Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  07/06/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Franchisee has been charging credit card for monthly fees although not authorized. The franchise was notified by phone that charges were not authorized and continues to charge against the credit card twice a month each month at the rate of $50 per charge since February 2023 for a total of $400. The credit card company has been notified, the credit card changed and the charges disputed each month. I would like the franchise to revoke the eight charges total from my credit card bill.

  Business response

  08/02/2023

  Dear BBB, 

  I, ***********************, the owner of fitness studio Pure Barre Woodbridge welcomed *********************************** and her daughter ************************* to the studio on their first class on 12/10/2022. When they joined the studio that day they requested an extension of their first month of membership that I agreed to due to holiday travel. Their first month to use their Pure 4 Membership (4 classes to use in 1 month) was 12/10/2022 through 1/24/2023. The contract they signed (emailed PDF copy was sent to her on day of membership) is that their memberships are auto renewed each month on the same invoice date (24th of each month for both ********* and ****) Members can cancel at any time with a 30 day written notice from their next invoice date. (Example: on 1/24/2023, a written notice would have been needed to be sent to PBW for cancelation on 2/24/2023)

  Pure Barre Woodbridge checks in with our new members in class if an upcoming booking exists or via call on Membership Day 1-7-14-21-30-90. On these benchmarks we have call logs on their accounts that we attempted to call, but a voicemail was not set up, so we followed up with a check in text. The last of these was Day 90 made on 3/17/2023. At this time *********************************** had paid for 12/10, 1/24, 2/24 invoices for both her and her daughter.

  A Pure Barre Woodbridge Sales Representative took a call from ********* on 3/28, and left me a note to call ********* back when I was back in the studio. The Sales Associates Call Log: She called the studio and stated that she wants us to stop charging her the membership. For both her and *************************. She said when she came in during the month of Dec with ****, she states they both agreed to be charged for the FIRST month ONLY but "never" agreed nor "approved" for us to charge her monthly for this membership. She said when whoever sold her the membership was going through the process on the ****, she said there was a "little box" to click on in order to have the membership run monthly and she said they "never clicked on it" therefore they never agreed to have been charged monthly this whole time. I spoke about the selling process in which we send them the text code and she said "that never happened with me because i don't have a smartphone." She said she wants her money back from January-March and does not want to be charged for ****** This is for both her and ****. She said they aren't able to come in and haven't been coming in, so they don't feel they should've been charged. I tried explaining about the 30 day notice policy, the process of how we sell a membership and what we mention prior to selling, but she didn't want to hear it. She came off aggressive, but at the same time she seemed like she was trying to keep her cool. CS sold both memberships. I'm personally confused bc I see a note on her monthly invoice for 1/24/23 that states " CS approved to add an additional week to their 1st month to account for holiday/vacation" which means they have spoken about the membership, so I don't know why she is saying that she never agreed to placing it for us to charge monthly? There are no call logs or texts I saw where she has tried to contact us to cancel membership or talk about this problem.

  *********************** then attempted calling ********* to go over that I customized her first month per her request but I never heard her ask for cancelation on her first day of membership. I attempted calling her on 3/29, 4/4, and 4/25. I did not set another reminder task, as I would await her call back after the 3 attempts.

  She called the studio on 6/2 when *********************** was not at the studio, and ******* attempted calling her back on 6/3 and again on 6/24. Due to not being able to get ahold of her, and not able to get a written request of cancelation as a result of those call attempts, and with the BBB contacting ***********************, I manually set her to and **** to Cancel on 6/24/23.

  Although not a written request, her call to my Sales Associate on 3/28 ( our first conversation with ********* since the start of her membership) as her 30 day notice. She would owe the 3/24 invoice she had already paid, and technically owed 4/24, but due to all of the above I refunded her 4/24 and 5/24 invoices for both her and ****. Each invoice was $50, so in total she was refunded $200 and was not charged for 6/24.

  I have not heard from ********* after cancelation was processed. 

  Sincerely, 

  ***********************

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