Gephardt: Getting Billed For A Gym Membership You Never Used
Dec 17, 2020, 1:33 PM
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – It’s one thing to get sent to collections for a debt you owe, but what about one you don’t think you owe?
It happened to a Salt Lake City woman after she got a bill from a gym she’d never been to. She asked KSL consumer investigator Matt Gephardt to check it out.
Back when gyms started closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the resident canceled her membership altogether. However, she started getting billed – but not from the gym where she used to go. It was from another gym entirely.
Katie Frederickson works out at home now. Before that, she worked out at 24-Hour Fitness. There is a gym she’s never attended, though.
“I’ve never been to a VASA Fitness before,” she said.
So imagine her surprise when she got a call saying she owed VASA money.
“I got a call from a collections firm saying, ‘Hey, you owe $180.64 to VASA Fitness because of past due membership,'” Frederickson said.
She looked into it and discovered that when 24-Hour Fitness closed in Utah over the summer, their contracts were transferred to VASA. But She said she canceled her membership back in March when the lockdowns began, so there shouldn’t have been a contract to transfer.
“I think it’s really unfair that VASA Fitness didn’t even notify me,” Frederickson said. “‘Hey, we’re billing you, or you’re being billed, and now you’re going to be sent to collections for it.'”
“For something I never agreed to,” she added.
Not wanting to see her credit ruined over a debt she didn’t owe, Frederickson reached out to Gephardt.
KSL reached out to VASA on her behalf.
So why was Frederickson’s contract in their system if she canceled? VASA didn’t say – only noting that it has now been “resolved.”
Frederickson said that shortly after Gephardt spoke to VASA, the debt went away.
When asked about her claim that she never heard from anyone before she got a call from the debt collector, a VASA representative said its billing department tries to contact past due members. After four months, they turn them over to collections.
If you have a problem you can’t solve, give it to Gephardt. Call 385-707-6153 or email matt@ksl.com.
