<prompt> Human: This is my first post in the thread and I need serious help on what I can against this terrible and slimy organizationcompany.I go to a pretty big and popular gym in Texas Im keeping the name hidden unless Im allowed to post it and I have a gym membership there. My membership allows me to bring one guest every 3 months, and I brought my girlfriend to work out with me. One of the ladys who works in sales says she will have to sign this guest pass form and provide her license so they can verify the information. They got her phone number for her guest pass and she was able to go in and workout. Two months later, my girlfriend received a text and a voicemail from the gyms corporate billing department a third party company who states she has a balance she owes to the gym that she has not paid. We called them and they said she owes them for a gym membership balance that is unpaid since after the down payment on an American Express credit card.My girlfriend has never owned a credit card and is just 18. Her credit report shows she has never owned a credit card at all. We asked them if they can remove the charge because theres obviously a mistake. That is not her credit card and someone else was charged for the down payment and its under my girlfriends name and phone number. The third party says we would have to go to the gym and talk with the operations manager there.I went to the gym with my girlfriend to get this resolved, and when I spoke to the lady at the front desk and asked for an operations manager, she went and got the same lady that signed up my girlfriend. I asked her why my girlfriend was signed up for a gym membership instead of a guest pass and she just looked clueless. She said I dont know why it says that. But you owe us a balance on your American Express card. I told the lady that we dont own one at all, and that is someone elses card being used without their permission and without our knowledge. She said they cant remove the balance unless its paid off, then they can close her account. I asked if she could provide the papers and the receipt of when my girlfriend paid for the membership and as well as her guest pass form and she said that she couldnt find either. I then asked her three times to speak with an operations manager to settle this and she said hes not in this month since hes on vacation and that he couldnt do anything she couldnt do. That I would need to contact billing. I said I did contact billing who states to talk to them. She said that there is nothing she can do to remove this and that the cardbalance will continue being charged and increase forever until its paid. I asked her if there was any way they can remove it from my girlfriends name since she never signed up for it. She said no and that she will change the phone number on the account so they wont pester my girlfriend. Now Im sure someone else is now receiving these calls every month.I asked her if this will reflect on my girlfriends credit report and she said no, but if she wants to use this gym she would have to pay the balance she owes.TLDR: slimy gym signs my girlfriend up a guest pass, but really signed her up for membership on someone elses American Express card. Billing is a third party and they state to speak to the gym. The gym says to speak to billing. The gym has no receipts of the transaction for the membership my girlfriend didnt sign up for.Should I get a lawyer involved ? What can I do?Assistant: I once threatened to sue a company that was charging some monthly fee that I was unaware of. Told them my lawyer would be in contact if they did nothing. Not a gym, and not identify theft, so I dont know if it would work. It worked for me. Human: I really am thinking about threatening to sue. I just want to know if they say go ahead, should I actually fall through and if I would have any success... I will try this later.  <response>: Luckily for you, the gym is in Texas which has enacted a statute that governs deceptive trade practice.Additionally, Texas has a statute that governs the contracts between clients and health spas gyms and the marketing of health spa services to clients. In other words, it regulates what information must be disclosed to a potential client.Further, the Texas health spa act is a tie in statute to the Texas deceptive trade practices act. In other words, if someone violates the health spa act, it is also a violation of the Texas deceptive trade practices act TDPA.Why does any of this matter? Because if you sue under the TDPA you are allowed to recover your attorney fees and potentially up to treble economic damages. So attorneys in Texas are frequently willing to take such cases on and at little cost to the plaintiff.If you are inclined to pursue legal action a Texas attorney can guide you through the procedure for a TDPA claim. 