As a local business owner, I wanted to join a fitness club to stay at my mental and physical peak. I tried to join Sport & Health Clubs, Inc. a number of times because they were close to my house and work.

But I found their sales pratices are very sketchy, full of lies, and very deceptive. There is nothing more I hate than a liar. I will never deal with them again.

Here is what has transpired with my attempt to join their gym. Every lie and deceptive thing they tried on me; and I included the letter that I sent to their company President, twice, with no response. Finally I reported them to the Better Business Bureau. They even lied to them in their response.

12/19/05 - I contacted Sport and Health for a trial pass to see if it was right for me. Alex Smith was assigned to me. He said that the $199 enrollment fee was being waived for that month and would be back to $199 in Jan. He gave me pricing on a 1-yr, 1-person, military discount - $35 month. I told him I already had commitments for the holidays and would be going out of town at the end of the week and would not be back until after the 1st. I told him I would stop in when I got back.

At that time I had my book keeper allocate money to my personal budget to cover this for the year.

1/3/06 – I contacted Alex and told him I was back in town. He said the enrollment fee for that month was $49 and the same $35 for the monthly dues as stated before. Lie #1: He said the enrollment fee would be back to $199 that month, but this time he says $49.

I asked him to honor the previous agreement we had talked about in 12/05, explaining I already had my funds for the year allocated based on his original quote. He told me “No” like he didn’t care. I don’t like being lied to, so I held off from joining.

3/8/06 – Towards the end of the first quarter business has been going well, I decided I wanted to attempt to join again. I contacted Alex who told me the enrollment fee was $99 that month and the monthly dues were the same as quoted before - $35/month.

3/13/06 - I told him I would be in on Friday to meet with him. He then told me there was an Open House (3/14) the next day where there would be multiple membership discounts. I asked him what they were, to see if it was worth re-arranging my schedule for, he said he wouldn’t know until then, but there would be at “LEAST 50%” off the enrollment fee. So I decided to re-arrange my schedule and head in the next day to see what he had to offer.

3/14/06 – When I arrived, it looked to be an ordinary day. Lie #2: He said there would be an Open House.

When I met with him, he said that the enrollment fee was $33 for that month. Lie #3: He tried to be deceptive and disguise the “multiple membership discounts” as the flat $33 enrollment fee for the joining rate. There were no other discounts.

As for monthly fees for 1-yr, 1-person, military discount would be $38.21/month. Lie #4: He told me that the monthly dues were the same as he quoted before back on 3/8 - $35.

Then he insults me by saying, “what is the extra $3 a month going to break you”.

As a business owner, I have a very strict budget and the rest of my money is allocated in my business and other investments for the year. That is the reason I allocated enough funds at the beginning of the year to cover the dues that he originally quoted me on 12/19/05.

We talked about ways to get the monthly dues down by doing a 2-year agreement and possibly bringing someone else under my account.
For the rest of the month I tried to find a colleague to bring under my account with no real commitment.

3/31/06 – 4/1/06 – I tried calling Alex both days to come in and sign up for the $33 enrollment fee, $33.96 month for 2-yr, 1-person, military discount, but he was not in. I left a message for him with the person at the front desk both times. I never got a call back.

4/3/06 – I finally found someone willing to join, so I was going to stop by and sign up for the 2-yr, 2-person, military discount. I asked if all the fees were still the same as last time we talked and he said yes. I told him I would stop by when I got back from Richmond the next day.

4/4/06 – I call him, he is not in. I left him yet another message at the front desk and sent him an email, because he never called me back from the previous messages.

4/6/06 – He emails me back that all monthly dues are the same, being deceptive and omitting the enrollment fee, even though I asked on 4/3 if all the fees were the same. He also states he will not be in until Saturday that someone else could help me.

I replied back to his email and explicitly asked him about the enrollment fee, since he didn’t mention it. I also stated that I would try to come in the next day that I had to go back to Richmond or I would just see him on Saturday. I never got a reply.

4/7/06 – After getting back from Richmond early, I decided to stop in. I asked for a Membership Consultant. Guess who comes out, Alex! Lie #5: He said he wasn’t going to be working that day.

