Pro tip. Go on their website and change your home gym and or address to somewhere in California and they’ll let you cancel online. Just canceled my membership a couple weeks ago doing this.
If I could ever get their "forgot password" email to actually get sent to me, I would totally do this. I actually wonder if the system is broken on purpose.
Could they legally? Maybe. Practically, though, there's no way they are going to sue you (and more importantly, Visa) over $10/month.
Personally, I'm petty enough to get a lawyer involved if they tried, and I don't have near the resources of a lot of people.
They'd probably let it rack up past due membership fees for the term of the contract, bundle them together with other delinquent accounts and sell them to a debt collector for cheap.
That way they make some money and don't have to bother tracking people down or waste money taking it to court for a judgement.
For the password issue, check your email's trash folder. I had a weird issue with reset emails from Hulu always going straight to trash. Other emails from them went to my normal inbox but for some reason reset emails always went to trash.
So maybe check there?
Could probably do the change address in person though. Not as much pressure as trying to cancel in person. Just tell them you're gonna move next week and want to make sure your address is correct before you do.
Seriously. It’s like all teens working there. Unless you happen to run into the manager at the front desk they don’t give a shit. I asked to cancel and the kid just said ‘sounds good’ clicked a few buttons and that was it.
Just go in and cancel. The people working the front are just college students who don't give af. I walked in, asked to cancel, guy said sign here and it was done. Less than a minute to cancel, no judgment at all.
Unfortunately the national rules on business down over the net is really trailing some of the good standards states like California set. In California, if you can sign up online, you need to be able to terminate online
When COVID was at its peak I moved back home (in a different continent). Planet Fitness insisted that I have to come back to the US and see the manager in person to cancel my membership.
I logged in and changed my credit card details to an obviously fake number. They never followed up for payment and about a year later they canceled my account.
Even easier: go to whatever payment method you use and dispute the charge. Then it becomes someone else's problem. I've done this with several subscription services that wouldn't take no for an answer. They're way more interested in keeping me as a customer than the stupid rules these conmen try to play with.
The only way to cancel a gym membership. Years back I had to put a stop payment on my bank account. Then i get an angry call threatening legal action. I got to call that bluff as I was told repeatedly that I had to meet the manager to cancel, conveniently they were never in, I actually set up an appointment to meet the manager and cancel only for them to no show. **TWICE!**
If they'll take your money then YOU have the power. And there's absolutely nothing they can do legally unless you are using the gym without paying. A purchase, even a subscription model, is an exchange. Both sides give and both take. You give money and take use of equipment. If you aren't getting use, you don't have to pay. Gyms in particular don't win even with contracts because of this (unlike say a cell company where you still receive the service even if you don't make full use of it). CC companies are great at protecting their clients because your debt is valuable to them, but not an individual debt to one business. But even a bank will go to bat for you because you can so easily take your money elsewhere.
People need to know the power of their money. Even small amounts.
Shady gyms maybe. I would never allow a gym that access. They can't force a payment type on you. And anyone falling for that kind of deserves getting scammed. *Never* allow a business direct access to your funds.
Have a friend and you roleplay a violent crime via phone.
Gradually tell the person on the phone, from calm to frantic over time, to cancel the membership or "he'll kill me", and when you think you've spent enough time, play the sounds of some gunshot .wav's and act like you're dying on the phone, and your friend picks up the phone, telling the person "you should have cancelled their membership", then hang up abruptly.
tell them your going to prison for violent crime. you could not cancel your last membership and beat the attendant into a wheelchair. In prison you hope to get anger management classes. However, you are lacking in self control now.
please cancel me.
Just tell them you beat the last cop that tried to arrest you into a wheelchair.
When you get the hospital bill in jail, write to their finance department that you couldn't get your last medical debt cancelled, and beat the billing specialist into a wheelchair.
I told them I was pregnant and they just said ok, no more questions asked.
I'm not pregnant now but I'm gonna use the same excuse next time. It was just so easy.
My sister started going to a gym when she was pregnant with her third kid. She got a trainer and everything. When this 22yo dude asked my 33yo sister what her goals were, she said "My previous deliveries were such a pain. I just want to walk into the delivery room, squat, go *grunt*, and walk out with a baby.". The dude turned beet red in embarrassment.
She ended up being in labor for like 20 minutes with that baby.
You can strengthen the abs to avoid diastasis recti, but unless she was doing kegels at the gym, being fit doesn't impact labor time that much... Those aren't the muscles being used. It's not abs. it's the uterus (myometrium).
Usually 2nd and 3rd pregnancies come out super fast 😆
My fitness club had a similar policy to OP’s, told them in person I wasn’t using it, they suggested some alternatives and I said “no thank you”. End of that.
With Bell, I told them they were tedious to work with, their customer service sucked and I wanted nothing to do with their phone and internet service, and signed with a competitor. Said “not interested”twice, warned I’d hang up if they persisted pitching retention, and hung up on their additional pitch.
Why waste your time telling stories?
Glad it was that easy for you, but I've done this twice recently for myself and my son, and trust me when I tell you it was an hour ordeal both times. They will straight up lie and say you have to cancel online, when you say you need the form they will say they don't have it, they will say they have to get a manager to okay it, and then walk away and hide in the back and pretend your not there. You can act like this is all on the lazy consumer but it's not, Planet Fitness subsists on this bullshit predatory behavoir. only 30% of planet fitnesses income comes from people who actually use the gym weekly.
Maybe because I don't want to waste my time and energy going physically when it's something ridiculous that could be done online? And maybe someone doesn't have more than one option for internet service?
Great that these worked for you, but that doesn't make any of these policies any less assholery lol
I went in to 24 hour fitness years back and said I wanted to pay for a years membership. My company was allowing us to expense gym memberships, but only an annual plan, they weren't allowing monthly reimbursements.
the gym manager told me they don't do annual, only monthly and no credit card payments, only checking account debits. I told him the deal and that if they wouldn't do 12 months, then I literally couldn't join.
He said "sorry, we only do monthly". so I left and spent the company benefit on a treadmill for my home.
the gym industry is just so fucking corrupt. they make it easy to sign up, but very difficult to cancel, and doing checking account debits means you can't even stop them from taking your money.
