:: Thursday, September 14, 2006 ::

I think I'm going to have to wage war on my old fitness centre.

First of all: never ever sign a contract with a gym, and under no circumstances let them keep your credit card number. This will, and I mean will, come back to bite you in the ass.

About a year ago I signed up with this gym, which will remain nameless for the time being, because they had a good facility and an amazing deal. It was about 27 dollars a month for unlimited use of the facilities, including all classes. At the time of sign-up I was warned that there was one small catch: that I would have to sign an agreement that authorized them to take monthly payments off my credit card unless I formally cancelled my membership. I said sure, why not, I'm sure I'll remember to do that.

That was my first mistake.

Fast forward to this August, when I noticed an unusual transaction on my credit card statement. 28 dollars, to be exact. You might be thinking, "of course you twit, you signed the form!" and you know what?

You'd be right.

Except.

Why didn't I notice this sooner? Because I signed up in early August for a six month membership. This means that the first charge to my card should have appeared in early February. However, they did not start charging me until June. Four full months after they should have.

This seemed a little fishy, but in the meantime I thought I'd cancel the account. So I phone to tell them as much. But no dice. No dice? Nope. At this time I'm informed that they don't cancel memberships over the phone. I would have to come into the gym. I haven't lived in Vancouver since November, I say. I'm travelling, I say. No dice. It's in-person or nothing. Apparently it's to do with the signature. Nobody ever thought to suggest a fax to me, by the way. Just in person. Now in all fairness I didn't think of it, and further, I wasn't travelling at the time, but they didn't know that and I wasn't formally or permanently living in Vancouver so what's the difference?

So two weeks later I go into the gym to cancel the membership. I sign the document, and the guy is very nice, and then proceeds to inform me that because of their 30-day cancellation policy I will likely be charged one more time. He suggests I call the woman who's in charge of accounts, who has a very silly name. Let's just call her... Lollipop. So the next morning I call Lollipop and explain the situation, and to make a long story short she agrees with me and promises to personally make sure my card isn't charged.

Four days later my card is charged.

So then I call to get it reversed. She says she'll reverse it. A week and a half later it still isn't done. A week later it still isn't done. So I go into the gym to talk about it. The guy there tells me to call her because she's the only one that can help me. So I call and she says she'll take care of it. It doesn't get done. Today I talk to her and she promises to do it. Now, it's entirely possible that she did it and it just hasn't shown up yet. But why am I feeling doubtful?

To make the story more colourful: when I walked into the gym after the second promise of refund, I also asked to see a copy of my membership agreement. I'm growing more and more suspicious about that four month lag between when they should have charged me and when they actually did. It's entirely possible that I could have watched the card like a hawk for four months, seen that it wasn't getting charged, and assumed it wasn't going to happen. Maybe they're not in the wrong legally but it seems a little ethically... off. In any case, when I walk in and ask for it, what a coincidence, their computer is down. Apparently they need the computer to show me a copy of my agreement (which I signed in hard copy). Talk to Lollipop he says, the computer is down.

When I talk to Lollipop the next day, I also mention the agreement and, what a coincidence, they're in the process of moving offices and they don't know where it is.

Okay, seriously.

The only good side to this is that if they can't find my agreement then I'm well within my rights to demand a refund of the entire 90 dollars they've taken from me thus far. So I almost hope they "can't find it" for real.

Blah. Lesson learned.

:: Katy 7:39 p.m. [+] :: ::