Complaint Review: ABC Financial - Sherwood Arizona

For about 9 months, I was a members of the Omni Club (fitness club) in Athens, GA. ABC Financial manages memberships for this gym, as well as many others. I was an excellent client and referred many friends to the gym during my time there. The Omni was a wonderful gym and I never regretted taking a second job to pay for my membership and personal training.

I lived in Athens to attend school and made plan to cancel my membership when I moved home after completing my program. Here's what happened:

1. Initial Call: I called ABC to find out what I needed to send in to cancel. I was told they needed a request letter to cancel both my club membership and my personal training account, along with a copy of a bank statement with my new address on it and a letter from the post office confirming my change of address. If I sent everything in by May 14, I would not have to make a May payment (although I would have to pay a $50 cancellation fee).

2. The First Letter: I sent in the letter I received from the post office a couple days after I filed for change of address. I sent in my letter to request a cancel of both accounts. I sent in an offer letter from my bank showing my new address(not a statement, because I didn't feel comfortable sending sensitive info).

3. The First Response: I received a letter from ABC about a week and a half later saying they had received my request and needed confirmation of change of address.

4. The First Phone Call: I called ABC, thinking there must be some mistake, and was told I sent the wrong letter from the post office. I told them no one had informed me there was a wrong letter and that I had sent them what the post office sent me. The rep said it was unacceptable and I had to send something else. I let her know that I sent what I had and didn't have anything else. There was a HUGE argument. I was not allowed to speak with a supervisor. I was told the May payment would still be charged if I didn't sent in the right letter on time. While I was on hold, I opened my mail and found the right letter from the post office. NOTE: I explained that I wanted to cancel BOTH accounts and the only issue raised was that I needed to send in a different letter from the post office.

5. The Second Letter: I sent in the right letter and a second request to cancel both accounts. A week later I received a letter stating that ABC had received the request and needed confirmation of change of address (sound familiar to anyone else?).

6. The Second Phone Call: I called ABC again and got the run around, again. I was told my personal training couldn't be cancelled using the letter from my bank, but my club membership had been cancelled using it. Why? Well, they couldn;t use the same documents to cancel separate accounts. OK, but you're using my change of address from the post office for both accounts, right? Oh, crap, she figured that one out... new excuse... Well, the letter from the bank is wrong. Wow, another wrong letter! You have to send in an actual statement, but we'll let the first cancellation slide. They had charged me for May, though, and tried to refuse to give me the reversal options when I asked. In the end, they still wouldn't cancel my account until I sent in a statement and they were going to pull the previous calls to check into what they had told me to see if, in fact, they had given me the run around.

The Moral: When I accused them of trying to rip me off, the girl said, "Ma'am, this company has no reason to rip you off for $76." My response: "Unless your general practice is to rip everyone off for $76. I'm not a math major, but several thousand ripped off customers at $50 cancellation + $76 rip off a pop sound like a sizeable chunk of money to me!"

Don't trust ABC Financial! Find out who manages the accounts of your gym before you join and let gyms know you would love to join, but you can't trust their account managers!