16 December 2004

Mr. Jeff Rynegan
Area Manager
CRUNCH FITNESS
38 E Grand
Chicago IL 60611

Mr. Rynegan,

I hope I’ve written down your name correctly and I apologize if it’s misspelled. Thank you very much for your phone message from yesterday. I only wish that it had come back in August when I first lodged my complaint. To avoid being overly redundant, I have enclosed a copy of my original letter (a letter I wrote after being told by the receptionist at the Grand Avenue location that I could only cancel my membership through the California office, and I received no acknowledgment after sending an email through http://www.crunch.com).

So what exactly has my “free” membership cost me?

$70.00 1st month’s membership billed to my CC
$286.00 additional months billed & late fees accrued before membership could be cancelled
$50.00 cancellation fee
TOTAL = $406.00

I have done some research. I know that Crunch used to be a fine company. Before it was bought out by Bally’s. Since then its predatory and callous attitudes towards consumers have been the subject of many complaints and lawsuits (including one brought by the Attorney General of the State of New York). In fact, I find it telling that it was only AFTER I filed a complaint with Lisa Madigan’s office that I was taken seriously at all (please find a copy enclosed). I was finally able to get ahold of a supervisor in the California office in mid-November, and it took a half-hour to basically find out “I believe you sir, but I wasn’t there. I can’t cancel your membership. If you could go back to the club and speak with the sales person who signed you up, he could perhaps sign an affidavit and then we can take it from there …”

Well sir, I know from experience that that would get me exactly nowhere. So I chose to just wash my hands of the whole situation. I highly doubt you could get me a refund even if you wanted to. The sad part is that I was enjoying Crunch, UNTIL I discovered I had been misled. I might have considered staying with Crunch if I had initially been set up on some sort of a month-to-month membership. You need to let your salespeople (including Steve Saitta, who was the rep that signed me up) and your superiors know that tricking a customer into signing a 36-month contract is NOT a way to encourage either club loyalty or positive word-of-mouth.

Sincerely,
Rob Christopher