Premier Fitness Signed up for 1 yr membership and not happy with servce. They keep telling me i owe them xtra money because of automatic renewal Saint Catharines Ontario

I signed up in january 2006 and paid them 1yr in full to give these guys a shot because of the promises of service they give. After i signed up they give you a quick half hour of showing you how to use the machines properly and thats it!

I was so overwhelmed with info that i never fully got the proper training i needed not to injure myself. Other members were coming up to me telling me i was going to hurt myself, incorectly using these machines. I talked to the staff and they said it would cost xtra to show me anything else. Well, i could not afford any xtra money and me not having the knowledge of the proper workout techniqes on the machines , I just gave it up 2 months later and just write that 4 or 5 hundred dollars off as a bad decission.

So i'm goin on with my life and my gym days were behind me untill march 2007 when premier fitness called me and says i owe them money. I tell them i quit going a year ago and are no longer a client and then they me that your membership was automatically renewed and i owe then 4 months membership. They proceed to tell me that i have to give 1 months written notice to terminate thier so called contract and will not take my verbal notice over the phone.

By me giving them a written notice would be admitting that i owe them for 5 months of 2007 so i'm looking to go to court to challenge their unethical practice of automatic renewals and just keep charging you every month for I have heard from them in oct 2007 stating that balance is higher and they're going to throw me into collections. My response was see you in court and i prepared to go.

My questions are why after they couldn't get their money off my credit card in jan 2007, did they not cancel my account as many reputable companies do? Why didn't they call me in 2006 to see why I stopped coming? Why do they feel that they have the right to charge me every month increasing the balance even though i don't go there?

Bill
Niagara on the Lake, Ontario
Canada