Complaint Review: Evolve Fitness/Angela Foley (owner)

I joined Evolve Fitness back in 2008.  The gym, while small, had every kind of equipment you would like to use.  Pleasant atmosphere and the trainers were helpful and fun to deal with.  And the rates were reasonable---in fact one could go on a monthly membership instead of signing away your life for a year at a time like many other gyms.

The monthly membership was one of the biggest reasons I signed up there---I had heard horror stories about people getting stuck in unreasonable contracts and losing a lot of money in the process.

In 2009, I received a job offer out of state and decided to take it.  The membership contract required a thirty day notice which I gave in writing via email (cancellations@evolve.com) where I stated I needed to cancel my membership and why.  I stated that 30 days from the date of the email I wished my membership to end.

I had been warned by the asst manager that the above email account had been experiencing problems where emails would be bounced and that if it occurred, just send it to the regular address for the club.  Sure enough, it bounced.  So I immediately sent it to the other address along with the mail delivery failure notice I had received.

At my last session at the gym (a day before the end of the membership), I asked my trainer if all was ok with the cancellation.  She checked the computer and said the cancellation had been noted to occur the next day.  With that, I said good-bye and handed in my entry pass for the gym.  My friend who came to pick me up witnessed the exchange.

Two months after the membership was canceled, membership fees for the gym in IL began to hit my credit card again.  Thinking someone had accessed my credit info on their computer and was using it to commit fraud, I contacted the gym and the person manning the desk that evening said they would pass my message along to Angela Foley, the owner of the gym.  Repeated messages for Angela, however, were not returned. 

After two weeks, I called the credit card company and disputed the charge.  Suddenly the owner started communicating with me.  She first accused me of not canceling my membership properly according to the contract as the reason for the charges.  When I reminded her I still had the communications between me and her asst manager, she then changed her story and said I had continued to use the gym after I gave notice to cancel the membership.  She claims I came in the following month and used the gym once so she had to charge the fees again. 

I told her that (1) I could prove I was not in the state of Illinois on the date she claims I used the gym (in fact I had already moved out of state) and (2) she couldn't have had a record of my being there because I had turned in my gym access card (in front of witnesses I could produce)---I wouldn't have been let in through the front door without it. 

At this point she threatened me with a collection agency and broke off communications.  And while the disputed charge has been credited to my account, I feel everyone should be forewarned when dealing with Angela Foley and the Evolve Fitness Gym in Champaign, IL. 

This attempted act of fraud ruined what had been a favorable impression of the gym.  In fact, I had recommended it and my trainer to others in the area.  Never again.