BOSTON — Thousands of people who used to be members of the defunct Boston Sports Clubs and were then charged for gym memberships by Work Out Word will be getting refunds, according to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office.
AG Maura Healey announced the settlement Tuesday.
The attorney general’s office says Work Out World has agreed to provide full refunds and pay $62,500 in penalties to resolve claims that the gym purchased BSC memberships and charged consumers without their consent.
“At a time when consumers were being strung along by BSC, Work Out World created another hassle for consumers by forcing them to either pay for or cancel gym memberships they never signed up for,” AG Healey said. “Today’s settlement secures full refunds for thousands of consumers who were impacted by Work Out World’s unlawful practices.”
Under the terms of the settlement, WOW is required to void any membership contracts obtained from BSC for their Waltham and Canton locations and provide full refunds to any of these consumers who were wrongfully charged membership fees after their accounts were transferred without their consent, according to the statement from the attorney general’s office.
The attorney general’s office says it became aware of the membership transfers through its ongoing BSC investigation
In November 2020, Healey sued BSC after the company charged consumers for membership dues when the gyms were closed, repeatedly failed to honor consumers’ membership cancellation requests, and refused to refund impacted consumers as it originally promised, according to the office’s statement.
WOW has already begun providing tens of thousands of dollars in refunds, and all remaining impacted consumers will be fully refunded automatically.
Consumers with questions about their refunds can contact WOW’s Member Services at 781-785-0168 or contact the AG’s Office at 617- 727-8400.
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