Bally Total Fitness, Bally's Employees are all going to DECEIVE & CHEAT You for Your Money Orlando Florida

When I had gone to Bally's to check out their prices and deals I was very hesitant because the most affordable memberships were those with long term contracts and I made it clear to the representative that I could not and would not sign a contract of any sort. I made it crystal clear that I needed a gym that I could be a member on a month to month basis in case I had to cancel the membership. The rep. tried all sorts of ways to get me to sign a contract but I kept refusing. When I was ready to walk he said he could make me a deal, as long as I paid the first and last month plus the processing fee I would be paying the 3 year contract price for a month to month, no contract membership. I told him from the beginning that I didn't have much time and he took awhile to come up with a deal that worked for me.

After we had talked about it, he had assured me three times specifically that I would not be on any kind of contract and that in order to cancel my membership all I had to do was give a thirty days notice and pay out the last month, in addition to the first and last month I was going to pay that day. He told me just sign here and we're all set, no contract. Welcome to Bally's.

After I had lost my job I called my gym to give my thirty days notice of cancellation because I could no longer afford my membership. They said they didn't have the authority to cancel so they gave me the phone number of the people who did. The lady I spoke to on the cancellation number on June 16, 2009 asked if instead of completely cancelling my membership if I were to be charged only $9/mo after taxes would that be affordable. I said yes fine, but nothing more than that. She promised that my credit card would no longer be charged anything more than $9/mo, gave me a confirmation number of 1646 and said everything was final.

A month later I was looking over my credit card statement and noticed that Bally's had still charged the full amount instead of the $9 the woman had promised I would be charged. So once again I called the cancellation line to straighten out the over charge. The first and second person I spoke to said they did see the $9/mo agreement under my account and was not sure why I was being charged the full amount, so I was put on hold once again to try to talk to someone who might know what was going on like a manager or supervisor, so I was transferred to a manager. The manager gave no reason as to why I had been over charged but said that the $9/mo was not available.

Without a job I told them I could not afford the full amount of the original membership and that I was only keeping the membership because I had been promised the price of $9/mo so I was going to have to cancel the membership right away. The same manager said that cancelling over the phone could not be done like I had been told it could. I would have to send a fax to that same office she was talking to me from so they could have a written document stating I wanted my membership cancelled, so I agreed and sent a fax with my situation typed out for them so I could get my membership cancelled and hopefully a refund of the money the woman had promised I would not be charged.

A week later got a voicemail back from a Nancy saying that I had a 3 year contract and not only that I would not be receiving my money back that they had over charged on their mistake but also that there was no way they could lower my payments to $9 nor could I cancel my membership like I had been promised and there was nothing they could do. Nancy left a number if I had questions.

Of course I had lots of questions at this point so I called the number to be told to call a different number, the second number finally told me to call the first number again after pressing digits for 30 mins to try talk to a human, then after calling the first number back they had then given me a third number to call and after calling the third number and being transferred and put on hold for another 30 or 45 mins.

I was finally connected to a man named Joe (employee number 858) that said he could help me solve these issues and saw on my account all the times I had called, and faxed, he also told me he did see that on 6/16 a woman put that I would only be charged $9/mo. He told me that even though it was on the record she had told me this, it was not possible. So as a result he assured me that he would be able to just cancel my membership if I still wished to do so for a $75 cancellation fee I was never told about when I had originally signed up at Bally's, but I said that was fine go ahead and cancel it, I was completely fed up with all the games these people had played with me by then and just wanted it to be over like I was told it could be. He asked if he could charge the same card, I said yes, he puts me on hold for another 20 mins. comes back on the line and says he cannot cancel my membership at all, that I have a three year contract with them and they would not be able to lower my payments or honor any of the promises the Bally employees had given to me such as the no contract membership, lowered monthly payment when I lost my job, or the $75 cancellation that five mins. before he assured me was my only option.

They completely disregarded the fact that is was their employees that had made false promises (even given out confirmation numbers to backup these false promises) and refused to honor any of them, that they would do nothing to compensate for their mistakes and that I was stuck with the three year contract (I was told was not at all what my signature was needeed for in the beginning) with the full payments for the full term of these three years.

Sara
Orlando, Florida
U.S.A.

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