Warning: Dubious bookkeeping practices
Written: Mar 22 '07 (Updated Mar 26 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: My son does enjoy the weight training equipment at Golds.
Cons: Billing 'misunderstanding' has cost us a lot in time and aggravation.
The Bottom Line: If you HAVE to join a gym and the only gym around is Golds, proceed carefully. If your account gets snarled, the local staff are helpless.
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| bonhoffer's Full Review: Gold's Gym |
I bought my son a Gold's Gym membership in Round Rock, TX. It was charged to my mastercard. A few months later, I lost my card, so cancelled it, of course. The Golds automatic charge was declined.
They called me about the declined payment and I apologized, explained about the lost-and-therefore-cancelled card, and immediately sent them a check from my bank account using my on-line bill pay system. I also paid the late fee.
I then set up my bill pay account to automatically send a check to Golds at the central office in Irving, TX. I used the address the local Golds gave me. This worked fine for 3 months. Then the Golds central office in Irving suddenly couldn't locate my regular monthly checks which followed. I have record the checks were sent from my checking account, but not cashed. Where did those pesky checks go? We'll never know. The bank swears they sent them to the same address which had worked for the 3 previously cleared checks. The bank shows printed confirmation of this.
But then I tried to talk to the accounts manager at my local Golds, a young man who was no help. He said that Golds doesn't 'do' checks. That we really should set up automatic credit card withdrawal. Said he would call the central office and see what happened to the uncashed checks. As you might guess, he never got back to me. In fact, every time I called him back, he was either 'in a meeting' or 'eating lunch'. I talked to other local staffers. They didn't know anything, either. Said they would take a message and have the elusive and very busy local accounts manager call me.
Finally my husband located and had a talk with an accountant at the Irving office. They agreed to waive the late charges if we put them back on auto deduct from our (new) credit card.
I think that is what this was all about. They wanted our credit card access again and decided to stop receiving our checks. All without written or phone notice.
Illegal? Not sure. Sneaky and dishonest? You betcha.
So just watch your credit card and checkbook carefully. Make sure your payment is posted correctly every month. Don't assume they will notify you if anything is wrong. Once they get a line in you, they don't like it if you slip the hook!
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
bonhoffer
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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