Bally's Stinks

Thank you to all of you who continue to contact me about this blog. I'm happy that I have been able to help others stand up to Bally.

I'm posting here to let you know that even though my saga is over, I do still monitor this blog. To keep things fresh, here is another helpful link for those thinking of going to court. The site run by the state of California and provides helpful hints on the small claims process. I originally found it by googling. If you're not in California, try running a search to see if your state has a similar site.

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/smallclaims/

Herein is the thrilling conclusion to my Bally saga. About 2 weeks before our case was to go to trial, I received a letter from Bally. The letter basically said that Bally was maintaining that my husband was a dead-beat liar, but they were willing to settle.

I had not intention of signing something that implied we had been dishonest (especially since doing so would make it seem like we filed a frivilous lawsuit. That could come back to haunt us later.) Anyway, I called the attorney listed on the letter and told him we would settle for court costs, a written apology and a promise not to bother us again. Bally agreed to those grounds and sent us what I like to think of as a lawyer's apology ("I'm sorry if you were upset by anything we did." Note that they never admitted that they did anything they should be sorry for.)

We decided to go with settlement mainly because it was easier for us. Although I feel we are fairly sympathetic, you never know how a judge will feel and the case basically comes down to who you believe. I am sure that Bally intended to lie in court -- they lied every single I talked with them. I dont' think they were planning on starting to tell the truth now.

The other consideration is actually collecting a judgment you win. You get a little piece of paper saying that Bally owes you a certain amount. After that it's up to you to actually get them to pay up.

There are definitely benefits to actually going to trial. For one thing, once a court (even a small claims court) in a state rules that Bally is doing something illegal, there is precedent on the books establishing that they are wrong. Bally has settled every case filed against them, which indicates to me that they are trying to prevent the establishment of bad precedent.

(Once again, nothing on this site is offered as legal advice.)

Good luck with your own suit. I intend to update the site from time to time with more resources and stories to help other people in similar situations. I know there are lots of you out there and I hope that my blog has been an encouragement.

After we sent Bally a letter threatening to sue, Bally decided to sell our account to a debt collection agency. My husband was surprised to receive a phone call from someone at Zwicker Associates telling him he had better pay up. We had assumed that since we filed our suit, Bally would realize we meant business and cut the crap. Apparently, we were wrong.

Anyway, the well-mannered individual we spoke with told me that my husband must be an idiot who couldn't read and that we should drop our court case. Good legal advice from someone who isn't even an attorney.

From this experience, I learned that you have the right to send a letter to any debt collector asking them not to contact you. Once you have done so, they can only contact you again if they decide to file suit to collect the debt. In this case, I wasn't worried because we filed our suit before our account was even sold. Whoever files first gets to pick the court, etc. The defendant must then file their claims as counter-claims in the same suit.

I have been told by the nice people at Zwicker that they await the outcome of our litigation and will not be calling us again, so that's good news. It looks like Bally has screwed them too by selling a debt that they cannot legally collect. It's good to know that Bally doesn't just stick it to the little guy.

We filed our small claims case in May after only 3 trips to the courthouse. To save others some time, here are my tips.

Preliminary Tip: Check to see if your state has any requirements about attempting to settle before you sue. In California, we were required to send a letter to Bally 30 days before suing offering them the chance to fix the situation. Make sure to send this letter certified so you will have records to bring to court with you.

1. Call the local small claim advisor and make sure your forms are filled in and that you are filing at the right courthouse before you go. They can also give you information on what to do at your court appearance, etc.

2. Make sure you are suing the right entity. Bally should be sued as Bally Total Fitness Holding Corporation. The address to use on the small claim form is the address of their agent for service of process in the state you are suing.

3. Get the address for service of process. All corporations have to file with the Secretary of State in order to do business in a given state. This filing will include the name and address for the agent for service of process. This is the person who needs to get a copy of your case in order to give proper notice to Bally. If you are having problems getting this information, you can email me at jessambu@hotmail.com. (Please note that I assume no responsibility for incorrect information so it is important to double check any info. This goes for info provided to you by anyone you deal with on your case.)

4. Decide what you are suing for. In our case, we were able to sue for fraud and harrassment under the CA debt collection laws. We were therefore able to request punitive damages (we asked for over $4,000-- of course, the court will decide what to award.) Remember, in order to sue in small claims court, you must be asking for at least some money. If you are only asking for a court order, you can't sue in small claims.

5. Make enough copies - 1 for you plus one for each defendant. If you are having a sheriff serve the papers on the defendant, make an extra copy because the Sheriff will need two copies (one will get sent back to you when service is complete, but it's good to have a copy on hand just in case).