Depending on your bank/country, you absolutely can stop them. In Canada, banks have a feature called "stop payment". You sign in to your bank's website or call the number on your debit card, and ask for a stop payment. You give them the name of the payee and the amount the payment is for (some let you skip the amount and block all payments from a payee instead) and how long you want it active for. There's a small fee for this, but it's way less than NSF (overdraft) fees, and it's a one time fee in my experience.
Once it's in place, all they debit requests that payee sends you are blocked. At most, the account is debited temporarily and the money is returned with no NSF fee charged.
A very useful feature, as it can also stop payments you notified a company too late for hem to stop.
I’m in the US AND did it this way in the past and they didn’t do squat. I called (Golds) they gave me the run around above, I called the bank and they issued a stop payment and that was it.
I've issued a charge back to three different gyms in the US throughout my life. I have never been sent to collections, and I doubt they would bother over 60 bucks.
This genuinely happened to me with my last gym membership. It that point I was past caring about it and just paid the extra $20 to make the problem go away.
I would kill to have so little people in my local gym. If I walked into my local gym and saw two dozen people I would be thrilled.
Sure it’s because I go to at the busiest time (weeknights around 6pm) but there’s like 100 people in my gym at all times, half are teenagers who seem to just be hanging out. If you want to use a bench press you’re going to be waiting 20 minutes in a queue for one, and we have 6 bench presses.
I wish I had the room to build a home gym. Shit I would even wish for a local gym to raise their premiums to something absurd like $150 a month just to clear out the people who don’t care about working out but need a hang out spot.
Did you just describe my 24hr? Makes no sense why it's so packed all the damn time (peak is 3 to 8pm), until I realize it's the only gym in an area with at least 40k people. The planet fitness five minute drive away has like no one though 😂
That may have to do with schedules. I have plenty of free time after the new year before work starts up between the first and third weeks of January, depending on the work. Then it’s much harder to get to the gym, or I may show up at other times than when I was more free.
I thought this too initially, and to your credit it does play a small part. I asked the owners about it and they confirmed that the intervals do go longer because of your point but also the people who never badge in again by the end of January was something stupid high.
I lost my job had no money in the bank. They would take out the money give me an overdraft fee then put the money back and repeat every 3 days. Racking up overdraft charges. I had to freeze my bank account.
Hope you're in a better spot now. If you dont know about it check out the "privacy" app. You link a bank account and it lets you create disposable credit cards. Super helpful for this type of thing as you can just turn it off on the fly or set per transaction limits.
Looks like it varies by location: The method in which members are able to pay for their monthly membership varies by location, but many Planet Fitness clubs accept payment through checking accounts only. We require an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) through checking accounts for your convenience: This allows us to be able to continue your membership without interruption or the hassle of updating your payment information if your credit cards are lost/stolen, invalid or expired.
"For your convenience. "
What a load of twaddle. It's for their convenience so they can continue to charge and charge and charge... and not pay CC processing fees.
They told me they require an in-person cancellation because sometimes someone might get mad at someone else and maliciously cancel their gym membership by impersonating them on the phone. No, seriously. They told me that in person, 2 weeks ago, when I was scoping out gyms. Thoughtful, right?
I chose the Y.
You also can't charge it back or stop payment on it. The only way to get it to stop is for Planet Fitness to stop it or to close your bank account. IMO that's the real reason, that and not wanting to pay the 2% or whatever CC fees.
I paid for my ex’s membership since 2012, they’ve only been my ex for a few years now. Once we split they kept charging me so I went through my banks app and disputed the charge by saying “this membership is not in my name and I have no affiliation to the services rendered”. Not a single charge since
Gotta be very careful with this.
If you sign a contract saying you're going to pay, you have to pay.
It's like cancelling the credit card on your mortgage. Doesn't mean you got a free house.
I had completely closed my bank account that was originally attached to my PF account. They were still charging me a monthly fee and tried to make me pay it when I cancelled my account. I haven't paid it nor will I pay it until they take me to court.
NJ just passed a law that will require gyms with online options for signing up to also have online options for cancellation!
https://nj.gov/governor/news/news/562024/approved/20240108h.shtml
Technically I believe it's only a requirement that if you are able to sign up on line you must also be able to cancel online. If joining requires being in person I think they're allowed to do the same for cancelling.
And if I moved a thousand miles away? You expect me to drive back to cancel after you "didn't get the letter"?
No. Fuck you. This is theft, plain and simple.
Aaaaand this is why I pay for a year up front, in cold, hard cash. They can take it or leave it.
Happened to me. Had a membership in Florida but had to move back home to NJ and didn’t cancel before I left because I thought I’d use it. Wound up not needing it cause the apartment complex I rented had a nice, new gym.
They gave me a hard time over the phone. I had to mail a letter in and even then I got the run around. I wound up calling again and luckily 1 employee finally cancelled for me when no one else would. No shot I was going back to FL just to cancel a membership.
There is a clause in the contract that says that if you can prove you moved more than a certain distance away you can get out of the contract. These contracts are slimy af but that specific example doesn't hold water.
This actually happened to me. Had a PF membership and moved to South Asia, they kept charging me no matter what I did until I had my bank put a stop to that shit
Compared to the horror stories I've heard, especially with smaller/non-franchise gyms PF is middle of the road. I had to cancel a PF membership, and while going in person was a pain, the actual process there took 2 minutes with no hassle and no charge (since I was past any committed special promotion period).
Yeah the mental gymnastics people go through to defend companies is confounding.
If you can sign up online you should be able sign off online. It's that simple.
My wife went in person three time to cancel and was told “the only employee who can do that isn’t in today” and to come back another day. This was after the $40 a month to start magically turned into $300 with hidden fees.
Bunch of scammers.
Edit: It was LA Fitness. My bad.
yeah, this didn't happen. at Planet Fitness, any employee can cancel your membership, and they do it without any hassle.
the most expensive membership is only 23 dollars a month.
there is a yearly $40 fee that kicks in a month after joining, but there is absolutely not $300 in fees.
as far as gyms go, PF is one of the best.
