Boom Fitness

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:
The business practices at this gym are borderline criminal.
Why is it so easy to get a gym membership but a nightmare when cancelling. I have been tiring to cancel my membership for  months and only now after I have to file a complaint do I get a response from the gym management.
1) I have mailed a certified letter and a piece of received mail from my new address in NJ ,which meets your cancellation requirements, as evidence that I moved more then 25 miles away from your gym. You have also been harnessing me via mail me at my new address in NJ for payment so you know I have moved.
2) I also went to the exact gym I opened my gym membership , to cancel my membership , and was told about the extremely tedious process in order to cancel your particular gym membership. 
Why do I have to mail something to Arkansas certified and return signature (expensive) as well as provide three letters for proof of move. The practices to open a gym membership should be the same to cancel that same membership. 
3) The spirit of your cancellation method are barbaric and obviously designed to harass your canceled clients from canceling.
4) Why do I have to file this with  the Revdex.com to get someone to respond to my cancellation. I have tried numerous times to deal with this prior to filing a complaint with the Revdex.com.
 5) I have also filed a complaint with The NY State Attorney Generals office and told them you also have been advertising and charging new memberships for access to a illegal steam room that you are charging members for, that has been in New York State Court since at least July 2013 and that my new living arrangement does not want to put a utility in my name just because your gym membership cancellation process requires it. 
Unreal..
 
 
 
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

[redacted]
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.
I would like to see confirmation of my membership cancellation from Boom Fitness.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

To whom it may concern:I have attached a copy of [redacted]'s signed agreement, credit card receipt and enrollment waiver form that he signed & initialed explaining he understood the cancellation procedure.We have our cancellation procedure for a reason if there was...

an issue with your membership not being cancelled you have the tracking information that you can provide and we can fix the issue. If you don't have that information there is no way of knowing that you sent in a cancellation letter. If member's sent in a letter and ABC received it we will accept it even if it's not certified mail. We received nothing from [redacted] that he tried to cancel his membership.I stated if he could provide me with proof I would be more than happy to help him...As he stated in the complaint that he provided me proof and there was silence. I never received anything from [redacted] and if he did send it please have him forward or show us that he provided me proof. As you read the complaint towards the end he stated that he didn't have the proof and who keeps things from 6 months ago.I accepted his cancellation via email but he would be responsible for any payments that fall within the 30 days' notice he provides. He had a past due amount from February [redacted] and then was still responsible for March [redacted] and the annual fee which fell within the 30 days instead of charging him the full amount of the annual fee I split it with him..I thought that was fair.I never called [redacted] a liar I just stated that we don't accept cancellations at the club nor we do we have a receipt that prints out a cancellation slip. I feel my resolution was fair.Thank you[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

[Your Answer Here]
The response does not address my complaint at all. The issue was that I got no e-mail in time to being able to cancel the membership before the upcoming renewal. The notice they did e-mail was sent just late enough for this not being possible. And they do not address their ridiculous cancellation policy, 30 days prior in writing by snail mail!
If it is legal, it shouldn't be. It's no wonder that the internet is awash with complaints similar to mine
 
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

[redacted] received an email from me Wednesday or Thursday of this past week as a courtesy reminder that his annual fee would be drafted from his account.
I did contact ABC Financial and he did send in a copy of his credit card receipt via certified mail by USPS but all it...

was a credit card receipt. He didn't explain what he wanted to do, etc.
What I am confused about if he cancelled his membership back in July and has been getting charged why didn't he notice in August and then was extremely upset with me when I sent this email to him last week.
ABC Financial is our billing and they were not sure why the member just sent in a receipt..Yes, ABC should have contacted him in regards to the receipt he sent in. This is something I will take up with them.
I was willing to work with member but he sent his complaint to you before I even got a chance to respond back to him.
This is the email correspondence [redacted] & myself had.
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Member signed agreement as well as initialed credit card receipt explaining our cancellation procedure.
We have a cancellation procedure in effective for a few different reasons:
I get going to the post office is a drag but we have these procedures for a...

reason:
It protects the member as well as Boom Fitness.
Anyone can say they sent in a letter and they are demanding monies back, etc. If the member has the tracking information and followed the procedure we would have to give monies back and cancel membership. If they have nothing we can only have them follow the procedures they were explained when joining.
I sent out an email in the middle of March as a friendly reminder their annual fee will be billed on April **. The email was a reminder this fee would be applied to their account not to cancel their membership.
I have just looked at members account and the 1st time he had contacted anyone in regards to canceling his membership was March **, 2014 which was when emails were sent out.
I will cancel membership as requested.

