First of all, here’s a short backstory: In April, Jessica’s trainer (of 2+ years) announced that she had left the Franklin YMCA and was going to be doing group fitness classes at World Gym in Franklin. Since we’re moving in the fall, Jess didn’t think it was a big deal to change gyms until our move, since she could stay with Christine (the trainer), as well as save money, since the new membership was cheaper than the Y. Since so many people/families were following Christine from the Y to World, they announced a special promo: They would cut their signup fee in half, to $50.
At the very end of April, Jess signed up at World. No contract, monthly, for $20, plus the special $50 signup fee. She went to many classes during the month of May, and had a ball!
As far as we can t ell, on June 1st, World Gym officially changed its name to Planet Fitness, and as part of the sale/deal, they immediately cancelled ALL group fitness classes (Zumba, Pilates, Spin, etc).
On Monday, June 2nd, Jess heard a rumor through the grapevine (from someone at work) that this was going to be happening soon, but wasn’t sure when.
On Tuesday, June 3rd, our credit card was charged $19.99 for June dues. Jessica called the gym before heading over from work, and found out about the classes being gone permanently. We’ve been pretty busy lately, so it wasn’t until this past Sunday morning (June 15th) that we were able to get over to the gym to talk about getting some money back. The kid at the desk just blathered on about how this is how big business works, and things change, and since they didn’t close the gym, you’ll just have to suck it up. We knew that we weren’t getting anywhere, so Jess just filled out the cancellation form, and we left to do other things.
As soon as I got home, I went to the website for my credit card, and filed for a dispute on both the June membership fees and the initial signup fee. I’m not contesting the May membership, since Jess DID use the gym happily for that one month.
Here is my reasoning for wanting the $70 ($50+$20) back:
June membership fees ($20): The gym claims that the cancelling of the group fitness classes isn’t cause to get a refund, since the gym isn’t closed, and is still usable. Yet they were VERY aware that a large group of people were coming to the gym just to take these classes. SO aware of it that they offered a special discount on their signup fee! Since they made the change without even notifying us beforehand, we had no way to avoid being charged for June before the change went into effect, IN JUNE, AFTER WE WERE CHARGED! Would you let them tell you to screw off if they had closed the portion of the business that housed all of the nautilus machines, since you COULD just take pilates classes now?
Signup fee ($70): Here’s where I think the story gets a bit more interesting. When I think of this, the word FRAUD comes to mind. That grapevine chatter Jessica heard at work? I won’t specify how this chatter got to Jess, but I WILL say it came from (SOURCE REDACTED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT*). We have now come to know that this deal to sell the franchise to another gym chain and cancel all group fitness was in the works for quite a while (since before the great YMCA group fitness exodus), and there was full knowledge that group fitness would get the axe. They knowingly lured these people (including Jess) in with a reduced membership fee, KNOWING that they were following Christine the instructor, with full knowledge that everything would be axed at the end of the following month.
The doofus at the front desk yesterday morning had the nerve to tell Jess that “We DID give you a special deal by cutting the signup fee in half”. Ah, HELLO! Jessica wouldn’t have signed up if you had given notice of the group fitness being terminated. If you had told us this in good faith, we would have saved 100% of the signup fee, because Jess wouldn’t have even signed up there!
We’re not sure what our next step will be. Since it is ONLY $70, it may make sense to consider this a $70 lesson as to why you should avoid chain gyms. But since I’m a man of principle, I may spend more than $70 worth of time pursuing this. Maybe a well written letter to someone above the franchise level will do some good. Or maybe I’ll just cut to the chase and see what is involved to file in small claims. Heck, I’ve even heard of people getting satisfactory results by standing outside the offending business with a picket sign. Who knows.
The moral of the story is: Even if you can find a technicality in your contract/the law/whatever to take money and not give it back, right/wrong don’t always match up to legal/illegal. Just do the right thing, and don’t be a prick about it. Planet Fitness may end up being well within (or just barely within) their rights to do what they did, but it wasn’t the RIGHT thing to do, and it’s possible that bad word of mouth can end up costing them more than the $70 we want back.
*All I’ll say publicly about “the source” is that the info wasn’t obtained via gossip.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
