It is interesting that charges can be put through after a card is cancelled. I, for one, did not know that.
I've cancelled cards previously because merchants were unreasonable or unresponsive. Gyms are one of the worst for this. Cancelling a gym membership is an exercise in torture.
Anecdote: I was in an Equinox gym a couple of months ago, thinking about joining. I saw a "representative" who was happy to give a tour through the gym and explain the costs and benefits. For these sorts of things however I give a fake phone number because I loathe the follow-up calls from such places.
Anyway, at one point while standing around reception where there were 5 or so such representatives standing around the receptionist answered the phone. Someone was inquiring about closing their account. She said they had to speak to a specialist and none were available. What the...? No one else seemed to be with a customer. It just struck me as another tactic to make it more difficult to cancel.
Now for me this would be relatively easy. My company has a corporate membership so it can be deducted directly from payroll and when I say for it to stop, it stops. But honestly I can't condone these hard sell tactics by giving such companies my money.
Cancelling a gym membership should be as simple as a 2 minute phone call or (better yet) clicking a button on a Website (Equinox has a Website where you can reserve exercise bikes no less).
My only experience with dispute resolution was reasonably painful although not as bad as it could be. I ordered something online and the merchant called me to say that price was only when I bought it as part of a package. I said I didn't want it. He said fine. A week later it turned up anyway. I had the charge reversed. They applied it again. I had it reversed (again). I had to send the item back by registered post.
I think the lesson to take from gym memberships and similar fixed-fee for shared usage pricing models is that they create the wrong incentives. Gyms really want customers who pay every month but never come in so they can oversell their capacity. If gyms were pay-for-use you simply wouldn't have this problem. Likewise you could discount memberships for people who come in at non-peak times, etc.
Some point out the "you signed a contract" argument and agreed to those terms. To this I response: people have an innate sense of fairness. People will (rightly IMHO) reject unreasonable terms. If I don't pay my gym membership, I can no longer go to the gym. This isn't like failing to make a car payment.
Unfortunately consumers seem to like monthly fees so you kind of get what you ask for.
I suspect the economics of gyms might be such that if it was pay-per-use they'd either have to charge insane rates or go under. It's not so much that consumers like monthly fees as that the gyms like them because they're easy to forget about.
Most gyms charge attractively low fees because they are typically a year or more contract, with an auto-renew clause, and they know that the vast majority of the members will use the gym a few times and then stop coming. If all their members used the gym regularly, they'd be packed to overflowing.
There are gyms that charge per use, the fees may appear higher but if your dedication to exercise doesn't turn out the way you planned you will be money ahead.
For the best chance at getting a payment plan that doesn't count on you having low motivation to exercise, look for locally-owned independent gyms, avoid the Bally's and other franchise/chain operations.
This isn't good advice. The locally owned ones are often even more desperate and willing to go the extra mile to defraud you. The idea that small businesses are more honest than big ones is a complete myth. Most of the time it is the reverse: big corporations have more to lose.
Unfortunately, as much as I hate the middle ground fallacy, it is correct here. It's far too broad to say that locally owned ones are more likely to defraud you or less likely. The real truth about locally-owned establishments is that with big corporations you know exactly what you are getting because it is the same everywhere whereas individual local establishments will depend on who the owner is. If the owner is desperate and willing to do everything to defraud you, so will be the establishment. If the owner is the nicest person in the world they'll be perfectly happy running a business in the red for as long as they can avoid total financial ruin so that they can better serve their customers. And, of course, you'll get everything in between.
The advice to go local is less about it being a guaranteed win and more about it being how you find those who will go above and beyond everything.
Your description is accurate but the advice to go local is usually not given that way, it's usually given as a slogan.
I've actually never heard anyone say "The advice to go local is less about it being a guaranteed win and more about it being how you find those who will go above and beyond everything."
Instead I always hear a dogmatic something like "support local business! Big corporations are evil!" When I've actually been defrauded out of FAR FAR FAR FAR more money by buying local.
Consumers aren't paying to use the equipment. They're paying for the sensation that they care about their bodies and for the peace of mind of knowing that if they had time or motivation they could go work out. Interest in something = spending money on it (at least here in America).
its a market. all the gyms in the market use slimey tactics. you can start your own gym if you like. good luck competing though. TLDR: don't ever start a business that competes on price.
I can't speak to every gym, but having done some IT contracting for a few I can speak to the ones around here.
Check your agreement. Around here if you call they'll give you the runaround, but every single one accepts a cancellation through signed, registered letter giving 30 days notice. A few of them won't even accept it through any other means (even if you drop off a signed letter, etc).
The pay-per-use gym is an interesting idea, but compared to the fixed-fee gym it creates a bit of a disincentive to get in shape. If going to the gym more often means that you'll have to pay more, you'll probably go less often.
I've cancelled cards previously because merchants were unreasonable or unresponsive. Gyms are one of the worst for this. Cancelling a gym membership is an exercise in torture.
Anecdote: I was in an Equinox gym a couple of months ago, thinking about joining. I saw a "representative" who was happy to give a tour through the gym and explain the costs and benefits. For these sorts of things however I give a fake phone number because I loathe the follow-up calls from such places.
Anyway, at one point while standing around reception where there were 5 or so such representatives standing around the receptionist answered the phone. Someone was inquiring about closing their account. She said they had to speak to a specialist and none were available. What the...? No one else seemed to be with a customer. It just struck me as another tactic to make it more difficult to cancel.
Now for me this would be relatively easy. My company has a corporate membership so it can be deducted directly from payroll and when I say for it to stop, it stops. But honestly I can't condone these hard sell tactics by giving such companies my money.
Cancelling a gym membership should be as simple as a 2 minute phone call or (better yet) clicking a button on a Website (Equinox has a Website where you can reserve exercise bikes no less).
My only experience with dispute resolution was reasonably painful although not as bad as it could be. I ordered something online and the merchant called me to say that price was only when I bought it as part of a package. I said I didn't want it. He said fine. A week later it turned up anyway. I had the charge reversed. They applied it again. I had it reversed (again). I had to send the item back by registered post.
I think the lesson to take from gym memberships and similar fixed-fee for shared usage pricing models is that they create the wrong incentives. Gyms really want customers who pay every month but never come in so they can oversell their capacity. If gyms were pay-for-use you simply wouldn't have this problem. Likewise you could discount memberships for people who come in at non-peak times, etc.
Some point out the "you signed a contract" argument and agreed to those terms. To this I response: people have an innate sense of fairness. People will (rightly IMHO) reject unreasonable terms. If I don't pay my gym membership, I can no longer go to the gym. This isn't like failing to make a car payment.
Unfortunately consumers seem to like monthly fees so you kind of get what you ask for.