YMCA Back Tracks on Deal After Signing Up

YMCA Back Tracks on Deal After Signing Up

In early February, 2008, three men from the Lake Nona YMCA approached my wife with a deal to sign up and they would waive the $150 initiation fee and they also said that this would save us money because we could use the member rate in addition to sign up our three kids for soccer and baseball which we were planning on doing anyway.

The non-member rate for the three sports was $120/kid. So my wife was promised that she could sign up for just the $95 (monthly) for the first month, then pay the $70/kid member rate for the kids� sports which would net us a savings of $55 ($360 - $210 - $95). In addition, we would get the benefit of trying out the YMCA for a month and could cancel after our first month. This was what the offer was that the Y approached my wife with (not us chasing after the Y begging for this). The Y gave my wife the kids� sign up sheets and my wife said she would talk it over with her husband (me) and get back to them on it.

The deal sounded good, so we agreed to take advantage of it and my wife wanted me to help her out by filling out the sheets and getting the kids signed up.

So I went to the Y and said we were ready to sign up under the deal that my wife was given. They said they didn�t normally waive any fees but that I could sign the kids up at the non-member rate as long as I was there, and that the refund, if any, would be given once we talk to the Y staff that offered the deal to my wife. I knew we were signing up the kids at any rate, so I signed them up knowing that if my wife wanted to take advantage of �the deal� she would need to figure that out via telephone or coming back in. I had also called my wife, while I was still there, and she told me that Dave was the one who knew about it, so I asked if Dave was available, and the overweight lady at the desk said that he was not, as he was on a business trip (which was a lie, as he was in the business office, which was in the same building, we later found out about).

After I got home, my wife and myself called the Y, and were able to speak to Dave and he admitted that yes, that was the deal and that the Y owed us $55 and that they would give us the refund.

Two weeks later and there is still no refund. So I called the Y and tried to get Dave on the phone which was tough to do. Dave said that I needed to talk to the business office and that he had explained everything to them so everyone knew the situation and I didn�t have to explain yet one more time the deal. Dave put me through to the business office and I asked about the refund. The lady at the other end said that they had been trying to reach my wife by leaving a phone message but hadn�t heard back. I told the lady that that was ok because I was my wife�s husband and they could tell me if there was an issue. The lady informed me that the refund wasn�t authorized as it was not the Y�s policy to refund the initiation fee AND the reduced sign up rate for the kids� sports. So I asked to speak with Dave again to see what happened and the lady told me that she was Dave�s supervisor and that we were getting the reduced rate since we had signed up the kids so that we were saving $150 and they couldn�t waive anything else. Dave had the same lame story after I hung up on the office manager and called him back on a different line.

So I closed my bank account on Saturday too (as the Y had authorization to take out the monthly member fees). I couldn�t trust what would be charged by them or when. I was through having anything to do with the Y now or ever. My wife still wanted the kids to play the sports and she liked working out, so we decided not to cancel anything for hers and the kid�s benefits. She finally got the Y to agree to apply the $55 credit to the 3/15/08 � 4/15/08 member fee. So, in the end we did get the net $150 initiation fee refunded, but at the cost of all the time wasted, having to close one of our checking accounts, and the headaches of having to deal with these con artists. They tried to pretend that it was a �misunderstanding� or that my wife had some how not understood what the deal was. They must have thought they were being pretty slick about the whole thing. It is not even the money that is my concern, but rather the principal that people should follow through on their word and not back track or try to squirm out of it later.