I just realized that my quarterly fee for the gym member ship isn’t quarterly it’s monthly. AHHHH!
This means I’ve been paying them a lot more than I thought.
I did use the membership quite a lot for a while, and then stopped, for an amount of time I am ashamed to reveal here. (So I won’t) I kept being put off by a voice in the passenger-seat of my head saying “But you might start using it again”
Anyway, it seems to me like owning a gym membership and not using it is a comon-ish thing for idiot lazy types like myself. So trying to get a refund for unused membership might also be common.
Anyone had any experience, or know of any instance where a person was able to get the money he or she spent on a gym membership back because they never went?
I realize even as I am typing this out that my chances are probably slim to none, but I may as well ask.
I now have impetus to tell the passenger to STFU the straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back being being in a much tighter financial situation. In other words I’m going down tomorrow to cancel the member ship. I intent to ask (politely) if it’s possible for me to get a refund on what I’ve paid while not using it. Unless this thread ends up advising me otherwise.
It never hurts to ask, but I don’t see them doing you any favors if you’re no longer going to be a customer. (This is coming from someone who doesn’t mind asking for discounts whereever I go. I’m ok with rejection and totally happy when I get a better deal.)
I have to ask, why do you think they should give you one? You got the membership and chose not to use it, why would they owe you money for you not being able to commit to working out?
Unless your contract is highly unusual, you’re paying for access to the gym and its equipment, not for the time you’ve used. They’ve given you what you’ve paid for, so you don’t really have much recourse.
But you got your moneys worth. you pay to be allowed to use the facilities, and you were allowed to use them. There are pay-as-you-go gyms, cancel where you are and just go to one of them. But a refund? Please.
But OTOH, ask, personally I couldn’t take the laughter.
Gyms make their money on the backs of people like you. For every gym rat like me, there are three or four well-intentioned or spur-of-the-moment people like you. I depreciate their equipment and you don’t. So that’s factored in to the cost of membership. A gym with a “daily charge” type membership wouldn’t break even- that’s why the get you on sign-up fees and minimum contracts. This way, you pay and don’t use and they win.
People like you are definitely factored into their business model- and people like me thank you- because if I had to pay by the amount of use, gym membership would be cost prohibitive.
So, from all the gym rats to all the (for whatever reason) lapsed gym-goers, thank you.
Gym memberships are a bitch. I’ve never had much luck canceling them so I just quit paying. They threaten to ruin my credit and life forever but mostly they just give up. They’re like a weird cultists, and just won’t take “I quit” for an answer. I thought it was easier quitting AOL.
I definitely wouldn’t expect any sort of refund and would consider myself lucky they let me quit at all.
In my defence I DID use the gym every other day for at least a year. (And for a while I used it every day, alternating between the weights room and the rowing machine)
The whole business plan of gyms revolves on people signing up and not going. Count the machines in a standard gym and figure out how much they’d be earning if all the machines were full for all the opening hours. Ask yourself if that’s enough to pay the mortgage. Then add in all the people who bought memberships but aren’t showing up.
(I go to the gym often enough to be bored enough to do math while I’m hanging out on the elliptical machine.)
I did once have a gym (it was a Curves) suspend my billing for several months to make up for some previous months that I hadn’t been attending, but that was astonishing. No one I told about it could believe they’d do that. It also wasn’t a refund – it only helped because I intended to keep going.
I’ll agree with those who say they won’t give you a refund, as it’s in their business model to make money off the people who sign up but don’t use the gym.
I went to a gym in college that let me “freeze” my membership for a time, and then start it up again. The membership was for a year, and this allowed me to take advantage of the fact that I wasn’t living there during the summer, but still got 12 months of use out of the contract. But, this was a prospective freeze; it wouldn’t have applied retroactively.
I also was able to cancel a month-to-month membership once by pointing out that it was month-to-month. Renewal was normally automatic, but I cancelled it for the upcoming month by giving the proper notice.
Typically, though, gym memberships are hard to cancel. Even with the month-to-month, I had to complain loudly about the terms of my contract in order for them to agree to my cancellation. Since many people join a gym as part of a fleeting impulse/resolution, gyms wouldn’t be able to maintain their rates if it was easy to walk away from the financial obligation. Paying and not going is exactly what they want from you, so don’t expect much help when you point it out to them.
The gym I went to back in Hamilton had this policy too; if you were laid up, or unlikely to use the gym during the summer or whatever, they would suspend your membership for up to 3 or 4 months (I forget!) so you wouldn’t owe anything, but then you’d have to start paying again. I recall the person telling me that the 3/4 months was waived for certain medical situations where it just wasn’t possible for the person to go, but for the average person, it had that limit.
IF you think you might want to go back to that gym, ask them if they can take the past X months payment as if you had suspended it, so you can now get X months “free” before having to pay again. If they think that might keep your money flowing in in the long run, they just might do it.
I was staying in a hotel with attached gym for a while. The hotel changed hands, and the gym members had to change their direct debits to the new owners. The gym lost 30% of the membership. :smack:
