Complaint Review: National Fitness

My 18-year old daughter wanted to join a fitness facility for the summer after graduating from high school, knowing she would be leaving for college, some 250 miles away, in the fall. She explained this to the people at Omni Fitness, who explained that she could simply cancel her membership when she moved out of the area.

Well, it turns out it isn't quite as easy to prove a relocation as was implied. It turns out that National Fitness has a list of acceptable forms of proof of relocation, none of which apply to a college student living in a dorm. I asked the "customer service" representative for an alternative form of proof that might apply to a college student living away from home. She suggested a copy of the housing bill from the college. A week after sending the requested housing bill my daughter called to see if it had been accepted. This customer service representative told her that this was not an acceptable form of support, her contract was still active, and they would continue to withdraw dues from her account each month. She told the customer service representative that she would call back with me, her father, on the phone via a conference call, to see if we could find an alternative form of proof. The representative advised her not to do this, that it would be illegal for National Fitness to discuss her account with her father on the phone. Though touched by his concern for her privacy, today my daughter and I made the conference call to customer service anyway, where today's representative told us the only acceptable forms of proof would be the items on the list. When I explained that none of the items were applicable to a college student living in a dorm, and that I had sent an alternative form of proof (the housing statement), she said "they" had determined this was not acceptable. I asked to whom she was referring when she said "they", and was told National operates as a "third party" and that she cannot provide any other information. I asked repeatedly to speak with someone with the authority to find an acceptable alternative form of proof of relocation, and was told that this was not possible. She suggested I avail myself of the one item on the list that might be possible, though not cheap: an affidavit from an attorney, stating that my daughter was now a resident of another location. Thank goodness this is the route I took, calling an attorney friend and explaining the situation. He told me he would be glad to write the affidavit, and not only that, he would be glad to take it further, because in Alabama you must be 19 years old to bind most contracts. Sure enough, under my daughter's signature on the Membership Agreement are the words "MUST BE OVER 18 YEARS OLD". Now I'm not only going to pursue a termination of the invalid contract, I'm going to go after the dues they've already confiscated since her departure for college.

My advice to anyone looking to join a fitness center would be to look at the very bottom of the contract before you sign it to see if they use National Fitness. If so, well.....caveat emptor! Just look around ROR and judge for yourself. I wish my daughter had!

Nimbo
Mobile, Alabama
U.S.A.