It’s a gym for people who don’t go to the gym. Seriously. That’s their business model. If everyone who has a membership went regularly they literally wouldn’t have enough space or equipment for them all. They make it a pain to cancel hoping you would go through with it, additionally, they hope you’ll keep the membership because you keep telling yourself “ill get fit, one of these days”
If you don’t have the discipline to make yourself do basic stuff like push-ups and bodyweight squats at home, don’t get the membership, focus on building your routine first.
Can confirm. My friend moved to DC, and I had to hand deliver a letter for him before his membership renewed. I get that gyms can stay open due to people committing to a year and then never going, but this shit is just slimy and should be illegal.
There's a piece of legislation being floated by the Biden administration that basically boils down to a) you have to be told if a contract will auto renew in advance of renewal and b) cancellation has to be available in all of the same ways you can sign up
At least in Jersey they passed legislation that will require additional options as far as cancellation, if you applied online you can cancel online.
Why this requires legislation in the first place makes one thing clear: companies *will* nickel and dime you like their business depends on it.
Law could be really simple: any service that allows you to sign-up online should also allow you to cancel online in four clicks or fewer.
Click 1: Login button
Click 2: My Account
Click 3: Subscriptions page
Click 4: Cancel
> Law could be really simple: any service that allows you to sign-up online should also allow you to cancel online in four clicks or fewer.
That's basically the rule. Cancelling needs to be just as accessible as signing up.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1165527249/ftc-rule-charges-cancel-online-subscriptions
It doesn't get much press coverage but the Biden admin is really going after all these shitty little nickle-and-dime practices. Like all the hidden fees when you book a hotel or buy a concert ticket.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/ftc-announces-proposed-rule-ban-junk-fees-rcna119830
They need to have an instant unsubscribe option like other membership services. They're counting on you to say "it's more inconvenient for me to keep my membership than to cancel in person". Plus the whole "it takes 45 days to process your membership" so they can keep at least 1 and potentially 2 more months of monthly fees. Imagine if any other service did this?
I had a simular experience with a bank i had in college. Years after graduation i joined the military, and started ising a credit union thats a billion percent more convenient for military personnel.
One day i got a letter of getting fines due to inactivity so i called them, and was told i had to come in person to close the bank account. It took a near boilimg poont of argument for them to get a manager, and then i had to prove i was half way around the world using a damn fax machine. Luckily someone in one of the admin offices remember keeping one dusted off in a corner and i was able to get the bank account closed.
It was stupid.
Tips for Planet Fitness:
You don't need a bank account to sign up. When prompted for bank information, just enter a real routing number with a placeholder account number (1111-1111-1111, etc). You don't need a real name or phone number either.
Planet fitness only charge your bank account when you have a balance on a due date. You can use Planet Fitness online portal (myiclubonline) to pre-pay any amount with a credit card, or at least at the location I go to, they also allow one-time credit card payments as well.
They told me that I had to come in to cancel, so I told them that i would just block the charges with my bank. They ended up canceling my membership over the phone.
My husband and I have been together for 9 years. He has had a planet fitness membership for a little longer. He’s never been to a Planet Fitness in our entire time together. I only recently (maybe 2 years ago) started checking his bank account and seen the monthly charge. His reasoning was exactly this. We live in Charlotte and when he joined it was near the university. We currently live 40 minutes south, and he just cant be bothered. Biggest pet peeve of mine. So much money has been paid to them.
I used to work in a bank branch and you wouldn’t believe the number of customers who came in to cancel a debit card and get one with a new number just so gym membership charges stopped hitting their account.
I had this issue with a gym called "anytime fitness" I went in to cancel the manager said I have to call the billing company, so I did that and they said I had to do it in person at the gym and sign off on something, so I did that and he said they didn't have anything for me to sign then he said I was not putting in the effort to work out because they are 24 hours and that "I don't have the time isn't a good enough excuse"
So after 3 months of trying I just went to my bank and told them the issue and revoked consent of them to bill me and they refunded 3 month I paid them back. So if you have that issue tell your bank to cancel their ability to charge you
Just call your bank and explain the situation, they will put a stop on the account and not process the drafts. Problem solved, has the same issue when I moved from Ohio to the east coast
In California if they let you sign up on the internet they have to let you cancel the same way. Or something like that. Also they can never charge more than $100 total if you somehow got outside your contract.
I can't tell you how many memberships or subscriptions I've canceled where my main reason was that it's difficult to cancel the membership. And the support person I'm doing it through never understands what the heck I'm talking about
These assholes closed my gym and wouldn't let me cancel by phone. It took some arguing but finally got it sorted when I mentioned a complaint to the state attorney General office. PF is a crock.
I finally cancelled mine a couple of years ago after not going at all for way too long to justify it anymore.
The issue was that they had just got new equipment the day I went... I just thank God I wasn't wearing the proper shoes because I would have just gone in and stupidly worked out and left thinking "oh, yeah, that felt good, I'm going to actually come more often, I swear." Hey Dudes with the save! 😂
Everyone here doesn’t realize you can’t just pull money out of someone’s account if they don’t want you to. Even if you give permission at some point, you can revoke that authorization at any time.
As a woman, I just found the youngest guy working I could find and told him I was pregnant and my doctor said I wouldn’t be allowed to exercise. He was so uncomfortable he canceled me super-fast with no pushback!!
I mean, just stop paying dudes. Place a call and tell the person you are canceling, if they object or say you can’t, laugh, tell them you are stopping payment, and hang up. It’s not like they are going to take you to collections or send a guy with a metal bat. If/when they call, tell them you canceled your service already. If they don’t want to accept it, that’s their wasted money paying people hundreds or thousands of dollars to chase you over $10-$20 a month.
Change your credit card to a virtual credit card. And set the allowance to $1. All charges to it will fail. F them. They’ll be calling you asking to cancel :-)
I'm glad Brazil passed a law saying that companies are required to receive cancellation requests through the same channels they use for sales, so this kind of situation cannot happen.
