trial? But anyway). Upon arriving and getting my tour of the gym, the man I was working with took me into the office and said it was really in my best interests to join. He said he was offering me the lowest price possible, etc. I told him that I was moving in July to a state where there weren't many Bally gyms (it was May). Thus, I only wanted the trial membership. He ASSURED me that it would be easy for me to cancel and said that he would even help me with the process. He pulled the "What it says isn't really important" and tried to summarize. I have never fallen for this and I attempted to read the fine print. However, I felt rushed so really only gave it a cursory glance.
I stopped working out in July because I fell off a horse and broke my coccyx (tail bone). Had I known that this would have turned into an epic battle I would have gotten a doctor's note and ended it all right there. Unfortunately, I was pretty sure I'd be able to return to the gym before I moved.
So, I moved to Charlotte. There are Bally's in the area, but since my fiance (who I moved in with) is a former personal trainer, I decided it would be easier and cheaper to work out at home (no-brainer, really). I was told when I signed up that if you sign up in Pennsylvania the relocation policy is a bit different: if you move beyond a 25 mile radius of the gym where you signed up and there is not a Bally's with equal amenities within FIVE miles of your new location, you can cancel. I have since called various Bally's in the Philadelphia area and every person I've asked has said the same thing. Luckily, there was not a Bally's within five miles of the apartment I moved to. There was one 5.5 miles away, but it did not have equal amenities.
So, I sent my $50 and a copy of a letter sent to me which I was told was sufficient. I just moved and didn't have a bank statement, plus I was subletting so my name wasn't on any bills. I assumed it was over, especially when I saw that my $50 had been cashed.
Cut to August when my mom calls me to say that there's still a charge from Bally on the credit card statement. I call Bally and they said the cancellation department was still reviewing my request. I asked why they were still charging me if my cancellation was pending, they said it was policy because I was still a member until they said I wasn't. I asked if I'd be refunded and the man said yes.in the meantime, I was moving into a condo. During this move I lost my contract, I think it was in a box somewhere and something happened to the box.
Cut to October, where there are STILL charges on my credit card. The customer service representative told me that the cancellation department said that the photocopy I sent was insufficient proof and that they sent a letter. I said I never received a letter and asked them what address they sent it to. It was apartment 1562. I lived in apartment 15620, thus the apartment they sent it to didn't exist. But I was surprised that it wasn't close enough for me to receive it.
So the next day, October 18, I faxed the cancellation department a bank statement with the address and a copy of the cancellation check that was checked. It is also important to note that when I explained the Pennsylvania policy to him, he put me on hold. When he came back he said that I was correct and that they just needed sufficient proof of an address change. That was the last time I would ever hear that.
Onto November where there's another cash. Once again my cancellation request was pending. Same with December. And January.
In January I called again several times and the customer service reps sent more requests to the cancellation department. At this time I was informed that the cancellation department was only contactable by fax or mail. I asked them to repeat what they said. I asked if the department was in the building. They said yes. I joked about how lonely they must be, the customer service rep gave me a really snotty reply (I was trying to keep the mood light, but I decided to stop trying). I asked if they were going to refund the money they had been stealing. He said they weren't stealing. I said they were and left it at that. He said he'd see what they said and call me back (SPOILER ALERT: they don't call me back).
Now we're in February. I was allegedly sent two more letters from the cancellation department saying that my request was denied. I did not receive either letter at my new address. However, I did receive a voucher payment booklet. How curious. I had to request a copy of my contract because mine is now lost. I will supposedly receive it soon, but I doubt that I will receive it at all and if I do, then I am not entirely sure it will be the same contract.
Meanwhile, my phone has been receiving automated calls from Bally saying that my Feb. Payment is overdue. Even though I was assured by several representatives that payments would stop until the cancellation department had made a decision.
