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A horrible and deceptive company with nothing but profit in mind. THEY WILL SCREW YOU. REALLY. Their scam is simple: Make it impossible to cancel the contract. They lie on the phone. They lie to get you to sign up. They lie when they tell you how to end contract. They tell you to send cancel request to the wrong address(es). It is difficult to contact them in any way. Non-helpful and deceitful customer service. Threatening to sue them is the course I recommend. Also: contact the BBB, FTC and local Chamber of Commerce. Send them loads of Certified letters with return receipts. Lie back to them: Tell them you have become permanently disabled or have moved to Brazil. Stay away from them at all costs. Good luck if you are trying to get away from their evil clutches. They are the reason we hate Gold's Gym. I have never had a more horrible experience with any company ever.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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After our experience with Paramount Acceptance over the last few months I can assure you the disability excuse will not work. My daughter was in a very serious car accident in July 08 and remained in serious condition in the hospital for a period of about six weeks. The automatic payments for her membership in Riviera Fitness were stopped shortly thereafter. When contacted by PA in mid-October we called and made them aware of the situation and at their request we sent them a letter from the hospital administration confirming her status. PA called again in late March 09 requesting a letter from her doctor and we told them we would secure the letter during her next appointment in late April and forward it to them. In the interim, April 15, PA turned the account over to their lawyers. At this time we have received a letter threatening legal action and harrassing phone calls from the lawyers and the doctors letter has been sent to them.
I confirmed with a PA employee today that a copy of the first letter from the hospital was in the file when I enquired of the date the account was given to the lawyers.
The part that I hate is that if you move and there is a Golds Gym at your new location they want you to pay more to change your membership. Since all clubs are owned by differnt entities they just find more ways to scam money out of you. Thats why I went to 24 hour fitness, they are accepted anywhere. Golds Gym is a good club it is just run by twits and money grubbers.
Gold's would do themselves a HUGE favor by getting rid of Paramount.
1. Want to sign up for Golds? You will get to pay an "appplication fee" to Paramount - even if you are paying up front in cash and in total.
2. You'll get to have a credit check, from Paramount (of course) - -even if you are paying up front in cash and in total.
3. Want personal training? You will get to pay an "appplication fee" to Paramount - even if you are paying up front in cash and in total.
4. Want MORE personal training. You will get to pay the "application fee" AGAIN! - even if you are paying up front in cash and in total.
5. The best part - They REQUIRE a copy of your drivers licence - even if you are paying up front in cash and in total.
Gold's is a great gym. Good equipment, friendly staff (the gym staff, not the sales staff - they suck!) but Paramount has ruined it for me also. There has to be a better partner for them. I understand the need to ensure financing is available for those who need it, and that debts are collected when people don't pay. I also agree with thier financing contracts (I know that this will not be a popular comment). Contracts ensure you have a viable business and can plan capacity.
I had problems with them in the past and cancelled my personal training at one point in time. I was having a hard time getting myself to the gym so I got suckered into a new contract. Everything was fine for a while but due to various health and other issues I missed a few months and haven't used up all my sessions. I paid everything in full up front but apparently I got a contract that expired 6 months after we signed it. It's been more than that so I am grateful they extended it past that but now I still have 37 sessons left and they have locked in their system so the trainer can't access it and, of course, they can't do it by hand on paper. They're telling me I need to buy MORE in order to keep the ones I still have left to use. I see them tomorrow but it sounds like it's going to be a problem just like before and I keep thinking how do they expect to keep any clients this way?
Golds Gym is only intent on taking your money. Their contracts should be illegal as they provide nothing in return, as so stated in their contract. That makes the contract a non contract. By definition a contract is to provide two things; agreement and consideration. There is no consideration on their behalf. Their contract does not obligate them to anything. It does however state that no matter what, you are obligated to pay them. By that right their contracts are not even legal. They are however so big that they have bullied this system of stealing from people for years. It is far past time to have this pathetic defiance of justice stopped. They need to have a class action suit brought against them and be forced to right the thousands of wrongs. They are an insult to the Amercian way of life. They must be stopped. I joined with the understanding that they would provide a suitable, sanitary and safe gym. What a joke. I found blood on the benches, filthy conditions, unsafe showers and scolding hot flashes from the showers. The staff did nothing, in fact they turned their back to it every time. I wrote letters that identified these problems and explained that I could no longer use the facility. I spent hours trying to contact them on the phone. They purposely ignore you and disconnect you. When I finally did talk to them they instructed me that they had no obligation to provide a safe and healthy environment. They said I was obligated to pay them regardless. Yes, they actually said that. What an atrocity. Could they be any more obvious about their intent. They must be stopped. Everybody file suit against them in the small claims court. When the truth of their intent and blatant disregard for people and fairness is brought out, then maybe the justice system will tip a little toward center.
I have to agree that paramount and Gold's should be avoided at all costs. The equipment and facilities of Gold's are great but dealing with their billing department has cost me so much unnecessary time and money. After a billing dispute then another 4 months trying to cancel my membership I have moved on to a gym that costs twice as much but doesn't try to screw you with contracts, billing errors that were no fault of my own, then late charges on the billing errors that were obviously the fault of paramounts. I have gone through this song and dance with paramount 3 times in the last 5 years and after sending paperwork and proving to them they made the mistakes they always remove the excess charges but it seems they are always messing up the billing then months later you have enormous late charges on your account. They bill my debit card every month, there's always plenty of funds in the account, yet they seem to miss a charge fairly often then try to penalize the customer. After dealing with all that and getting my account straightened out I said, "This is the last time" and tried to cancel the account. Good luck with trying to cancel. I had a 2 year contract that was up over 3 years ago and they said I had to fax in a cancellation letter. I faxed in a cancellation letter 4 times, and mailed them twice. It wasn't till I sent everything certified mail with a return receipt that they actually cancelled the account but they still billed me for 2 months after the date on the return receipt.
