- Report: #475964
Complaint Review: Bally Total Fitness - Phoenix Arizona
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Bally Total Fitness
3919 E Indian School Rd Phoenix, 85018 Arizona, U.S.A.
Phone:
602-956-4116
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Bally Total Fitness cheats U.S. Military members, conveniently ignores deployment "policy" Phoenix Arizona
Bally's "Supposedly" has a U.S. Military deployment policy, which states that if you are called to active duty and become stationed more than 50 miles from a Bally's location, you may cancel your Bally's contract. THEY LIE.
Upon receiving my husband's mobilization orders, we sent a cancellation letter, AND a copy of his active duty military orders (out of the country, a place where there is definitely NO Bally's!), along with the "$50 cancellation fee" that the Bally's staff stated we had to pay to cancel the contract, and sent everything to the Ballly's corporate address provided by staff at out local Bally's.
Three months later, he is already deployed, and we receive a letter stating, "Thank you for your $50 payment on your account. You are now past due in the amount of $xxx.xx". WHOA!! Hold on here! The materials sent left NO doubt as to what was supposed to be done with our $50 check, but they decide they can just choose to ignore the cancellation letter AND the active duty orders and pretend they never received them??? We have the green "receipt of mailing" from the post office, but that does no good because we still can't prove what exactly was sent. We have no way to prove the $50 check wasn't just sent in all by it's lonesome self, and now it's three months later and they've just kept right on billing. (Although, I do find it quite convenient how we didn't get a bill during those other 2 months...) Anyone else find this suspicious, or have a similar experience?
Perhaps we could form a military members' class-action if enough deployed personnel are similarly situated.
I will continue to post our experience, as we will NOT cower to extortion, even after Bally's has put it on our credit record! We have copies of everything we sent, but they do not care, they will not play ball one bit.
Our military members are fighting against just such corruption and tyranny abroad, and I refuse to dishonor him by bowing to it at home.
A.
Surprise, Arizona
U.S.A.
Upon receiving my husband's mobilization orders, we sent a cancellation letter, AND a copy of his active duty military orders (out of the country, a place where there is definitely NO Bally's!), along with the "$50 cancellation fee" that the Bally's staff stated we had to pay to cancel the contract, and sent everything to the Ballly's corporate address provided by staff at out local Bally's.
Three months later, he is already deployed, and we receive a letter stating, "Thank you for your $50 payment on your account. You are now past due in the amount of $xxx.xx". WHOA!! Hold on here! The materials sent left NO doubt as to what was supposed to be done with our $50 check, but they decide they can just choose to ignore the cancellation letter AND the active duty orders and pretend they never received them??? We have the green "receipt of mailing" from the post office, but that does no good because we still can't prove what exactly was sent. We have no way to prove the $50 check wasn't just sent in all by it's lonesome self, and now it's three months later and they've just kept right on billing. (Although, I do find it quite convenient how we didn't get a bill during those other 2 months...) Anyone else find this suspicious, or have a similar experience?
Perhaps we could form a military members' class-action if enough deployed personnel are similarly situated.
I will continue to post our experience, as we will NOT cower to extortion, even after Bally's has put it on our credit record! We have copies of everything we sent, but they do not care, they will not play ball one bit.
Our military members are fighting against just such corruption and tyranny abroad, and I refuse to dishonor him by bowing to it at home.
A.
Surprise, Arizona
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Beth W.
Norwalk,California,
USA
Response from Bally Total Fitness
#2
Wed, August 12, 2009
Hi A.,
I'm sorry to hear about your experience. We do have a U.S. Military
deployment policy to make sure we're taking care of our military
personnel deployed overseas.
Please fax your husband's deployment papers, a copy of his membership
card and a note as to whether you would like to place the membership on
hold or cancel to fax number 562.484.2444.
Let me know if there is anything else I can help with.
All the Best,
Beth Williams
Customer Relations
Bally Total Fitness
ReactorCore
Victoria,British Columbia,
Canada
Use the "MEMO" portion of your checks!
#3Consumer Suggestion
Mon, August 03, 2009
When you fill out a check, on the bottom left hand side of it there is a line titled "MEMO". This is for YOU to fill in with whatever pertinent information regarding the transaction. Fill it out in future. In this case, you could have put in "for acct. cancellation due to military mobilization". From that point, that information is ON there, the purpose of the payment is made clear,it can't be disputed as being put on later and it should certainly be prominent enough that an employee can't gloss over it easily. Unfortunately, in this day of employee apathy and incompetence, you have to look out for yourself with EVERY transaction from initial contact to closure. You have to think of yourself as your own management company... Get everything in writing, keep all receipts, keep written documentation of any adjustments or service changes mid-contract or service, preferably signed by the person who promised/authorized the changes. Keep all this in a safe place until the service is rendered (and satisfactory) or the contract is expired and you have proof of closure (keep the stuff until you're SURE no more charges are being made or no more request for payments are being made). Invest in a cheap flatbed scanner. They can be had for a song at 2nd hand computer stores. Some people even give them away. When sending multiple pages, as you did, scan everything and scan the most important pieces last; in this case, were it I, I would have scanned the check and the first or last page of your husband's deployment orders. If possible, cram the receipt of mailing (or another method if need be). However, in spite of all the above, that MEMO line on your checks is your FIRST line of defense.