I asked him what he was doing there and he said he decided to come in for a few hours. Then we went to his office, where he said he had just sent me an email. I hadn’t been back into office since leaving Richmond so I hadn’t read it yet.

He tells me there is a $99 enrollment fee for that month. At that point, I had been pushed past my limit of being tolerant with his actions.

I asked him again to honor what he quoted before, since I went out of my way to find someone and bring under my account and had my book keeper re-allocate my personal budget to cover any shortages based on his last quote (he so conveniently likes to change).

I also stated I had also called several times and left a message for him before the end of the prior month. He then insulted me again by basically calling me a liar and questioning my integrity. Then he told me “No”.

I told him I wasn’t going to sign up after constantly being lied to. He basically quickly ended our conversation by saying that he would call me if there was another Open House or the enrollment fee was discounted, but he didn’t foresee any of those happening for the rest of the year; and quickly escorted me out of his office.

Lie #6: After leaving I called the front desk and asked them when they have Open House and was told at least once a month. Alex says that he didn’t foresee any upcoming Open Houses or discounted enrollment Fees for the rest of the year.

I then asked the front desk when the last Open House was and was told 3/31. Alex told me that 3/14 was an Open House which corresponds to Lie #3 above.

After getting back into office and checking my email, I find Alex’s reply to my previous email. He states that the enrollment fee is normally $99. Lie #8: On correspondence from 1/3/06 he states that the fee is normally $199. Then he states that $33 was only for March.

Then he makes another insulting statement, “to let him know if I can still afford it” and we can setup a time for me to come in. I can afford memberships for more people than he can sign up in a year and many times over, but that isn’t the point.

He consistently lied to me and after having my book keeper re-arrange my personal budget several times to cover the shortages where he kept changing the quotes.

Not counting finding the person to bring in under my account, getting them to commit to it, and then having to tell them it wasn’t going to happen. I just told them the truth that Alex Smith at Sport & Health kept lying to me and changing the pricing around.

Here is the letter I sent to their company President - Mitchel Wald - twice. I never got a response:

RE: Unacceptable Sales Practices

Sport & Health Clubs, Inc.
Attn: Mitchel Wald
1953 Gallows Road, STE 590
Vienna, VA 22182

Dear Mitchel Wald:

This letter is to inform you of a recent, to say the least, unpleasant and unacceptable experience with a Membership Consultant at your Fredericksburg (Central Park) location.

I have made multiple attempts to join since December 2005. Throughout this experience I have been dealing with Alex Smith who has not only been deceptive and dishonest, but arrogant, condescending and flat out insulting. He has wasted more of my time than the membership is worth. Not counting the time it took me to document this experience.

As a business owner myself, I would defiantly want this type of behavior brought to my attention. If anyone in my organization ever treated our clients this way, they would no longer work here, bottom line.

Attached is a timeline of the facts that have taken place over the last few months.

I hope you as the President of Sport & Health, Inc. do not condone or support this type of sales strategy within your organization.

I want to know specifically how this matter is going to be addressed by your company’s management.

Finally I wrote the Better Business Bureau including a copy of the letter I sent to Sport & Health Clubs, Inc. and the events that have transpired. After a few weeks this is the response "word for word" they sent to the BBB, written by Ashley an Executive Assistant:

We have monthly promotions each month with different offers - this is a standard in our industry.

We also just lowered our monthly dues across the company.

We contacted this person and explained that.

As you can see continued lies even at the Executive level within the company. Not once did they contact me directly. Nor did they address the sales practices that were at the root of the complaint.

I attempted to contact the Better Business Bureau to follow-up and let them know that this didn't address my original concerns and their response was a flat out lie. The BBB never responded to my follow-up.

It is really sad that anybody has to go to such extremes to begin with. But what is even sadder is that you can't rely on the BBB to assist in these matters - that is one of the purposes for turning to the BBB.

But in the end, they got what they deserved. Another big fitness center - American Family Fitness - is now open. It has really hurt Sport & Health Clubs, Inc. Hopefully over time driving them out of business.