Anytime Fitness, Marinette

In
response to
complaint ID ***:
Our records indicate
that Ms *** called ABC Financial to update her billing informationABC
Financial is the company that Anytime Fitness has selected to handle billing on
all membership accountsAfter updating her information with ABC Financial, Ms
*** contacted the club about her membership I reviewed her account and let her know that
due to her situation we would be willing to waive the service feeHowever, it
appeared the withdrawal may have already been pending due to her updating the
payment information previous to calling me.
I informed her of this and let her know that I was unsure of whether the
$service fee would withdraw or notI advised that when her payment went
through she should reach out to me and let me know if the service fee was
withdrawn and we could have it refunded at that time, as I am unable to reverse
a pending withdrawal. I never received a
follow up call from Ms ***
Upon joining our
facility we review membership rates, as well as, terms and conditions of each
membership with our prospect member which includes, but is not limited to,
cancellation/freeze policies and billing proceduresSince Ms ***’s
employer has a corporate wellness partnership set up with Anytime Fitness, Ms
*** qualified for a significant discount from our standard monthly dues for
membershipIn addition to her membership dues being a discounted rate, Ms
***’s employer also has a wellness program set up for their employeesAs
an incentive to increase wellness in their workplace, the employer reimburses
each employee a portion of the discounted dues they pay if they use the
facility at least times per monthThis incentive is promoted by Ms
***’s employer
In an effort to remedy
the situation, we are more than willing to reimburse Ms *** the $
service fee that she was charged

Review: I had to get a new credit card, because I lost my old one. I got fined, because I didn't give them the number of my new credit card when the billed me again. I called, gave them the information, and the lady told me she would refund the fine. This did not happen. In addition, they told me I could get a discount on my payments, but I only found out later that that's only true if I go to the gym 12 times a month. Also, I tried to cancel my account, since it's proving too large for my budget, but I have to be seriously ill or relocate. Such an important points should be explained.Desired Settlement: I would like the the fine refunded to my bank account, and them to allow me to cancel my account with them.

Business

Response:

Review: I signed a 2 year contract in January of 2011. I spoke to [redacted], employee of Anytime Fitness, and told her of my medical issues and wasn't sure if I could continue with exercise for two years. She told me that if my doctor said I could not at any point, I could cancel my contract. So, I went ahead and signed and initialed where they told me to on a long and very worded contract. After a few months, the pain was too much for me and my doctor told me because my pain comes and goes so much that a gym membership would not work the best for me. I then called Anytime fitness and told them I need to cancel, and they said they needed it in writing, so I sent them a letter.

I thought it was done with. I told them if they had any questions for problems, to let me know. No one called.

I not have my checking account all screwed up because they never cancelled my membership and have been taking out of my account without my permission. They even kept taking out when my contract expired in January of 2013. They say that is because I initialed automatic renewal. Well, when I cancelled the membership, I didn't think I had to cancel the automatic renewal.

I went by what they TOLD me. I never thought they would "play dirty" and not cancel my membership, because they say in the fine print that I needed to write a letter to ABC financial, not the Marinette Office. Why couldn't they call me and tell me I needed to send a letter somewhere else? Why couldn't they forward my letter to ABC financial? I never even heard of ABC financial until today.

Their records show I haven't been there in over a year.

They refused to work out an agreement with me.Desired Settlement: I want a years worth of monthly charges returned to me (although they owe for more). That comes to $420. I also want 12 overdraft charges that I accrued from Anytime fitness taking out of my account without my permission and when I didn't have money in my account for it, (althought they owe me for much more) The overdraft charges come to $384. That makes $804 total I need back in my account to make up for what they took.

Business

Response:

The following is a response to the complaint ID [redacted]. Last week I spoke with [redacted] and she informed me that she had cancelled her account over a year ago, but has been paying ever since. The Anytime Fitness cancellation policy does state that cancellation is allowed for a substantial disability. You must provide a letter from your physician stating you have a substantial disability on letterhead and signed by the physician. There is also a required 30 day written notice of cancellation. I asked her if she filled out a cancellation form, and she said she didn't know. I looked through all the cancellation forms we have on file, and was not able to locate one from her. I also had no other form of request to cancel on file from her. I informed her of this and let her know that I also checked our financial website, and there were no notes or attempts to cancel her account documented. She then stated that her membership should have expired in January of 2013 anyway so she shouldn’t still be getting charged. We have each member's agreement photocopied and posted in our system. So, after taking a look at her agreement I informed her that the reason she was still getting charged was because she had initialed theoptional month-to-month renewal section. There is a portion on each agreement that gives the member the option, upon signing, to choose to be placed on a month-to-month basis after their original contract has been fulfilled, after which, automatic withdrawals continue to be collected each month until we receive notification of a wish to cancel. This gives our members the opportunity to remain active without having to come back in and sign up again. After I explained that she had initialed it she stated, "I would never do that". I explained to her that I had her agreement pulled up and was looking at the part where she had, in fact, initialed. She told me that she wanted a refund for her dues since January, and that she had gotten overdraft fees from not having enough money in her account each month. She said she wanted it all refunded. I looked at her account on our financial website again and let her know that the only payments Anytime Fitness had taken from her were dues, and that we had never collected any service or late fees from her. I explained to her that I would be able to cancel her account that day, which would stop her payments from here on out, but would be unable to issue a refund of an entire year since I had nothing stating she had tried to cancel previously and she had authorized the automatic payments to continue after January of 2013. I referred her to ABC financial, our financial service, to see if there was anything more that they could do for her. Had this been brought to our attention within the first few months that she was continuing to be charged after she had reportedly cancelled, we would have been able to do more for Ms. [redacted] in the club. She had been eligible to cancel her membership, without a doctor’s note, since January of 2013, almost twelve months.