Thus driving the point home once again why you should never, ever, let anyone have access to your bank accounts or automatically debit your accounts. If they demand it as a term of purchase, run, do not walk, away.

Sooooo, what was the description of the transaction?

Watch out for gyms, they know they get a lot of people in who don't stick it out, so they do anything they can, whether it be high pressure sales or just clerical "errors" to keep people paying. Bally's is (was?) especially funny with it because their deal rates were actually signing up for a loan because you'd be lent the full cost of a 1-2 year membership and then had to pay off the loan, rather than paying the gym.

I don't know any life insurance company that will let you mail them a check. they all want auto-withdrawl.

Torchmark/Liberty National lets you pay with check.

@geoffhazel: I just sent a check to my life insurance company; the bill comes, in the mail, twice a year. Same for my wife. I absolutely do NOT allow direct withdrawals from my bank account. Send me a bill, and I will review the bill and pay it--or not. As they say, possession is nine tenths of the law--and once you possess my cash, it's a 90% chance I'll never see it again under any circumstances. If it benefits me to have some sort of direct withdrawal (lower mortage rate or whatever), I'd happily set up a second, separate account at a separate financial institution and fund that with the exact amount due a day beforehand. It's a little more work (what in life isn't)? but the payback in safety and security is easily worth ten times that.

Safeco lets you pay with CC!

This is such a timely post with the sudden spike in weight loss resolutions the new year brings. You have to approach a gym like you would a used car salesman. They are the slickiest of the slick.

@Roclawzi: I actively hate Bally's. I don't know anyone that's had a positive experience with them. Can Bally's become the Circuit City for '09?

I call this a 50/50 error. The sports club was negligent, but so was Ms. Valdez. I check all of my bank balances daily online--it takes about 90 seconds. In anything debit-related, timeliness is essential. I suppose that's why I'm 90% credit card, wherever possible. I just have a personal issue with any payee having draw access to my account. I think the only one is my insurance company because the only other option (besides monthly draws) is sending them a 6-month lump sum.

Thanks to the internet, I was on to this scam before my wife singed up for BSC (Same Co. as WSC in Boston), so I signed up for her and told them I would pay for a year memebrship with cash. Sure it's expensive to do it that way, but I didn't want to deal with THIS problem later.

I'm sorry, but Angela's excuse is far from acceptable.

Who cares if the charges varied by amount? If there is a bogus, unexplainable charge on a statement, I guarantee the first thing I do is hunt for a receipt or explanation. Failing that, the next call I make would go to my bank/credit-card-company. There's no reason why anyone should let unknown charges just "pass by", especially after seeing the charges on multiple statements!

I only hope this experience has taught her a lesson.

My first question too, was "How do you NOT notice some random withdrawal every month?"

This is why I check my bank accounts online at least once a day. And if there is a charge I don't recognize, I'm on the phone with them getting more inforamtion about who the merchant was.

I wish I had so much money that I could just randomly miss having $700 withdrawn from my account over time.

Yeah, I'd have to say the blame is 50/50. How can you not notice a charge on there that you have no record of making, and is on there every month? But that aside, it is pretty underhanded for them to have done this. And her not paying attention to her statement does not excuse this company from doing this.

@TheRealAbsurdist: Yes, definitely. Some of us learned this one the hard way. They should teach this shit in school.

@TinkishDelight: I've heard even more horror stories about Gold's Gym and their billing practices. If Bally's is the new Circuit City, then Gold's must be the new Best Buy.

@vastrightwing: Does it really cost more? Or does it just require you to pay up front instead of in installments?

For those of you laying blame for her not being vigilant enough, good point, I understand.

I would just like to say there was a point in everyone's life when they didn't realize they had to treat every business/financial transaction, from buying a toaster to singing up for cable, as if you were in a Mexican standoff with a coke dealer. I'm sure she did learn, just like all of us.

I really think they should teach this stuff in school. As basic as it seems, as common sense, a lot of people are still getting taken in by it.

And no matter how lax she was in checking her account, they were flat-out robbing her, and the scum should be prosecuted criminally. I want to go knock over a liquor store and then tell the judge it was a "billing error."

