If you’ve had a health club membership, you probably know that canceling it is more challenging than your actual work out. The most reoccurring problem which people seem to have, including myself, is after the club cancels the membership they continue to withdraw funds from the member’s account. When this happens, most people usually just get frustrated, tell off the health club and never get their money back because they don’t want to waste their time figuring out the remedy. Since I had some time to waste this Saturday morning, I decided to figure out what a persons rights are in this situation.
First, in the State of Washington, the legislature has passed RCW 19.142 to protect consumers in their dealings with health clubs. Under this statute, if you’ve been a member to a health club for one year or more and you cancel your membership with 30 days written notice, then the health club cannot continue to withdraw money from your account. If they do, the health club is likely in violation of 19.142.050(1).
In addition to violating RCW 19.142.050(1), the above situation also violates the Washington State Consumer Protection Act (CPA). RCW 19.142.100 says that any violation of the Health Club statute is a violation of the CPA. Under that statute an injured party can go to court and ask the judge to award: 1) the amount of money withdrawn from the account; 2) reasonable attorney’s fees and 3) treble damages equal to three times the actual damages, but not to exceed $10,000.00.
In addition to going to court, the conduct can also be reported to the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. I assume that once the violation is reported the AG will investigate accordingly. If you are looking for more info on how to report a violation please visit the following site. http://www.atg.wa.gov/ConsumerIssues/HealthClubs/default.aspx#ViolationsOfTheLaw
Canceling a health club membership can be quite a challenge. It’s also one of those problems everyone seems to run into, but no one seems to know what their rights are. I hope that these situations quit happening to me, but if they don’t at least I am prepared to respond accordingly.
Hope you enjoyed this post and please let me know if you have any questions.
Ryan Pauley
Can i take a one small pic from your site?
Thanks
AnnaHopn
Sure thing. Thanks for visiting my blog. Feel free to visit and comment in the future.
I think i’ve seen this somewhere before…but it’s not bad at all
Thanks. I didn’t lift in from anyone else’s site, but came up with it on my own.
Rather interesting. Has few times re-read for this purpose to remember. Thanks for interesting article. Waiting for trackback
Thanks. I didn’t lift in from anyone else’s site, but came up with it on my own.
I think i’ve seen this somewhere before…but it’s not bad at all
Thanks Emily. I came up with it on my own. I have dealt with health clubs on numerous consumer violations and finally thought it was time to educate the public on their rights.
I’m really glad I’ve found this info. Today bloggers publish just about gossips and net and this is actually annoying. A good blog with exciting content, that is what I need. Thanks for keeping this web site, I’ll be visiting it. Do you do newsletters? Cant find it.