Just wanted to share my bad experience, hope the awareness can help others avoid the unpleasant experience...
About a year ago, my mother an elderly lady who is mentally unsound strolled into True Yoga at Pacific Plaza. She was convinced by the sales staff to sign up for a package and she dutifully filled up the form as instructed. She did not make any payment however, because she obviously does not have any money (she is of unsound mind and one of the setbacks is that she is unable to manage her own money). She left the yoga centre shortly after and very quickly forgot about the whole thing (her dementia prevents her from remembering short term events).
For the last year or maybe more, she has been receiving threatening telephone calls from True Yoga, threatening that legal action will be taken against her because she is bound by a contract between herself and True Yoga. Each telephone call makes her extremely unstable and causes her to have insomnia and anxiety attacks. On at least two (maybe three) occasions, she had to be warded at SGH for observation. I called True Yoga up and asked to speak to someone in a supervisory role and explained that my mothers mind does not function the same way as the rest of ours, and politely told them to stop pursuing the matter because she did not know what she was doing when she filled up the form, and she still does not know what has happened!
That was about a year ago and I had assumed that the matter was closed until my mother received a telephone call on 11th Dec 2006 regarding this matter. She then advised the caller to call me on my mobile phone. I then received a telephone call at about 1040h from a lady who introduced herself as a representative of True Yoga. When I tried to explain to her about my mothers mental condition, she turned hostile and started raising her voice at me. At that point, she ironically told me very rudely that she was talking to me very professionally and that the telephone call was recorded because she was calling from a law firm. I explained that since she was calling from a law firm, she ought to be talking to my lawyer and not to me, and I asked for the name of her firm so that my lawyers can be in touch. She refused to give me the name of the firm and slammed the phone on me instead. When I called back about five minutes later, I asked the person who answered the phone if it was a law firm I was calling and she told me it was. I explained that I had received a telephone call earlier from this number and I needed the name of the firm so that my lawyer can be in touch. I was rudely informed that my lawyer ought to be smart enough to find out since I already had their telephone number. I then spoke to my lawyer and was advised not to pursue the matter any further and to refer to matter to him should the law firm call me again. My lawyer then called the number from which I received the telephone call, only to discover that the call originated from a debt-collection agency and not a law firm.
What bothers me is if True Yoga is such a successful yoga centre, do they really have to chase down a mentally unsound elderly lady who has no money, just for one piece of business? How much business can she give anyway? Secondly, I am not an expert on the finer points of the law, but certainly it cannot be right for a debt-collection agency to misrepresent themselves as a law firm? My lawyer has already lodged a complaint against the debt-collection agency for misrepresenting themselves as lawyers but I still think True Yoga needs to be taken to task.
Anyone else experience this kind of persistent hard sell tactics?
