August 31, 2010 · Bally Total Fitness is sending refunds to some of its customers who were deceived by misleading “past due” statements.
Kelly: “Yeah, it clearly crossed the line as far as deceptive marketing.”
Bally Total Fitness Corp. sent collection notices to customers in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, demanding payment of past-due amounts that were not in arrears at all. Tom Kelly, spokesman for the Texas Attorney General’s Office, says the company sent out 11,000 such notices to former members, claiming that the members owed one-, three-, or six-months' worth of dues and threatening to report the customers to credit agencies.
Kelly: “What it does is create a false impression in the mind of someone who receives this that they, ‘oh my gosh,’ have not caught up to date on their past-due bills with the company. And a lot of them just paid it.”
Pace: “They think, Oh, I forgot to pay my bill.”
Kelly: “Right. You see, and then there was a threat of the company going to the credit bureaus and putting a black mark against their name as far as credit history.”
Bally signed an agreed judgment that requires it to send refunds to 1,000 of those members who paid fees they did not owe. Kelly says the A.G.’s investigation is continuing, and anyone who feels they may qualify for a refund should file a claim with the Texas Attorney General. |
