New Image Fitness Club

Fairfield, NJ

Trisha of Waldwick, NJ, writes:
I signed a contract for this particualr gym in January of 2000. I agreed that I would be paying $49.00 per month either by check, cash, or automatic withdrawl from my checking account. In August of 2000, I moved into a new home and I tried to cancel my contract. The gym told me that I would need to send to them a change of address form on my license, a utility bill with my new address on it and a certified letter stating that I had moved a certain amount of miles from the gym. The problem I had with this is that they needed this information by the end of the week that I had spoken to them, and I had not even moved at that point and was unable to provide them with the information necessary. So, I decided to just pay the rest of the contract and not re-new the contract when the time came.

Unfortunately, I fell behind on checking my monthly bank statements due to moving into my new house. When I finally was able to catch up and go through all of my statements, I realized that from June 200 until the present, December of 2000, they had double-charged me monthly. Instead of charging me the $49 agreed upon they were charging me $98.00. At that point I had contacted the gym to notify them and they notified me of a few things. First of all, since I signed the contract they had changed ownership 3 times. They also were aware by checking their computer system that indeed, they did charge me double from June until December and did not notify me. They told me I would need to speak to Frank who seemed to be the current owner/manager of the gym.

When I finally was able to contact Frank the week of December 11th, after two days of trying, I explained the situation and he advised me that he would need to speak to someone else to be reimbursed the money that was taken from me. He said that it should not take long and I would have my check the following week. I asked Frank if it would be ok if I contacted him the following week to check on the status and he said that was no problem. When I tried to call Frank on Tuesday, December 19th, I was unable to reach him and continued to call twice a day the entire week and still received no response.

As of today, January 2nd, I still have not heard back from anyone and I still have not received my check for the money owed to me. I even took the time to drive down to the gym twice to contact Frank in person, and he was still unavailable and there was nobody else who seemed to be able to help me with my problem.

I lost $350.00 of my money that was not authorized to be taken. I just moved into a new house and could hav sed that money economically. All I want is for the gym to return my money to me that was not theirs to take in the first place. We agreed on $49/per month not $98.00.

Instead of wasting time on the phone and driving to the gym, Trisha needs to send a certified, return-receipt-requested letter (like the one she should have sent last year), stating the facts and demanding a full refund within 30 days. If it does not arrive, she can and should sue the gym in Small Claims Court.

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