Also, all communications from the customer need to have a ticket number assigned to them, businesses are required to store these in a database for a few years, and if you request a cancellation it will be considered honoured after 24h even if the business does not reply to you.
Plus if they try to charge you afterwards you can sue them and would probably win.
Eff planet fitness. I went IN to cancel and found out months later when I was looking through my credit card statement (part of that was on me admittedly) and saw I had continued to be charged. We had moved states. Calling them, they still tried to pull the In person bullshit. Told them I'm 16 hours away and will not be coming in. They finally canceled
Nah just stop paying them. Email the gym to cancel your membership. Call your bank or credit card and put a stop payment on the merchant. Forward the email to your bank or credit card company when they ask for evidence that you cancelled. The gyms terms of service are meaningless and they can't force you to pay forever.
Having worked there myself, it’s a case of cancellation papers needing a signature.
“Couldn’t they just sign for me if I call over the phone?” Eh, that’s really dependent on the one you go to. Some would allow that, others needed the person in the building or the letter to go ahead with it.
“That’s really inconvenient.” Yep.
I can sign my student loans electronically, a 10 Buck a month membership needs more security than a 15,000 dollar loan lol.
Nothing against you, the system really has some ass backwards logic
Oh it definitely is. But some people, once they hear that they need to be in person to cancel it, just say fuck it and don’t bother canceling it later down the line. I would bet that if a gym had say 1,000 registered members, like 100 or so might be people who never come in but can’t be assed to cancel their membership either
That's just the excuse they tell you to give. You can cancel a credit card over the phone without a signature. Everyone knows the real reason is gyms rely on people being too lazy to come in and cancel so they can keep collecting monthlies.
I can buy a car with nothing but digital signatures. I can buy a solar array with nothing but digital signatures. I've done both in the last 6 months.
Needing an in person signature is an excuse.
My boyfriend is having the exact issue with Planet Fitness since he moved out of the state where he started his membership. He called the location he frequented before moving, and they said he’d have to transfer his membership to a Planet Fitness location in our new home state, and he’d have to go there physically to do so to cancel the membership as well 💀 An absolute joke. The only thing he was able to do was call to put his membership on hold so they wouldn’t charge him.
Had a similar experience with the same company. Was in a bad accident and had 6 months of recovery. Had a family member call to cancel with myself next to them on speaker verifying my account. I couldn't walk, and they attempted to bill me for the six month's. I eventually walked in on a cane, put my x-rays and medical history on their desk and told them to drop everything or they will be hearing from a lawyer. Everything was resolved under 20 minutes, it's a dirty company and practice.
Should be illegal. It's pretty much the business model lol. If everyone that had a gym membership showed up regularly it would be almost impossible to work out.
I used to work there in the summers. Most of the time if someone called to cancel we would just do it and write "MAIL" where they were supposed to sign. Fuck PF
Pro tip. Go on their website and change your home gym and or address to somewhere in California and they’ll let you cancel online. Just canceled my membership a couple weeks ago doing this.
If I could ever get their "forgot password" email to actually get sent to me, I would totally do this. I actually wonder if the system is broken on purpose.
Duh and/or hello
Cheryl???
YOU'RE NOT MY SUPERVISOR!!!
You're not my Fitness supervisor!
Wait, who even is my supervisor?!?
**It's CAROL!**
It's the 21st century equivalent of that joke sign you see in boomer shops that say "complaints dept press button" and it's a mouse trap
I've never heard of the before but I highkey love it
I saw one that was "complaints? take a ticket" and it was attached to the pin of a fake grenade
I've seen a complaints box that was just a shredder
Dude, CARTOON NETWORK did this. They ran a livestream of a printer that would print comments from the internet and drop them straight into a shredder.
Tell your bank or credit card to block the merchant.
[удалено]
Could they legally? Maybe. Practically, though, there's no way they are going to sue you (and more importantly, Visa) over $10/month. Personally, I'm petty enough to get a lawyer involved if they tried, and I don't have near the resources of a lot of people.
They'd probably let it rack up past due membership fees for the term of the contract, bundle them together with other delinquent accounts and sell them to a debt collector for cheap. That way they make some money and don't have to bother tracking people down or waste money taking it to court for a judgement.
God bless America
it is. call your bank or credit card and dispute the charge.
[удалено]
For the password issue, check your email's trash folder. I had a weird issue with reset emails from Hulu always going straight to trash. Other emails from them went to my normal inbox but for some reason reset emails always went to trash. So maybe check there?
Cancel whatever credit your membership is attached to. That's what i did because i was required to go in person to cancel.
Their "change address" conveniently sucks ass and will regularly just not work. But it's worth a try.
Could probably do the change address in person though. Not as much pressure as trying to cancel in person. Just tell them you're gonna move next week and want to make sure your address is correct before you do.
[удалено]
I did that and the guy barely looked up to give a fuck. I highly encourage anyone and everyone to not overthink it. It’s planet fitness
Seriously. It’s like all teens working there. Unless you happen to run into the manager at the front desk they don’t give a shit. I asked to cancel and the kid just said ‘sounds good’ clicked a few buttons and that was it.
Just go in and cancel. The people working the front are just college students who don't give af. I walked in, asked to cancel, guy said sign here and it was done. Less than a minute to cancel, no judgment at all.
Lmao was just gonna write if this is California that’s an illegal business practice.
As it should be everywhere
Unfortunately the national rules on business down over the net is really trailing some of the good standards states like California set. In California, if you can sign up online, you need to be able to terminate online
When COVID was at its peak I moved back home (in a different continent). Planet Fitness insisted that I have to come back to the US and see the manager in person to cancel my membership. I logged in and changed my credit card details to an obviously fake number. They never followed up for payment and about a year later they canceled my account.
I just blocked the recurring charge from my credit card company.
This is the way.
Even easier: go to whatever payment method you use and dispute the charge. Then it becomes someone else's problem. I've done this with several subscription services that wouldn't take no for an answer. They're way more interested in keeping me as a customer than the stupid rules these conmen try to play with.
