Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  08/22/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We have attempted to cancel our membership with Power Shack in Hilliard, Ohio multiple times. We have tried to do this in person, on the phone and through email but we are still being billed each month. We have made 3 trips to this gym to cancel only to be told we must call the gym's parent company to cancel. So then we made multiple calls calls to the gym's parent company, but are told by those folks we must send an email to cancel our membership. They have made their cancellation policy insanely difficult for consumers to simply end their membership. As I type this, I am still being billed for a membership that I have been trying to cancel for more than a month. I just want to cancel the membership! PERIOD! It shouldn't require this much effort.

  Business response

  08/27/2023

  
  ******** I have read your complaint and contacted our administration for a reply.  We have a billing company that handles our membership collections and cancellations, as indicated on your membership agreement. They have three requirements to complete the cancellation procedure.  First, call them. Next, follow up with an email to confirm.  Finally, allow a 30- day notification to allow for their administrative efforts.  Apparently, you did make a call, but they didn’t receive the follow up email. 

  We apologize for your frustration, and our administrative staff has gone ahead and completed the email step for you, so you have nothing left to do.  Your membership has been canceled.

  The 30-day cancellation is an industry standard.  Many gyms require an in-person visit to cancel, which we do not.I hope this resolves the matter for you.  We appreciated your business.

• Initial Complaint

  07/27/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Unresolved

  More info

  Date of "transaction" 10/10/2021 - Unauthorized Billing & Unnecessary Additional Agreement I was a member for over 5 years with a 2 person membership. One day they told me they needed to update my membership in their new system and said I needed to do this by UPDATING my information on their membership form. They either intentionally or accidentally opened up a new contract from my updated information. They then also split my 2 person membership into 2 new ones without my permission and sent it to their third party billing service, who started billing for 2 memberships at double the original membership dues, ( *** ******** **** *** **** ********* ** ***** * ************) who has terrible customer service and said they could do nothing, They also without my authorization made charges from their retail location on my credit card. All attempts to reach **** D, one of the co-owners to correct this were not returned. I had to dispute the recurring double charges every month with my credit card which was a hassle. After daily calls to **** and other managers I went in person and the new manager at the Pickerington location told me my account was closed and everything was cleared up. The manager was not correct as the billing company kept contacting me, calling me very frequently. Contacting them was no help, they said the manager at the gym needed to resolve it. Contacts to **** D went unreturned. ABC sent this to a COLLECTION AGENCY, ***** * **********, who did not acknowledge the facts behind my DISPUTE. The collection agency stated that I owed $118.14. When I requested a breakdown of what they were claiming I owed, they would not provide a breakdown of the claimed dues, late fees? and Early Cancellation? owed. Upon a second request to them for this information they also did not provide this. I am requesting that PowerShack advise both ABC Fitness and ALDUS & Assoc, collection agency to stop collection on this and clear my credit report.

  Business response

  08/17/2022

  Tell us whBBB Complaint ID 17630478
  Customer Information:
  ****** ******
  **** ********** *** ** ********* **  *****
  Daytime Phone: ###-###-####
  E-mail: ******************
  
  I will address the details of the matter that Mr. ****** has listed in his complaint to the BBB. He was a previous member with another individual on a family membership for several years and had recently requested to be put on a membership freeze. We discovered in Sept 2021 that he and the other member on the agreement began attending the gym again using old membership cards, but without notifying any staff of their return.  Upon realizing that they were once again coming to the gym, Power Shack re-started the membership and updated them with a current agreement. (See attached agreement.)
  In the interim of their absence, we changed billing companies as noted in the attached, signed agreement. Power Shack re-started their dues in September and October, which is when they started re-attending the club. They proceeded to do a charge back to reverse the charges on their dues. The new billing company began charging them in November through February, when Mr. ****** proceeded to do another charge back for 2 of the 3 months of their dues.  As a result of the charge-backs, they only paid for 1 month of dues. The fees mentioned were issued as spelled out in the attached agreement due to non-payment.
  We have been in business for 32 years, have hosted over 9 million workouts, and have had a very limited amount of complaints.
  They were not over-charged as they claimed. In reality, they owe $149.40, which does not include charge back fees, which we absorbed, but we will accept $118.40 as the payment Mr. ****** referred to in his complaint and call the matter closed.
  
