Boycott Gyms Using ABC Financial Billing Services

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  deanna briggs started this discussion on Jul 8, 2008

  ABC Financial continues to auto-charge gym-goers after their membership or contract is up at their gym unless they make a request to end the membership via certified mail and pay several additional monthly fees which ABC Financial auto-charges in the meantime.

  Right, this must be in the contract in 8-point font. Ending a relationship with my local gym should not be this exasperating. But it is. Apparently, unless you pay the fees they have charged you after your one or two year contract is up, they will continue to charge you on a monthly basis.

  The gyms are their primary customer, but aren’t you, the gym-goer, a secondary customer? Yet, they don’t care about you.
  http://www.abcfinancial.com/home/abc_hmf.asp
  Their mission is “to collect the most money from the most members, every day.”

  They’ll keep doing this unless you stop joining gyms that use ABC Financial services for billing. ABC Financial will not achieve their mission if you refuse to feed them your money. Only you, the consumer, can be the roadblock here. End your membership now if your gym uses ABC Financial for billing services.

  A quick Google search will turn up plentiful results about how ABC Financial is scamming people, see
  http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/310/RipOff0310208.htm

  
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  Eric Pierce replied on Nov 20, 2008

  You’re entirely correct about the business model of ABC Financial. However, this is the norm rather than the exception with chain or franchised gym memberships, regardless of the billing contractor. You are also right in placing the pressure on the gym management. But it is not ABC specifically but rather out of state, hard to contact financial services companies that are the problem.
  I support a campaign to end this practice. However, I still need exercise now. What I did when I joined Gold’s in Seattle was to give my Visa debit card number instead of a check. I NEVER allow EFT on my checking account. Then, after the first month, I changed my card (my bank doesn’t charge to reissue a debit card with a new number). I also set up recurring online bill paying about a week before the auto-draught would normally come through. It has worked like a charm for over two years. All of those extra fees have been waived when I called ABC and demanded they produce a copy of a contract I signed authorizing such fees. They rely on taking the money first and then asking you to prove you didn’t sign such a contract. They are not set up to prove an affirmative claim that you did. Most people give up on that $25 because it isn’t worth the trouble. Well, when the ball is in their court, it isn’t worth their trouble either.

  
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  J.Kris Helf replied on Dec 12, 2008

  Golds Gym and ABC Financial how do they sleep at night? I know they have no problem eating well with all the money they steal from their unsuspecting customers. I hope these snakes and their business model go down in flames. Boycott hell yes! I cant begin to express the level of anger I have towards them. Whatever happened to treating a customer with some simple common respect and dignity. Not just some ‘dupe’ who can be had for all he’s worth, or at least what the ‘contract’ allows to be extracted. Shame on you Golds and ABC Financial.

  
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  Anonymous replied on Jun 13, 2009

  NEWS FLASH PEOPLE,ABC DOES NOT COME UP WITH
  THE CONTRACTS THAT YOU SIGN, THE GYM DOES!!
  IF YOU’RE DUMB ENOUGH TO SIGN SOMETHING THAT YOU HAVEN’T READ THEN YOU DESERVE WHATEVER YOU’RE GETTING!! THEY ARE ONLY THE BILLING COMPANY WHICH MEANS THEY DO WHATEVER THEIR CLIENTS WANT, WHICH ARE THE HEALTH CLUBS!!!

  
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  Kimberly Collins replied on Nov 5, 2009

  I can hardly wait to see the reaction from the FTC and my elected government officials to "Mr./Ms Anonymous’ " comment regarding the working general public.
  It only validates my official submitted complaint of ABC’s criminal business tatics.

  
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  Kimberly Collins replied on Nov 5, 2009

  What Mr. Anonymous neglected to tell us, is that “ABC” solicits their clients by offering them an agreement to collect, say 10 cents on the dollar. After that contract is signed, Golds Gym has nothing to say or do with “how ABC collects fees”.
  My manager has nothing to do with the fee process. He gave me ABC’s contact info, to handle any questions.

