On August 5, 2006, I purchased a Bally Total Fitness membership from a friend for $400. On said day, I paid the required $100 transfer fee to Bally Total Fitness and filled out the paperwork, as required for the 'Person-to-Person' transfer, securing all rights to the original contract. At the time of transfer, the membership had been paid in full and the monthly renewal dues of $6.36 were current to September 3, 2006. The monthly membership renewal dues had remained at $6.36 since 1998. On August 12, 2006, I requested via email a copy of my original contract. I received a response via email on August 14, 2006, with confirmation that the contract would be sent. In the email, was also offered some 'special offers'. I became suspicious when I read that these prepayment 'special offers', were all at a higher price than the monthly $6.36 I was told I would be paying. My suspicions were heightened even more when I fraudulently received a partial, two page, one-sided, copy of the membership contract. Excluded were the back pages of the original contract, containing all articles and reference to whether future dues could increase, or would remain the same, as they have since 1998. I right away requested the full contract, which I have not received, and doubt that it was even sent, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, my friend from whom I purchased the contract had been out of town during this time, and I thought I possibly might have misunderstood him on the point of the dues remaining the same. So, I made 22 month prepayments in the amount of $6.36. The following day, the dues increased to $14.84. So I used the 'special offer' offered me in the email of 12 months prepayment for $89.04 three times. Even though $89.04 was charged to my credit card 3 times, and is currently reflected as being charged 3 times, you only gave me credit for one of the 12 months. With that additional year, the dues increased to $20.65. That is an increase from $6.36/month to $14.84/month, after a 22 month add-on. Then to $20.60/month, after an additional 12 month add-on. This calculation, they said, was figured by the dues which were subject to increase by $1.00, 10%, or the Consumer Price Index/year, plus any applicable taxes. This increase is based on the presumption that either the Consumer Price Index or taxes are going to skyrocket by the year 2009, or they have a new kind of math. My friend from whom I purchased the contract returned and assured me that I had not misunderstood; the monthly dues of $6.36 are for life with no further increases. The payments I had made in advance and at a higher price were not only unnecessary, but based on false information. This confirmed my suspicions that the non-disclosure of the full contract, and the information I had been repeatedly given by them about the dues suddenly increasing, for the first time in 9 years was actually fabricated, and was an attempt to acquire an increased financial gain. I regret having any association with Bally Total Fitness. I am bewildered as to why a company with over one billion dollars in annual revenue, would go to such great lengths to exploit as much money as possible from a member. Unfortunately, this is not a new scenario; eg. The case of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer vs Bally Total Fitness, where not only financial restitution was made, due to over 600 complaints to the New York office within a five year period, but sales practice reform was mandated; This despite the company's 1989 promise to 'shape up', and the FTC mandated sales reformation of Bally Total Fitness in 1994. Within the last, current 36 months, 2990 complaints against Bally Total Fitness, Inc., have been made to the LA Better Business Bureau. Of the 2990 complaints, 2010 were agreed legitimate and compensation was made. The website 'Recreation Management', featured an article entitled 'What goes around comes around when you give customer relations more than lip service'. In said article, Bob Stewart, former assistant vice president of customer relations at Bally Total Fitness stated, 'We know that if we provide excellent service to our members and show that we value their business by our actions, they will eventually refer their friends and family, renew their memberships and purchase additional products and services.' These are truly words to ponder.