What are my legal rights when I have a signed contract for my fitness center?
happilymarried21!! asked:
My grandmother and I joined a fitness center in February of this year. The contract term is 20 months. The fee is $59.00 per month. With the signed contract that we have, we were given a “special price”. The special price was the $59.00 per month, BUT we are suppose to receive “free gas and groceries” until our contract ended. As of today, the company that we should receive our gas and grocery gift cards from went bankrupt. Should we be able to break our contract with our fitness center since that was the only reason we joined? We were suppose to pay only $10.00 a month, after our $25 in gas and $25 in groceries. Is it possible to break this contract without paying since they never “lived up to their end of the deal”? We haven’t received any of the free gas or groceries that we were suppose to so now we are $250 short of what we should have. We haven’t received a single penny. What can we do? The money is taken out of my bank account every month and I don’t want to tell the bank they can’t take the money because I don’t want them to try to sue me. Please help!!
I talked to the owner of the company today and he says I have no legal right to end the contract. He is not a pleasant person to be around. He fired an employee for a reason I would rather not say. He ended up calling her husband threatening their family, and ended up going to jail over it. I want to avoid “conflict” being 35 weeks pregnant! Just thought I would add that as well. Thanks for everyone’s help!
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My grandmother and I joined a fitness center in February of this year. The contract term is 20 months. The fee is $59.00 per month. With the signed contract that we have, we were given a “special price”. The special price was the $59.00 per month, BUT we are suppose to receive “free gas and groceries” until our contract ended. As of today, the company that we should receive our gas and grocery gift cards from went bankrupt. Should we be able to break our contract with our fitness center since that was the only reason we joined? We were suppose to pay only $10.00 a month, after our $25 in gas and $25 in groceries. Is it possible to break this contract without paying since they never “lived up to their end of the deal”? We haven’t received any of the free gas or groceries that we were suppose to so now we are $250 short of what we should have. We haven’t received a single penny. What can we do? The money is taken out of my bank account every month and I don’t want to tell the bank they can’t take the money because I don’t want them to try to sue me. Please help!!
I talked to the owner of the company today and he says I have no legal right to end the contract. He is not a pleasant person to be around. He fired an employee for a reason I would rather not say. He ended up calling her husband threatening their family, and ended up going to jail over it. I want to avoid “conflict” being 35 weeks pregnant! Just thought I would add that as well. Thanks for everyone’s help!
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October 27th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
I would imagine that you could break the contract since they’ve already broken their side. Call the gym and speak with a manager. Be very nice and explain the situation. They may already be aware and be more than happy to help. If they aren’t then ask to speak with a Regional Manager or high. Just keep going up the chain. If worse comes to worse, you can close your bank account or ask your bank to stop allowing these charges. Good luck!
October 28th, 2009 at 8:43 am
If they failed to provide the gas/groceries, they have already broken the contract. Tell the fitness club plain and simple: you folks broke the contract, I want out.
October 30th, 2009 at 6:06 am
Yes, they changed the contract….it is no longer what you signed, you can get out of paying that. Would be like being on a cell phone plan that included unlimited text, then all of a sudden they decide to no longer let you text, but still charge you the same.
add:
Talk to your bank then. Talk to them about if they can block that transaction from repeating. If not, then close that account and open a new one. If it was just through a debit card, they would just have to issue you a new card with a different number. He could try to sue you for the money you “owe” him, but that wouldn’t go far as he did not provide his end of the contract…so in short, ….if he never provided the cards that were part of the contract(but you have to make sure it was actually in the contract), it was a scam. If your really wanted to you probably could go after him for refund of part of the money, though its probably not worth it. But do definitely block him from your bank account in one way or another
October 31st, 2009 at 5:03 am
Ir depends on what the contract says – andd fitness centers are notoriously slippery with their contracts. You might want to have a lawyer look over the contract. If the contract says the membership included the $50 per month for gas and groceries, you should be able to get out of this or at least get your monthly payment reduced to the $9. If that part was verbal and not in the contract, you’re stuck for it.
Good luck.