Gold's Gym- Houston Gold's Gym-Conroe Deceptive Trade Practices & FCRA Violations Conroe Texas
Gold's Gym was notified in writing on 7-14-2014 giving 30 day's notice to cancel gym membership. Was contacted on 7-18-2014 by Gold's Operations Manager Shannon Cole and was advised to contact their agent, ABC Financial to provide such notification. ABC Financial was contacted and advised that cancellation notifications cannot be made over the phone and have to be made by US Mail. Followed up with Shannon Cole and advised that due to international travel we were unable to respond by mail in a timely manner. She was asked to process the cancellation for us. Had no reply from Gold’s or ABC and assumed it was properly handled.
On 9-5-2014, an unauthorized debit was observed dated 8-22-2014. Shannon Cole, the club General Manager Ronnie, as well as ABC was immediately contacted. ABC indicated that they did not process a cancellation request in July as instructed, but then took the cancellation via phone contrary to what they communicated in July. They have however failed to honor the cancellation as of 7-14-2014, despite being provided copies of the written cancellation.
Received three mailings from ABC dated 9-16-2014, 9-22-2014, and 10-12-2014 with regards to a balance of $12.82 due for a September 2014 charge. During the same time frame, multiple phone messages were received from ABC. On 10-13-2014 a call was returned to ABC. They were informed that they had received written notification of dispute of any owed amounts previously. I had not received any written response nor documentation showing a valid contract.
They were also clearly notified to cease and desist in any further calls or attempts to collect the debt in compliance with the FCRA until they provided a copy of a written contract for the time period in question.
Since that time, there have been three (3) blatant violations of the FCRA by contacting me after they were notified to cease and desist as of 10-28-2014.
On 11-13-2014 I again received a phone call from ABC regarding the account, again in flagrant violation of the FCRA and the notice that was given to them on 10-13-2014.
On 11-14-2014, I received a billing from ABC Financial, this time listing additional amounts totaling $73.52 that are not valid. Currently I am responding via US Mail, but have no confidence in receiving a reply since my other correspondence dating all the way back to 7-2014 has been largely ignored.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Robert
Irvine,California,
You are a bit..misguided
#2Consumer Comment
Sun, November 16, 2014
Okay one reason you are being treated like you are is because you are making yourself look like a fool who doesn't really know what they are talking about..so let me help you out.
First of all you have the wrong statutes. You are referencing what you think are violations of the FCRA(Fair Credit Reporting Act), where you are actually talking about the FDCPA(Fair Debt Collection Practices Act). But that is only your first issue.
The FDCPA only applies to 3rd Party Collection Agencies, ABC Financial is considred an Original Creditor. Yes you got your membership with Gold's Gym, but it is a finance agreement with ABC. So any FDCPA "violations" you are claiming are meaningless. Second, there is no "cease and desist" provision in the FDCPA. There is what is called "Cease Communications"(not the same thing legally). Here you can request a 3rd Party Collection Agency to stop contacting you. However, they are still allowed to contact you in limited cases such as if they decide to file a suit against you.
As for communicating with them. The "due to International Travel" is again meaninless as every country I have seen has Mail Service that once it is in the US is delivered by the US Postal System. But that not withstanding..how are you sending your letters now? If you want to be sure they received them you MUST send them Certifed with Return Receipt Requested, as that will show you when and who received the letter. Also, are you sure you are sending it to the right address?
Now, one final point on the actual membership. Are you sure you can cancel? Most gyms have the contracts worded in such as way(regardless of what they "told" you) that you are locked into a 2-3 year contract. Where unless you want to pay a penalty you can not get out of it. So if this is your case, then unfortunatly the debts even if you say you wanted to cancel are valid. Also, why don't YOU have a copy of the written contract? Don't say you never got one or you threw it away. Because if that is the case I hope you don't make it a habbit of doing that or who knows what else you have agreed to.
No I do not work for either of these companies.