Revdex.com:
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I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:
Although I did sign a contract that required a particular burdensome cancellation procedure, this particular contract was a contract of adhesion and the business fundamentally misrepresented the terms of the contract to me. Firstly, the contract 'hides' the unusually burdensome cancellation procedure within pages upon pages of 'small print' terms. The representative never alerted me to these terms while he sold me the membership. Secondly, when I called the gym in September 2013 to specifically confirm that I had nothing further to do to cancel my membership, I was verbally and falsely assured that it was indeed the case- the membership will be cancelled automatically on Oct **, 2013. Thirdly, the business continued to automatically charge me for the use of the gym while I did not use it at all since October 2013. Lastly, I do not believe that this membership contract actually permits the gym to refuse to cancel my membership after I complied with the burdensome cancellation procedure and, furthermore, to hold my credit card information 'hostage' while continuing to automatically deduct monthly membership dues until I paid my alleged fees.
 
 
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

After further review of your membership.
We decided that we will let you out of the agreement with Boom Fitness.
There was an issue with cancelling your membership because there was not sufficient proof of move. As per the terms of the agreement you are locked in for (1) full year they are (3) ways to cancel your membership.
1.   Moved more than 25 miles away from club with (2) proofs of move
2. Buyout option which is paying 65% of your remaining balance.
3. Medical Disability of (6) months or more with a Dr's Note.

We send the email out as a courtesy reminder about the fee being charged to your account not for you to cancel your membership.
The annual fee is not for renewal of your agreement; it's for us to be able to charge you the low monthly dues. This fee is part of the agreement.
When you joined you were aware of the cancellation procedures and you initialed stating you knew the procedure. You also received a copy of your agreement via email within 24 hrs of you joining if you didn't like the procedures you could have cancelled under the 3 day cancellation clause with all monies refunded.
We have a cancellation procedure for you and I am sorry don't you like it but you made well aware of what they were when you joined.

Hello:I have attached a copy of the agreement and credit card receipt that you signed & initialed stating you understood the cancellation procedures.If you read the 1st line of the receipt it stated I have entered into a one year term membership which becomes a month-to-month...

membership on the thirteenth month. Monthly dues may only be cancelled after the twelfth month. Monthly dues may only be cancelled via [redacted] certified mail return receipt requested to [redacted] with thirty days notice.You also received a copy of your agreement within 24 hours of you joining Boom Fitness.The member was made well aware of the procedures and he signed off stating he did.Thank you[redacted]

Hi [redacted]
This letter is to confirm that I cancelled your membership with Boom Fitness with  nothing further due.
Your account has been closed.
Thank you
 
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because: I DID MOVE AND DID PROVIDE YOU WITH THE PROOF AS PER YOUR CONTRACT WHICH I HAVE THAT SAYS PROOF. IT DOESN'T SAY TWO LETTERS. 
[Your Answer Here]
 
 
 
 
In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Membership is pending cancel.Member has a payment of $31.34 once this payment has been made his membership will cancelI waived the annual fee as a courtesy

Review: It is very difficult to stop my reoccurring payment to Boom Fitness. The company only allows cancelation via letter. I went to Boom fitness in person I called them and went online and I was not able to cancel my membership.Desired Settlement: Membership Cancelation.

Business

Response:

The member was made well aware of the cancellation procedures..Please see attached documents that he signed & initialed stating he understood the procedures.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], the matter has been resolved.

Sincerely,

Review: After I cancelled my membership with Boom Fitness (by certified mail, as per their policy) more than one year ago, the company continued to charge my card for membership fees. I spoke with several employees at the business and asked that they remove me from their system. They refused, claiming I had not cancelled my membership, and insisting that even if I had cancelled my membership, I would be charged for periods of time when the membership was inactive due to administrative delay. So I instructed my bank not to pay their charges. I believed the matter had been resolved more than a year ago, but I just received the following message from the company:

"Notice of Pending Collection and Special Amnesty Offer

YOU MUST ACT WITHIN THE NEXT 7 DAYS

First Name, Last Name

Club

Dear First Name

Please be advised that your account with Boom Fitness is past due and your current balance is

$_______. This is our last attempt to try and clear this up before we forward your account to one of those pain in the neck Collection Agencies, who report bad debt to the credit reporting bureaus AND COULD POTENTIALLY EFFECT YOUR CREDIT RATING. I know we hate them ourselves.

