Got scammed
Went into my local anytime fitness. Was told I could cancel my membership with one months notice. I also was told I had a personal trainer I was paying for except… she would always say she would help me with my form but never actually confirm an appointment. The owner, Rick Abbing, when I told him my goal was to work on my physique (lose some pounds of fat, gain some muscle) started trying to push me into IronMan triathlon training. He kept saying for an addition $75/mo on top of my $50/mo i could show up to their iron man training classes. It seemed like unless I was doing what they wanted me to do they wouldn’t even look my way when I asked the staff for help. Eventually my key fob stopped working and I was moving to an area where there wasn’t a conveniently located anytime fitness. it was for Uni which provided gym access as part of student membership. Tried to cancel 2 months in advance and was told I had to cancel through the website, except the website for their location wasn’t set up. They kept taking money 5 months after I told them I wanted to cancel (since payment was bi-weekly they got 10 extra payments out of me for a service I couldn’t access). I ended up having to go into my bank to freeze payments and the bank lady told me I was the fourth person she had to do this for, for that specific gym. I kept getting harassed with automated calls to update my payment info because they couldn’t charge my card. The calls came twice a week until finally they stopped. Then about a year later I started getting calls from a woman with a number out east… she said she was from the federal credit bureau and given how much information she had on me (thanks to Rick sharing my name, birthdate, address, etc.) and the fact I had just turned 20 at the time, got my first credit card a few weeks prior…. I genuinely believed her when she said if I didn’t settle my "$11,000 debt" with Anytime Fitness I would have my credit card taken away and would never be able to buy or rent a house in the future. Instead of going to Rick like she told me to I went to my bank and they walked me through the fact that based on my contract the maximum I could owe is $1,600 and that I hadn’t breached my contact because a verbal cancellation is still notice and it’s up to them in this case to prove I didn’t try to cancel with enough notice.
