The Gym Story

So, I'm opening my monthly Visa bill and notice it's a bit higher than normal. I go through each item and notice membership dues for my gym. Which is fine except... I quit the gym when I moved homes back in February!!!

How on earth this is the first time I noticed that they were still charging me is beyond me. So I called them (calmly) to explain the situation. They refer me to a woman in their accounts department and I explain my dilemna. She tells me that she can't access my file right now because it's after hours (6:45 p.m.). I sort of say "oookay", not condescending or anything, I just responded.

Then this woman LOSES IT on me! She gets all angry because the system is shut down, and it shuts down at 6 p.m. EVERY DAY, and if I don't BELIEVE HER, that's my problem! I quickly back down and just say I believe her.

She calms down a bit and says she can call me tomorrow afternoon. So I repeat to her: tomorrow afternoon, okay. She then gets angry again, saying that's the earliest she can get back to me because she starts at 12 p.m. every day and has other things to do, blah blah blah. I'm totally fine with this and tell her so. "It's fine; I just wanted to know when you'd get back to me." I even try to be overly friendly as we finish our discussion.

The next morning at about 10, she calls back and says she has my file. It was their fault, much apologies, etc. I say it's fine (and really, I haven't once expressed anger over this; was probably an error) and thank her. Then she launches into: "See, I told you I'd call you back. We're not trying to screw anyone here." I say I agree with her.

Then (what an idiot I am) I ask her for the balance that will be credited to my Visa. She gets upset and says she's JUST closed my file, and now she has to reaccess it. This was forty-five seconds earlier. A bit of a huff, and then she tells me the amount. "You quit the gym at a really weird time," she says. I would think most people sign up for a gym early on in the year, so not sure why February would be all that weird. But fine. Whatever.

As I'm thanking her (just wanted to get off the phone, really), she asks why I left the gym in the first place. I'm tempted to say because of the bureacracy in getting a charge reversed, but instead, I just tell her the truth -- I'm no longer close to that location, and if I put myself son to bed at 9 p.m., and they close at 11 p.m., AND they're a 25-minute drive away, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Her response? "Okay" (click). That was it! She hung up on me!

Weird, weird, weird...