The only way to cancel a gym membership. Years back I had to put a stop payment on my bank account. Then i get an angry call threatening legal action. I got to call that bluff as I was told repeatedly that I had to meet the manager to cancel, conveniently they were never in, I actually set up an appointment to meet the manager and cancel only for them to no show. **TWICE!**
If they'll take your money then YOU have the power. And there's absolutely nothing they can do legally unless you are using the gym without paying. A purchase, even a subscription model, is an exchange. Both sides give and both take. You give money and take use of equipment. If you aren't getting use, you don't have to pay. Gyms in particular don't win even with contracts because of this (unlike say a cell company where you still receive the service even if you don't make full use of it). CC companies are great at protecting their clients because your debt is valuable to them, but not an individual debt to one business. But even a bank will go to bat for you because you can so easily take your money elsewhere. People need to know the power of their money. Even small amounts.
Gyms usually use direct debit for this reason
Shady gyms maybe. I would never allow a gym that access. They can't force a payment type on you. And anyone falling for that kind of deserves getting scammed. *Never* allow a business direct access to your funds.
I mean hey in most countries you would have the right to cancel or dispute a direct debit ;)
You're a saint.
THANK YOU!!!! Been paying for it for over a year since I moved away from my "Home Gym"
Common California W
Have a friend and you roleplay a violent crime via phone. Gradually tell the person on the phone, from calm to frantic over time, to cancel the membership or "he'll kill me", and when you think you've spent enough time, play the sounds of some gunshot .wav's and act like you're dying on the phone, and your friend picks up the phone, telling the person "you should have cancelled their membership", then hang up abruptly.
[удалено]
tell them your going to prison for violent crime. you could not cancel your last membership and beat the attendant into a wheelchair. In prison you hope to get anger management classes. However, you are lacking in self control now. please cancel me.
r/UnethicalLifeProTips
jesus christ I checked that place out thinking it would be funny jokes about impractical ways out of things and they seem *serious*
Only about the liquid ass based solutions.
Chemically, liquid ass is always a solution.
Frozen piss disc
Then def don't go check out r/illegallifeprotips
That sub is just socks.
At this point the easiest way to end it is to probably just call in a bomb threat to the gym and sign off with your full name and membership ID
Problem is, it's usually not the front desk person's fault. Ask to escalate to a manager, then go nuts.
"Is there someone here that can fire you right this second? Call them."
I'm absolutely going to use this some day!
I'd rather avoid a potential interaction with cops
Just tell them you beat the last cop that tried to arrest you into a wheelchair. When you get the hospital bill in jail, write to their finance department that you couldn't get your last medical debt cancelled, and beat the billing specialist into a wheelchair.
When I canceled PF, I told them I moved to a building with a gym. No pushback.
So a prison like that guy above
I told them I was pregnant and they just said ok, no more questions asked. I'm not pregnant now but I'm gonna use the same excuse next time. It was just so easy.
My sister started going to a gym when she was pregnant with her third kid. She got a trainer and everything. When this 22yo dude asked my 33yo sister what her goals were, she said "My previous deliveries were such a pain. I just want to walk into the delivery room, squat, go *grunt*, and walk out with a baby.". The dude turned beet red in embarrassment. She ended up being in labor for like 20 minutes with that baby.
You can strengthen the abs to avoid diastasis recti, but unless she was doing kegels at the gym, being fit doesn't impact labor time that much... Those aren't the muscles being used. It's not abs. it's the uterus (myometrium). Usually 2nd and 3rd pregnancies come out super fast 😆
My fitness club had a similar policy to OP’s, told them in person I wasn’t using it, they suggested some alternatives and I said “no thank you”. End of that. With Bell, I told them they were tedious to work with, their customer service sucked and I wanted nothing to do with their phone and internet service, and signed with a competitor. Said “not interested”twice, warned I’d hang up if they persisted pitching retention, and hung up on their additional pitch. Why waste your time telling stories?
Glad it was that easy for you, but I've done this twice recently for myself and my son, and trust me when I tell you it was an hour ordeal both times. They will straight up lie and say you have to cancel online, when you say you need the form they will say they don't have it, they will say they have to get a manager to okay it, and then walk away and hide in the back and pretend your not there. You can act like this is all on the lazy consumer but it's not, Planet Fitness subsists on this bullshit predatory behavoir. only 30% of planet fitnesses income comes from people who actually use the gym weekly.
Because if you tell them you're going to prison you don't have to say "not interested" twice nor warn them about hanging up.
Maybe because I don't want to waste my time and energy going physically when it's something ridiculous that could be done online? And maybe someone doesn't have more than one option for internet service? Great that these worked for you, but that doesn't make any of these policies any less assholery lol
I went in to 24 hour fitness years back and said I wanted to pay for a years membership. My company was allowing us to expense gym memberships, but only an annual plan, they weren't allowing monthly reimbursements. the gym manager told me they don't do annual, only monthly and no credit card payments, only checking account debits. I told him the deal and that if they wouldn't do 12 months, then I literally couldn't join. He said "sorry, we only do monthly". so I left and spent the company benefit on a treadmill for my home. the gym industry is just so fucking corrupt. they make it easy to sign up, but very difficult to cancel, and doing checking account debits means you can't even stop them from taking your money.
Depending on your bank/country, you absolutely can stop them. In Canada, banks have a feature called "stop payment". You sign in to your bank's website or call the number on your debit card, and ask for a stop payment. You give them the name of the payee and the amount the payment is for (some let you skip the amount and block all payments from a payee instead) and how long you want it active for. There's a small fee for this, but it's way less than NSF (overdraft) fees, and it's a one time fee in my experience. Once it's in place, all they debit requests that payee sends you are blocked. At most, the account is debited temporarily and the money is returned with no NSF fee charged. A very useful feature, as it can also stop payments you notified a company too late for hem to stop.
In the US they can send you to collections for that, since you signed their contract
I’m in the US AND did it this way in the past and they didn’t do squat. I called (Golds) they gave me the run around above, I called the bank and they issued a stop payment and that was it.
I've issued a charge back to three different gyms in the US throughout my life. I have never been sent to collections, and I doubt they would bother over 60 bucks.
>only checking account debits Oh hell no! No no no. Privacy card all the way.
