Woman charged for canceled gym membership finally gets refund thanks to 7 On Your Side

UNION CITY, New Jersey (WABC) -- A woman from Union City turned to 7 On Your Side to help get her money back after being billed despite opting out of her gym membership.

Lydia Vega, a underemployed temp worker who handles emergency response, had lost almost $1,000 and basically made it her full-time job to retrieve the money she was entitled to.

Vega had a right to the refund, the gym's documents showed the refunds as processed, but the money was missing since last May.

Vega worked as a case manager for a global company which in disaster recovery, but with cuts last year, she got let go and could no longer afford the personal training portion of her gym membership she was relying on to stay on track with her health and weight goals.

Vega reluctantly canceled her contract in person as required by the gym policy on May 2, and the recurring charge of $440 on her credit card was supposed to stop. The gym said it processed a refund, but a month later when it never showed up, they blamed Vega.

"They challenged my disputes," Vega said. "They temporarily put it back, but kept going back and forth."

Vega followed up with the her gym branch, the corporate office and the third party which handles the chargebacks, along with her bank, the dispute department and the escalation team.

She then got 7 On Your Side involved, and as soon as we contacted the credit card company, we got this statement:

"Good news - we were able to quickly investigate the matter, and I wanted to share that the issue was resolved as desired by the customer," the company said. "The customer recently received two letters on 2/8/2024 advising the customer that the credits were issued."

Vega is starting a new temp job and got her $880 plus interest.

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