ComplaintsforFitness Cycling Lone Tree LLP

• Initial Complaint

  08/24/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  On October 25, 2021, my best friend reached out to CB on my behalf to cancel or postpone our memberships due to having Covid. On October 26, 2021 owner responded stating that she would freeze memberships for one month. However, friend informed me that she was sent a text message by the owner asking her if she would be unfreezing her membership. She told her "No" she wouldn't be. This led me to believe that our memberships were contingent upon being unfrozen by her with our permission.On May 12, 2022, I noticed I was being charged for the last few months. I spoke with ******* that day who reminded me that she got a text from the owner asking if she wanted to unfreeze her membership, whereas I was not afforded the same courtesy despite her contacting the owner on my behalf during our Covid quarantine. After my emails went unanswered, I contacted my bank to dispute the charges. It seemed the fitting thing to do to get my money back when they were charging it without my permission and ignored my attempt to contact the owner and resolve the issue.On May 17, 2022, a Dispute was initiated with ***** Fargo. On May 18, 2022 the Dispute was updated with "Information Received"On May 26, 2022 the Dispute was updated with "Information Received"On June 3, 2022 the Dispute was updated with "Information Received"On June 11, 2022 the Dispute was updated with "Information Received"On June 16, 2022 the Dispute was updated with "Waiting on Merchant"On June 19, 2022 the Dispute was updated with "Information Received"On June 26, 2022 the Dispute was updated with "Credit is Permanent"On August 23, 2022 I received a notice of collections. I called ***** Fargo on this date to see if they had any further information regarding the dispute. They let me know, and provided proof, that the merchant "Accepted Liability" for the charges, the owner knowingly accepted that my dispute was valid. So they accepted liability, only to send to collections? Horrible business practice!

  Customer response

  08/30/2022

  CycleBar Lone Tree

  7824 ************************************************************************* 80124
  
  Phone: **************

  Business response

  09/07/2022

  Dear BBB,

  We acquired the name CycleBar Lone Tree December 31, 2021 under Fitness Cycling LLP. The previous owners , ******************** was the business owner at the time. I see very clearly in an email darted October 26, 2021 (see attachment) that the previous owner, ***************************, acknowledged she spoke with ******* and she will freeze *****'s account for one month. ****** then proceeded to go above and beyond and ensure any prepaid rides will be preserved for future use. This required ****** to make edits to each individual prepaid ride and change the expiration dates. See second attachment showing detail. Fast forward to May 26, 2022. The claimant claims that because ******* communicated with us and she negotiated an extension on her freeze for her personal account it is not fair that the claimant did not get that the same. We only had the email that ***** was delighted with to go by. *****'s billing restarted, per her confirmed email, after the one month freeze on 12/25/21. She was bill the 25th of each month as per her agreement with a 30 day notice. She continued to be billed through May. She was in receipt of a billing statement for 5 months. At this point ***** chose to contact her credit card company to claim we defrauded her. They put a hold on her 5 months of payments. The account immediately went to collections for payment delinquency and that is where it sits. I am truly sorry whenever this happens but the proof or rational of "well my friend got this and I didn't" contradicts the well documented interaction that ***** not only agreed to but was delighted that CycleBar Lone Tree went out of there way to go above and beyond. 

  Please let me know if you need any further clarification or further details. 

  Sincerely,

  *******************
  Owner
  Fitness Cycling Lone Tree LLP dba CycleBar Lone Tree

  Customer response

  09/07/2022

  Complaint: 17764354

  
  I am rejecting this response because: This contains erratic information in an attempt to skew facts. 
  
  
  If you took over CycleBar Lone Tree on December 31, 2021, was it not in your professional business standards to reach out to all your current customers and notify them of the ownership change? This probably couldve cleared up some confusion and prevented this issue early on. 
  
  
  The only "delight" I showed in the email was that she was being kind to ******* contacting her on my behalf; I was recovering from getting a severe case of Covid and happy that ******* reached out on my behalf. When I replied to her email on 10/26/2021, I was still in bed with a fever. ******* did not reach out to you guys to cancel, ****** reached out to her and ASKED her if she would be unfreezing. ******* said no, and that she was cancelling. I am upset because ****** knew that ******* and I were on the same exact terms, froze memberships together, yet ******* was afforded the opportunity, by ******, to unfreeze, whereas I was not. Please do not try and make this about "well my friend got this and I didn't" - it's a gross attempt at diverting attention toward the real issue. ******* was given the chance to verbally unfreeze or cancel, which led me to believe I would need to reach out to unfreeze any membership. Obviously, this wasnt the case and this is where the disconnect happened. I said I appreciated ******, per the email to her on 10/26/2021. This was to convey my thanks for agreeing not to wipe out our accrued classes due to having Covid. 
  
  
  Please provide your copy of billing statements that I received. The only documentation I have of "billing statements is my credit card for which I receive electronically. It is my error that I did not check my credit card regularly unless there is something grossly amiss. I absolutely would've reached out sooner if I had seen that you guys were charging me. Is it standard practice to continue to charge someone who wasn't coming in and letting class credits expire? I absolutely do not routinely, knowingly, waste $69/month, as I'm sure most customers wouldn't. Had I known sooner, I absolutely would've cancelled sooner. Your statement that I disputed 5 months worth of charges is incorrect. I disputed 4 months, which is the most I could dispute back even though I was charged for December 2021 too. 
  
