What is the name of your state? Virginia
This is long, but I would really appreciate any help you guys can give on this matter.
I had a contract with a martial arts school for one year of lessons. The last few months of which I couldn’t attend due to other issues. That’s no problem, though, I paid the last payments anyway. Those payments were automatically billed to my check card. I didn’t notice, but hey continued to charge me after the agreed upon date (01/25/05 was the last payment as per the contract) on the contract. They deducted a payment from my check card for one month (02/25/05) and sent me a bill for another months payment (03/25/05). They sent me a bill for the second over-payment because my check card expired before they charged me. That’s what actually got my attention. I didn’t notice they were still charging me since I was so used to paying them every month for a year. I called the company that does the billing for my martial arts school and told them I only singed up for one year of lessons and had been charged two months over that. They told me that my account was marked for automatic renewal. I checked my copy of my contract and the “Renewal Agreement Information” area of the contract was not filled out or the box checked whatsoever. They told me I needed to clear this up with the martial arts school myself and that they (the billing company) couldn’t do anything about it. So, for the last several days I’ve left messages and emails at my martial arts school with no response. I can’t really go there since I went to a satellite location (just a room in a Gold’s Gym with non-paid instructors that have nothing to do with the academies finances)and the main school is quite a distance from my house. This is a holiday weekend, so I’m not going to panic, but just incase they give me a hard time, I’d like to know my rights. I’ll cut my loses on the one over-payment that was already taken from my check card, but I don’t think I should have to pay the second bill they sent me.
I know I’m rambling…
The bottom line is: I signed up for 12 months of lessons with a total tuition of x amount of dollars in 11 payments and a down payment. I paid x amount of dollars in 11 payments, the down payment, plus one extra payment and now one unpaid bill sitting on my desk. No renewal was agreed to under the contract, yet the billing company says my account is flagged as renewed and is continuing to bill me (and tack on “Return Item Fees” every 15 days to every bill they send me).
How can I get this cleared up? I have to get this auto-renewal cancelled and have the bill I was just sent canceled.
THANK YOU to everyone who read all of that and have a happy Easter!
This is long, but I would really appreciate any help you guys can give on this matter.
I had a contract with a martial arts school for one year of lessons. The last few months of which I couldn’t attend due to other issues. That’s no problem, though, I paid the last payments anyway. Those payments were automatically billed to my check card. I didn’t notice, but hey continued to charge me after the agreed upon date (01/25/05 was the last payment as per the contract) on the contract. They deducted a payment from my check card for one month (02/25/05) and sent me a bill for another months payment (03/25/05). They sent me a bill for the second over-payment because my check card expired before they charged me. That’s what actually got my attention. I didn’t notice they were still charging me since I was so used to paying them every month for a year. I called the company that does the billing for my martial arts school and told them I only singed up for one year of lessons and had been charged two months over that. They told me that my account was marked for automatic renewal. I checked my copy of my contract and the “Renewal Agreement Information” area of the contract was not filled out or the box checked whatsoever. They told me I needed to clear this up with the martial arts school myself and that they (the billing company) couldn’t do anything about it. So, for the last several days I’ve left messages and emails at my martial arts school with no response. I can’t really go there since I went to a satellite location (just a room in a Gold’s Gym with non-paid instructors that have nothing to do with the academies finances)and the main school is quite a distance from my house. This is a holiday weekend, so I’m not going to panic, but just incase they give me a hard time, I’d like to know my rights. I’ll cut my loses on the one over-payment that was already taken from my check card, but I don’t think I should have to pay the second bill they sent me.
I know I’m rambling…
The bottom line is: I signed up for 12 months of lessons with a total tuition of x amount of dollars in 11 payments and a down payment. I paid x amount of dollars in 11 payments, the down payment, plus one extra payment and now one unpaid bill sitting on my desk. No renewal was agreed to under the contract, yet the billing company says my account is flagged as renewed and is continuing to bill me (and tack on “Return Item Fees” every 15 days to every bill they send me).
How can I get this cleared up? I have to get this auto-renewal cancelled and have the bill I was just sent canceled.
THANK YOU to everyone who read all of that and have a happy Easter!