Gyms are notorious for being difficult to cancel your membership at, so at first Heather thought hers was different. They even backdated the cancellation date so she wouldn’t pay for the full month. So nice! A month later, collections called her.

Heather writes:

In early May I walked to my local Urban Active gym to cancel my membership. The person I spoke to was happy to help me and it was a painless process. He backdated me to May 1, 2010 as I was so close to that date and had not used my membership in months. He did explain that I had already paid my last month when I joined so that would cover June and I could use the gym until June 30. (I have not used the facilities since sometime in January/Feb) June and July payment periods pass and I am not charged my monthly membership fee so I assume all is well. That is until July 16th when I get a call from the financial (collection) agency that represents the billing for Urban Active.

They informed me that my membership would be canceled as of August 31, 2010. When I explained that it was already canceled she told me that there must have been a problem and I needed to contact my gym. I asked her if she was calling to tell me I owed more money and she confirmed that. At that time I kind of lost it and refused to listen to any more asking to speak to a supervisor but kept getting told there was nothing they could do and I’d have to contact my gym. I hung up and immediately called the gentleman that had canceled me back in May. He told me he saw that I was canceled and that he’d call the girl he deals with and get it taken care of. He stated he would call me back no later than the following Tuesday July 20th as she was on vacation until that time. I have yet to hear back from him.

To add insult to injury I have now had two charges post to my credit card. One for $15 on July 15th which is their semi-annual “maintenance” fee and $26.80 on August 2nd which I assume is for my August membership. I have a signed paper stating my membership was canceled on May 1, 2010.

I will be contacting my local gym again, but I wanted to let you know what is going on so that you can warn your readers to be vigilant when dealing with this company. They have lost me as a member forever over this. What was a temporary cancellation due to financial reasons has now become permanent.

Thank you for your time.

-Heather

Sounds like they’re all smiles in the front room but then you got caught up in the teeth of the accounts grinder in the backroom. Hopefully they will let you work it out and call off the dogs, but if not, one word: chargeback.

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