This is a case of Discover card FAIL followed by a Discover card WIN.

In early December, Bally Fitness sold the bulk of it’s health clubs to LA Fitness.

As you might have heard in local business news, the transfer was not handled very well by Bally or LA Fitness.

Well, to add insult to injury, Bally almost screwed me over.

In late November, they charged my Discover card $240 for my annual renewal … unfortunately, I had never approved the charge.

I knew my membership was up for renewal, but hadn’t gotten my normal notifications.

Well, after the club sale … I went over to the Schaumburg “Bally” club (now LA Fitness) to talk to a manager.

Turns out, according to the records that Bally had sent over to LA Fitness, my membership (which was $240 / year) had already lapsed and they showed a zero balance on my account.  Well, that was annoying … because I knew that Bally had charged my credit card.  They gave me a printout of my account balance as proof.

The “Upgrade” membership that LA Fitness was offering was actually slightly less costly than what I had been paying Bally … by about $12 / year.  PLUS they guaranteed that the rate would never rise (I’ve got this on paper).

After I signed up with LA Fitness, did my workout, and got home … I logged on to the Discover website and took the option to dispute the charge … I uploaded a copy of the account printout that LA Fitness had given me.

After about a week, I got a note from Discover card …

After reviewing the case, it appears this information has already been taken into consideration or is insufficient to continue the investigation.

If you have further questions, please contact BALLY FITNSS directly. If you find new or additional information regarding this transaction that you have not shared with us, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to continue working on this with you.

Well this was annoying … because anyone I contacted at Bally told me to contact LA Fitness, and LA Fitness told me to contact Bally.

A day later, about the time I was going to call Discover card and complain … I got another note from them …

We’re happy to inform you that BALLY FITNSS 866-402-2559 CA issued a credit in the amount of $240.00 on 12/16/11 for the transaction you asked us to investigate.

OK … I guess some of the communication in Discover is a bit delayed.

The interesting thing is … Discover didn’t give me ANY information about what they did regarding the investigation … they just told me that they weren’t honoring the dispute.  It would have been nice if they had stated that the dispute wasn’t being pursued because Bally was issuing a refund.

Oh well.