hey all i’m saying its a little shady having someone sign a contract when that person cannot really speak the language. And while you’re telling me to stop making it sound like she got ripped off…given all the facts, who can honestly say that she didnt? i know its a little harder for us to comprehend, but lets try to take off our american/western glasses for a second and realize this is someone who didnt really understand anything about living in what i’d like to say is a more civilized country that the vietnam countryside, where her family (not necessarily everyone there) doesnt even have electricity, gas, or anything we would consider the necessities of life.
Another easy example, when she came to taiwan, she was amazed at the driving, traffic conditions. However, not in the way that most americans are amazed, but more like a “wow its so safe, there are traffic lights and everyone obeys the rules” …which is like the exact opposite of what most foreigners think about taiwan’s traffic system. She says, oh if someone gets hit or run over in vietnam, they have to quickly jump up to show that they are ok or else the driver will hit them again and try to kill them so they dont have to pay for the medical bill. Her younger brother was killed this way and three other of her friends/relatives. Hell, she said just 4 yrs ago someone in her village got a TV and once a week he’d wheel it outside and everyone in the town would come and watch it. And then fast forward to now, living in this thriving concrete jungle, it’s just a different world and trust me, i know, it is incredibly easy for us to mock her for her ignorance and say that she deserves it b/c she signed a contract…but in my eyes, it just doesnt seem right
but anyways, yea i ended up going to the gym and talking to them. Now i obviously understand more facts about her situation and the contract, and in trying to settle this matter with them, jesus christ they were fierce! i started all calm, cool, collected but it quickly escalated! i first just wanted to know if there were any other available options open for us b/c at the moment she cant afford the 5k. They said they couldnt do anything and then started listing off all of this evidence like sending her all these txt messages and phone calls that went unanswered. I told them that they went unanswered because she had to move to the south for 2 months and work down there with the company that employs her but now she’s back, and regarding the txt messages, she didnt really understand them, same with me i told them, how as a foreigner, (not sure about you guys) i get like 2-4 txt messages a day telling me to call various numbers, that i owe money, etc, so i told them that she just thought it was one of those.
and then, they said, “actually, now she has to pay off her entire contract right now, 10k and today is the last day to do so or else we’re gonna to take her to court.” It was 5pm and they told me she has till 8pm to bring them the money. That shit straight up sounds like a hustle hahaha So yea i started yelling at them of course, which as we all know, doesnt really settle anything but trying to reason with them when i first came in didnt work. And of course i told them that she doesnt have 5k right now, let alone 10k, and then they had the audacity to tell me that i should pay it off for her. What the hell is that shit??? is that common?? like, oh hey, you know this person, settle their debts. The whole time we’re arguing in english and she is just standing there wide eyed and oblivious. Then i finally said i wanted to talk to the manager, not the english HR bitch slut wearing the whore outfit, (left that bit out) but then she told me that the manager wasnt on the premises and he didnt speak english anyways, to which i respond, what the hell does that matter? i can speak chinese, but even if i couldnt, why would you then be miraculously unable to translate? man, i was livid
so yea, court it is i guess. got in contact with a friend of a friend who is a lawyer and of course he says it doesnt look too good bc a contract is a contract. He said maybe if we can prove that her language skills were not there, by getting testimonials from her chinese teachers, etc, then he said maybe she has a chance of making the contract void, especially since she only went twice, i dunno. Surprisingly, he says he does know people who have gotten out of their membership contracts, given the right circumstances, so i guess we’ll see how that goes
oh and to answer your question about the account, that is still one part where i’m still a little shady on. It’s something like, she opened up some sort of account with them (or a bank?) kind of like a debit/credit card, where you put money on the card. However, she never realized that they would auto-deduct the money and she assumed that when she went she would give them the card to deduct the money. But yea, it was some sort of card or service that she set up with them, specifically for auto-paying, yet naturally, she didnt know it was meant for autopaying. She only knew that they told her it would be cheaper if they did it this way. And checking the contract, it basically cut the price in half, from 2400 a mo. to 1200 a mo.
