Unfair advertising

<p>On the 29 of March 2017 I was forcefully approached by a sales assistant of body lab gym at the Durban CBD at workshop. His name is Avukile and he told me to sign up at Body lab and I told him I was not interested since I am a student I don't have time or money to join a gym, then he insisted that I try out their free voucher which allows me free access to the gym for 5 days so I can check out the gym and see if I like it and can use their facilities but after the five days I would have to apply for membership and pay membership fees. I told him there was no need for that as I was rushing to get to campus. He insisted getting all physical so I took the voucher to get him out of the way. He showed me where to enter my personal details and I did and asked me should I want to take membership which payment plan was more suitable, I was unsure so he suggested the 24 months plan which you have to pay R200 a month then he told me to enter my banking details. I asked why and he said that should I ever want to apply for membership they will use these details on my voucher but if I don't want to apply or come back after the 5 day period I don't have to pay anything they will automatically cancel it. So I gave him my details. I noticed the paper was written in bold THIS IS A CONTRACT. NOT A VOUCHER. NO FREE MONTH I asked him about that and he told me not to worry about that they are using contract paper but its a voucher. So I took my copy of the voucher and a slip with a total of R4800 which is said to be the total amount should I be a member. Time went by I did not go during those five days to the gym so I took it that they did not add me as a member.</p> <p>On the 31st of May at 2:54am I get a sms notification from standard bank saying that R200 has been debited to body lab gym and I was confused since up till that moment I had not received any official welcoming as a member via SMS or even a call so there was no way that I knew that I was an official member. During the day I made my way to the bank to reverse the debit order and they did so. I printed out a statement and saw that they tried debiting money from my account on the 28 April but failed since I did not have money on the account. I asked the bank to block them from debiting money in the future but told me it was difficult at that moment since body lab gym changes their reference number all the time making it difficult to block them. So I called their land line of ********** and was put through to a consultant who later put me through to Evelyn whom I was told deals with these kinds of issues so I told her my story but she stuck to what the contract said and told me that I should have read the contract before signing even after I specifically told her that the guy deceived me into thinking it was a voucher and I believed him since they did not ask for any documents such as a certified copy of my ID and bank statement, it was done in the open in the middle of a busy street it was not a formal setting which is what I expect if I am signing a serious contract. I then told her to cancel my membership she said I can't do it over the phone I have to email her. Later I sent an email to her stating I wanted the contract to be canceled which I am still waiting for a reply. Then she told me that I was to pay the 30% cancelation fee since its written in the contract according to the CPA I asked how much would that be she told me an amount in the thousands. I was confused since its only been 2 months how could I have accumulated that money? She told me it was because I had missed first payment so I was to pay 30% of all fees including maintenance fees. I was shocked since I did not even step foot in that gym. </p> <p>I filed an affidavit at the police station so I can lodge a complaint against body lab and the employee who falsely advertised a contract to be a voucher. I did research and found that I am not the only one with this case there are many who are in the same shoes as I am with Body Lab. Clearly it is not our fault but the fault of these employees they hire to falsely advertise. And the fact that this contract is set to benefit Body Lab whatever the outcome, says a lot about this company. My contract no. Is 435871 any help will be appreciated. </p>