Energia Athletics Reviews (%countItem)
Energia Athletics Rating
Address: 702 Pape Ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4K 3S7
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Address: 702 Pape Ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4K 3S7
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I received a gift card as a birthday present 2 years ago to Energia Athletics on Pape Avenue. At the time, I already had another gym membership so I decided to wait to use it until after my current one expired, which happened this week. I had emailed Energia because I could not register online for any of their classes with a gift card. The representative assured me that she would hold my place for the class and that I could pay using my gift card when I got to the studio. So that day, on September 26, 2017 at 5:15pm, I arrived at Energia for the 5:30 class and gave the gift card to the front desk clerk. She did not know how to enter it into the system, so she called *** (the instructor and one of the founders of Energia) to come and help her out. *** looked at the card and said they could not use it because they no longer have the software to read the cards. He mentioned that they had put a notice in their newsletter about the cards as that's the only way they can communicate with their members, however I have never registered with Energia before and therefore would not have ever seen this notice. This is an unacceptable excuse for not honouring a gift card that legally should not expire. He asked me for a receipt as proof of the amount on the card and I explained to him that since it was a gift, I did not purchase it myself and therefore did not have a receipt. I told him that it was illegal not to honour a gift card and *** essentially told me that there was nothing he could do. I asked if he could call the company that created those cards and see if they could prove the amount on it and he was very unwilling to do anything for me. *** then proceeded to ask me if I still wanted come to the class, but I would have to pay for it out of pocket. I was shocked and left immediately. The lack of understanding and customer service that I received from the staff at Energia was appalling.
Refund I would like Energia to refund me the $150 value of the card as I was refused the right to use the services that had already been paid for.
We feel terrible about the situation involving this customer and we would very much like to reach an amicable resolution.
This customer arrived a few minutes before a class and wanted to pay using a 2 year old gift card. She had emailed beforehand saying that she wanted to pay with a gift card, however she failed to mention that it was from 2 years ago, otherwise much of this confusion could have been resolved prior to the customer arriving for a fitness class.
She presented the gift card and said that it had a value of $150. The desk staff informed her that unfortunately we no longer have the software to read the cards, and that she would get a manager to speak with her about it.
I then informed her that we no longer have the software to read the card's value, and asked if she has or could obtain any purchase receipt or other proof of value, such as a credit card statement. She said no, it was a gift from a former boyfriend so she could no longer obtain that, but she assured me that it had a value of $200.
I became suspicious as she had previously told the desk staff it had a value of $150 but now she was telling me it had a value of $200.
She insisted that it was illegal for the card to expire, but I assured her that the card was not expired, it was still valid but some proof of purchase would be required to accurately know it's value as we no longer have any way of knowing it's value, and our former software vendor also would not have any records. I also said that in the meantime, since the customer was already at our location to do a fitness class, she could take the class for free. She said that she didn't want to take the class and left.
The situation surrounding our former gift cards is this: Energia Athletics formerly operated a full "running specialty" retail store on our ground floor as well as a fitness facility on our second and third floors.
Due to the extremely difficult economic conditions of running a small independent retail store in this day & age, we made the difficult decision to close the retail portion of our business in February of 2017. Part of our retail operation was operating a very expensive Point of Sale system, complete with Gift Card functionality. This was an expensive subscription system, and as we no longer required such an involved and complicated system to run the remaining fitness business, this POS system was shut down as part of the shut-down of our retail component.
We knew that we had some previously purchased gift cards out there but the system we had did not record any of the buyer's contact information, so several months prior to our February shut-down of the retail business we sent out a newsletter to our newsletter list informing our customers that we were going to shut down our POS system including our Gift Card system so that any Gift Card holders should come in for redemption before our February 2017 store closing. We also posted this information on the front page of our website and our *** page. These were the only means we had to communicate with potential Gift Card holders.
Considering this very unfortunate situation and wanting to do everything we can to resolve this, we are prepared to provide this customer with a $150 credit that can be used towards any of our current fitness packages.
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
I just want to clarify that I never assured anyone that there was $200 on the card. I told John and the staff at Energia that I knew there was a minimum of $150 on the card but that there could have been $200 because my former boyfriend usually bought me gifts in the $200 range. However, I chose to go with the more conservative number because I am not the type of person who is looking to take advantage of a business; I just wanted what was purchased for me. The fitness class that I had showed up for in full gym attire was never offered to me for free. If it was, then the fact that I wouldn't have to pay for it wasn't made clear to me or else I would have gladly stayed and been happy with the service. Either way, I thank you for your understanding in this matter and would love to use the $150 credit for classes going forward. I feel like this is a fair solution.