A Burnaby resident who complained to the NOW last month about being charged fees even though her gym company had gone bankrupt says she has finally received a response after months of trying.
Lorrie Hansen and members of her family belonged to Steve Nash Fitness World, which imploded earlier this year and went bankrupt, with a new company, Fitness World, rising out of its ashes and maintaining some locations in Burnaby. (Read the original story here.)
Hansen was upset that fees began being withdrawn from her bank account by the new company without receiving any contact from them that this would be happening.
Hansen told the NOW previously that the family is not interested in going to a gym during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also said that efforts to contact the company had been difficult because there is no apparent head office number.
Hansen resorted to sending messages to the Fitness World Instagram account.
She recently forwarded a response she received via email from the new company.
According to the Fitness World email, “membership agreements are transferable” and that original SNFW members were contacted by email.
Hansen told the NOW she never received any such email.
“Thank you for reaching out and please accept our apologies for not responding to you sooner,” reads the recently email from Fitness World membership services. “Fitness World is a new company/ownership group. When we purchased the company, this included the membership base. The membership agreements are transferable; this is a clause in the agreement. Many emails were issued to members regarding the club opening, memberships, etc. Perhaps we didn't have a current email address on file for you. Will you please confirm if you would like to keep your memberships? If not, I can process a cancellation for you and refund you the charges, which are for Aug (prorated amount) and September.”
Hansen said she still doesn’t understand why it took months to finally hear from the company and that it added additional stress on her during the pandemic.
“I have asked them for a breakdown of how the charges were pro-prated and what the charges are for,” Hansen said. “The amount of the charges are minimal but I’m astounded as why so many people are affected by the non-transparency.”
As detailed in the previous NOW story, multiple people have responded to Fitness World on its social media accounts about why they were suddenly being charged. The NOW also contacted Fitness World previously through a PR company handing media enquiries, but was told it would not be commenting.
