I signed with Custom Built Personal Training in January of 2009 and for about four months everything was going well, until my trainer left because of how poorly she was treated by the management. After having about three appointments with different trainers I finally was placed with a nice trainer who told me he was there to stay and I would be working with him from then on. After about another month he told me they were running a great special where I could upgrade my contract to have more training sessions but pay less per session. I thought this sounded like a good idea so I agreed to upgrade my contract. The manager, who was new, told me I just needed to update my paper work they had on file, so I did. I was never given any paperwork at all! The next training session I went to my trainer was gone and no one had even bothered to call and tell me.
That month I got billed twice, once was for the amount I was paying before I upgraded and the other amount was for the amount I was told would be my new fee per month. When I asked the manger about it, he gave me a card for Paramount Acceptance, which is the company that does their billing, and told me to speak with them. When I called to inquire, the representative told me he was not sure what was going on and he would have to look into it and call me back. Of course he did not call me back so I called again I was directed to the custom built personal training corporate headquarters. When I call there I was told I had two contracts and that I would have to write a letter to cancel my contract and pay a fee. I explained that in their Meriden Connecticut office I was told I was upgrading my contract and I would have never signed up for two different contracts. I was told I had no other options but to pay the fee to only have one contract.
This is when I did more research online and I found out about all the horrible things they were doing to their customers. I did write a cancelation letter for “any and all” contracts I had with them but did not pay any fee. I then proceeded to report them to the BBB, the Department of Consumer Protection, and the Connecticut Attorney General.
Unfortunately for me I only researched this “company” locally in Meriden, CT before I signed up. I only found out after talking to the BBB in Connecticut that although they have several locations in the state all of their complaints go to their headquarters in Atlanta. The BBB in Connecticut also told me that they must be fairly new in the state because they just started receiving a lot of complaints. On a side note, when I went to mail my cancelation letter at the post office, the lady who helped me knew exactly what I was dealing with and said she had talked to a lot of people who had problems with Custom Built Personal Training.
After my complaint was transferred from Connecticut to Atlanta they responded by sending the same form letter twice using the wrong last name and wrong gender, that had nothing to do with my complaint at all. The BBB in Atlanta was going to close my complaint until I pointed out that Custom Built Personal Training had made absolutely no effort to address my complaint. I am waiting for another reply. The Department of Consumer Protection sent me a letter telling me that this company was no longer in business. I immediately called the office and was told that they could not reach them and the letter they sent had been returned unopened. I told the Department of Consumer Protection that Custom Built Personal Training was headquartered in Atlanta, and they then told me that my case was reopened.
Meanwhile, Paramount Acceptance has told me that my “contracts” were never canceled because I did not pay the fee and even though I have stopped them from taking any money from me they are still charging me. And because the contracts “auto renew” they could, in theory keep charging me forever. I have also filed complaints against Paramount Acceptance.
This company is counting on people to give up and pay. They think if they just send form letters and do not reply that people will just go away. I cannot in good conscience do that. I just want this company to be put out of business so they cannot do this to anyone else. I have also noticed that every gym where they have a location has extremely low rates which is why I decided to go to Club 24 which was only $10 a month as compared to the YMCA which is about $50 per month. These gyms must be getting some serious kick backs if they can afford for their memberships to be so much less than the YMCA.
I am not sure what will happen next with all the complaints I have filed but I will keep fighting until something is done about this.