My trainer was great, but owner was vindictive, thank god for my credit card company. Here's what happened.
In September 2017, I was doing my expense report to prepare for my late tax filing. I came across what seemed to be a recurring charge by a merchant called Julie Amick. I did not recognize that name. Given the history of fraud (3 times) caught on my card, I called customer service to find out more than the charges.
On the phone, my credit card company told me there was no phone number or address attached to that name, and it looked like it was coming from a medical office in Beverly Hills. With that, it raised even more suspicion because I don't have any doctors I see in BH. After much digging, we figured out by the end of the call it was from Align Pilates Beverly Hills.
On October 13th, the owner of Align Pilates called me, her name was Julie. She said she had to charge me a $20 fee, because she had to hire an extra person to help her pull the record to show my credit card company. I explained to her that I did not know about the request from my credit card, because as far as I know, we figured it out on the phone. Eventually she agreed to let the charge go, but insisted that I was using a weird credit card company. (I don't believe Citibank was a weird credit card company.) Anyway, I told her the only reason why I had to call in the first place was because the name on the statement doesn't match the name of her business. She argued and said that it was printed on the fine print on our enrollment form, which I don't remember seeing at all.
Three days later, on October 16th, Julie called again. She claimed that I filed a dispute and she had a charge back from my credit card company, and she had to suspend my session at the studio. I told her I never filed any dispute and I would call my credit card company to clear that up. I spoke to my credit card company later that day and they confirmed that they didn't do any charge back and there was no record of any dispute. I even requested the representative to do a three-way calling so he could clear that up with her. He tried calling twice but no one picked up at the studio. After I hanged up, I called Align and left a message for Julie stating that I spoke to my credit card company and there was no dispute and no charge back. She never called back so I thought I'd give it a few days.
A week later, I was supposed to have my session on the 23rd, no one called to confirm if I should resume my sessions or not. So I called the studio and left Julie another message. I said I'd like to come back, but if she doesn't want me to do that, then I'd like to have my partial session fees refunded. I bought a 10-pack session back in August, and I only used 7 of them. I waited another week and no one called. I left her one final message on Oct 30th. A week later, I decided to file a dispute this time, for real.
Almost a month later, she sent me a check but she took out $60 and claimed that as administrative fee. Fortunately, my credit card sympathized with my situation and they refunded me the $60 she owed me.
I just want to say, I've never had such a bad customer service before from an owner. I believe as a customer, we have every right to question any charges on our account, and given the fraud history on my card, I was doing the right thing. So being suspended, then expelled, for questioning an old charge, was completely uncalled for in my opinion. Bear in mind that the current package was already paid for, and she told my trainer that there was something wrong with my credit card and I owed her money!!! read more