Greeting Ozbargainers,
Just wondering what you wonderful folks have been doing with your memberships now that the 3 month membership freeze due to covid has come to an end? Now that a time frame for a vaccination is still now in the horizon, I do not feeling safe getting back to the gym, but again I am in two minds about cancelling the membership, due to the hardships businesses are suffering. Does anyone else feel the same sort of qualms?
Moral Dilemma about Gym Membership Cancellation
Cleartripe on 30/07/2020 - 17:56
Poll Options
- 104Yes, go ahead and cancel
- 2No, continue paying as a show of support
Comments
Your health comes first before the financial wellbeing of the business.
*financial health
have you used up your annual suspension? iirc 2-3 months where they only bill you $5 every 2 weeks at least mine does. Look into yours
i'm hesitant to cancel too because i got a good rate, but yeah scared of going gym when re-opens still… thinking
Nope.
There is no moral or ethical conundrum here.
I’m lucky that my gym has suspended everyone’s memberships for free until they can offer a near full program again. (Vic)
When we were slightly more open, they had the pool open and only if you chose to reactivate were you charged. Then the gym and group fitness could reopen for small numbers and they still did not force anyone to pay except those that wanted to.
If I was going to be charged at all for the suspension when they’re closed or while they were open again but I did not want to go, I would have cancelled instantly.
My gym suspended my membership during the first lockdown. Initially they said they would suspend for 6 months until things improved.
When the restriction eased,they charged me for weeks membership fee without any email or notification. I wasn't aware that they had opened and until founded out when i saw my credit card bill. When i called them up they told me i had to put in a suspension form to stop the payments from continuing. They were suppose to email the form that day, never heard from them after the second lockdown was enforced. I don't feel pity for them if that how they treat their customers.
Does the name of the gym rhyme with "any lime $h!tness"?
not actually, they're a small independent gym. I drove to the site to find another number to call and founded that they're undergone another re-branding.
@godofpizza: Ah okay. It's just when I heard that they started charging your membership fee without letting you know, it kinda reminded me of my gym doing the exact same thing. No email, no text, nothing, just my bank app letting me know that I've resumed paying.
Pretty scummy move.
Cancel. It's business. I've requested they put it back on hold as my "24/7" gym is only now open limited hours where I live, hours that I can't make use of. I'm not going to pay for something I'm not using. If they refuse I'd cancel my membership and go elsewhere.
Same thing is happening in NSW now because of the gov mandate for staffed gyms. Instead of increasing staffed hours, they're closing when the gym is unstaffed as well as limiting staffed hours. Members then have to cram into their now reduced opening times resulting in less social distancing. This doesn't make sense to me.
That's nice this has come across your mind Cleartripe.
A while ago (pre Covid) I was a member of Doherties gym in Brunswick and kept up my membership as a show of support, but did cancel a while later when my car was stolen and things changed for me, so I understand where you are coming from.
Maybe think about it a little longer but even when my gym reopened I didn't feel like going as it's equipment and times were severely limited.
…I have seen a few gyms close down recently, and see the industry as one hard place to make a living from PT's to gym owners, franchisees etc. Not long ago I saw a gym liquidating stock and 15k+ a piece Technogym equipment was sold at $700 a pop. That's even lower than liquidation prices at auctions pre-covid.
Should of gotten a kettlebell friend
My gym has this weird rule which I realised only now.. maybe all gyms have it. As per it, you can't cancel your subscription right away - you need to give a 4-week notice (that's pretty long). This part is still understandable.
However, it further says that the notice period won't include 'membership freeze' duration, meaning you need to pay for at least 4 weeks worth in fees after your membership freeze ends in order to cancel your gym membership (irrespective of whether you want to attend the gym for those 4 weeks or not). They simply wouldn't consider Covid situation or your hesitation to attend gym due to safety reasons. I still don't understand why should one pay fees for 4 weeks if they haven't attended the gym for months with an official freeze on the account, nor they intend to attend it in near future especially considering the current situation. I know it's not a massive amount in fees for 4 weeks but I feel that businesses should also show some flexibility in such exceptional times when they already know that people don't want to attend gyms and there are very valid reasons.
Rules dont mean anything.
Contract Law means everything.
Read the Contract.Force Majeure the contract as the gym is unable to provide you with the full service it was supposed to.
Many of the big time gyms have this in their small print contract so read carefully. I have experience with a few big time gyms where you try to cancel membership, they say you have to come in person to the original store you signed up (despite their gyms being 24/7 Australia wide) and then you can submit your formal cancellation and have to wait 30 days for it to happen
They will be getting rental assistance, JobKeeper and other government payments to help their financial losses during this time. Your health is priority, and you should not have any guilt about cancelling.
Cancel. This is Ozbargain. If this was a OzGymOwnership you might get a different answer.
A lot of Gyms depend on people getting a membership and hardly using it, then you have to see them in person to quit rather than being able to just send a message. When Melbourne had the brief period when the gyms opened up I quit the first day. The gym was pretty good but i got injured in a pump class and was only, really, using the Spa.
I've paid a membership for a full year but won't extend it this month.
I've bought a bike instead.I paid upfront for 3 months and got one month out of it before gyms had to close - it was a family run gym, young family, so didn't so didn't ask for any sort of refund or extension.
Fitness First or one of the dodgier mobs, I wouldn't have either, as going by how hard it has been in the past to stop membership there, I'd regret the time it would take.
Asked mine to freeze mine too as they are no longer 24/7 and being a shift worker, it is really hard
Nah, they wouldn't feel bad for taking your money.