Cannot cancel a contract signed by a minor
Complaint
Jess Balansky
Country: United States
My 17 year-old daughter and her friends went to Bally Fitness Center. They had trial pass with them, but the employee talked them into signing a contract. When she said that she is only 17 and will be 18 in a few months, the employee changed her date of birth in the contract and said is not a problem.
When I discovered they signed the papers, I contacted the corporate office and requested that her membership with Bally Fitness Center be canceled because it was signed by a minor without parent's approval.
They responded that the contract will be canceled as soon as they have a copy of her birth certificate. I promptly sent the documents via registered mail. At the time we already started getting non-payment notices from Bally Fitness Center.
The calls from collection agency stopped for a few months but resumed again a month ago. We assumed that the contract has been canceled but apparently it was not.
I am not sure what to do as I already contacted our local attorney general, the corporate office, and FTC. They use deceptive practices to get people into signing a contract and I only hope that other people who read this will be aware of the way they conduct business.
When I discovered they signed the papers, I contacted the corporate office and requested that her membership with Bally Fitness Center be canceled because it was signed by a minor without parent's approval.
They responded that the contract will be canceled as soon as they have a copy of her birth certificate. I promptly sent the documents via registered mail. At the time we already started getting non-payment notices from Bally Fitness Center.
The calls from collection agency stopped for a few months but resumed again a month ago. We assumed that the contract has been canceled but apparently it was not.
I am not sure what to do as I already contacted our local attorney general, the corporate office, and FTC. They use deceptive practices to get people into signing a contract and I only hope that other people who read this will be aware of the way they conduct business.
Comments
They just set you up for later fraudulently claiming you had never cancelled and still owed on the contract they have now "confiscated". They have now taken away access to the contract terms that would allow you to find out how to verifiably cancel (probably by registered mail to some address), with nothing in writing from them to indicate a cancellation ever happened.
You are one step away from being screwed.
Your statement just FURTHER proves why no human being alive should ever step foot in a Bally's Total Fitness facility. We have had nothing but problem after problem with Bally's. When my husband and I first signed up the "sales" associate commited fraud by opening up three additional accounts in my husbands name. How did we find this out? When we started receiving collection calls on accounts when we told them we have two accounts and are set up on EFT withdrawals every month so how could we owe?? We checked his credit and sure enough there were the accounts that we opened up without OUR KNOWLEDGE! We had to send letter after letter (certified of course) in order to get this off of his credit and threaten legal action. The only reason we even stayed with Bally's after this was because of the Hapkido martial arts program that was offered. Everything was okay and then I became pregnant. We never stopped our EFT's and I always called to update my card information once it was about to expire and guess what? All of a sudden the payments for my account stopped being debited, why? I have NO IDEA! I received a call from the collections department and told him I'm pregnant can I freeze or hold my account and he told me NO! I asked him why my payments were stopped in the first place and he had no answer, I told him I was never sent anything in the mail and I tried to make payment online and I found it funny that it said my membership had $0 due and that my enrollment date was defaulted to 01/01/1900, really? I had been a member since 1900? I don't think it should be my responsibility to keep calling and trying to fix the situation when Bally's had everything they needed to get their money from me. The collection's department messed up by "BREACHING THE CONTRACT" by telling me that after being a member for over four years I was not able to freeze my account. The last straw was when I went to work out and brought my 18 month old to the daycare center and the lady in there said it was too full and I should have "called her" and told her I was coming because it was "peak hours"???????????? Excuse me where does it say I have to call and for a BUSY club located in Houston why wouldn't there already be more than 1 employee in there to handle 15 kids?????????? Come on now Bally's!
Jenna you coming on this complaint forum and using the language that you have used just further fuels the incompitancy that operates Bally's on a daily basis. This club is full of steroid using uneducated staff and I am GLAD that I switched to Lifetime Fitness!!!!! I am also paying an extra $100 MORE a MONTH AND I DON'T MIND IT! We are treated fabulously there, Bally's you can kiss my A**, as your employee Jenna would say.
Are you still working for Bally's? I'd be careful what you say on here if you are indeed representing the company because it can bite you in [***] if there were legal action taken against the company.
i called to make payment arrangements for the amount due and they told me the account was closed out. Here it is a year later and they are saying I still owe them money?? how does that consistently happen to a lot of people with Bally Memberships? something is obviously flawed/illegal that theyre doing with these contracts