  Sincerely,
  Power Shack representativey

  Customer response

  08/23/2022

  [If you do not say why you are rejecting the company's response, BBB must close your complaint.] 
  
  Complaint: 17630478
  
  I am rejecting this response because: 

  This entire situation could have been avoided if Powershack was forthright and responded to inquiries, instead their lack of communication caused me hours of grief and many attempts to contact to **** and the other staff at Powershack, that were not returned  and many calls and letters with my credit card company and ABC Fitness.
  Powershack took actions that I did not authorize and failed to respond to over dozens of messages left over a period of more than 3 months as I tried to understand what they had done in billing me more than agreed.
  Since they failed to respond with an explanation I was forced to contact my credit card company and dispute the doubled amounts they began charging me and multiple transactions each month, versus what I previously was charged. Powershack even failed to supply my credit card company with proper documentation to support the charges to my credit card and the credit card company agreed in our favor on the disputed charges and charged back the amounts in dispute.
  As stated before, we were still members for years with a 2 person membership. We stopped in one day while our membership was on freeze due to COVID to ask about changes at the gym. They told me they needed to update our membership in their new system and told me I needed to do this by “UPDATING” my information on their membership form. They either intentionally or accidentally opened up a new contract from my updated information.  They then also split our 2 person membership into 2 new ones removing my legal spouse who was the co-member without my permission and sent it to their third party billing service, who started billing for 2 memberships at double the original membership dues, ( ABC Fitness, 8320 HWY 107, Sherwood, AR 72120 @ 888-827-9252) who has terrible customer service and said they could do nothing.
  It was misrepresented that updating the membership form would start a new membership contract, for which new terms would apply.
  In December in order to understand what was going on with the multiple billings, we meet in person with the new manager at the Pickerington location, which had been the sole gym we attended. The new manager told us our membership was cancelled and “everything was wiped clean” We were assured everything was resolved and in fact he tried to sign us up for yet another membership contract  and pay new member fees etc. We declined his offer and never returned again to any Powershack location.
  In sum****, All attempts to reach ****, one of the co-owners to correct this were not returned. I had to dispute the recurring double charges every month  with my credit card which was a hassle.  After no responses from daily calls to **** and other managers I went in person and the new manager at the Pickerington location told me my account was closed and everything was cleared up.  This was not correct as the billing company kept contacting me, calling me very frequently. Contacting them was no help, they said the manager at the gym needed to resolve it.
  Contacts to ****, the co-owner requesting call back or other written explanation went unreturned.
  ABC sent this to a COLLECTION AGENCY, ALDUS & Associates, who did not acknowledge the facts behind my DISPUTE.  
  
  BBB request for resolution:
  
  ABC sent this to a COLLECTION AGENCY, ALDUS & Associates, who did not acknowledge the facts behind my DISPUTE.  The collection agency stated that I owed $118.14. When I requested a breakdown of what they were claiming I owed, they would not provide a breakdown of the claimed dues?, late fees?  and Early Cancellation? owed because of a new contract.   Upon a second request to them for this information they also did not provide this.
  Since Powershack has just now responded to us for the first time through the BBB, we would consider 2 months of payment at the original membership contract amount ($59.76 total ) to settle this, since we did not attend in Jan/February and were told our membership was cancelled and cleared in December.   
   I am requesting that PowerShack  advise both ABC Fitness and ALDUS & Assoc, collection agency to stop collection on this, accept the $59.76 as total owed and clear my credit report. Since ABC Fitness has transferred this to ALDUS Assoc, I will need confirmation from them that this will be cleared upon payment.

   

  
  
  Regards,
  
  ****** ******

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