I won a free training in this place https://ems-sportwelt.ch/ where they say you can make a 30 days trial training before you have to pay something, but for that they make you sign a lot of papers, including one with my IBAN. Since I don’t speak german, I trusted the guy and signed. I didn’t even use my trial period, I just texted on 22.april (date that the free trial would beging) and said I wasn’t interested anymore. They offered if I’d like to keep the signature for a period less than a year, I didn’t even answer, because in my e-mail it was clear that I wanted to cancel. Today I was charged with the first payment of a period of 1 year. I went to trustpilot and found out that I’m not alone in this one. I wanted to go make bad comments in their google page, but they removed it from there. I want to go to the police, but to my surprise someone told me they will do nothing (I’ll go anyway, someone is scamming people, how is it possible that police won’t do something about it??)
Anyway, any ideas of how I can hurt this company, get my money back and help people not to fall for this like I did??
https://old.reddit.com/r/Switzerland/comments/1cdczyc/what_to_do_against_fraud_in_switzerland/
Posted by Horror-Salamander-69
7 Comments
It’s an expensive lesson but, now you should have learned to never sign something you don’t understand
Go to ‘Kassensturz’ or ‘Beobachter’
Definitely complain on reddit.
Never sign anything business-or-finance related that you do not understand, that is a basic principle of life. Also not replying to them was just not smart, you tried to stick your head in the sand and have now paid the price.
This is not fraud, this is you being taken advantage by an unscrupulous business of because you did not read the terms and conditions (or get them translated) and did not follow up after the SMS to ensure you had cancelled the contract correctly.
How much is the years subscription you now need to pay? Why don’t you go to see them in person to discuss this? Otherwise your only course of action, other than writing bad reviews, is to get a lawyer.
Take it as lesson learned, never sign anything on the spot. Every contract can wait 1day or more to be signed, everything else is classic scam, pressuring people for some shitty deal to sign as quickly as possible otherwise the “deal” is off. By the way, hotel bookings among others have the same trick, they display things like “only 1 room left with that great price” etc which is simply there to pressure you. Back to the topic.
Fitness centers are known to offer not a one off entry fee, but abonnements. Basically you make a 1 year abo, and get a free month in addition. But only of you agree to the 1 year. Somehwere hidden you find the cancel agreement, which most people don’t realize. So you have to cancel your abo in time, otherwise it will automatically be extended.
IN short, this is not a fraud, just marketing and weasel tricks within legal framework, and you are evidence that it works.
Sorry op, the Swiss culture is to blame the victim, always.
Do you have household insurance? They provide free legal services for you.
When you „win“ something, it’s 90% scam.
People should stop being naive and greedy, then they won’t fall for it anymore.