Paramount Acceptance review: Poor service! 16

6 years ago I joined a gym that used Paramount Acceptance for handling thier membership fees. When I signed the Paramount contract I had the gym employee write in the contract that there would be no penalties for me to cancel my membership in one year as I knew that I would be moving out of the state. 30 days before I moved I notified Paramount Acceptance that this would be the last month of my membership and they stated that they would like proof of my move. 3 weeks after I moved I sent the required documentation and Paramount continued to charge membership fees to my credit card. When I called Paramount Acceptance to ask them to remove these charges they stated that they would not do so even though I had canceled my membership. I called my credit card and had the charges removed and had my card no longer accept charges from Paramount Acceptance. Last week I received a phone call from URG collections agency stating that I owed them for charges from my Paramount Acceptance contract signed 6 years ago. I stated that this was a fraud claim and I would not pay. Every day for the past week I have received phone calls from URG collections stating that they are charging me interest for every day that I do not pay them, and stating that they will take legal action against me. I suggest that noone ever sign a contract with Paramount acceptance as they are completely dishonest. I am in a nightmare situation and would never want anyone to go through a situation like this.

NEVER sign up for a gym membership that uses this company. I have OVERPAID my contract by a month (their mistake, of course) and attempted to cancel my membership prior to the date when it would switch to month to month. They sent me an email verifying that my account was canceled, yet they have continued calling and claiming I owe them money... the supposed amount increases every time. Also, they REFUSE to send me an itemized statement detailing exactly what I owe.

Absolutely horrible experience... I really hope this isn't affecting my credit because I completely fulfilled the contract. :-(

Yeah..same problem. My two year contract with the gym is over, but these creeps are still charging me.

I signed up for one year training at my gym who uses paramount acceptance...when my 1 year was up my trainer asked me if I wanted to sign up for more sessions. I did sign up and paid in full. I come to find out that paramount never stopped charging me and i now owe 2000.00 because I never notified them in writing 30 days prior to contract end...I was origianally told by the training salesman to initial the tiny box so the contract will NOT charge month to month after contract end. Unfortunatly I am a trusting person and signed without reading. After explaining this situation to paramount i was told TOO BAD YOU SHOULD HAVE READ YOUR CONTRACT. I am not paying them of coarse because I am not training anymore...we will see what happens.

You are not the brightest light bulb. I have many different kinds of legal cases come to my desk everyday and every here and then I get one concerning Paramount Acceptance. I have done some digging, as I do not handle these types of cases, and have been given copies of contracts (which I found that the gym writes up not Paramount Acceptance). The following is the correct information on these matters. For updating information such as billing, address, and phone numbers it is the customer's explicit responsibility to update their information and not the job of Paramount Acceptance to babysit each member making sure they are paying the bills that THEY signed up for. On the subject of auto-renewal of the contract, there is a space for a signature that is required for this before signing the bottom, so those who say they are not notified are mistaken as it is right in front of them as they are signing what they don't read. As far as fees go it is simple, missed payments = fees, and it is your fault for missing a payment, again this company is not here to babysit you. For cancelling anytime, there is no such thing with these types of contracts, don't listen to the gym rep. who signs you up, they just want their commission, so read the contract thoroughly. If you want an attorney that is great because then they can look over your contract and explain how wrong you are and what a contract means in the legal system. If you would like to contact the B.B.B. (Better Business Bureau) please do so as Paramount Acceptance has a B+ rating and after your report Paramount your complaint willed be followed by a response explaining how Paramount is within the law on all they do. Nothing shady about any of this, it is all in the contract and it would be completely irresponsible not to read it through. You may argue all you like but if you refuse to abide by the contract the account won't stop at Paramount, it will go to a separate collections agency that doesn't just use the phone to contact you, and eventually it will go to an Attorney and one day you will be at your house, work, or even out shopping and be served a subpoena containing court date. Also it will be sent to the Credit Bureau and they may not even need to notify you of this. Further refusal to pay can result in garnishing of wages and tax returns or a court ordered penalty. It may not happen quickly but a year or two down the line when it happens after you thought it was over and forgotten it will cause more trouble than if you had just paid in the first place. The legal system may take years but it is effective and never misses a note (or you). Good examples of those having no clue whatsoever are below and have left comments to this entry.
Thanks for reading

if you ###ing idiots knew how to read there would be no problem. all it takes is reading the contract then you will know everything you need to do. what kind of an idiot signs a contract without reading it? you all need to get a life, go back to school and learn how to ###ing read! it is not paramounts fault that you are too ###ing stupid to read a ###ing contract. everything you need to know is right there infront of you! if your grown up enough to sign a contract take some responsibility to know that it is your job to take care of your account not paramounts. its always easier to blame someone else isnt it!

My problem is that they make is so difficult to cancel, even after your contract has ended. I have called both Paramount and my gym, signed multiple cancellation notices, but they still continue to take money out of my account. My contract ended 2 years ago. Everytime I call, they tell me the cancellation has to be approved by a supervisor. WHAT? Until this very date, I still continue to have money taken form my account EACH MONTH from this company that SPECIFICALLY designs their cancellation policy to drive additional revenues. I understand how this works and there is not a DANG thing you can do about it. I asked for a refund and they laughed. DONT EVER, sign up with Paramount. EVER!