  
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  Kimberly Collins replied on Nov 5, 2009

  CC:
  FTC (Federal Trade Commission)
  BBB (Better Business Bureau)
  Eva Galambos, Mayor of Sandy Springs (Elected Official in our Community)
  John McDonough, City Manager of Sandy Springs (Business License Renewals)

  http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/boycott-gyms-using-abc-financial-billing-services/discussion/topics/720?post_id=27472#discussion::posts-27472

  Jim Bottin, CEO of ABC Financial, Owned by EMC Financial, who also makes contributions to senatorial candidates under EMC, ABC and Jim Bottin Enterprises for thousands of dollars.

  Paul Schaller, President of ABC Financial, Owned by EMC Financial

  The original request has been resubmitted at least 3 times. Each of my emails to you were sent including the original request/email. I have saved each resubmitted email in the original form. EVERY TIME YOU RESPONDED WITH THE SAME TACTIC, I REPLIED WITH ALL OF THE ORIGINAL REQUESTS!

  If you will please refer to those emails and this time review them carefully from top to bottom,with your legal department, you will see the original request.
  These are games of semantics and I am tired of being, pardon my French, screwed around with.

  I am very familiar with the legal processes involved with collections! I work for attorneys. I am also closely related to the President, CEO and CFO of the 2nd largest collection agency in the US, headquartered here in Atlanta. It is this in house counsel I have consulted with to be sure of my rights and to substantiate that you and your company are in violation of state and federal law.

  I am now requesting that you forward this and ALL my correspondences to “Your Supervisor”.
  Inform she/he that I am now forwarding all documentation of my my attempts to follow your requests to the Georgia BBB ,the FTC, and my elected officials. They then can educate you on how you have violated the Laws protecting my rights, and the rules and procedures of business practices you are violating as we speak, established in the State of Georgia.

  And make no mistake, just because this contract between you and Golds Gym of Sandy Springs, is handled out of your Arizona office, does not mean you are exempt from laws protecting consumers in the State of Georgia.
  All Collection Agencies have offices in Arizona because their laws are more favorable to crooks such as yourselves.
  This nonsense of you "not being able to find my name for the last 4 months, which has been provided to you by not only me (3 or 4 times), but also by your client (Gold’s Gym), from whom your company obviously has a contract with which enabled you to send me threatening letters in the mail! Do you think that the working general public is stupid?

  Go back to your database, ask your Production Manager to show you where he/she got my mailing address, and I bet you “your job” that you will also find my account/ID#, and anything else you keep using as an excuse to delay termination “in your mind”!
  Ask your Legal Department, because believe me, I already have asked our in-house counsel, and they will explain to you how difficult it will be to convince a judge, that you couldn’t terminate as per my original request, based on the fact that you could not “Locate my information in your database!???”

  However; you were able to send me numerous threatening letters, simultaneously to my current and correct address.

  This tactic, and that is exactly what this is, is illegal. This is my last attempt to try and handle this without involving the State Agencies afore mentioned.

  Kimberly Collins

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  Subject: 9999-99999
  Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 09:46:39 -0600
  From: memberservices@abcfinancial.com
  To: kimmy1026@live.com
  CC: docuware@abcfinancial.com

  
  

  Kimberly –

  We were unable to locate your account in our billing system. Please resend your original request along with your full name, primary phone number, address, and/or 9 digit agreement number.

  Meagan Kunert

  CS Offline Processor

  ABC Financial Services, Inc.

  P.O. Box 6800

  Sherwood, AR 72124

  fax :: 501.992.0802

  toll free :: 888.827.9262

  email :: memberservices@abcfinancial.com

  Visit www.abcfinancial.com to make changes to your account at your convenience!

  
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  Jennifer Clark replied on Feb 19, 2010

  It sounds like a class action suit waiting to happen. There must be someone out there willing to take on this case. I am sure all we, the end consumer, would want is our money back that ABC took from us and whatever else was left we would gladly see collective counsel take for putting these people out of our misery! Forget boycotting, these people need to be taken to court. This is a legitimate nationwide problem that can most likely be easily solved. I vote for class action law suit! Let’s make this happen!

