ComplaintsforAnytime Fitness Blacksburg

• Initial Complaint

  02/08/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I completed a year long contract with Anytime Fitness is ********** ******** and spoke with an employee named **** because I was still being charged for my membership to the gym after my contact was done. **** told me he would turn off my auto pay and I wouldn't have to continue paying anymore. Fast forward to 8 months later I have a closed account on my credit report claiming I owe $189. I called Anytime Fitness to see why I was put into collections for something I didn't owe and I was told that because I didn't fill out a form cancelling the membership I would be *********** obligated to continue paying. None of which was told to me on the phone call.

  

  Business response

  02/17/2024

  ** **** joined Anytime Fitness ********** on 06/28/2022 on a one-year contract. Mr **** (as with all prospective members) was informed that all accounts continue month-to-month after the initial contract term.The last payment under Mr ****** contract was on 06/13/2023. Effective 06/14/2023, his account was considered month-to-month. All members in this status must provide a written 30-day notice and fill out a cancellation form at the club to close their account. The staff manager left notes in Mr ****** account that at 11:14 AM on Monday, 06/26/2023, Mr **** called the gym looking to cancel his account. The manager reminded him that as with all accounts, the membership continued month-to-month once the contract term ended. As a courtesy to Mr ****, the manager told Mr **** if he came in to sign the cancellation form, he would be able to make his last payment due on 06/27/2023 (the next day) as opposed to the usual 30-day notice requirement, which would have a last payment date of 07/11/2023. The account is notated that Mr **** said he would be in later that same day (06/26/2023) to sign the cancellation form. Mr **** never showed up that day, or any other day to sign the form. This is confirmed by gym usage as well as Mr **** stating so in a phone call to the manager at 12:42 PM on 02/08/2024, as notated in the account. Some key points include: Mr **** called at 6:04 PM on 08/07/2023. An employee notated his account that Mr **** was inquiring if his account was still open. The employee told him that yes, his account was active.Mr ****** usage shows that he used the gym on Sunday, 09/10/2023 at 8:38 PM, meaning Mr **** was fully aware the account was active over a month later.Later that month, Mr ****** payments started being declined. Our billing company **** ********** has the following records of reaching out to Mr **** about his past due account:The contact information (phone number and email) provided by Mr **** when he joined the gym matches the information he provided to BBB for this complaint. Contact attempts were as follows: 11 phone calls, four emails, and one text message.09/24/2023 email sent09/29/2023 voicemail left10/01/2023 email sent10/03/2023 voicemail left10/09/2023 voicemail left10/13/2023 voicemail left10/17/2023 voicemail left10/20/2023 email sent10/23/2023 voicemail left10/27/2023 voicemail left10/31/2023 voicemail left11/06/2023 voicemail left11/09/2023 email sent11/10/2023 voicemail left11/10/2023 text message sent11/14/2023 voicemail leftOn 11/26/2023, after repeated contact attempts over months, the billing company (*** *********) referred the account to collections (******** **** *** ******). Anytime Fitness ********** makes all aspects of membership transparent when any prospective member joins. Mr **** was notified of the account continuing month-to-month at the end of the contract term during his sign-up. His membership was used for four months after the initial contract term ended. When a member joins, each section of the contract is described to them as they sign each individual section. This is company policy for every membership sold. We never use “fine print” to obfuscate, rather, we describe each section of the contract in detail. Additionally, every member who joins gets a copy of their contract emailed to them.Anytime Fitness ********** uses a billing company (*** *********) to process all payments. When payments go delinquent, the billing company will try to contact the member many times over multiple months before they refer the account to a collections agency (******** **** *** ******). Once this happens, it is the discretion of the collections agency if and when credit bureaus are notified of the debt. If the credit bureaus are notified by the collections agency (******** **** *** ******), Anytime Fitness ********** does not have the ability to have an account removed from credit reporting. Anytime Fitness ********** only has the ability to let the collections agency know if a resolution with the debt holder was made. As a courtesy, Anytime Fitness ********** will contact the collections agency and let them know if a resolution was made. Anything done after this is not in Anytime Fitness ************ control. The customer must contact the collections agency to inquire if it is possible to get the defaulted debt removed from his credit reports, if in fact, the collections agency has reported the account to the credit bureaus. Anytime Fitness ********** does not believe the account was referred to the collections agency by *** ********* in error, Mr **** was informed of all policies. Mr **** was informed he needed to sign a cancellation form to close his account. Mr **** left the account open, and then two months later called and asked if his account was still active, then he used the gym a month later. Once payments to the account stopped, Mr **** was contacted no fewer than 16 times using the contact information he provided, all to no avail. The past due amount listed on the account is correct. Anytime Fitness ********** is at no fault in this matter with Mr ****.