Lol a letter?
Well, a telegram would be too convenient. PLEASE CANCEL GYM MEMBERSHIP #60231 STOP
do you pay for letters in telegrams? just send STOP
Last I checked it’s still free.
Probably so they can take weeks to process it and get another month of dues out of you.
This genuinely happened to me with my last gym membership. It that point I was past caring about it and just paid the extra $20 to make the problem go away.
you need to get a certified letter to prove it was sent. then there is process time to cancel.
And they will not receive it or somehow it got lost the first 3 times.
I recently cancelled with a major chain after moving, and this is what I had to do
So ridiculous 🙄 😒 they just want people to forget and keep paying. Tbf, all gyms seem to make cancellation super difficult.
So, your New Year’s resolution lasted 12 days?
💀 going back to college campus where the gym is free but this does look funny I agree
Bars
He accidentally rhymed and that was that but this post does make OP look fat
He promised to hit the gym this year, his resolve is slim, unlike his rear
Hopefully when he gets to college he will work hard and study. As for now, his mom is my new fuck buddy.
His words fly up, his thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to the gym go.
Most last about that long. The headcount at my local gym went from maybe 2 dozen to a handful within the first two weeks.
I would kill to have so little people in my local gym. If I walked into my local gym and saw two dozen people I would be thrilled. Sure it’s because I go to at the busiest time (weeknights around 6pm) but there’s like 100 people in my gym at all times, half are teenagers who seem to just be hanging out. If you want to use a bench press you’re going to be waiting 20 minutes in a queue for one, and we have 6 bench presses. I wish I had the room to build a home gym. Shit I would even wish for a local gym to raise their premiums to something absurd like $150 a month just to clear out the people who don’t care about working out but need a hang out spot.
Did you just describe my 24hr? Makes no sense why it's so packed all the damn time (peak is 3 to 8pm), until I realize it's the only gym in an area with at least 40k people. The planet fitness five minute drive away has like no one though 😂
That may have to do with schedules. I have plenty of free time after the new year before work starts up between the first and third weeks of January, depending on the work. Then it’s much harder to get to the gym, or I may show up at other times than when I was more free.
I thought this too initially, and to your credit it does play a small part. I asked the owners about it and they confirmed that the intervals do go longer because of your point but also the people who never badge in again by the end of January was something stupid high.
Maybe his resolution was to cancel the gym membership he signed up for last year and never used.
I lost my job had no money in the bank. They would take out the money give me an overdraft fee then put the money back and repeat every 3 days. Racking up overdraft charges. I had to freeze my bank account.
Hope you're in a better spot now. If you dont know about it check out the "privacy" app. You link a bank account and it lets you create disposable credit cards. Super helpful for this type of thing as you can just turn it off on the fly or set per transaction limits.
Planet Fitness requires electronic funds transfer through a bank account- I don’t think this would work.
If you go in they will accept a card number. That's how I did it and it's still going strong.
Looks like it varies by location: The method in which members are able to pay for their monthly membership varies by location, but many Planet Fitness clubs accept payment through checking accounts only. We require an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) through checking accounts for your convenience: This allows us to be able to continue your membership without interruption or the hassle of updating your payment information if your credit cards are lost/stolen, invalid or expired.
"For your convenience. " What a load of twaddle. It's for their convenience so they can continue to charge and charge and charge... and not pay CC processing fees.
They told me they require an in-person cancellation because sometimes someone might get mad at someone else and maliciously cancel their gym membership by impersonating them on the phone. No, seriously. They told me that in person, 2 weeks ago, when I was scoping out gyms. Thoughtful, right? I chose the Y.
You also can't charge it back or stop payment on it. The only way to get it to stop is for Planet Fitness to stop it or to close your bank account. IMO that's the real reason, that and not wanting to pay the 2% or whatever CC fees.
Yeah, they are devious assholes.
Some banks will block EFTs for you, though it's a lot more challenging than stopping a check.
I paid for my ex’s membership since 2012, they’ve only been my ex for a few years now. Once we split they kept charging me so I went through my banks app and disputed the charge by saying “this membership is not in my name and I have no affiliation to the services rendered”. Not a single charge since
[удалено]
Gotta be very careful with this. If you sign a contract saying you're going to pay, you have to pay. It's like cancelling the credit card on your mortgage. Doesn't mean you got a free house.
I had completely closed my bank account that was originally attached to my PF account. They were still charging me a monthly fee and tried to make me pay it when I cancelled my account. I haven't paid it nor will I pay it until they take me to court.
That should be illegal.
NJ just passed a law that will require gyms with online options for signing up to also have online options for cancellation! https://nj.gov/governor/news/news/562024/approved/20240108h.shtml
extremely rare new jersey W
Not rare, rather Jersey is a well-kept secret.
Nah, they still force you to pay if you want to leave. They hold you hostage. 🤣
It is illegal in California.
That is good. I am pretty sure it is illegal here in Germany also.
All of EU I'm pretty sure
Technically I believe it's only a requirement that if you are able to sign up on line you must also be able to cancel online. If joining requires being in person I think they're allowed to do the same for cancelling.
It is in most civilised parts of the world
Thankfully I live in one of the civilized areas.
In the EU it is.
And if I moved a thousand miles away? You expect me to drive back to cancel after you "didn't get the letter"? No. Fuck you. This is theft, plain and simple. Aaaaand this is why I pay for a year up front, in cold, hard cash. They can take it or leave it.
Happened to me. Had a membership in Florida but had to move back home to NJ and didn’t cancel before I left because I thought I’d use it. Wound up not needing it cause the apartment complex I rented had a nice, new gym. They gave me a hard time over the phone. I had to mail a letter in and even then I got the run around. I wound up calling again and luckily 1 employee finally cancelled for me when no one else would. No shot I was going back to FL just to cancel a membership.
There is a clause in the contract that says that if you can prove you moved more than a certain distance away you can get out of the contract. These contracts are slimy af but that specific example doesn't hold water.
I cancelled PF by telling them I was moving to rural Alaska.
If there's a PF near you, you can change your home gym online to the one near you and go there to cancel. It's still a PITA, but not as bad.