Whoever rbbv3 is is an idiot. You have not been in this situation. People like me who have, have seen how sneaky these sales associates are. All they want is commission, so they will tell you anything you want to hear to get you to NOT read the contract and sign it. They told me that they would sum up the contract so that I would be able to workout that day. He forgot the part about how to cancel and that it was a 2 yr contract. I asked to pay month by month and stop paying when I wanted to end my membership. He said that I would be able to do that, so I unfortunately trusted him. You would hope they would train their employees to be honest and customer oriented, but not there. I do think it was the gym, not paramount, but obviously there is an issue and hopefully the BBB will do something about it.

I joined Paramount Acceptance as well, cancelled the membership (paid the cancellation fee with a written letter), and apparently I owed them one last month payment as I didn't give exactly 30 days notice with my cancellation. The payments were being directly debitted from my checking account but I stopped that with my bank...well, since I owed them the one last month payment...they changed the name of their company and fraudulently took the money from my account rather then just sending my a bill for the last month payment. I would have had no problem making the last month payment that I owed them, but instead, they changed the name of their company (I had my bank stop the payments being given to 'Paramount Acceptenace') to 'Club Ready Inc. Fitness' and they deducted the final amount I had owed them as they had my information on file. This company is NOT willing to help their members, their sales associates are shady and unprofessional, and PLEASE share this information...DO NOT JOIN PARAMOUNT ACCEPTANCE.

Hey, smart one "Grm Rpr" learn the law before you think you know it. Pvt Vreditors CANNOT garnish a persons taxes. Apparently, you must be an employee of Paramount Acceptance Corp.

Paramount Acceptance Corp and whatever other name they choose to go by have more legal issues plastered all over the www, than, Michael Miliken, Ivan Boesky, and Bernie Madoff; combined; that should tell the average person a very important message, in addition to the fact that they just had to settle with the Idaho Attorney General for operating without a license.

And their in-house atty? An atty that specializes in collections is no more than an atty that doesnt have the skills neccessary to operate in the real legal arena.

Paramount is the most incompetent company that has ever existed and it's only a matter of time before they end up in a class action and/or under investigation/indictment by the federal government.

rbbv3:

Learn a bit of contract law there bright one; IT IS ALSO THE SALES AGENTS OBLIGATION/DUTY TO EXPLAIN THE FINE PRINT TO THE CUSTOMER, otherwise they run the risk of having the contract voided.

Paramount is just a company who's legal days are numbered before the court's make them a distant corporate memory with good riddance!

I recently got a call from Paramount Acceptance saying that I owe over $700 dollars on a gym membership I cancelled a few years ago! I went a few years and NOW they phone me? They said that if I do not pay they will take legal action. Any idea how I can fight this?

I will never join a gym that deals with Paramount. They are making me jump through hoops of fire to cancel a membership although they have all the information they need. I've moved 2, 000 miles away and even the gym has called them and let them know to stop billing me. I hope they go out of business soon. The way they handle business is shady, dishonorable, and embarrassing.

Please be aware that Paramount also operates under the name of Club Ready. I had a terrible experience dealing with them and NE 1 Fitness. Fortunately, I never signed the contract because I had changed of mind beforehand. They had my credit card number, so club ready still charged me without a signed agreement. The certified mail cancellation policy is a big scam because the letter was returned to me by usps as "addressee unknown". NE 1 Fitness cancellation forms purposely has the wrong company's name on it and club ready number is the only contact number listed on the form. So good luck trying to solve an issue with them! When I realized that both companies tactics were shady, I filed a BBB complaint and was refunded my money right away. I would not recommend doing business with NE 1 Fitness or Club Ready. Shady companies that are training their employees to be dishonest!

I've dealt with this company before, so this time I record all calls and confirm reception of the documents they request. We have now been trying to cancel per their move policy for 7 months. We have sent the documents they requested each time, but the scam seems to be that each time, they conveniently forget to tell you a document you have to send and keep charging. The first time they told us they would cancel it based on our phone conversation. 2 months later they said we needed to send an email and that the prior peson failed to mention a cancellation fee. We sent the email and confirmed receipt. 2 months later we are still being charged. This time they said the email wasn't sufficient and we need to fax or mail a signed document. If they charge us again this time I'm preparing to file criminal fraud charges and seek class action. They have been playing this game long enough. Everyone start documenting everything!

I have sent several requests to Paramount Acceptance and Evans Fitness Club to cancel my membership, due to the Gym did not honor the services listed on the special I signed up for. I requested the services to be cancelled through Evans Fitness Club and Paramount, still to date the company attempts to debit my account, and have the audacity to charge NSF fee's! I am in the process of filing a federal complaint against both companies. Stay clear of Paramount and Evan's Fitness Club, both use unpractical business practices.