  Customer response

  02/28/2024

  I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. I appreciate the timely response to my complaint. I also appreciate that an accurate timeline was established by Anytime Fitness.In regards to the multiple attempts to contact me, I never spoke to anyone about the possibility of my account being sent to collections. If I was not to answer a phone call it was designated as "scam likely" on my phone. I use my phone on a regular basis for work and to answer calls from vendors. I answer my phone for any number except for "scam likely". The emails are also in my junk folder. I would assume for a matter that would be sent to collections that a letter would be mailed out describing in detail why that was. In regards to Anytime Fitness being fully transparent, at no point in time was it explained to me that if I were to not fill out a form giving a 30 day notice the contract would not only continue for a month but multiple months and if payment was to stop it would continue going forward until Anytime Fitness decided to stop at $189.44. If I had known stopping payment would have caused me to be sent to collections with an inflated sum I would have paid then and there. To elaborate further, I am looking to buy a home and any account closure would derail that entire process. A $40 a month gym membership is not worth ruining my credit. If I was aware this was the outcome of not filling out the form I would have paid more than $189.44 just to make it go away. I honestly don't care about the money, even though I don't see how a $40/month gym membership ends up being $189.44 sent to collections and would love to see how the math ended up there. I do care about the fact this was not expressed to me when I originally signed the contract. I stand by my decision to report this to the BBB and I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else.To  Regards, ** **** 

• Initial Complaint

  03/15/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I signed up on August 31st, I noticed that I have been billed after not being in the area for 6 months. I signed a 3 month contract and they NEVER mentioned a renewal. They have you quickly fill out forms and say it is nothing important and then when I went to complain they told me that it is on the first page of the contract but the worker didn't even let me read it. I left voicemails (during business hours which they should be able to provide) asking for membership cancellation and they never called back. They started calling me once my payments would not go through but I was at work. I texted them asking to cancel my membership and they said I needed to pay the remaining payments in person or call. They are trying to intimidate you by making you pay using your phone. I asked if I could pay online but they kept asking me to call them when this could all be done virtually. Additionally, on their website it says that AUTO RENEWAL IS OFF. This is the worst part. They make you think auto renewal is off but then they keep charging you. This should not be allowed and I want all my past charges ($43.98) and future charges dropped. I have attached screen shots of this altercation.

  

  Business response

  03/24/2022

  I signed up on August 31st, I noticed that I have been billed after not being in the area for 6 months. AF - We offer members access to our facility. Billing is not based on usage unless someone is buying a single day pass. It is not Anytime Fitness Blacksburg’s responsibility to check customers bank statements for them.

  I signed a 3 month contract and they NEVER mentioned a renewal. AF - This is not true. We mention this on EVERY SINGLE SIGN UP. It is company policy. All employees know this and all other policies before being allowed to sell memberships.

  They have you quickly fill out forms and say it is nothing important and then when I went to complain they told me that it is on the first page of the contract but the worker didn't even let me read it. AF - No employee of ours would ever tell a customer the agreement “is nothing important” this is a ludicrous accusation.  Also, all agreements are emailed to the customers to review in depth if they wish, however all customers are given any amount of time they would like to review an agreement before signing. Customers can request agreements not to auto-renew at any point during a membership.

  I left voicemails (during business hours which they should be able to provide) asking for membership cancellation and they never called back. AF - We have no record of **** leaving us a voicemail. We certainly attempt to return every voicemail we receive. We put notes on accounts regarding all issues. We are not implying **** didn’t leave us a message, mistakes can happen. However, if I left a voicemail to cancel and reoccurring bill and I never heard back I would be sure to reach out again. Especially before 6 months had passed. I don’t know of a single company in the nation who would close any type of account with reoccurring billing via getting a voicemail and not speaking to the customer and getting something in writing. This is simply not done in any industry (that we know of)

  They started calling me once my payments would not go through but I was at work. I texted them asking to cancel my membership and they said I needed to pay the remaining payments in person or call. AF - We reach out to all members who have billing issues. Memberships cannot be canceled with a past due balance. The Manager was trying to get **** to call us because it would have been much simpler to explain everything in a conversation versus texting short messages.

  They are trying to intimidate you by making you pay using your phone. I asked if I could pay online but they kept asking me to call them when this could all be done virtually. AF - Again, we asked the member if we could talk over the phone because of the length of the issues needing to be explained. If *** Financial offers a way for customers to pay past due balances online, *** Financial have not let us know this prior to this instance. This is certainly not information that was selectively being kept from the customer.

  Additionally, on their website it says that AUTO RENEWAL IS OFF. This is the worst part. They make you think auto renewal is off but then they keep charging you. AF - The screenshot and website the customer is referring to is from the billing company *** Financial. This lists the Auto-Renewal as “No” because the account had already rolled month to month. As the website states, (and the screenshot provided shows) the Agreement Type states “Open” meaning it is already rolling month to month. The agreement cannot be both Non renewal and month to month, otherwise it would have an expiration date.  It is reasonable a customer would not understand this information presented on *** Financial’s website at first glance, which again, is another reason we were requesting the customer call us, for them to have a better understanding.

  This should not be allowed and I want all my past charges ($43.98) and future charges dropped. I have attached screen shots of this altercation. AF -  If Anytime Fitness Blacksburg had made an error we would certainly issue a refund. However no errors have been made on our part. Our records show that the customer’s account began rolling month to month in November of 2021. On February 16, the billing company began reaching out to the customer about being passed due. Our records show that over the next several weeks the customer was contacted with 4 text messages, 4 emails, called 4 times where *** notates they were unable to leave a voicemail, and also called 3 times where they were able to leave a voicemail. The customer was contacted no less than 15 times and we waived over $38.50 in late fees *** Financial had placed on the account.  As a courtesy we did waive the normal 30 day notice as well to try and work with the customer and only request they pay their past due balance. 

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