Longmont Athletic Club (LAC) Rant
When an institution has to resort to using flat out lies in order to prevent a credit card charge from getting reversed is interesting to observe, but in this day and age hardly very much out of line in the current trend to put a corporate bottom line religioulsy above everything, no matter what. However, one may ask the question: "why" - what is driving people to play those games and for what benefit?

Become successful, more popular and attract customers - hardly.

The web pages under here serve as a tool for easy access to the documents accumulated in this matter saving me having to repeat everything on different occasions.
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The Story:

End of December 2001, I knew I would not be able to access the facilities of the LAC for about two month due to a training I signed up for and I sent a fax to LAC asking them to suspend my membership for January and February and contact me by phone if there is any problem. There was no response at all, so I assumed everything was fine - or so I thought.

Then, the ordeal starts:

They charged my credit card for the full membership amount. Then I faxed to reverse the charges and refaxed the previous fax, set up an E-mail account for them. One email was received, but nothing more. Eventually, communication with this media ended in a mysterious anonymous message essentially saying: "I am not here!".

Then, I snail-mailed, mailed registered with return receipt, telling them: "Hey - don't you dare to charge my credit card again", disputed the first charge with my credit card and - they charged my credit card again, as if nothing happened.

Finally, the the story cumulates in me receiving through my credit card company a letter LAC sent to the Credit Card Chargeback department, containing 90 % outright lies. Luckily, the facts are documented, can be revealed and straighened out which I do on these web-pages.
Event - Action - Result - Log (in reverse date order)
Date Event Action Result
08/27/2003 Receive Phonecall from LAC customer The woman states that she is being charged for membership fees despite cancellation. I asked her to send me an email so it can be documented.
05/01/2003 Receive phonecall from LAC at 11:44 am, I received a phonecall from Jim Richardson, introducing himself as owner of Longmont Athletic Club in regards to this web page and stated (according to my best memory recall) the following facts:

They (LAC) have done everything right, things like that happen with employees, he is in business for many years, things are sometimes difficult, I should remove this web page, it is there for over two years, it harms his business.

I stated, why should I do this? What happened was not right. The information communicated to my Credit Card Company was total lies. This is the first time, I hear from LAC in this matter. He should send me a letter. This is not a single case, I have two other instances where people contacted me and LAC behaved in a very similar way.

He stated he consulted with lawyers how to remove this page, upon that I stated that if he wants to sue me about it, he is free to do so and he should respond in writing, we are already arguing and in dispute about it, I have no reason to remove the page and I ended the call.

Remark: It is about one year that this event happened. Recently received emails indicate that the information on this page is a resource for people to see what can happen and to make informed choices to avoid unexpected harm when dealing with this company.

  
02/05/2003 Receive email about an apparently similar case from another individual. Email is here  
12/12/2002 Receive email about an apparently similar case from another individual. Email is here.  
05/31/2002 Credit Card Company reverses, withdraws my charge and credits my account for this item.   Resolved (financially)
04/29/2002 Credit Card Company rejects my dispute for charges by LAC on 12/31/2002, also sends copies of LAC correspondence and contracts. Write per-line response, rectifying LAC's letter to the Credit Card Chargeback department. Pending
02/09/2002 Missing response from LAC, credit card charged without authorization Dispute credit card charges posted by LAC on 01/29/2002 after authorization withdrawal. Pending
01/26/2002 Missing response from LAC Inform LAC by registered mail, return receipt requested withdrawing authorization to charge my credit card to prevent yet another charge in this unresolved affair. Credit card is charged again after two days!
01/25/2002 Missing response from LAC Dispute credit card charges posted by LAC on 12/31/2001 after receiving my written request for change of status. Receive Credit Card denial on 04/29/2002
01/13/2002 Receive anonymous E-mail stating that this E-mail address I was receiving the original E-mail from has nothing to do with LAC! Send another E-mail asking to communicate by regular mail or E-mail since I won't be able to call LAC in the requested time window 9:00 am to 4:00 pm M-F until the third week of February. Send a hardcopy of E-mail by regular mail as well. No response by LAC
01/12/2002 Missing E-mail response Resend last E-mail since there was no response so far. Receive E-mail next day
01/08/2002 Receive phone message in voice mail and E-mail saying, my phone does not work! Respond with E-mail, asking to specify via E-mail "other options" mentioned in the phone message since I am healthy and would not be able to provide a medical certificate by a doctor No response by LAC
01/07/2002 They charged my credit card! Resend old fax from 12/28, with new fax asking for reversal of charge and give E-mail addess for communication. Receive E-mail and phone message next day, no reference to charge reversal.
12/28/2001 Training starting soon Fax to request membership suspension for 2 month, request return phone call, if problem. No response by LAC
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