Turpitude

The following letter is part of a public discussion initiated by Uriel's letter of Dec. 9, 2005 objecting to management abuses at his Toronto squash club (which is part of the Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. empire). See index for list of letters in the discussion.

From: Uriel Wittenberg
To: Jodi Wellman
Cc: [numerous Northridge club members]
Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 11:14 AM
Subject: Turpitude

"We reserve the right to revoke or suspend your membership, without refund...."

Uh, Jodi, the sentence in the contract doesn't end there. It continues:

...if you or your guest fail to follow any rules and regulations, for reasons of nuisance, disturbance of other members, moral turpitude or fraud.... [etc.]

Let's think about this. Until I publicly objected^[1], you folks had ads in the men's locker room promoting www.simple-seduction.com, an advice service offering "Dirty Little Tricks" to teach men how to pick women up "repetitively" and promising a money-back "Get Laid Guarantee." (Featured testimonial: "I love the feeling of being able to have 2 girls at once and them not knowing about it, thanks to you guys.")

Now you're going to accuse me of moral turpitude?

With regard to my fees, you write: "by cancelling your December payment with us, we in essence allowed you to workout without charge for the month."

Actually, you're cancelling my December payment because even you realize you can't charge me for December after you've barred me from entry since the middle of December.

Let me repeat that the cancellation request you keep referring to never happened. I did tell fellow members I'd be requesting cancellation at the end December. When you got wind of it you barred me immediately, with zero days' notice. That puts you in breach of our contract. Again.^[2]

My plan in requesting cancellation wasn't to make a gift to the club of my initiation fee. After all, it was the club's fault, not mine, that I was quitting, so there was no reason why Bally should keep the initiation fee, and I would have asked for it back. You don't pay an initiation fee for just six months' membership.

There was something quite fishy about my $125 initiation fee in the first place. A year ago, Deborah Halioua was touting the benefits of membership by telling me that if in future I quit (e.g. to go abroad), I could pay a low initiation fee — only $49 — to re-join later as a former member.^[3] Well, though she didn't realize it then, I was a former member at that point. (I was a member about 10 years ago.) So why was I charged $125 initiation last May? It seems certain membership benefits only apply when they're in the future, not when they're now.

If we cannot agree on cancellation terms, then perhaps I will just postpone my departure from Northridge til my 12 months are up next May. (I would require a refund for the portion of December you refused me admittance.) Please advise promptly, since Northridge's C and D teams need to know if I am joining them in their contest tonight.

Sincerely yours,

Uriel

[1]     —in my public message of March 17, 2005, reproduced at Breach of contract by the Northridge Club.

[2]     Last March too, management repudiated a perfectly valid, legal contract they had signed. They eventually reversed their position and agreed to honor it. See Breach of contract by the Northridge Club.

[3]     See my public message of March 09, 2005, reproduced at Breach of contract by the Northridge Club.