When I joined In-Shape Health Club, one of their personal trainers, apparently working for a company called "Custom Built Personal Training, " asked me to sign up for a one-year personal training contract. I told him I was not interested in a one-year commitment. He then offered me one month with no ongoing commitment, for a total one-time payment of $309 ($49.00 "Processing Fee" plus four weekly training sessions at $65 per session). I agreed to those terms and the trainer hand-wrote them onto the standard form contract. He crossed out each of the blanks that related to monthly payments and wrote "PIF" on the front of the contract in several places, which he told me means "Paid In Full." I gave him my credit card number to pay the one-time $309 charge.
Custom Built Personal Training uses Club Administrative Services ("CAS") to do its billing. Even though my contract very clearly provided that I had "paid in full" my total contractual obligation, two months after I signed the contract CAS sent me a letter stating that I owed $3, 120 for a year's worth of weekly training sessions, and demanded that I pay $260. When I checked my credit card account, I discovered that CAS had already made TWO unauthorized $260 charges against my credit card account without notifying me or asking my permission.
Then I started getting harassing phone calls from "Nikki McVay" warning me that CAS is a debt collection agency and demanding that I pay them money that I clearly do not owe.