Trust us, this is the last thing we want to do. You know that Boom Fitness charges 60-80% less than other health clubs in Manhattan and that’s really hard to do. In order to do this we need you to help us by living up to the agreement you signed. It wasn’t all fine print either; you signed our agreement and payment terms several times. There was even a “Special Provisions” box that you initialed. In addition, you also signed and initialed the hard copy of your credit card receipt several times. You signed and agreed to this a lot of times. We then sent you an e-mail outlining these specific terms and these very same terms are posted in the club on giant posters. So we tried very, very, very hard to make sure you knew our very reasonable terms. If you think you cancelled this agreement, please be aware, THIS AGREEEMENT CAN ONLY BE CANCELLED BY CERTIFIED MAIL. If you did not cancel by certified mail, your account could never have been cancelled. You agreed to this a lot of time also. If you didn’t use the gym, well, we were here waiting for you and are sorry you didn’t get to experience all that we do, but your consistent payment was not based on your usage.

Still we know it stinks to pay for stuff, even when you absolutely beyond any shadow of doubt owe the money. And trust us, you do owe the money. So we are making a one-time offer to make it easier. We are willing to reduce your balance by 50% if you contact us with a form of payment by Tuesday November [redacted] at 5pm. This is non-negotiable and will not be extended beyond November [redacted] at 5pm. If you want to continue working out we will re-open your account, if you want to cancel (only after paying your balance) we will cancel your account.

Please contact [redacted] at [redacted] or ###-###-####

Email: [redacted]

Thanks,

Boom Fitness"

Not only is this message uninformative and unprofessional (it doesn't even state my name, or any amount that they believe I owe them), but it is yet another indication that Boom Fitness believes I owe them some amount of money. I do not owe Boom Fitness any money because I no longer have a membership with them, so I would like them to leave me alone and stop threatening me.

Unfortunately, because I believed that this matter had been resolved, I no longer have records to provide to Revdex.com about when I signed the membership agreement and on what dates I cancelled the membership and complained to Boom Fitness employees (as per the following page of this complaint). I only kept a record of one communication with an employee of Boom Fitness, which was by email on September **, 2012. However, I spoke with employees by phone on several occasions before I told my bank not to pay Boom.Desired Settlement: I do not want collection agencies or Boom Fitness contacting me, because I do not owe them money. I do not want Boom Fitness to try to negatively impact my credit score, because I do not owe them money. If the company's records do not show that my membership was cancelled, their records contain errors. Additionally, I would like to respectfully request that Revdex.com investigate the company's membership cancellation policy with regard to billing customers for an extra ** days once a membership has been cancelled, which I believe to be an unfair and unethical practice.

Business

Response:

I have attached a copy of [redacted] agreement and credit card receipt that she signed & initialed explaining the cancelaltion procedure.

We ask the cancellation letter to be sent via certified mail by USPS so we can trace the package anywhere in the US.

In the body of the email I have attached all if any correspondence with [redacted]. We have not received a letter via certified mail by [redacted].

2011

Review: Boom Fitness "outsources" its billing service and claims that this is why they can charge such low membership rates. However, I believe the real reason is that they intentionally make the cancellation process difficult and do not honor cancellations even when done correctly. This allows them to continue billing the customer even though the customer is no longer going to the gym and believes they have completed the cancellation process.

Approximately 9 months ago I cancelled my membership at Boom because I was moving out of state. I was told that I had to talk to the woman at the front desk, who would print out my receipt which I would then mail to their billing center (ABC Financial) in Arkansas and it would be resolved in 30 days. I completed this step, and thinking that the process was complete I did not give it a second thought. I recently checked my statement and much to my surprise Boom has been billing me ever since. The employees claim there is little they can do because the billing is handled by this other company ABC Financial, but I believe it is really all a scam.Desired Settlement: My desired outcome would be a refund of all the erroneous charges that have taken place since I completed the proper procedures with the Boom cancellation. I realize there is probably 0% chance that this will occur, so I hope that I can at least finally cancel my subscription and no longer get charged for services that I am not using. I also believe that Boom/ABC should be investigated for this highly opaque and purposely misleading policy that is damaging to consumers, and I hope that they eventually go out of business.

Business

Response:

[redacted] received an email from me Wednesday or Thursday of this past week as a courtesy reminder that his annual fee would be drafted from his account.

