ComplaintsforThe Fitness Center of Tuscola

• Initial Complaint

  09/13/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  : 3/142022 thru 7/5/2022 took $69 from bank account and they want $79 more. : The company said there would be personal trainers and a food meal planner. There was neither. We were not even shown how to properly use the exercise machines. There were supposed to be trained people to weigh us in and measure us whenever we needed to do that, there were none. The staff was usually older men that had no clue what was going on with this whole "Fitness Challenge".They were only concerned with trying to get membership numbers. I hurt my hip after doing a machine that I wasn't trained properly on. I joined the challenge at this center to get the help that was Promised, but there were none. No trained ers, no helpful anything. I can send bank records if needed. The whole Fitness Challenge was a big False lie.

  Business response

  09/28/2022

  In February, 2022, The Fitness Center was approached by a company called Gym Rescue, regarding their FitSmart Challenge program.  They presented themselves to us as a company that helped gyms, fitness centers, etc., recruit new members for their facilities.  After several telephone discussions between the owner of The Fitness Center of Tuscola, and the owner of Gym Rescue, ******* *****, we came to an agreement where Gym Rescue was going to put on a 10 day marketing campaign focused towards people who were interested in weight loss.  Gym Rescue promoted themselves as a company that had a phone app geared towards sharing healthy food recipes and advice.  Gym Rescue was to sign up new members, and be responsible for the billing, and The Fitness Center was just going to be the facility where the members could exercise.  The owner of The Fitness Center of Tuscola repeated numerous times to Gym Rescue that we had no personal trainers or dieticians on staff.  We were to provide the facility to exercise, and all extra support was to come from them.

  
  

  Gym Rescue sent a representative to the area to conduct informational sessions about the program.  The owner of The Fitness Center of Tuscola attended one of the informational sessions on the first day.  At no time during this info session were the potential candidates told that The Fitness Center would provide trainers or dieticians.  We do not know what was said during other informational sessions, whether anyone was told there would be trainers and dieticians, or whether it was implied, or whether potential members just made that assumption.

  
  

  All new members in the program signed a contract committing to attending The Fitness Center of Tuscola to exercise, at least 3 times a week, for a 12 week period.  If they complied with these terms, then they were eligible to cancel after 12 weeks.  If they did not cancel after 12 weeks, or did not complete the attendance requirements, then their commitment would extend to a total of 52 weeks.  Although The Fitness Center does not have personal trainers or dieticians on staff, we extended free membership to all the FitSmart Challenge members for free entry to our various fitness classes that we hold several times a week.  We even added additional fitness classes to accommodate the new members.  

  
  

  According to our computer check in records, ****** ***** only attended a handful of times in the first 3 weeks of the program, and then quit attending after March 30, 2022.  It is our understanding that she just quit attending, and did not comply by the terms of the contract.  Gym Rescue employed a billing company called NAC to handle the billing, so we can only assume any collection correspondence that ****** received would have come from them.  We did not do the billing, and never sent any collections letters to anyone in the program. When ****** contacted us about cancelling from the program, the owner of The Fitness Center did contact Gym Rescue to get ****** removed from the program, even though ****** did not comply with the terms of the program.  The owner of The Fitness Center did get her removed from the program, and it is the understanding of the owner of The Fitness Center that all billing has stopped for ******.  The owner of The Fitness Center has also secured cancellations for other members of the program who have contacted us with dissatisfaction in the program.

  
  

  Any assertions made about the program would have been made by Gym Rescue/FitSmart, and The Fitness Center of Tuscola was to only provide the facility to exercise, although The Fitness Center and its owner and employees have gone to great lengths to assist those that joined the program, and to get cancellations for those not satisfied with the program.

  
  

  The Fitness Center of Tuscola

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