I'm wondering if I could find someone in the US to advocate for consumer justice. I walked in a Bally Total Fitness club in Jersey City, New Jersey, back in February 2009. The Management team asked for my Driver's license + my Social Security Card + Credit Card. Without paying attention on the foot print notes, I've signed a paper work that ties me up with Bally for 3 years.

Later on, I found out that I was scammed by Bally company. To cancel the contract, Bally is asking me to pay the balance of 3 years even though I'm not going to the club. If they check the punches, they will the handful times I've been at the Gym club. It won't be 12 times since I started in February 2009.

I've been paying every month, no matter what, $42.78.

I just don't understand how such scam and abuse can be legal in the US.

All the pins are missing, I talked to the Manager and they told me that they are aware of the problem and that they are trying to solve it, and I thing this is a bullshit because it's already 2 weeks and nothing has been changed. I'm so pissed of at this gym, my usual workout is 50 min, now because of these pins I have to stay there 1 hour and 30 min to finish my ***' workout. What is going on ? I talked today to more that 23 people that I personally know in the gym and tomorrow we are going to sign a complaint, and address it to a lawyer, he said that he can sign us out of that ***' gym on kings hwy, and I already talked to New York Sports Club customer rep. and he told me that If we bring all these people to them they will give us a $39.00 membership on a contract ( if 25 people come ). So, I have nothing to loose. It's just a shame for this stupid Gym and his Managers.

I got my membership on 8/14/2008 (account # 2605460026002).The manger told you can cancel your membership at the first 10 days, My doctor advice me not to do that, because I have heart failure according to Fairfax hospital 2004 and Arlington hospital 2007, Icancel my membership three days later with the manger of Ballys landmark VA (8/17/2008) .I call the main office and I E-mail them more than three times, And I dispute the first payment with Bank of America, Because I never attend Ballys even one time and Inever used their facilityes, But they still harassing me on the phone over hundred times They asking me to pay $ 2400 for what Idonot know why, They missup my credit, , one collection in CA, call me names on the phone, please I need your help can you correct that, or you can take me to the court in Fairfax, please stop harrasing me.

I'm back and hopefully for the last time to warn everyone about all the dark secrets that hides within corporate Texas. Please note that corruption only resides within certain individuals and not everyone is involved.

Please let me begin by presenting you the basic package of what a regular sales employee (that's me) endures. Your mandatory training throughout your employment will be provided by a lunatic known as Wendy A. Tilley along with a few sales managers that specializes in thuganomics and old school street hustling.

What is it we are supposed to be hustling? The answer is membership sales or often referred to by employees as units. How we were trained or taught to achieve these units is what made me quit my job.

I would require dozens of red bulls laced with crack in order to stay up all night to list every forbidden detail about their sales pitch painfully embedded in my memory banks but a brief summary will suffice.

Know that while you're branding Bally's uniform, every single visitor entering our fitness facility to inquire about pricing or simply trying to utilize a free online guest pass is supposed to leave with a membership contract. No excuses. Period.

It's your job to sell them a gym membership no matter what the circumstances are. If anyone...ANYONE leaves without a membership, you screwed up. If they leave empty handed, that means you couldn't present properly, deliver properly or close properly. If you were conducting your job appropriately, people will never decline our memberships. So when anyone rejects our offers, prices, services and equipment, there is only one person to blame. YOU. IT IS ALWAYS YOUR FAULT IF ANYONE WALKS OUT WITHOUT A CONTRACT. Brilliant.

Every day while I was employed was like an episode of The Apprentice with Donald Trump in the boardroom. Treachery, backstabbing, deceit, disloyalty and war is frequently exhibited for all to despair.

One name easily comes to mind whenever I mentioned those words above. The infamous WENDY A. TILLEY. She's actually Bonnie and Clyde goes by Devin Verdon. Devin is another chapter which I'm debating to post or not.

The climax started when my sales manager Ryan Colin was suspended over the weekend for forging signatures on contracts. Very illegal and subject for arrest if anyone didn't know. I kindly volunteered to fill in on my day off that Saturday. Big Mistake.

