Contemporary Cinderella

FITNESS FIRST LIED TO AND STOLE FROM US

On May 26, 2006, my companion and I were induced to join Fitness First SM Southmall because of the so-called promo (membership fee was waived, we only had to pay P1,690 upfront in cash for the administration fee each) which was supposedly to be available only for the next three (3) days. We specifically indicated that we would be paying on cash basis. The membership consultant, Sai, said that this was fine but we still had to submit credit card information of a relative or a friend for their auto-debit facility for their security. As I understood, in this case, our membership would not be complete until we completed the credit card information. The first monthly due would be collected on June 25 and every 25^th thereafter or through the credit card.

It turns out that we could not find anyone willing to give us their credit card information. Their membership supervisor Shaun gave my mother a call to convince her to give the credit card information but she still wouldn’t as they even require a photocopy of the credit card. As a diligent credit card holder, she was not willing to have her card photocopied.

I constantly contacted them with the dilemma and even went back to them twice on June 7 and June 22 to ask for a refund instead since they could not give a viable alternative for us to complete our application due to our not finding anyone willing to lend their credit card although we were willing to go on cash basis (a show of good faith).

And, surprise, they still have the promo ongoing when we went back on June 22.

On the June 7 discussion, I was told I ought to talk to their supervisor Shaun and was led to believe that he could either present a solution or give us our money back. When we went back on June 22, I was passed from consultant to consultant; I spoke with 4 or 5 different people before they had Shaun speak to me, who apparently couldn’t give us our money (P1,690 x 2 persons = P3,380). He suggested that I sue Fitness First for that amount instead. Where is the customer service in this situation?

They blatantly lied to us about the duration of the promo. That’s a very simple case of misrepresentation, which led to the inducement our application and paying the P1,690 each. Article 1338 explaining dolo causante or causal fraud says that there is “fraud when, through insidious words or machinations of one of the contracting parties, the other is induced to enter into a contract which, without them, he would not have agreed to.” Insidious as opposed to honest and fair.

They would not return the money they collected which wasn’t due. Solutio indebiti. In response, they tell us their administration fee of P1,690 is non-refundable and even showed me their contract. The contract says “5a) All Members shall pay a Joining Fee and an Administration Fee of the sums specified by the Management, which fees are non-refundable and shall become due immediately upon the acceptance of the applicant as a Member…” They tried to explain that the administration fee now served as a reservation fee, which needless to say, are two entirely different things. We paid P1,690 each for a mere application form and did not get any benefit from Fitness First. It’s a very simple case of solutio indebiti. From the Civil Code, Art. 2154, “If something is received when there is no right to demand it, and it was unduly delivered through mistake, the obligation to return it arises.” How could the P1,690 administration fee be non-refundable when it should not have been collected in the first place? We derived no benefit at all yet we had shown that we wanted to pursue membership. Our membership was nowhere near complete as we still had the 3 original pages of the application form. We were lied to and our money was collected when it should have been collected only upon completion of the credit card information on the application form.). So just please give our money back. Please do what’s right.