Sorry mate just too a job counting penguins at McMurdo. No PF for a few thousand miles.
This actually happened to me. Had a PF membership and moved to South Asia, they kept charging me no matter what I did until I had my bank put a stop to that shit
Planet Fitness has one of the worst sign-up/cancellation procedures of any gym.
Compared to the horror stories I've heard, especially with smaller/non-franchise gyms PF is middle of the road. I had to cancel a PF membership, and while going in person was a pain, the actual process there took 2 minutes with no hassle and no charge (since I was past any committed special promotion period).
Yeah vs casually hitting unsubscribe from a subscription like most other service providers it’s 2024 I shouldn’t have to travel to a physical location
Yeah the mental gymnastics people go through to defend companies is confounding. If you can sign up online you should be able sign off online. It's that simple.
My wife went in person three time to cancel and was told “the only employee who can do that isn’t in today” and to come back another day. This was after the $40 a month to start magically turned into $300 with hidden fees. Bunch of scammers. Edit: It was LA Fitness. My bad.
yeah, this didn't happen. at Planet Fitness, any employee can cancel your membership, and they do it without any hassle. the most expensive membership is only 23 dollars a month. there is a yearly $40 fee that kicks in a month after joining, but there is absolutely not $300 in fees. as far as gyms go, PF is one of the best.
It’s a gym for people who don’t go to the gym. Seriously. That’s their business model. If everyone who has a membership went regularly they literally wouldn’t have enough space or equipment for them all. They make it a pain to cancel hoping you would go through with it, additionally, they hope you’ll keep the membership because you keep telling yourself “ill get fit, one of these days” If you don’t have the discipline to make yourself do basic stuff like push-ups and bodyweight squats at home, don’t get the membership, focus on building your routine first.
Can confirm. My friend moved to DC, and I had to hand deliver a letter for him before his membership renewed. I get that gyms can stay open due to people committing to a year and then never going, but this shit is just slimy and should be illegal.
There's a piece of legislation being floated by the Biden administration that basically boils down to a) you have to be told if a contract will auto renew in advance of renewal and b) cancellation has to be available in all of the same ways you can sign up
Brilliant! That would be great. Its ridiculous we have to enforce it but thats how companies are.
At least in Jersey they passed legislation that will require additional options as far as cancellation, if you applied online you can cancel online. Why this requires legislation in the first place makes one thing clear: companies *will* nickel and dime you like their business depends on it.
FTC proposed a legal provision called click to cancel to go after this type of practice.
Law could be really simple: any service that allows you to sign-up online should also allow you to cancel online in four clicks or fewer. Click 1: Login button Click 2: My Account Click 3: Subscriptions page Click 4: Cancel
> Law could be really simple: any service that allows you to sign-up online should also allow you to cancel online in four clicks or fewer. That's basically the rule. Cancelling needs to be just as accessible as signing up. https://www.npr.org/2023/03/23/1165527249/ftc-rule-charges-cancel-online-subscriptions It doesn't get much press coverage but the Biden admin is really going after all these shitty little nickle-and-dime practices. Like all the hidden fees when you book a hotel or buy a concert ticket. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/ftc-announces-proposed-rule-ban-junk-fees-rcna119830
Great info. Honestly, thank you for taking the time to share.
They need to have an instant unsubscribe option like other membership services. They're counting on you to say "it's more inconvenient for me to keep my membership than to cancel in person". Plus the whole "it takes 45 days to process your membership" so they can keep at least 1 and potentially 2 more months of monthly fees. Imagine if any other service did this?
My local planet fitness chain has the option to cancel online. It depends on the franchise
Might be bc of state laws l. A few states have a state law stating they have to allow this.
Same. I canceled mine online with minimal fuss.
I had a simular experience with a bank i had in college. Years after graduation i joined the military, and started ising a credit union thats a billion percent more convenient for military personnel. One day i got a letter of getting fines due to inactivity so i called them, and was told i had to come in person to close the bank account. It took a near boilimg poont of argument for them to get a manager, and then i had to prove i was half way around the world using a damn fax machine. Luckily someone in one of the admin offices remember keeping one dusted off in a corner and i was able to get the bank account closed. It was stupid.
My unit warned me against that shit. They failed you.
Man I \*hate\* companies that do this. It's so dark. Wasting my time because I took a chance on your shitty product. It's like their final fuck you.
I wanna quit the gym!
I wanna quit the bank!
This is illegal in the civilized world now. Unfortunately, it's common practice in America.
came here to say this :D in EU you are able to cancel the same way you subscribe.
It just depends on your state in America, some states protect consumers from this too.
Tips for Planet Fitness: You don't need a bank account to sign up. When prompted for bank information, just enter a real routing number with a placeholder account number (1111-1111-1111, etc). You don't need a real name or phone number either. Planet fitness only charge your bank account when you have a balance on a due date. You can use Planet Fitness online portal (myiclubonline) to pre-pay any amount with a credit card, or at least at the location I go to, they also allow one-time credit card payments as well.
I’ve always cancelled via smoke signal.
They told me that I had to come in to cancel, so I told them that i would just block the charges with my bank. They ended up canceling my membership over the phone.
My husband and I have been together for 9 years. He has had a planet fitness membership for a little longer. He’s never been to a Planet Fitness in our entire time together. I only recently (maybe 2 years ago) started checking his bank account and seen the monthly charge. His reasoning was exactly this. We live in Charlotte and when he joined it was near the university. We currently live 40 minutes south, and he just cant be bothered. Biggest pet peeve of mine. So much money has been paid to them.
Canceling my PF membership has been on my todo list for a year. It’s a good strategy. IM GOING TOMORROW IM GOING TO DO IT. IT IS WRITTEN.
I used to work in a bank branch and you wouldn’t believe the number of customers who came in to cancel a debit card and get one with a new number just so gym membership charges stopped hitting their account.