That afternoon, I had the pleasure of being under surveillance by a woman who was in fact a mystery secret shopper. These customers are actually visiting to rate their overall experience back to corporate based on HOW we deliver our services. PLEASE keep in mind that how we deliver our services is HOW we were trained by corporate!

Inquiring about our memberships, I firmly presented the System 30 plan which was the best overall package that included supplements for dieting and 4 personal training sessions. Of course this hefty membership comes with a hefty price.

She loved the plan but hesitated on the price and inquired if there were anything cheaper. I replied, "No, not for what your specifically looking for. If I dropped the price to a lower value membership at a lower monthly rate, you'll indeed pay a cheaper monthly due but lose all your privileges such as your supplements and personal training sessions."

I applied logic atop of reason and firmly stood my ground and finally convinced her that what I presented IS the best choice. After she joined, I felt relieved knowing that the past 45 minutes I spent with this lady was not in vain. The commission check for what I just sold is $98.00 so I guess forfeiting my Saturday day off was not completely in vain.

After their secret shop visit, they're instructed to participate in a brief customer satisfaction survey provided by Wendy A. Tilley and corporate. The purpose of the survey is to rate how much we employees learned from Wendy's class and whether or not we utilized her teachings during the undercover shop. A spy if you will.

A few of her teachings along with Devin Verdon's philosophies ultimately resulted in the same thing. To be aggressive and close the membership no matter what. I remember them saying, "Sometimes they don't know what they want. That's why you're our sales counselor. So you can present what is best for these potential members. Of course they'll show concern and reluctance towards our higher priced packages. Who wouldn't? Anybody would! But it's your job to ultimately convince them that our prices ARE affordable by breaking them down. $50 bucks a month is only like $1.66 a day!
You're telling me they can't afford that in a single day when they buy cigarettes and $5.00 Starbucks Coffee every morning!? Ridiculous! If you can't start closing these big expensive deals, your clients are simply closing you instead of you closing them. They convinced you they can only pay a certain amount instead of you convincing them that our deluxe packages are easily affordable. They won and you've lost. DO NOT DROP the prices and stay focused! You have to show them who's boss by putting your feet down. If they give you a "no", your job is to flip that around to a "yes". Be aggressive and DO NOT GIVE UP! Cause when they walk, that's saying you gave up. You didn't try hard enough and they took control of you instead of you taking control of them. You dropped the ball and we lost another potential member because you failed. Understand? BE AGGRESSIVE, GO OUT THERE AND START HUSTLING AND DON'T TAKE NO FROM ANYONE!!!"

Believe it or not, I actually failed that shop based on the survey because the lady reported primarily that I was too aggressive and I did not drop the price to a cheaper membership. Uuh Ooh. It appears that Wendy Tilley and Devin Verdon's advices to be tough and aggressive throughout their lectures have backfired. Gee, who would've imagined?

Here comes one of the best parts. Shortly after, Wendy approached this mystery shopper and tossed me right under the bus. Ready? She expressed, "We are so deeply sorry for your horrible experience. Are you absolutely certain this sales counselor never bothered showing you our many other convenient and cheaper membership options? He ne..ne..never bothered dropping the price to a more affordable membership plan for you? OH. MY. GOD. How dare he?! Please believe me when I say this, that is NOT how we train our employees. Where does he get these ideas from? I am soooo speechless. Ma'am, on behalf of Bally Total Fitness, we like to extend our most sincere apologies and please rest assured, we will discipline this employee to the fullest extent. Here, in the meantime, please accept this free membership on the house as a token of our gratitude and appreciation for your honesty. We could not be a better and stronger company without your honest input. Thank you so much for your cooperation and once again, forgive us for any inconveniences that our employee has caused. He does NOT represent the rest of us and it just breaks my heart knowing that the people we trust to present our memberships in our uniforms could do something so inappropriate. We will get to the bottom of this incident immediately without further delay. Okay now, give me a hug. It was a great pleasure meeting you. Have a great life and God Bless. Buh bye."

Hey Wendy, you honestly didn't think I knew about that?

