Additional Fees

There is nothing more frustrating than "processing" charges. When I wanted to remove a dual membership from the Y, they charged me $25. For what? Remove the other name from my account. Here, hand me your computer and I'll do it for free!

In February I signed up for the Iron Girl Duathlon. I did it through their website to save on printing a piece of paper, using and envelope, finding a stamp and walking to the nearest mail box. You know what I got in return? A $59.95 charge a month later. There was a hidden Trial Membership charge. I say "hidden" because I have since gone through all of my documentation from registering and cannot find any mention of that charge in the fine print. The fine print was probably on the page where I purchased the event registration and once I hit submit it was never to be seen again. Luckily I do look at my credit card bill - in detail, and when I saw this charge I was floored. It also didn't show up as the same vendor as the original Iron Girl registration purchase (insert expletive here).

The good news is that I was able to call Active.com (the organization that handles the processing and thus charged me a membership fee) and the charge was fully refunded - with no questions asked. I didn't even have to talk to someone's supervisor.

I am very good at reading the fine print, which is why this pissed me off even more. Sometimes you cannot avoid additional charges, like at the Y for example. But don't let yourself get bullied into paying for crap that, well, is crap.

Should this happen to you the phone number to call for Active.com is 877-228-4881.

Thank you and have a nice day.