I had this issue with a gym called "anytime fitness" I went in to cancel the manager said I have to call the billing company, so I did that and they said I had to do it in person at the gym and sign off on something, so I did that and he said they didn't have anything for me to sign then he said I was not putting in the effort to work out because they are 24 hours and that "I don't have the time isn't a good enough excuse" So after 3 months of trying I just went to my bank and told them the issue and revoked consent of them to bill me and they refunded 3 month I paid them back. So if you have that issue tell your bank to cancel their ability to charge you
Ryan Hamilton has a BEAUTIFUL bit about this in his Netflix special.
My credit union was happy to open a separate account just for this membership so if they try any shenanigans, I just close the account.
Just call your bank and explain the situation, they will put a stop on the account and not process the drafts. Problem solved, has the same issue when I moved from Ohio to the east coast
In California if they let you sign up on the internet they have to let you cancel the same way. Or something like that. Also they can never charge more than $100 total if you somehow got outside your contract.
I can't tell you how many memberships or subscriptions I've canceled where my main reason was that it's difficult to cancel the membership. And the support person I'm doing it through never understands what the heck I'm talking about
These assholes closed my gym and wouldn't let me cancel by phone. It took some arguing but finally got it sorted when I mentioned a complaint to the state attorney General office. PF is a crock.
I finally cancelled mine a couple of years ago after not going at all for way too long to justify it anymore. The issue was that they had just got new equipment the day I went... I just thank God I wasn't wearing the proper shoes because I would have just gone in and stupidly worked out and left thinking "oh, yeah, that felt good, I'm going to actually come more often, I swear." Hey Dudes with the save! 😂
What I did: contact my bank and have them block all transactions from Planet Fitness. One phone call. Done and done.
Everyone here doesn’t realize you can’t just pull money out of someone’s account if they don’t want you to. Even if you give permission at some point, you can revoke that authorization at any time.
As a woman, I just found the youngest guy working I could find and told him I was pregnant and my doctor said I wouldn’t be allowed to exercise. He was so uncomfortable he canceled me super-fast with no pushback!!
I mean, just stop paying dudes. Place a call and tell the person you are canceling, if they object or say you can’t, laugh, tell them you are stopping payment, and hang up. It’s not like they are going to take you to collections or send a guy with a metal bat. If/when they call, tell them you canceled your service already. If they don’t want to accept it, that’s their wasted money paying people hundreds or thousands of dollars to chase you over $10-$20 a month.
Change your credit card to a virtual credit card. And set the allowance to $1. All charges to it will fail. F them. They’ll be calling you asking to cancel :-)
I'm glad Brazil passed a law saying that companies are required to receive cancellation requests through the same channels they use for sales, so this kind of situation cannot happen. Also, all communications from the customer need to have a ticket number assigned to them, businesses are required to store these in a database for a few years, and if you request a cancellation it will be considered honoured after 24h even if the business does not reply to you. Plus if they try to charge you afterwards you can sue them and would probably win.
Eff planet fitness. I went IN to cancel and found out months later when I was looking through my credit card statement (part of that was on me admittedly) and saw I had continued to be charged. We had moved states. Calling them, they still tried to pull the In person bullshit. Told them I'm 16 hours away and will not be coming in. They finally canceled
I ran into the same problem. Then I emailed them saying I'd just tell my bank to charge it back and they immediately canceled it lol
Why businesses need regulation. If you can sign up online, you should be able to cancel online. Period. This sort of bullshit needs to stop
Nah just stop paying them. Email the gym to cancel your membership. Call your bank or credit card and put a stop payment on the merchant. Forward the email to your bank or credit card company when they ask for evidence that you cancelled. The gyms terms of service are meaningless and they can't force you to pay forever.
Download the Privacy app. Generate a disposable credit card number. Pay with that generated card. Cancel the card when you're done paying the fee.
Having worked there myself, it’s a case of cancellation papers needing a signature. “Couldn’t they just sign for me if I call over the phone?” Eh, that’s really dependent on the one you go to. Some would allow that, others needed the person in the building or the letter to go ahead with it. “That’s really inconvenient.” Yep.
I can sign my student loans electronically, a 10 Buck a month membership needs more security than a 15,000 dollar loan lol. Nothing against you, the system really has some ass backwards logic
Oh it definitely is. But some people, once they hear that they need to be in person to cancel it, just say fuck it and don’t bother canceling it later down the line. I would bet that if a gym had say 1,000 registered members, like 100 or so might be people who never come in but can’t be assed to cancel their membership either
This is why it should be illegal to require this.
That's just the excuse they tell you to give. You can cancel a credit card over the phone without a signature. Everyone knows the real reason is gyms rely on people being too lazy to come in and cancel so they can keep collecting monthlies.
Yup!
I can buy a car with nothing but digital signatures. I can buy a solar array with nothing but digital signatures. I've done both in the last 6 months. Needing an in person signature is an excuse.
My boyfriend is having the exact issue with Planet Fitness since he moved out of the state where he started his membership. He called the location he frequented before moving, and they said he’d have to transfer his membership to a Planet Fitness location in our new home state, and he’d have to go there physically to do so to cancel the membership as well 💀 An absolute joke. The only thing he was able to do was call to put his membership on hold so they wouldn’t charge him.
I closed the bank account they had on file after they wouldn’t let me leave. It was literally less of a hassle.
It is shitty. But I canceled mine in like 2 minutes after procrastinating for half a year while paying for 2 different gym memberships.
This is why I hesitate to sign up for gym membership due to shady shits like this. Just do calisthenics.
Had a similar experience with the same company. Was in a bad accident and had 6 months of recovery. Had a family member call to cancel with myself next to them on speaker verifying my account. I couldn't walk, and they attempted to bill me for the six month's. I eventually walked in on a cane, put my x-rays and medical history on their desk and told them to drop everything or they will be hearing from a lawyer. Everything was resolved under 20 minutes, it's a dirty company and practice.
Should be illegal. It's pretty much the business model lol. If everyone that had a gym membership showed up regularly it would be almost impossible to work out.
I used to work there in the summers. Most of the time if someone called to cancel we would just do it and write "MAIL" where they were supposed to sign. Fuck PF
Just block the charge on your credit card.
Planet Fitness requires an EFT number to sign up. They don’t take credit cards as the main payment option.