Bait and Switch is illegal

Bait and Switch is an illegal tactic in which a seller advertises a product with the intention of persuading customers to purchase a more expensive product. This tactic can be considered false advertising.

In the case of Merritt Athletic Club, members who signed up before the club was opened were shown schematic drawings of the outdoor pool with a dome on it and told they would be able to swim all year long.

With this in mind, many of us transferred our gym memberships from clubs with indoor pools to Merritt.

Now that fall is fast approaching we have learned no dome will be constructed in the near future.  If we want to swim year round we must pay substantial fees to join an additional Merritt Club that has a pool.

The immediate problems are as follows:

•          Many of us depend on swimming as our main source of exercising.
•          Some of us must swim year round as a form of physical therapy.
•          Paying additional fees for what we were promised is not an option

o   Our Merritt membership, no matter the pre-opening price is, for many of us, is already double or triple our old gym memberships.

o   At our old gyms we were paying reduced fees because of our extended long term relationship with them. If we must rejoin an old gym it will cost us more.

The bottom line is that we want; we need; what was promised by Merritt. We want to swim year round without incurring additional fees.