Bally's Total Fitness ripoff won't cancel account even if pay cancel fee Los Angeles California

Years ago, I bought a membership for my boyfriend who subsequently moved more than 50 miles from the nearest Bally's. I followed the contract to the letter and sent proof of the new address plus the cancellation fee.

Bally's STANDARD way of handling this is to apply your cancellation fee to your monthly membership payment and ignore the cancellation. Then, they start sending you overdue notices. I cancelled my credit card.

When you call them to complain, they make up some bogus story about the address change you sent them being the same as the old address, or whatever lies they can think of.

This made me so angry, I did not stop reporting them and harrassing them and calling them until I finally got ahold of someone who took care of it. It took me over two months and countless hours to get Bally's to finally honor the cancellation, and I even got a refund.

Bally's is a criminal organization, and I can't for the LIFE of me understand HOW they can still be in business.

The only way to avoid these problems is NEVER TO DO BUSINESS WITH BALLY!!!!!

One of the problems in modern society is that some idiot who gets $6.00 an hour to bust people's chops because they forgot to pay a bill has the power to ruin your credit. Then, when you try to rectify it, some computer verifies that it's accurate information, and no human is ever aware of the process.

First, there are quite a few things you can do. One of them is get a secured VISA from a company like Capital One (stay away from Providian). Then go out and buy some things and pay it off every month, or get some good and return them so it shows you pay your card on time. This will bring your credit up to offset the Bally's report.

As far as that goes, you're entitled to one free credit report every year from the bureaus. Then you can get copies of the reports, and dispute the information. If they verify and stand behind it that it's correct, write to Bally's by certified mail requesting verification of this debt (i.e., copies of your aging). If they don't repond, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov).

After that, you can probably find an attorney to sue under the Fair Credit Reporting Act for violations. There are quite a few who take cases on contingency.