  
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  Alex Mena replied on Apr 21, 2010

  We regret to hear that your experiences with ABC Financial Services was anything BUT satisfactory.

  Our ultimate goal is to provide the best customer service to both our clients and their members. It’s a common practice for a membership to continue at the end of the original term – much like a cell phone agreement, the service is not discontinued at the end of the allotted time frame, but continues until the consumer is no longer in need of the service.

  We are aware that each individual situation differs from the next, however, all consumer concerns are taken very seriously and we would like the opportunity to review your situation and thoroughly satisfy your needs. We realize this comment is a bit overdue, as the original post date is from July 2008, however we pride ourselves in providing excellent customer service and would be happy to rectify any inconvenience this may have caused you.

  Should you have additional comments you would care to discuss, please email memberservices@abcfinancial.com.

  Alex Mena
  Consumer Relations
  ABC Financial Services, Inc.

  
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  B Collins replied on Jun 10, 2010

  I agree that ABC Financial has serious customer service problems. But there is at least one individual there who makes an effort to help.
  After finding Alex Mena’s responses show up on multiple complaint sites, I called him about the problem we were having canceling 3 accounts. This was after I had a very hard time with ABC’s customer service. I must say, Alex was very helpful and got things resolved to our satisfaction right away. In fact, he got us a month’s charges refunded.

  Mr. Mena is an asset to ABC Financial, and they need to hire more people like him. The funny thing is, I don’t think that’s his primary job, but he does customer service better than the folks in customer service, who don’t seem to care.

  
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  Chip Dobbs replied on Jul 23, 2010

  I am having issues with ABC bouncing my contract around like a basketball from one gym to another. Currently trying to get them to cancel my membership and my deepest regret is it took me this long to finally say enough is enough.

  Here’s my letter to them.

  ABC Financial
  P.O. Box 6800
  Sherwood, AR 72124-6800
  To whom it may concern:
  I am writing you to request to my membership with Knuckle Up Fitness be canceled. When I first signed up for Knuckle Up Fitness I did so with the understanding that my membership would be able to transfer from one Knuckle Up Fitness Center to another. That was what was told to me by the sales persons I spoke to at that time. At that time Knuckle Up Fitness had a gym in Kennesaw and Woodstock, both areas I could easily have access to between home and work. THAT WAS A MAJOR SELLING POINT! Since I was also interested in Judo classes, I was told I could attend the Knuckle Up classes being held in Douglasville. Again, another selling point.

  Then as I am sure your records show, the Woodstock Gym and shortly thereafter the Kennesaw Gym both closed their doors. I then came to find out my membership was sold to/ transferred to an LA Boxing Gym located about 10-15 minutes from the Kennesaw location. LA Boxing is NOT Knuckle Up Fitness, which is what I signed up for in the first place. If I wanted LA Boxing, I would have signed up for them originally. Then shortly after that happened, LA Boxing closes down and is replaced by Iron Clutch Fitness. Again, THIS IS NOT KNUCKLE UP FITNESS!
  I signed up expecting to take classes and work out at a Knuckle Up Gym. You may have contracts with other gyms and that’s all fine and dandy. However, I am not happy with having to go to another gym. If I sign a contract with McDonald’s, it’s because I like McDonald’s. You would not expect me to tolerate having that contract sold to Dairy Queen and expect to continue to have my business would you?

  Now I am getting letters from your billing department because I changed my credit cards due to a theft. They are saying I am behind on my Knuckle Up membership payments? Oh really? Forgetting for a moment that Iron Clutch has my current credit card on file and I shouldn’t be having any problems getting billed these past couple of months, but I am looking around and I don’t see me attending any Knuckle Up Gyms. There are no Knuckle Up Gyms near me!

  Passing my contract on to another gym, that is not a Knuckle Up Gym is not acceptable to me. I respectfully request you cancel my membership immediately.

  How do they respond?