Yesterday I called the number that the automated voice told me to call. I was quite angry. Pissed, actually. I spoke with Miguel, I guess in the billing department, who said he'd call me back in a few hours. I said that if he didn't call back by noon (it was 9 A.M.) I would call him. Another spoiler alert: he didn't call. So I called and asked for Miguel. The woman said they couldn't transfer me, but they would go get him. For whatever reason, he couldn't come to the phone. I suspect because he knew what I wanted.
So I spoke with this woman, whose name I didn't catch. She said the cancellation department denied my request because there was a Ballys within 25 miles of me. I said there wasn't one within five miles of the address given. She said that didn't matter. I said it did because if you signed up in Pennsylvania the policy was and I repeated the policy as told to me by four different Bally trainers in PA (I don't feel like repeating this again). She had never heard of this and put me on hold. She came back and said she was looking at a Pennsylvania contract and it didn't say that. I said it was on my contract... Unfortunately I didn't have the contract (something I regret more and more every day). She asked why not, I said because it was lost when I moved and another one was supposedly in the mail.
Then I asked to speak to a supervisor. They were all busy. They had all been busy an hour ago. I asked if it was only that they had a few supervisors or if the supervisors were just stuck under a mound of work at all times and cut off from the human world like their cancellation department. I realize I was being snotty and sarcastic, but they were being incredibly rude and mean to me, so I gave up on being polite. I said when my contract came in, if it came in, I'd call back.
Meanwhile I was emotionally distraught because they had frustrated me and frankly, abused me to the point of tears. So, my fiance calls. He actually gets to speak to a supervisor by some act of God. The supervisor had heard of the five mile policy specific to PA, but continued to ask him if he had a contract in front of him. He said they were incredibly mean and he was surprised by how rude they were (said the man who argues with sprint, the cable company and insurance companies almost weekly). He got the supervisor's number, extension and name. He also had a friend in Norfolk who went into the building where Bally is and gave us a different number than anyone had given us before. We assume it's a switchboard or something. It's in the hole until we get a contract.
Here is a wonderful moment from one of the conversations I had: after being told that the letter was sent, I asked to what address. I knew that they didn't have the correct address because the address on the payment voucher was ridiculously wrong and the mailman is a saint for guessing it. The woman kept saying that they had the correct address. She kept repeating the zip code (which was correct, but it's a pretty big zip code area). She kept speaking over my saying that they have the correct address and that I live in Charlotte, NC. I then had to YELL over her and say, "I live there and I think I would know better than you whether or not you have the correct address!" I told her that the only piece of mail I have ever received from them was delivered to me by someone a few blocks away because they knew who I was (admittedly not true, but she wouldn't let me speak). I had her repeat the street address. They had the wrong house number. My street is two names *name* *name* Drive. They had the first name spelled incorrectly and did not have the second name.
So now, six months after my first attempt to cancel the membership, I am being called by this automated voice daily, waiting for a copy of my contract and being verbally assaulted by their employees. Meanwhile, I have to keep a constant watch on my credit report, since I will start re-applying for loans soon and I cannot afford to have Bally mess it up. I called customer service to request the contract because they are considerably nicer than the billing department. I admit that this would be much easier if I had not lost the original contract, but it is still sort of ridiculous that the national headquarters doesn't know that the employees in Pennsylvania are talking about.
You would think that after multiple law suits, bankruptcy and being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, the New York Attorney General and the Wisconsin Attorney General Bally would change their act. I assume their strategy for recovering from Chapter 11 is to just keep charging people. Regardless of all the customer abuse and complaints, they remain the top fitness club in the country, with millions of members (though I suspect that a good percentage of those reported members are members against their will).
I would say that Bally won't learn any sort of lesson until it's stock plummets and it loses a good chunk of customers, but it's stock did plummet and nothing changed (In 2005 the then president sold about 75% of his stock in the company). So, all that's left is for it to lose a good chunk of customers.
Meanwhile I am telling almost everyone I know not to join and I hope you do the same.
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