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I agree - and I’d never sign one and importantly, I’d never give them my account info so they can automatically extract funds. It really is a sham the way they operate - no offense intended to you personally since I guess you must be in the gym business.</p>
<p>Note - I’m not alone in this opinion and I’m sure you know it. It’s a widespread issue.</p>
<p>How is it a sham?</p>
<p>I had absolutely no problem stopping a month-to-month membership at a Planet Fitness. Just stopped in and cancelled. They cancelled it effective the last day of the month I had already paid for and that was that. No hassle, no complication.</p>
<p>I think it’s a sham because the gyms know that a significant number of people will never actually workout nearly as much as they sign up for and that’s why they have this setup - to extract more money based on this knowledge. A lot will go there a few times or so and then never show up again and this is why the gyms purposely want to do these contracts and worse, money extraction from their accounts, so they can reap more money than if the person paid on a per use basis. If many of these people ever calculated what that gym membership ‘really’ cost them they wouldn’t be happy about it at all (and many probably aren’t). </p>
<p>It’s just not a straight up deal when arranged like this.</p>
<p>Some gyms have a pay per use fee and some have a monthly fee which is somewhat more realistic. but I think most of them really want the person to sign up initially for a year (or whatever) at the time they’re mentally psyched up to start working out, to get in better shape, to lose the weight, and thus more willing to sign those commitments, and then they try it a time or two and realize it’s actual work, there’s no free lunch, and it takes time and effort to do and quit going. </p>
<p>It’s the gym taking advantage of this emotion and situation as well as the extraction of money for services not actually delivered/used I don’t like.</p>
<p>If you work at a gym you likely know exactly what I mean about people signing up and paying for a long term but only actually using the facility on the short term - often a very short term.</p>
<p>At the end of the day it’s still the individual who signs that contract and gives that account info so it’s on them for doing so but the gyms are still making sure they take advantage of the situation I described.</p>
<p>I know there are some who actually do show up regularly for the contract term and it may be fine for them but I don’t think that’s why gyms have these arrangements - I think they do it for the other situation I described.</p>
<p>Not all gyms have this practice of course, and not all of them have the type of clientele I described, but I think many/most of them do. I imagine many of them have the statistics that illustrate what I said. But I could be corrected if I’m wrong, of course.</p>
<p>It’s kind of like the old Columbia Record Club marketing model. Sell the promise and bank on the long term commitment.</p>
<p>They want you to sign up and use the gym just enough to warrant signing up again. They can not stay open if people sign up and do not come because those people stop signing up at a certain point. If someone comes 2 times a week or even 6 times a month they are more likely to keep paying.</p>
<p>The gym is Club Metro and it appears they have many issues with billing. They deleted my complaints on facebook :)</p>
<p>dkitty21 - If you don’t twitter, it might be worth opening an account just to address this issue. My daughter has gotten great results from companies, such as Comcast, who did not respond to customer needs, by tweeting about the incident with multiple hashtags. And they can’t delete tweets on your account.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the idea that a gym is unfair for charging people who don’t show up. People buy insurance and don’t use it - and their payments make it possible for others to use it. And bluntly, the gym is better because you can choose to use it but you can’t really choose to get sick or lose a limb in the same easy way. If gyms only charged per use, the fees would be substantial or their quality would drop. </p>
<p>Gyms worry about their utilization rates. They want them to be higher because an engaged member is a continuing member. Lots of people cancel, and they have to offer new member specials to keep up with the churn.</p>
<p>We don’t know the details of her contract. If her understanding is that she could cancel when she did, but they mess that up, then that’s not what people are describing here.</p>
<p>There have been a lot of assumptions about dkitty’s contract which were not implied in her posts.</p>
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<p>You’re right; we don’t know the details. But there were accusations made that gym contracts were evil or something.</p>
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<p>Well, to be fair (although it’s anecdotal), all three trainers I’ve worked with in my area have more negative than positive things to say about the chain-brand gyms around here. Doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in them. I agree that it is a widespread issue, but that doesn’t mean that all chain-brand gyms operate that way.</p>
<p>I’ve belonged to the same gym for a number of years and pay on monthly basis. This year, I had an ankle injury and wasn’t able to go to the gym for three months. I went back today and my trainer asked if I’d put my membership on hold–which I didn’t know I could do. She went to the front desk and told them about my injury. I didn’t get my money back, but I did get credit for those months that I didn’t use the gym and can now use the credit for personal training. So–not all gym memberships turn out to be nightmares. I don’t know if the difference is that this gym isn’t one of the places like Planet Fitness or World Fitness, it is a small tennis/swim club that expanded into fitness activities.</p>
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<p>That are probably evil until proven otherwise. Gyms oversell memberships knowing that people arent going to attend. Then they act offended that someone who isnt using the facility wants to cancel. </p>
<p>From the ClubMetro contract it looks like you cant cancel unless your account is current. What possible justification could there be for that policy? That means the OP would have to pay them $1400 just to get them to stop the billing. </p>
<p><a href=“https://client2.abcfinancial.com/abcLiveDocs/_clients/cancel_policies/5968CAN.pdf[/url]”>https://client2.abcfinancial.com/abcLiveDocs/_clients/cancel_policies/5968CAN.pdf</a></p>