From: rjr@idm.com (Ray J Rueb)
Subject: Re: So you want to join a Bally's Health Club?  Read this...
Summary: Grow up
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 01:05:37 GMT
Organization: Information Data Management

Note: My comments are meant to be adult and confrontive in nature.
Please do not interpret my comments as FLAMES. They are not.
Please stay adult, read on... and learn.

In article <69379@cup.portal.com> Eric_J_Rainbolt@cup.portal.com writes:
> 
>I am writing to resolve a very hectic, and sticky situation that
>I feel partially guilty for.
What I'm hearing you say is that you know you did something wrong.
I agree.

>Last summer, when living with my parents in Evergreen Park, Illinois, a
>suburb of Chicago, I decided to improve my self-image and the like by
>joinging Bally's Health Club in the neighboring town of Oak Lawn.
I feel concerned by this statement.
My self-image comes from how I view myself, and how I fell about myself.
I feel that looking outside myself for my self-image is destructive.

>I was led in by a manager named Jim.
You make it sound as though you had given up all of your power to him.
Do you often turn over control of your life to other people?

>He told me all the benifits of
>membership, and made me feel as much at home in the Center as possible.
>He even told me that I can join at the "special time" and receive the
>Premier-Plus membership for a low introductory fee of $50.00 cash up
>front.  He took me into his office, and pulled a contract out of his desk.
>He spent most of his time trying to gain my trust by asking what I was
>interested in, and tried to relate these things to the Center's activities.
>In short, he was doing his job effectively.
I'm glad that you recognize that he was being a good salesman.
That's his job, and if he couldn't do it effectively,
he wouldn't be doing it for long.

>He used his ball point pen
>to point out important facts of the contract, and he circled the ones we went
>over.  Most of the circles highlighted the benefits of membership.
This is unimportant. It doesn't matter what you discussed or didn't discuss.

>I told him exactly what my situation was.  I said I was only going to be in
>town for the next two months, and I didn't want to be liable for a full
>year's membership.  ( $600.00 odd dollars ).
This is where I feel you really went wrong.
You were trying to make him responsible for your life;
ie: please take care of me...
This does not sound like a responsible adult who is accountable
for their actions.

>He said that was "no problem",
>because if I showed proof that I moved more than 30 miles from the
>Center, I wouldn't be held liable for any additional payments.  Now
>I realize that he just told me a lie.  Or he was displaying his lack of
>knowledge of the contract.
You're playing the victim role here.
You feel betrayed because he didn't take care of you.
Poor you.
Forget it... no sympathy from me.
You chose to give up control of your life.

>The trouble all started because I didn't read all the fine print.
No, the trouble all started because you don't feel accountable for your actions.
When I give up control of my life,
I am doing it BECAUSE I don't want to be accountable for my actions.
When I feel accountable for my actions, I take responsibility for myself.
This is what I call being an adult.

>>>>>>>
Eric went on in gorey detail to explain how much he had been
victimized by others:
first by the manager, then by corporate headquarters,
then by the attack-dog collection agency.

I found it very amusing when Eric was surprised that his victim act didn't get
him anywhere with the collection agency.
No shit.
Collection agencies eat victims like popcorn...
welcome to the real world.

I do have to give his mother some credit though...
she seems to have stayed out of it without alienating Eric.
A nice piece of work.
With Eric so quick to give up responsibility for himself,
I can only wonder at how she avoided the parental temptation to ``fix'' her son.
Maybe she wants him to ``unfix'' himself.
Get some balls Eric... SERIOUSLY!!! c'mon, you can do it.

I did like this exchange between Eric and Bally corporate in Michigan:
>"Yes, but it IS in the CONTRACT, in plain black and white."
> 
>"Can I talk to someone a little higher up in the organization, like
>the people who train Club manager's for instance."
> 
>"Sorry, sir, I can't give out that inforamtion."
Good for that person. Stay away from that victim shit.


The real problem (and the reason I am writing this) came at the end...
>I hung up on him, and called Bally Headquaters.  After a long wait, I
>was talking to Mike again. This time he checked with his superiors, and
>told me that [attack dog] guy was just trying to scare money out of me, and
>that Bally would take care of everything once "they" received my fifty bucks.
My philosophy is:
	Life keeps presenting lessons to me for me to learn.
	As long as I haven't learned that lesson,
	life will keep presenting it to me until I learn it.
	Once I've learned a lesson, I move on to the next lesson.
Eric clearly hasn't learned his lesson yet.
Now he's giving control of his life over to Bally corporate.

>I am now sending the letter out, and the fifty bucks to Bally in
>hopes of clearing up this matter for once and for all.
>
>I hope that I haven't been misled again, and this will clear up
>matters once and for all.

This may or may not work in this situation. It doesn't matter.
The real issue is that you are not taking responsibility for your life.
You are willing to do what THEY tell you to do and
sit back and hope, hope, hope, hope, hope, hope, hope, hope, hope, hope
victim, victim, victim, victim, victim, victim, victim, victim, victim

Instead of all this crap, do something positive about your life.
See a therapist.
Or since you've said how poor you are, call 312-WARRIOR a low cost
alternative to conventional therapy for men.

Give up this victim crap and take charge of your life.

>Eric Rainbolt
> Any similar stories out there?
Yes, I too am a recovering victim.

Ray
312-764-0313 if you want to talk.
Newsgroups: chi.general,uiuc.general