6. Keep good records of everything. You'll need evidence to prove your case.


** All the information in this post is for informational purposes only. I am not an attorney and this information is not provided for the purpose of giving legal advice.

So far I have had 5 people reply to my request for Bally stories. Thank you to everyone who shared. I'm very glad to have the extra evidence in court. We won't have a court date for at least 2 months, so keep the stories coming.

On the down side, I am very sorry to hear that so many people have stories similar to ours. (And much worse-- one of the women who sent a story represents an illiterate person who was tricked into signing a contract they couldn't even read. Real classy Bally.)

This has become something of a vendetta for me. I really hope that my efforts will make Bally think twice about taking advantage of people. (But apparently losing a class action and being fined by at least 3 states didn't make them think twice, so it could just be wishful thinking.)

Thanks again everyone!!

We will be taking Bally to small claims court because the amount of money in dispute is so low that it is not worth paying an attorney. (Sadly, even though no attorney thinks our claim is valuable enough to pursue, it's a lot of money to us. Plus, at this point I wouldn't pay Bally out of principle. Rewarding fraud just doesn't seem right.)

Today we sent a notice telling Bally to cease & desist trying to collect money from us. If they fail to comply, we file suit in 30 days. In the interim, I am seeking stories from anyone who has had a dispute with Bally, which will be used in our court case. (My idea is that our claim will look more valid if it's not just he said, she said. Since we didn't videotape my husband when he signed up for his membership, I figured the best thing to do was to prove that Bally has a history of lying to people.)

If you would like to help out, please send your story to jessambu@hotmail.com. Please include your full name and address so that it is clear that all complaints come from real people. Don't worry-- after I send a thank you email, I will not contact you again.

2 months after we sent a letter explaining our situation, Bally's finally got around to reading it. They once again informed us that "No one would believe us." This time, they also threatened us with collection if we didn't pay up. I realized from looking at the info they sent us, that they are actually trying to collect the full cost of a three year membership (which they allege we signed up for) even though we already paid 1.5 years of dues before we cancelled.

I recently came across this site:
http://www.mwns.com/BTF/new_page_3.htm

Apparently, Bally's told members of the armed forces that they would be able to cancel their memberships if they were deployed to Iraq. When the soldiers were in fact deployed, Bally's refused to cancel their memberships. As if our military doesn't have enough to worry about, they are being sent to collections while they are serving overseas. This may be the most appalling Bally's story yet.

About a year ago, my husband joined Bally's in Massachusetts. At the time he joined, he asked for a month-to-month membership, which he was told could be cancelled at any time.

Bally's presented him with a one page membership form that stated that his term of membership was, "one month, renewable." Unfortunately, he missed the fine print that stated that he was actually signing page 1 of a 4 page contract. Bally's didn't think it was important to show him the other three pages of the contract, which contained various onerous terms.

This past August, my husband and I decided to move across country. He cancelled his membership at one of Bally's Massachusetts locations. We were told that his account was closed and we would not be billed further. However, the next month, my credit card was charged. We called again and were assured that this mistake would be corrected. Still, the next month, we were charged again. This time, we called the national office and were told that the membership was not a month to month at all. Bally's claimed that my husband had agreed to a 3 year contract and told us that we owed them more than $700 dollars for the final two years of the membership. (Much more than the $20 per month my husband had agreed to pay.)

We have called Bally's on 5 occassions to request a copy of the membership contract that my husband signed. So far, it has not been provided. In fact, I was told by one of Bally's
"customer service reps" that the terms of the contract were unimportant and that we should just pay up.

Bally's calls my husbands cell phone at least once a week to demand we pay them the money they claim we owe. I have repeatedly explained that my husband had a month to month membership and that he cancelled it. Bally's conveniently has no record of any of my calls and "has not gotten around to" reading the letter I sent by certified mail explaining my situation. Their employees have called me a liar and threatened us, but have never been able to answer any of my questions. When I asked to speak to a manager, I was told that I didn't have a "good reason" to talk to one and therefore would not be put through to one.

My husband and I have each belonged to other gyms where we were treated with respect and had no problem cancelling when we moved. I urge you to choose another gym and avoid the irritation and expense of dealing with Bally's. (Soon we'll be paying attorney's fees to get this matter straigtened out.)

This blog is dedicated to informing the public about the evils of Bally's Total Fitness. Join me in boycotting Bally's and save yourself on headaches and a whole lot of money.