The Douchery Continues

What the hell.


----- Original Message -----
From: Danielle Premier Fitness Rogers Centre
To:
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2006 10:26 AM
Subject: Re: Cancellation of Membership
HI Tabetha,
I Looked at your notes, they review the papers i sent them and they wrote that The payment that you made when you signed up was used for your Feb 10/06 payment becuase in Feb 06 you were only charged on Feb 24/06. They denied your refund of $18.73.

Yours in Good Health
Danielle De Melo
Customer Service & Collections Department Premier Fitness Clubs
Rogers Center 1 Blue Jays Way Gate 13 Toronto, Ontario M5V 1J3
danielle-premier@hotmail.com 416-341-2570

And my response...

Danielle, this is not acceptable. Have them review the statements again and have them read my fax cover sheet again.
I was charged THREE TIMES in January and I pointed this out on my fax cover sheet. Did they have an explanation for that? I have been overcharged by one payment. It has cost me $5.00 in overdraft and $5.00 in banking fees to prove to you that your company has overcharged me.

The amount of the refund should be $18.73 for the overcharge, $5.00 for the overdraft causesd by that overcharge and $5.00 for the charge incurred for generating the statement to prove to your company that your claim that I'd only been charged once in November was incorrect.

I will be contacting the Ministry of Government Services on Monday afternoon to lodge a complaint unless you can provide a more appropriate response. This is a very disappointing level of service on the part of your head office.

Tabetha

It's sloppy. It's lazy. It's moderately offensive. What, they think I'm running some sort of end around, trying to screw them for $18.73? Yeah, it's a perfect scam. Drop hundreds of bucks at a crappy gym, and then when you leave, rape them for $20! I'll be a billionaire!

I'd like to meet the myopic ass-clown who "reviewed" my statements. Must've worked at Enron.

Oooh, they're sneaky

My most recent fax. I got an email last week from Danielle at Curzons/Premier Fitness telling me that the full month's payment I paid when I joined the club was broken down to represent my first and last bi-weekly payments. Ergo, I would only have been charged the first bi-weekly payment in November 2005, and then that would be it. The second bi-weekly payment was covered. Pre-paid. Paid in full, as it were.

I was tempted to let it go there. Made sense, frankly. And even if I was charged twice in November, we're only talking about $18 (plus $5 over draft charge). And to order November's statement from my bank would cost me another $5.00. Didn't really seem worth the hassle.

But. But I couldn't just "let it go". I ordered my statement, and lo and behold. Two charges in November.

Mother.

Fuckers.

So here is today's fax:

Further to my email this morning regarding the payment overcharged to me, please find enclosed a copy of my bank statements from November to February.
Despite your explanation that my first and last payments represented the first payment on my contract (November 2004) and last payment on my contract (November 2005), you will see that I have been charged bi-weekly throughout.

It may appear at first look that I was only charged once in Feburary, but if you refer to January’s statement, you’ll see that I was charged three times during that month, the last of which, I assume represents the first bi-weekly payment for February.

In addition to the $5.00 overdraft I incurred as a result of the final February payment which should not have been charged, I have now also incurred a $5.00 statement reconstruction fee for my November statement. I will now require a refund of $28.73.
Please advise within 7 days how you intend to refund this full amount, or I will be contacting the Ministry of Government Services for assistance.

Never join Premier Fitness. They stink.

Premiere Fitness = Douchery

From today's fax to Premiere Fitness:

Thank you for your phone call of 03/01 confirming that my membership is cancelled in your system, as of 02/24, and that no further payments will be taken from my bank account.

As I explained in my message to you on 03/03, when I joined, I paid a full month’s dues in advance. It was explained to me that this represented my first and final bi-monthly payments. Meaning, when I cancelled my membership, my final payment was pre-paid as part of the initial payment. If this is the case, when I gave my 30-day cancellation notice, you were entitled to only ONE payment from me in February – the first bi-weekly payment of the month.

Since I have already been charged my final bi-weekly payment over a year ago, there is no reason for my account to have been charged at all on 02/24 (hitting my account 02/27), which, as previously mentioned, caused my account to go incur an overdraft charge of $5.00. I ask again that you ensure that I am refunded the full amount of $23.73.
Please contact me by email, fax or telephone to explain how you will be refunding me.

If you're looking for a new gym, may I humbly suggest you avoid these f-ups?
I think they count on you forgetting that they've already charged you for the "final bi-weekly" payment. Shady.

Speaking of shady. I had an audition today for an un-named product or service at a casting house that I really like.

Noticed when I signed in that all the dudes were there on a call-back. None of the gals that I could see. My friend went in and did her bit with the guys, and came out and said "Well, they've obviously booked the girl they want, they barely looked at me".
Made me think. They're paying out $50 a head for each of these guys to do their call back, they don't need to see the girls again because they've already made a decision. They need one girl per two guys. My guess, as a money saving move, they basically had us in there as filler. No chance of getting the spot, but they wanted to save a few hundred bucks on casting costs so they called in girls they wouldn't have to pay. First calls. Ouch.

I was in the room twice - (short on girls) and like my friend... I might as well have been dummy. No direction for me. No redirection for me. Nada.

I was there for just over an hour.

Frustrating. But one mustn't complain, that's the business and auditions are few and far between...

Ooh, they called!

I got a message from my local club. Apparently I'm "cancelled" in the system as of February 24th.

Still doesn't explain why I was charged on February 27th, though. I'm calling the shot.

"You're cancelled as of the 24th, but that's also the day we billed for your final payment. It just didn't show up in your bank account until the 27th."

Mark it.

And so begins the tussle

Faxed today to Premiere Fitness Corporate head office.

Please find enclosed a letter canceling my membership, which was faxed to your Rogers Centre location on 01/26 (fax confirmation included).

My bank account was charged membership dues in the amount of $18.73 on 02/27, which caused my account to go into overdraft at a charge of $5.00 by my bank. This is unacceptable, as we are past the 30 day notice period and I should not have been charged.

I have left messages at the club for Danielle, and have not had a return phone call.

I had been warned by former members of your club that Premiere Fitness has a reputation for continuing to charge for memberships long after cancellation, but I had expected that these were isolated cases. I am extremely disappointed, and frustrated.

I will be contacting the Ministry of Government Services if I am not refunded $23.73 promptly, and if my bank account is charged again.
Cc: Rogers Centre Premiere Fitness Location.