We all make mistakes, and a recent one of mine was both costly and frustrating. Here's what went down: I had a great month-to-month gym membership, and the customer service over the three years was always friendly and responsive. It was a totally satisfactory experience — until I called to cancel.
I moved to a new apartment, and the new place is too far from the gym for me to maintain my membership. I gave the appropriate 30-day notice to my landlord that I'd be leaving, and apparently, I should have called the gym at the same time. Unknown to me, somewhere in my contract it stated that I had to give 30 days notice before cancellation, or I'd have to pay for the entire next month in full.
My husband and I shared a family membership, which meant we were out an entire month's dues for something we couldn't even use. It was our bad for not checking the contract ahead of time, but it seemed like a pretty sneaky policy to enforce. Have you had any experiences with a gym membership that left you feeling less than satisfied?
Benefit
Cinque
Rosato
My father and I both belonged to the same Y. And then he died suddenly. Trying to take care of a lot of local things for my mother, I told her I would handle cancelling his membership.
They told me that because we didn't give 60 days notice, they couldn't do that at that time. Nice.
1that just happened to me, actually. i joined another gym that was more convenient and cancelled my monthly contract, only to have them tell me my initial upfront "first and last month" payments didn't apply and i would have to pay the extra month because i didn't give 30 days notice. however, after talking them down and basically saying that i felt cheated because i was unaware of the policy -- thus making me not want to reconsider them for a gym membership in the future, got the 30 day notice waived and got out with a better appreciation for the gym. because of that, i'd probably consider them again if i'm looking for another gym membership. it's all about customer service!
2The last two gyms I've been a part of have had the same policy so I think its actually pretty standard. But Peggasus' comment about her father's membership after him passing is ridiculous. I can't believe an organization would be that rude and stupid!
3Its not really sneaky at all. If you have a reoccurring "month-to-month" charge then you probably had to sign something authorizing them to charge your account and I'm sure this was detailed in the fine print. If they take the money from your account on the 1st of the month, then yes, they probably would need more than a week's notice to cancel the reoccurring charge.
Some gyms are really shady (Golds and Ballys) and they will change the terms of your membership before you sign. Read the fine print! Whenever I sign stuff, I always read over the terms to make sure I understand them.
4I don't have any problem with my account, but something just happened to my running buddy.
Her mom was visiting her during summer time for 2 months, so she signed her up for the membership just for these 2 months. She gave the one month notice to the YMCA already, but Y's kept charging her for month of September, and she still needs to follow up and see if they have take her mom's membership out.
5Golds is the worst when it comes to customer service. They will do anything to get every penny out of you.
6Always read the fine print. It never fails that what seems straight forward has a smallest of catches.
7Never had a problem with this...my gym lets you cancel whenever, no advance notice required. We don't have contracts, so everyone is just month-to-month.
8This just happened to me, although it wasn't necessarily sneaky. My gym is a month to month with no contract. I wanted to cancel, but I told them on the 29th and the notice had to be in by the 27th to stop the automatic cc charge, so I paid for September even though I quit going in August. Its whatever though
9When i cancelled my gym membership they told me i had to have told them like two days earlier to stop my payment for the next month. So i had to pay an extra month, i wasn't happy about it but what can you do.
10Hi, anyone ever try canceling from a Curves gym? I've been a member since June and had signed up for a year, but I'm just not liking it there and want to cancel, but I'm a little concerned the penalties could be hefty. I have read over my contract several times but it's rather vague when talking about "penalties" for canceling before your membership is up (what a shocker). If anyone out there has experience with them and has a few tips to pass along, I'd sure appreciate it. Thanks!
11So important to read the contracts before you sign them.
12I haven't experienced anything like this.
Typical contracts for leases have cancellation periods like this: if your lease is month to month, you have to give 30 days notice to cancel. Not really the same, but not surprising that gyms have adopted this to get more money out of people! If it makes you feel better- a gym here recently closed and people who had paid for a year couldnt get their money back! Talk about unhappy customers...
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