The Alaska Club Reported to a collection agency in error, the Alaska Club refuses to fix. Anchorage Alaska

For years I was a happy customer of the Alaska Club. I went to the North gym twice a week, every week. Every time I entered, I scanned my member card and greeted the desk clerk if he wasn't busy with another person.

My account was set up to automatically charge my bank account each month. However, during 2006 I noticed that I had not been billed for a few of the preceding months.

I immediately called customer service, explained my situation and asked if they could please correct this. They asked me to hold while they looked up my account information which I happily did. The customer service rep who assisted me was actually very nice and helpful. He explained that due to a computer error, they had stopped billing me but the computer had not flagged my account so no one contacted me about it and this is why my member card had continued to work.

However, another automatic process had sent me to a collection agency and that I would need to call that agency and pay them. Once I had done that the account would be cleared and I could get back to normal.

So... I called Cornerstone Credit Services and paid the bill.

I then called the Alaska Club back and they said everything was fine, would I like to continue my membership? I stated that I didn't feel comfortable continuing my membership at that time and could they close it please? They did immediately and for quite some time, I thought everything was fine.

In May of 2008 I obtained a credit report and discovered that I had an entry for failure to pay the Alaska Club. This black mark on my credit score is the only bad entry on my credit report.

Upon discovering this, I called the Alaska Club and was referred to a Terrie, who was supposedly the person who dealt with credit issues for the Alaska Club.

She told me that their system showed that I had paid my bill on 11/10/2006 and that I should contact Cornerstone Credit Services to have my credit report updated.

Cornerstone (who was very helpful throughout this process) indicated that they did not have the ability to update credit reports and that it was a function of the Alaska Club who originally reported me as not having paid my bills.

Terrie then stated that "The Alaska Club cannot request the item to be "cleared" unless the item was reported in error."

Having already explained my situation I was rather taken a back that she did not realize I had been reported in error already. Though, I can understand... she didn't handle my account, she doesn't know if I really was reported in error or not. She probably also has many other accounts and perhaps it is hard to remember every detail of mine.

So I called Cornerstone back to find out what they had to say about this situation. Again they were very helpful and polite.

They stated that because I paid the account myself they could not remove anything from my credit report. It was essentially an admission of guilt.

If this was going to be fixed they said that the Alaska Club would have had the account canceled prior to me paying the debt with them. Which is exactly the opposite of what the Alaska Club customer service told me when I called them in 2006 to find out why the automated monthly payment wasn't getting charged.

I explained this to Terrie, in the later part of June 2008 and have yet to hear back from her, despite repeated attempts to contact her. At this point I think it is safe to say the Alaska Club is ignoring me.

Fine, this will be on my otherwise spotless credit report for another three years. It's not enough to cause me terrible trouble, I will be filing a dispute report with the FTC.

People make mistakes. That's fine, it's understandable. Computers have errors. This also is fine and understandable.

Being unwilling to fix those problems and ultimately ignoring someone is a good way to lose a customer for life.

Be warned. If there is an error with your billing at the Alaska Club, stay on it and make sure they fix it right, the first time!

Otherwise you may end up a victim of a "computer error" like myself.

Matthew
Anchorage, Alaska
U.S.A.