Paramount Acceptance Corp, Vasa Fitness, Gold's Gym, Lifestyles 2000, Spa Fitness Truly predatory and malicious contracting and billing practices Salt Lake City Utah

Paramount Acceptance Corp has been the owner/billing service behind Vasa Fitness (formerly Gold's Gym, Formerly Lifestyles 2000, Formerly Spa Fitness) for decades.  They seem to change the name on the gym whenever they develop so much ill will that they feel the need to claim that they are "new."  Don't be misled, it's the same cast of criminals running the place.

The internet is filled with horror stories from these guys, among the tops over the years:

1. Annual contracts that automatically renew if you don't call to cancel on a specific data on the calendar, then they start stacking on penalties when the individual just assumed their membership had ended on its expiration date.
2. "Lifetime" contracts that they refuse to honor
3. Egregious fees imposed when payment changes are made
4. Essentially impossible to terminate services with them

My specific complaint relates to #4.  I have two memberships with them, one for myself, the other for my son.  Both are on an automatic payment schedule, deducting fees from my debit card which I provided as a convenience to them. About two weeks ago my bank, Utah First, reissued this card with a new number due to a data breech - so, new card and number, same account.  Not long after, Vasa/Paramount tried to charge the old number.  When they were unable to, they called me.  I returned their call immediately (within about two hours), gave them the update information, and the payments were made, on time.  It was the next day when I realized they had charged me $25 on each of the two accounts for a "returned item fee."  Nothing was returned, nothing was late...this was just essentially theft in my mind.  Per the contract, they do claim that they have this right, but that they will contact the individual after the first attempt, and if no alternative source is offered, they'll try to run it again, then assess the fee.  Apparently when they called me in the morning and left a voicemail, while I was in a business meeting, that counted as "contacting me," so even though I called them back immediately and gave them the correct info, that doesn't count in their mind.  They're just crooks.  I've spent several hours trying to sort it out, but they just don't care.  Interestingly, if you call the main line to Vasa, all you get is a recording, you can't even talk to a live person. 

Since this happened, I've been reading more about them, and I now realize they're basically running a scam, and what's worse, they seem to really pray on young people and college kids - they get them to sign a contract full of fine print and "deal with the devil" language, then nickel and dime them to death.  Read up, the horror stories are shocking!

I'm not one to write things like this, and to be honest, the $50 just isn't much money to me.  It's the principle - these people really are criminals, and someone needs to finally take them to task.  This has gone on for far too long.