  Please contact Duvera at 760 602 5000 to have your account cancelled. ABC does not handle cancellations for your gym.

  Danielle Lemay
  CS Offline Processor
  ABC Financial Services, Inc.
  P.O. Box 6800
  Sherwood, AR 72124
  fax :: 501.992.0802
  toll free :: 888.827.9262
  email :: memberservices@abcfinancial.com
  www.myiclubonline.com

  Well, that sounded odd but I did it anyway. Guess what. Duvera never even heard of me and do not handle any contracts for Knuckle Up Fitness.

  Oh yeah. I was pissed. Called ABC up and they again tried the run around till I went off on them and then they spoke with one of their managers, who contacted Iron Clutch and they told me Iron Clutch would call me in two days to cancel my membership . First of all, why do they need to call me? JUST DO IT! Secondly, I have been told from all fronts that ABC was the only people who could cancel my contract. Now all of a sudden it’s up to the individual chains?WTH?

  Waiting on a response.

  
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  Alex Mena replied on Aug 9, 2010

  Mr. Dobbs,

  I was unable to locate a membership in your name as it appears on this site.

  As an ABC Financial employee, I know our company strives to provide excellent customer service and satisfy our customer’s needs.

  I would be happy to review your membership to ensure it was properly cancelled. Please email me at alex.mena@abcfinancial.com or call at 1-800-622-6290 Ext. 1804.

  Alex Mena
  Data Research Anaylst

  
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  Cynthia Hall replied on Aug 31, 2010

  Hi Chip,

  I work for Iron Clutch Fitness and I hate working with ABC/Duverra as much as you did!

  From our end… We purchased what was left of LA Boxing as it was about to go under. We found out that LA Boxing had agreed to service the previous members of KnuckleUp but they didn’t own their contracts… Duverra and ABC still had them. They just provided a facility.

  So… not to displace people again, we decided to honor that agreement. I can see contracts in the ABC system to verify that they were members and should be allowed to work out… but I can’t edit the contracts. Unfortunately ABC never bothered to tell me about you, or I would have contacted you personally.

  I did look into ABC’s system just now, and if your first name is actually Claude, it looks like you have been cancelled.

  It’s really frustrating for us not to be able to help people with that!! If it were up to me we’d help you all cancel those and ask you to try Iron Clutch!

  We’ve worked so hard over here to create a facility that is eons above what Knuckle Up ever had, we’d love for people to try it out!!

  For anyone else who is stuck in an ABC contract… Unfortunately I have no power to fix them, I can only view… but I can offer you a terrific facility to work out in and classes that are equal to or better than the ones you had at the KnuckleUp. In fact, we have some instructors who used to work there!

  I can also offer a little cancellation help with ANY sports club contract… if your gym cannot produce a copy of your contract.. they cannot legally enforce it. Ask for proof.

  I’m sorry I can’t help more… Please contact me through Iron Clutch if there is anything I can do to help you.

  Cynthia

  
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  Werty Wisternoff replied on Nov 17, 2010

  I think it’s a great idea to use ABC Financial Services. Lots of online shops which sell weight loss pills use those as well

  
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  james lee replied on Jan 27, 2011

  I think you have to boycott them. This is so wrong and needs to be corrected.
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  Hamza Khan replied on Feb 21, 2011

  BC Financial continues to auto-charge gym-goers after their membership or contract is up at their gym unless they make a request to end the membership via certified mail and pay several additional monthly fees which ABC Financial auto-charges in the meantime.
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  jimmy ra replied on Mar 10, 2011

  We regret to hear your recent experience with ABC Financial Services and Omni Fitness was not a satisfactory one.As a energy trading and risk management consultant I would like the opportunity to review your account and see that proper action has been taken. We strive to address all consumer feedback, positive or negative, and want to make your situation was handled properly.

  
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  Hamza Khan replied on Mar 10, 2011

  BC Financial continues to auto-charge gym-goers after their membership or contract is up at their gym unless they make a request to end the membership via certified mail and pay several additional monthly fees which ABC Financial auto-charges in the meantime.
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