The Blink Fitness example is telling in so many ways. It's not just that it's evil in the sense of mischievous, it reveals a sense of entitlement. I think this sense of entitlement to customer money underlies many problems in contemporary commerce.
Gyms are notorious for this. I won’t sign up for a gym membership unless they accept checks or cash. Most accept checks, I’ve found. Could also try a virtual credit card I suppose. Citi offers those with their Visa card.
Unfortunately, the Y is probably the only option for an indoor pool in most places, but I wouldn't recommend them in general if you're worried about scummy practices. They wanted me to come in-person to sign a form in order to unsubscribe, after I'd moved. I finally got them to relent, but still had to send a digitally-signed pdf to the manager. Of course, signing up was a simple web form.
Climbing gyms kind of run the gamut. I was actually pretty delighted to find that the one I had been a member of, when I moved during Covid, actually never reactivated by subscription when they reopened, so when I nervously called to cancel, expecting them to have some ridiculous requirement, I didn't even have to cancel at all. They hadn't been billing me in the first place.
If you want to run, go outside. Even in fairly unpleasant weather, I think that's generally a better experience than a treadmill. And if you want strict measurements and not to worry about being hit by cars, go find a local high school or college and they almost certainly have a track that is sitting unused often enough for community members to run at. That's how I used to do it when I still ran.
And even if you don't have a Y nearby, check out community centers and other such things. The main thing is finding something that's not part of a massive chain, and they'll usually be pretty reasonable.
That true. I’m just playing devils advocate. I use community services when I want to do anything gym like . The only reason for a gym membership is if your community provides nothing or the hours just don’t work for you (e.g. you like early morning or very late at night)
I always hear horror stories about gym memberships, but have never had a bad experience there.
Many years ago I was a YMCA gym member, and I canceled without any fuss. More recently I was a member of the boxing gym around the corner, and I needed to cancel due to an injury (not sustained at the gym!), and they even waived their policy of requiring 30 days notice to cancel. (I also just realized I wasn't going often enough to justify the membership, and could save money by just paying the drop-in fee whenever I wanted to go.)
I do wonder if COVID has made this a bit less bad; my partner was a member of a different gym for a while, and they were good about keeping her membership paused, even after they reopened for in-person classes, and then weren't sketchy about her eventually canceling.
Perhaps the local boxing gym derives significant social capital from being decent beyond a contract. I'd count YMCAs in this too, at least where I'm from.
A brand name gym may offer a competitive and value added service at branch via equipment offered or rent bargaining, or financing of such, or network effects or being part of a larger organisationIt is simply a rent seeker that happens to be a gym. Some may seek to be this and the above, with varying degrees of flexibility in having both cakes and eating them.
I would never sign up for anything that's a recurring charge (including utilities and such) without using a virtual credit card. It makes any shenanigans the company might pull impossible.
You are only legally liable if you sign a contract that says you are. They can send a collections agency after you, but if you have proof that you notified them before the X days required in the contract that you're ending it, you're not legally liable.
Sure, of course. My point was you can't necessarily just turn off/delete a virtual card to "cancel" anything. It may end up working out that way, or as you say it may end up going to a collections agency.
Maybe you can't. I do it all the time. Credit cards become invalid in the normal course of human activity, esp. because of their expiration date. Their software handles it routinely.
I usually attempt to cancel the "legitimate" way as well. No collection agency has ever called me. But hey, do what makes you comfortable.
When did I say it can't work? I said you're still on the hook for charges to your card. Specifically, if a service is provided, even if you cancel your card.
It doesn't come up often, because most places charge you before providing a service. For example, if you have a NYT subscription, and it goes to renew and your credit card has been turned off, you don't actually get your NYT subscription. No services rendered, no accrued charges.
However, if your gym bills your credit card at the end of the month of your membership, then you are still obligated to pay it, even if your credit card has been disabled, because the service has been provided.
> if your gym bills your credit card at the end of the month
does that actually happen? Most places make you pay up front, at least one month's worth, even if they subsequently bill at the end of the month.
In any case "No services rendered, no accrued charges." is actually the case I'm talking about. You pay a month's worth, then forget about the monthly renewals, and they love to keep billing you anyway, but surprise, surprise: the CC declines. At that point, you can decide if you want to keep paying or not. Which is how it should work.
I think we agree then. If you owe money, and your card is charged but declined, you still owe money. But, if you don't owe money and you only owe money contingent on your card being charged, then you owe nothing.
With all due respect your tone made it hard for me to deal directly with your point. But, maybe you only had that tone because I poorly expressed my understanding.
> However, if your gym bills your credit card at the end of the month of your membership, then you are still obligated to pay it, even if your credit card has been disabled, because the service has been provided.
Are gyms usually post-paid? Every one I've been a member of (admittedly only 3) has been pre-paid.
As much of a pain as that is, that would solve a lot of these nightmare gym stories. Try to cancel the convenient way. If that fails, cancel in writing in a way you can prove. After that, it's their problem.
I've gotten around the bank account requirements by simply filling in bogus numbers for the account number and routing info, then asking them to bill my credit card first.
If you signed a contract for a year with a clause that you could cancel before then if you move to an area without one of their gyms then this seems reasonable.
I've had my own experiences with gyms being hard to cancel. But in principle if I want an easy cancellation then I'll go month to month. If I have a 12 month contract I'm not going to cry if they resist when I want to cancel early...
Many gym’s business models don’t work without subscriptions. Should they simply cease to exist or is it maybe a decent thing that customers subsidize each other?