Watch out on the personal trainer agreements too. My wife and I got Gold's Gym memberships through their corporate wellness. My wife wanted to do some training, so she signed for a year worth of training at the gym. At the time she asked NOT to be automatically renewed, but it turns out the ### that filled out the form didn't check the box on the form saying not to renew automatically. Her trainer is leaving Gold's (probably for good reason) and she didn't want to start over with another one. Long story short, a year later, we get a $120 charge for an automatic renewal, and can't get it removed even after calling 7 different people. Why they can't just let you fill the forms out yourself, I don't know. Now it's our word against theirs :/
Absolute filthy, criminal ###. I was just charged a $50 late fee because the debit card I allowed them to keep on file was changed by my bank due to a data breech or something somewhere I'd made a purchase. I got the new card in the mail like a week ago, so when these sleazebags went to deduct my monthly fees (two separate memberships for two family members) the card on file was of course inactive. They called, I gave them the new number, and the payment went through immediately, and on time I'd add. Then I see my account - for each of the two memberships they charged the $18 monthly fee, PLUS $25 for "returned item fee." $50 in total. Let's be clear - this was not a "returned item, " nor a nonsufficient funds situation - it wasn't even a late payment! It was my bank changing the number on the card for security reasons and a simple conversation to sort it out. I called of course and they don't care, "it's in your contract." Seriously, just ###. Filthy, dirty, nasty ###. A class action lawsuit is really the solution for these rats.
Same happened with me, changed teh card # with them but every year they went back to the expired card and charged the returned item fee. I got a lawyer and got my money back
I gave my son a membership to omni gym in greenwood sc while he was in college and now is is out and living 2 hours away. I have been trying for months to cancel this membership to no avail. They keep charging my credit card and if I don't pay they try to get my credit rating hurt. These are bad people in ever business sense. Certified letters also don't help resolve anything.
My initial 2 year contract with American Body Works in Suwanee, GA. ended in July 2016. At that time I notified National Fitness via phone and fax I did not want the automatic renewal. I received a call in August stating my membership was cancelled and nothing was owed. Contact information for National Fitness is no longer valid. No one at American Body Works with authority will return my calls to provide information to resolve my dispute. Now Paramount Acceptance is harassing me with collection calls because they don't have current billing information. One representative referred me to Zoo Corporation and when I call them, they refer me to the invalid National Fitness contact information. I did send a certified letter to America Body Works but still have been unable to cancel this membership. I've filed BBB complaints on all parties. I don't know what else to do.
National Fitness (National Finance Fitness) when belly up. Not only did they go out of business, they went under owing millions of $$'s to gyms in fees they collected from members but never credited back to the gyms minus their fees.
What was going on is NFF was offering loans to gyms to finance build out and equipment renewal. They were using the funds they were collecting to bank role this. They had some pretty major loans defaulted and they stopped depositing funds to their client gyms. Death spiral from there.
Here is what I did:
When Paramount calls and they start blabbing about the agreement tell them they are by law required to provide a copy. They won't be able to.
When Paramount came after me and sent me to collections I sued them in small claims court for defamation, libel, extortion, mental harm for $2500. I paid for service of notice at their corporate office.
When they called they were all nice now because they couldn't produce any agreement they insisted I had with them. I had recorded the prior phone calls with the jerks and retained copies of correspondence.
The corporate office 'let me know' that it was all a mistake, gave apologies, and basically said I could call off the dogs. I let them know too little to late.
Here is the thing: They have to send or hire an attorney to small claims. Corporations can't just send anyone, it has to be an attorney. They made an offer of $300. I laughed and told them that court, if we only meet once, would cost them $2-$3K in attorney fees. I'll split that difference plus the $2500, or they would be better off just not showing up and letting it go to default. Their charter requires that they don't allow for a default.
So to court we go. I get them all the copies of the phone calls, all the emails, everything.
Two weeks go by and I get a check for $4700.
If you are a Golds Gym owner, or any owner using a company like Paramount (Affiliated Acceptance Corp is another to avoid) You aren't doing yourselves any favors. You're paying ~4% of your gross membership dues to get this black eye. Honestly if you are 20 locations and you gross $70, 000 a month per location that is $56, 000 a month! Hire some local people that know the community best to do your collections.
I have to agree with these comments, my Gym was OK but Paramount just makes up charges to add. They call every 6 months and want you to update information. Then if you don't give them new info they don't bill your account them want a late fee, which they will drop if you talk to them on the phone for 20 minutes and they find your old info which was still good, it is just a scam so theyh can make an extra $25 a year from people without the time to call them every 6 months.
After 2 years cancelled subscription they still are billing me. Had to cancel credit card. Sent certified letter and they still refuse to cancel. I have every time they took money out. But they say I owe over$300 dollars
They owe me $229.00
Have to get lawyer to stop this