Fitness connection Personal trainig review: contract clause “minimum 30-day advance notice” to terminate contract 2

Ultra Body Fitness (UBT) out of Fla
Contract to provide personal training at Fitness Connection gym Baytown, TX is provided by Ultra Body Fitness (UBT). UBT has a sleazy little contract clause “minimum 30-day advance notice” to terminate contract or else the contract renovates. No notices are sent, no emails, no calls, the gym does not warn, the trainers do not warn. Six months later or a year later…BOOM you get hit with automatic renewal. You have to send a cancelation letter (certified) and if it does not get there in the required time, you pay. My contract was up 4/6/12. My cancelation letter arrived 3/14/12. I was hooked with an unwanted renewal. You must cancel before your last payment is due. In my case, they had to receive my cancel notice on or before 3/6/12. What a joke, trying to squeeze a few dollars from the customers. Try to stop payment. They hit you with late fees, processing fees; re-submit fees, until they feel its time to sell the debt to a collection agency. My $240.00 could easily turn into $400-500 dollars. With no other option available I paid the “renewal fee” as stated in their invoice. Do not sign on this clause. Their argument is that the clause is there to protect you from rate increases. Do not believe them…if they had benign intentions the money would be returned once the customer indicated they are not interested in a renewal, without road blocks. Regrettably, they are hoping you forget so they can stiff you with a renewal. Bad predatory and aggressive merchant practice!
Note: Affiliated acceptance corporation does thier billing. In truth there are 3-4 companies working together its hard to tell if they all fall under the same umbrella.