rant !dev

The other day I signed up for a 12 months gym membership. Things have gone wrong.

First, they managed to trick me into signing up at all because in the shitty handwriting I have mistaken a 9 for a 1, so the actual price was a bit higher than I thought it was (+15%).
Second, a day after signing up I get a medical diagnosis with unclear prognosis. I write them a nice letter with an added note from the Dr, explaining that I will not be able to go to the gym for an unforeseen time and asking to nullify the contract. Of course they respond me with an email saying "we need details about the illness, the one you sent us is not enough" or in short "fuck you, you're trapped".

I hate gyms (the business side). They have no ethics whatsoever.

Now I feel just as angry at myself for not double checking the price on the contract and for signing up at all.

They may have a "company policy" that they ask invasive health questions to try to make it more difficult for people to cancel, but is it actually in your contract that you have to provide that information? A lot of employees get confused about this, but your boss saying that customers are required to do a thing doesn't actually make it true.

If it's not in your contract, write another letter reiterating that you are cancelling your membership, that you are not required to answer their invasive health questions, and stating that your previous letter sent <insert date here> was your 30-day notice, so your membership must be cancelled by <insert deadline here>. (Or however many days are required.) Keep a copy of this and send the other one to them via certified mail. After the deadline date, call your credit card company and cancel all charges from them. They may try to ding your credit. Open a dispute on your credit report/s and add the letter and certified mail receipts as evidence.

@HollowKitty Immediate Cancellation according to the law. That means I can cancel immediately and a court also decided that there is no need to specify the illness.

I have to admit that I also want to cancel because I feel cheated regarding the misunderstanding on the monthly price. As I had health issues beforehand I negotiated to get October for free (because I probably can't go for half of it). My health situation should hopefully get better (read: good enough to do sports) soon enough and then I could go. So I have hoped that they would agree to just nullify the contract and I wouldn't have to be angry at myself for not realising the higher price.

In the immediate cancellation way they would probably keep the sign up fee of 60€ and it would be an expensive lesson learned.. that is already half of the price disparity paid but without any benefit.

I hope I don't sound like I'm too high on my horse for signing a contract and then bitching about what is (partially) my own fault.

@saucyatom I don't think you sound high on your horse at all. Gyms have a terrible reputation. The BBB says they get 6k complaints a year about gyms, making it one of the most complained-about industries, largely because of these cancellation issues: https://abc15.com/news/national/...

I think it's ridiculous that gyms do annual memberships to begin with. Pretty sure the majority of their profit comes from people signing up on Jan 1 and then never showing up past February. Where I come from, you pay for a service and then when you stop wanting to use the service, you stop having to pay for it. Sounds complicated but it works for us!

The fact that they're being gross about your health condition is also super not okay.

@HollowKitty They actually do have 3 month memberships as well, but it's 99€/month instead of 69€/month (well, I thought 61..), so if you actually want to go for a longer time having the longer subscription is absolutely worth it. But that is because in large cities they have lots of competition nowadays, where they do not (rural areas) you only get 1 or 2 year contracts. They also offered a 2 year contract at this studio, but it's not much cheaper and no way I'm signing up anything for such a long time (except phone and internet contracts, because you have no choice there if you want a decent service).

Fortunately not all gyms have this shitty system = when you sign up a contract with them, its quite hard to cancel it. Next time Try to choose a gym with normal 1 month membership and pay attention to prices. Get well soon! 😊

@gardendwarf The problem is that I want to swim and there are just one gym, one spa club (even more expensive) and one public swimming halls (which is a bit further away and has no monthly membership at all, single entry prices are ridiculous). Thanks!

@saucyatom Doesn't the pool have other pricings for regulars ? Mine doesn't have subscriptions, but you can buy 12 entrances at once and it gets much cheaper

@CptFox You can buy credit packet with e.g. 25 or 100 Euros and get a discount on the entrance fee which is higher the more you bought at once, but only around 16% at most. A single entry for 1.5 hours costs more than 6€. Whole day with sauna is almost 20€.

@saucyatom Shit that's expensive. Although I think I may a similar amount for technically the whole day, but only stay for about an hour since I go on lunch breaks

@CptFox I would like to go (almost) every day, so it would be prohibitive. Every second day would already be 100€/month and then it's only swimming - no fitness, sauna, towel service.. but much bigger than the gym pool (50m / 25m).

@Nanos That's fraud. And I'd need another fraudster.

As for the viability: There are always 1 or 2 persons at the reception, not sure if they see any information when someone is checking in (automatically). Check in times are probably saved, the entrance should have surveillance cameras. So if they somehow get suspicious it wouldn't be too difficult to prove.

@Nanos No, no and no to the questions. Maybe I could offer them a resale as a middle ground.

I could tell them that I don't need to provide anything else and demand an immediate termination. I don't think they would risk to sue on such a case.
Or I can suck it up and accept it, if I get better soon.

I just got another idea. Once I am well enough, I go as much as possible. Go 5 times a day even if it's just to swim a few lanes or walk a bit on the treadmill. And of course I'll use my two included towels each time. I make the most of the money I pay and also own them in their own game. I checked the terms and there is no limitation on visits per day (of course) and it says "two towels per visit" - not per day. It seems like a great motivation to do lots of sports! Side effect: An athletic body and better health.

(I did some calculation and with the additional payments for my planned leave next year, this fee and that fee and that fee, the effective cost is about 80€. Had I realized this I wouldn't have signed the contract, I would have spent another 20€ to go to the much fancier spa club.)