So let's realize the enormity of the situation here. They force feed you with their asinine garbage on how to sell properly. It doesn't work and easily backfires and when the bullet riccochetes back, they grab you as a bullet proof vest while plunging a kitchen knife deeply in between your shoulder blades while conveniently tossing you under the bus.

In a way, they're rather similar to the Italian mafia. A "job" is ordered to be fulfilled according to their specifications and when something goes wrong they'll clip you off so no traces could lead back to them.

Throughout this whole ordeal, I was written up twice within that same week and Wendy even went out of her way to make a special request to the finance dept. that I do not get paid for this shop. FYI. It's company policy to pay employees even if the deal sold was a secret shop. That $98.00 that I thought I earned during that excruciating 45 minute timeframe was denied to me by special requests of Wendy A. Tilley. Wow. Conspiring and breaking own company rules to screw someone. Not only is she evil, she's a thief as well.

You thought the worse was over? It just barely begun. We had another class after that incident the following week and Wendy decided to make me the ultimate sacrificial example. Throughout the entire class filled with 35 employees, she would casually call me out every five minutes or so like some retarded kid back in the fourth grade who apparently forgotton his homework and fell asleep in class. She would bombard and ambush me with pop quiz questions involving principles and fundamentals of Bally's Total Fitness expecting me to bark upon command like some pet lapdog whenever she pleased in front of everyone for her personal amusement.

Here's a brief example. What does retention mean? What does attrition mean? How do you calculate the resting heart rate? Do you know this? Did you know that? What's two plus two? Do you know how to spell your name? Etc..well, you get the idea. She'll viciously embarass and deliberately humuliate you like a slave. If you don't play along or have a problem with how she's conducting her class, you can freely leave or she'll simply kick you out. Here's the thing, you need to finish her class in order to retain you employment so tolerating her lunacy was a common requirement.

She made a complete fool out of me where the instant she mentioned my name, people would giggle. Even when she wasn't calling me out and someone else was responding with an answer to whatever was being discussed, she'll come up to me in front of everyone and ask, "Did you know that? Are you sure? Really? OKAAAY."

It was one of her finest masterpiece setups or traps if you will. Here's the thing. If you don't know the answer to her pop quiz question, you'll instantly look stupid in front of everyone but if you know every single answer she throws at you, you will just eventually look like her pet dog. It will now look like there's a dog collar around your neck attached to the leash she has in her hand.

So you have the convenient option of looking stupid now by not knowing how to respond to her ambush or slowly crash and burn the other way and appear just as foolish but in a entirely different manner all together eventually later on. It makes no utter difference whether you know the answer or not. Due to her hidden alterior motive, you'll going to burn regardless. Remember the painful Katie Couric and Sarah Palin interview? Imagine fours hours of that.

After Wendy disrespects you throughout class by treating you like a slave, she'll cleverly try to avoid looking like a jerk by pulling this manuever right before she dismisses everyone. She'll playfully ask using a innocent tone, "Who did I pick on today? Hmm? Who did I pick on today? Okay, I was "playing" with him because we're very good friends and I like him. Who else? Who else did I pick on today? Who else?"

Wendy, you're so clever. Gee, it appears I may have learned something from you after all. But I bet you wished I hadn't picked this up, eh? Hope you don't mind me picking on you this time.

Next time you screw..excuse me. Next time you "pick" on someone, better make sure they're not capable of picking back.

Our family signed up for the 3 yrs, and I was told that my daughter and I could cancel at any time, but my Husband had to go the 3 yrs. or we would have to pay a penalty. Not true, or as told by the guy that my husband talked to. Our first attempt to get the personal trainer, (that is free at the time you sign up) would never show up to the appointment. Not just once did we make appointments but 3 times! so we just gave up. After awhile we started going to my place of businesses gym that is much cheaper and more convenient. So I wanted a copy of the contract to see when the date was that we signed up. I have been waiting now for 2 months, and they took the 10.00 right away out of our account. Their excuse so far is that the address was wrong, even though I spent the hour on the phone with the representative supposedly straightening it out. Very frustrating! I really wish their was some recourse, if any one knows a way to take legal action I would be interested. Thanks