I did contact ABC Financial and he did send in a copy of his credit card receipt via certified mail by USPS but all it was a credit card receipt. He didn't explain what he wanted to do, etc.

What I am confused about if he cancelled his membership back in July and has been getting charged why didn't he notice in August and then was extremely upset with me when I sent this email to him last week.

ABC Financial is our billing and they were not sure why the member just sent in a receipt..Yes, ABC should have contacted him in regards to the receipt he sent in. This is something I will take up with them.

I was willing to work with member but he sent his complaint to you before I even got a chance to respond back to him.

This is the email correspondence [redacted] & myself had.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

Sincerely,

Review: I joined Boom Fitness in [redacted] on February [redacted] of 2013. When joining the club I was told that my membership would only be for one year and then expire. I was told at that point I would have the opportunity to continue as a monthly member. After barely going over anything in the agreement the employee had me sign an electronic pad and said he would email me the agreement. At the end of my agreement I continued as a monthly member. What I wasn't told, and was lied to about multiple times, was the process to cancel my membership. I was told first that I could cancel at any time. About a week before I was planning on canceling my membership I asked if I could cancel my membership over the phone. I was told that I would need to come in and talk to someone about canceling. When I came in to cancel I was told that I had to give thirty days notice. At this point I was told that I had to send a certified mail letter to an address in Arkansas. This means that I would have to pay two months of dues after I was told I could cancel immediately after the year agreement was up. At my last visit to the gym to discuss cancellation, the employee I spoke to told me to look at the agreement I signed and there was nothing he could do. Why would multiple employees lie to me about the process of leaving the gym? In my opinion it is a way to keep members on even if they don't want to be a member anymore and have fulfilled their agreement. This is deceptive business practices and I have noticed numerous complaints towards Boom Fitness as well as the financial company they use, ABC Financial.Desired Settlement: I want Boom Fitness to cancel my membership. Seeing that an employee for the company told me that they could do that, I do not understand why I have been punished for being lied to multiple times. I want Boom Fitness to follow their word when they told me I could cancel "at any time" after my year was up.

Business

Response:

Hello:I have attached a copy of the agreement and credit card receipt that you signed & initialed stating you understood the cancellation procedures.If you read the 1st line of the receipt it stated I have entered into a one year term membership which becomes a month-to-month membership on the thirteenth month. Monthly dues may only be cancelled after the twelfth month. Monthly dues may only be cancelled via [redacted] certified mail return receipt requested to [redacted] with thirty days notice.You also received a copy of your agreement within 24 hours of you joining Boom Fitness.The member was made well aware of the procedures and he signed off stating he did.Thank you[redacted]

Review: Beginning on memorial day weekend, the gym has virtually non existent air conditioning in the main workout area where the machines I use are located. It is dangerous to have 50 people working out in the same area when there is little a/c. I have advised the manager at the location at least 4 times saying that the ventilation is so poor that I feel that I will faint at the beginning of the work out. For the past weeks there is always the same excuse. "we are waiting for the building management." I have bought multiple training sessions which I can't use when it is so hot. I have a balance of approximately 13 sessions that I haven't used. I have even taken the initiative to call the corporate office and spoke with a woman who said she was the CEO"s assistant. I explained the entire situation and the steps I had followed to her. She said that she would relay the information to the CEO, first name [redacted]. She promised to get back to me, but hasn't yet. Apparently [redacted]'s office spoke to the NYC site manager, [redacted] something, the same man I've spoken to multiple times. I know this because I heard it directly from him. This is a dangerous situation for me to be in. I can't work out in the summer when there is inadequate ventilation or air conditioning. Everyone is sweating, including the training manager himself, who is just seated at his desk, not even moving! I made the assumption that when I signed up I would have a gym that provided air conditioning in the summer. In light of the** response I have gotten so far, I have no confidence that this problem will be rectified anytime soon. I have evenDesired Settlement: I would like a refund of my initiation fee, paid last year, and the dollar value of my unused personal training sessions, plus $1000 for the difficulty for having to deal with this situation.

Business

Response:

To Whom it may concern:

The reason for the late response on this complaint:

[redacted] was working with the CEO of the company and he made arrangements to refund back money but at the time she already did a chargeback with her credit card company.

[redacted]'s membership has been cancelled and she already received a refund from her credit card company for $1000.00.

If you need anything else, please let me know.

Business

Response:

This statement is accurate so when she receives her money on July [redacted] this case will be resolved.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

Sincerely,

Response is accurate. [redacted]