Collections Case from a Business

[Anonymous]

I've tried finding information on google pertaining to my case, but haven't been able to do so! Please help!

Summary: gym membership. I put down a credit card. Gym truly sucks; false advertising. I chargeback through Amex and win the case. The gym/business sends me to collections.

Most of the info I found online detailed my rights under FDCPA, as well as the process on disputing it, BUT THEY ENTAILED CREDITORS AND NOT BUSINESSES.

Here's what I got:
-Written email complaints as to their failure to deliver the promised services, paired with a lack of response from them each time
-NO signed contract. When I opened my gym membership, they just emailed me a PDF with auto-filled info of my name and address (without my apartment number), but NO signature on my end

Now they're saying that I owe them money and that they will send me to collections.
Can they do so? And if they do, can I still use the argument of requiesting verification or proof of validity of the debt as my defense, since there is no contract?
Or should I also add into my argument that they used false advertising, and that there is no written or signed contract to begin with?

[Kree]

Can they do that?  yes, yes they can.

The important question is "What can be done in response?"   The answer is, sue them, if you feel like there is no legal debt.  You might need to jump through some hurdles with waiting until its reported on your credit, then complaining, then stuff. I'm not actually clear on the specifics. A lawyer would be better able to answer.

[RobertEG]

A debt collector is defined under the FDCPA as one who is collecting on a debt that was or is owed to another.

It is not limited to debt that is incurred based on extension of credit.  Just as the FCRA permits reporting of credit and business transactions that produce a debt, the FDCPA permits collection on business or credit debts.

The issue of your obligation for an asserted debt is one that is decided by  a court based on the terms of the agreement, written or oral, that created the debt.  You can always try to convince a judge that you incurred no debt, but absence of a written contract will not necessarily be dispositive.  I would likely find it difficult to testify in court that you did not consider enrollment in a gym membership to entail a debt obligation on your part.  Absence of a clear written agreement might affect the reasonable determination of the amount of the debt, but would likely not be basis for asserting no debt.

"FDCPA 803  Definitions
(5) The term "debt" means any obligation or alleged obligation of a consumer to pay money arising out of a transaction in which the money, property, insurance or services which are the subject of the transaction are primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, whether or not such obligation has been reduced to judgment.

(6) The term "debt collector" means any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of any debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another."