@Ash78:

Whether or not she should have caught it, setting up a new charge to hide withdrawing money from your account is theft pure and simple. Just one more reason to end corporate person hood. You can't put WSC in jail (which would happen to us) so they shouldn't get the protections of being us.

@Ash78: 90/10, if not 100/0. You shouldn't have to be vigilant, the gym should just do their damn job correctly. Raise your expectations.

@Todd Fernandez: @lannister80: I can easily see where the gym could have plausible deniability ("clerical error by the new guy").

Mistakes DO happen, but if both sides are vigilant, the mistakes only happen once. When you give free draw access to a company, it's like the customer agreeing to keep an eye on them--IMHO.

@Jubilance22: yeah, I was thinking the same thing. $700 is a lot of money to not notice, even over a year.

@Ash78: btw, I'd put it all in writing and demand full repayment plus very generous interest. She stands to benefit from all the hassle, as she should.

She provided and interest-free working capital loan to this gym, for all intents and purposes. She probably has a small claim and the gym knows this. Time to exercise a little consumer muscle.

@geoffhazel: We pay Genworth with a quarterly check.

I take a peek at my checking account 2-3x/day and my credit card every other day or so, you never know....

@geoffhazel: Bah. I pay USAA with a check. I believe that the advice is still sound: giving somebody the legal right to withdraw funds from your account is generally a terrible idea.

@Roclawzi: I must have signed up at either a good Bally's or at the right time. I read over the contract carefully. I got a decent deal on a month to month that I could cancel with a month's notice. I recently canceled because my wife and I got new jobs that no longer made it convenient for us and we weren't hassled at all.

I walked in expecting a high pressure sales pitch but the guy was relaxed and encouraged me to take my time and even come back later.

The quality of the gym wasn't supurb but I got what I paid for and they didn't pressure me to buy a more expensive plan than what I needed. I even tested the guy by acting interested in a more expensive plan and he talked me into one that fit our lifestyles better that was cheaper and more flexible.

(this is the one in pentagon city, I've heard others in the Northern VA area aren't so forgiving and definitely aren't as clean and up to date)

@Ash78: 50/50? the gym should not have signed up for a new account and withdrawn varying amounts of money. They could try to write it off, but this is CLEARLY the gym's error 100%.

She should have caught it but it is no where near being her error because she shouldn't have had to catch it.

@TPS Reporter: I don't understand how you could attribute blame to the OP for this. If it was $50 and she'd caught it the first time would you still be blaming her?

The facts: she canceled, she has paperwork that she canceled. The gym admitted they opened a new account for her and started debiting her account again.
She noticed it a couple months later. Fixed the problems with what sounds like a bit of a struggle.

It may be her fault it took her so long to notice, but it's not her fault she was billed erroneously, whether it be $1 or $10,000

@TheRealAbsurdist: Good advice right off the top. I've been thinking recently about ditching cable and signing up for Dish Network. Their current gotcha involving auto-debiting is this: in their online "Dish Builder" app, when you get to the page to select your movie channel packages, they offer to give you Cinemax for "only a penny" (a month? a year? I forget...). The catch is that you have to agree to sign up for their auto-pay system to get the deal.

And if you uncheck that box to decline the deal, they gray out Cinemax as a choice so that you can't even select it and pay the full price for it. Classy.

(Their other current thing to watch out for is to offer to waive the installation setup charge in exchange for you agreeing to a two year commitment which includes their "free home wire insurance plan". The gotcha here in the fine print is that you get the home wire plan for free for only five months of the two years, and after that you're locked into paying them $6 a month for the next 19 months for this "insurance". I think I'm staying with cable for the time being. It's the devil I know.)

@Ash78: Did I miss some change over in the rules of Consumerist. I have been seeing a Blame the OP post constantly for everything. can these people please be removed! If you want to blame the OP (even 50 percent) go somewhere else.

@snowburnt:

This is one of those situations where choice of word is important. In terms of "blame", there's really only one party -- the one that's stealing money (and I choose the word stealing deliberately). But do people have a "responsibility" for tracking their personal finances? Absolutely, and that's where the OP was deficient.