  
  The disputed sum is 4 months x $69/month = $276. Collections is attempting to collect $720. 
  
  
  Is it also standard practice for you guys to ignore emails from customers? I gave copies of the emails to BBB where I reached out to you guys on May 12, 2022 and did not get response regarding my issues with billing. I asked my bank for the money back on May 17, 2022 on the grounds that the charges were unauthorized. You guys ignored my attempts to contact you and I wasn't confident in your ability to resolve the issue or prevent future unauthorized charges. You quite literally ignored my emails. 
  
  
  Instead of replying or contacting me, you sent it to collections. This BBB response is the first time Ive heard from you guys in over 10 months! The professional time to solve this issue was when I reached out via email on May 12, 2022 , or even after you were notified I was disputing the charges with my bank. There was 1.5 months between the start of the dispute to the closing on June 26, 2022 - there is no excuse for not contacting me.  Its obvious there was a disconnect in my understanding of the freeze/unfreeze process with the previous owner and that her contacting ******* and not me is indisputable. However, it appears as though you knowingly took over the business with my account and continued to charge me $69/month despite my absence and unconscious knowledge that I was being charged. I truly did enjoy my time at CycleBar before contracting Covid last year, it is unfortunate that I'm departing on such bad terms, as just another billing account and inflow of money taken over when the business changed ownership.  Sending an account to collections without contacting them is extremely unprofessional and I hope that no other customers have to endure this kind of aggressive behavior from your place of business.
  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Malia
  

  Business response

  10/16/2022

  The previous owner sent a thank you to the members and introduced us. We had a grand reopening with announcements and posts. I am not sure if this is even required as businesses change hands frequently with no effect on customers. Aside from the previous documentation showing the countless notices of delinquent payments and requests for payments with no response from the claimant I am not sure what else I can offer. I do feel bad that she is upset. She feels that her friend was given something that she did not receive.  Her friend took the time to notify us and made arrangements. The claimant did not. As the signer of the contract she is responsible to communicate to us her intent. We resumed her membership as we were not notified otherwise. We have absolutely no long term commitments. Its a ride as you go. All we ask is that you let us know if things change.  The member seems to have moved out of state. We did not know that either until this complaint. We are not sure when she moved but again if you belong to a local fitness club and move a way you would inform them and request to cancel. We do want to clear this us up and are willing to provide any further support you feel necessary to do so. We have very little experience here so any suggestions would be helpful. 

  Customer response

  10/21/2022

   
  Complaint: 17764354
  
  I am rejecting this response because again, you're attempting to change the facts to suit your case.

  Per your message just now: "The previous owner sent a thank you to the members and introduced us. We had a grand reopening with announcements and posts." - I have NO emails from ******, the previous owner, after November and NO grand reopening announcements in my email. If you took it over in January, don't you think it would've been a good idea to reach out to a member who is paying $69/month and not coming in? I had NO idea I was being charged until May. I don't think anyone, myself included, likes paying for a membership they aren't using. 

  "I am not sure if this is even required as businesses change hands frequently with no effect on customers." Your business is different, it's a membership base. It does have an effect on customers, clearly. How many people on your membership roster pay $69/month and don't come in? 

  "Aside from the previous documentation showing the countless notices of delinquent payments and requests for payments with no response from the claimant I am not sure what else I can offer." - What notices of "delinquent payments and requests for payments"? I haven't received anything from you guys? I attached and email that I sent to you guys on May 12, 2022 where I reached out to the main CycleBar Lone Tree email and got no response. I waited 6 days and filed a dispute with ****************. You guys were ignoring me, what else was I supposed to do? 

  "I do feel bad that she is upset. She feels that her friend was given something that she did not receive.  Her friend took the time to notify us and made arrangements. The claimant did not. As the signer of the contract she is responsible to communicate to us her intent." Yes, my friend was given something that I did not receive, it's called courtesy. As mentioned previously, twice now, my friend was contacted by ****** personally to see if she was coming back, and she said "No" so ****** cancelled her membership. ****** did NOT give me the same courtesy despite my friend freezing my membership on my behalf. Just because this happened while you didn't own the business does not relieve you of blame. You, as the new owner, sent me to collections rather than contacting me, like I attempted to do (see email).

  "We resumed her membership as we were not notified otherwise. We have absolutely no long term commitments. It's a ride as you go." - So you resumed a membership that was frozen by the previous owner and didn't think to contact me first? That's even worse. You resumed it to get my money and watched me not come in for 5 months while still taking my $69/month. Wow.

  "All we ask is that you let us know if things change." Again, read the attached email. I attempted to reach out to CycleBar Lone Tree via email on May 12, 2022 and nothing. 

  "The member seems to have moved out of state. We did not know that either until this complaint. We are not sure when she moved but again if you belong to a local fitness club and move a way you would inform them and request to cancel." Yes, I cancelled my two other active memberships. As soon as I found out I was being charged by CycleBar Lone Tree I contacted you guys (see attachment and date of emails).

  "We do want to clear this us up and are willing to provide any further support you feel necessary to do so. We have very little experience here so any suggestions would be helpful." As mentioned in the first complaint, I am requesting that you contact the collections agency and remove the claim against me. It's really gross and icky that you would send this to a collection agency without even attempting to contact me. I hope no other members present or future have to deal with this kind of treatment from your place of business. 

  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***********************

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