It is not uncommon for people to have financial disputes with their gym over membership cancellations but what if your gym refers you to a collection agency and then the gym shuts down?

That’s exactly what happened to several people in Airdrie so they called CTV Calgary’s Consumer Specialist Lea Williams-Doherty for help

A number of former members of Gold’s Gym recently met through a Facebook posting about Gold's unfairly sending ex-members to collections after the gym was taken over by GoodLife a couple of years ago.

Travis Price says Gold's let him cancel his membership in 2012 and that he even paid their $250 cancellation fee. 

When he recently applied for a mortgage he learned Gold's had referred him to the CollectCents collection agency also known as the Credit Bureau of Canada for $2600 in unpaid dues.

He says he can't dispute the debt with the gym since it no longer exists and Gold's head office won't take responsibility for franchisees.

"You can't talk to anyone at all,” said Price.

Price says the collections agency has not shown him anything to back up Gold's claim. "They have no record of me or anything, they just say this is the figure, it's from Gold's Gym, pay it.”

Mariah Webb says she was sent to that same collections agency because Gold's said she owed money for personal training sessions she never used.

'I was just blown away that they could say you have to pay close to $3000 without any proof,” said Webb.

Kim Powell says she's not sure why Gold's referred her to collections and says she stopped going to the facility in 2011 but didn't try to get out of her contract.

Powell says the automatic debits stopped coming out of her account in 2012 and then months later, she received a demand letter for $600.

"I just kind of left it because I don't think I'm in the wrong here and I don't think I need to pay someone when I don't even know where the money is going,” said Powell.

Lea contacted Gold's headquarters as well as the CollectCents collection agency and neither company returned her call.

Lea says there may still be hope for these people since Alberta law requires collections agencies to provide detailed accounts of the debt upon request.

“It's generally going to be a copy of the contract or some accounting of the debt, simply receiving a letter saying you owe x-amount of dollars isn't enough,” said Scott Seymour from Service Alberta.

Lea says that if you request an accounting, make sure you do it in writing and if the collections agency doesn't provide it within 30-days they can't continue to ask you to pay the debt.

If the collection agency persists, you can file a complaint with Service Alberta HERE.

(With files from Lea Williams-Doherty)