@blackmage439: Did I miss some change over in the rules of Consumerist. I have been seeing a Blame the OP post constantly for everything. can these people please be removed! If you want to blame the OP go somewhere else.

@Hamtronix: I must have misunderstood the proper tone or attitude. I've been reading and commenting here for a couple of years and it has traditionally been a place for savvy consumers to share tips, or for screwed-over consumers to find help or advice.

I just struggle with stories that come across with a "whoops they took hundreds of dollars out of my account and I didn't really notice."

It happens once, you tell the merchant. It happens twice, you tell the bank to block the ACH. It doesn't happen a third time.

@pb5000: Yep. I check my bank account online, everyday. Ever since I had the student loan company cash a repayment check for $1150 instead of $115, I am extra-cautious. Checks aren't free from problems, either. Fortunately, I had enough to cover it until the bank corrected the issue. How it was able to go through like that, I don't know.

I let some places auto-debit my bills from my account, but I always check them to make sure they went through and they are correct.

I'd go and kiss my Wii Fit board right now if it didn't smell like my own feet.

@Hamtronix: Did I miss a change in the rules too? Because you're not the comments moderator. Stop being a troll.

@geoffhazel: Mine recently added a fee for paying by check, although I don't recall any blatant notice that I had to go with auto-pay or suffer the fee; it just showed up on the bill. Anyone know if that's legal, to suddenly change the conditions of payment so that one form is now not acceptable or requires an additional fee?

@Hamtronix: If I recall correctly, it's the Consumerist that has taught me time and time again to watch out for this kind of stuff, always be vigilante. Don't be that guy.

@Ash78: Everyone knows you around here, and unless I missed something this is the first guy to have a problem with you. Your advice, while certainly echoed numerous times here, is good nonetheless. Check your accounts people!

I know this just has to be a test of our willpower.

Must ... resist ... blaming ... the ... OP!

I suppose it takes all typed, but this blame for the OP is sad.
I guess it is the victims fault when something happens in some small part.
-why did they walk down the dark street and get themselves robbed?
-why did they purchase a product that some evil corporation put something bad into?
-why did they post a story to warn others when it only exposed that they were the ones truly to blame?
-why cant they be like these super-consumers who are able to spot fraud the second it happens?

Wait, if these super-consumers spot the fraud when it happens to them, then THEY are losers who did not do something more to stop it from happening in the first place!!! Yes, these know-it-alls know NOTHING!

/giggling to my self quietly
//yes I do feel better now, thanks.

@Ash78:

I have to disagree with this. I currently do not live in the US, however keep a US account for ordering online occasionally. I would guess that I use the account 5-6 times a year - should I be responsible if the gym I used 5 years ago started charging my account and me not noticing it for several months?
I alos don't except "clerical error" for this, but unfortunately consumers do not have the same rights as corporations, my clerical errors with companies invariably have late fees and charges - this causes me to make sure I do not have these, but the companies have no such incentives.

Man, how do you not notice something like that? I monitor my accounts daily and make sure I recognize every single transaction.

@thnkwhatyouthnk: Wanting to keep people from creating a negative environment in the comments is 'being a troll' now? So noted.

@chenry: I have a wife. Who the hell knows what she is spending our money on? If it is under $XX amount of dollars and I question it, it just looks like I am being a nit picking ass. People who share accounts are easy marks for unnecessary recurring fees.
Maybe I should start having her fill out expense reports?

@blackmage439: If you go to restaurants occasionally, share an account with someone, do some adventurous shopping, it is easy to miss a recurring charge that comes up under different names and different amounts.

I had a similar situation with the YMCA. I canceled my membership or so I thought in September. I did so by filling out the appropriate paperwork at the location and turned in my membership card.

Come December I realized the Y had still been charging me my monthly fee. While I should of caught this right away, I did not.

I called up the location and was transferred from one person to the other. Finally, I was given the information of a manager who could help. Her and I played phone tag for a few days before finally making contact. At first she refused to refund my money because I failed to catch it on the first month. I told her that was not acceptable. She then said I would only receive a partial refund. Again, I told her unacceptable and demanded a full refund. After a while of arguing back and forth she finally caved in and refunded me.

A bit obsessive, aren't you?