Okay. Rant time.
I had been piggy-backing on my roommate's Gym Membership by paying him $20 a month and being able to go to the gym with him (it’s like a rider to his contract that allows you to bring up to two friends each time you go). “We” signed up with the gym when it first opened and were happy with its size and amenities. I didn’t go all that often.. Maybe once or twice a week. Working up to my wedding, I flipped between going as much as I could to not going at all. All in all it reminded me of our high school gym, nothing special, but lots of space meant you weren’t ever right next to a heavy breather or awkward gym jock.
Then my hubby came over to Canada and we got married and started signing up for the couple-y stuff like bank accounts and Costco memberships. Next on the list was a gym membership. Our roommate had nothing but good things to say about the current gym and I didn’t really have an opinion other than staff seemed lazy. My husband and I checked out a couple other gyms and their pricing and went in for an appt with the Manager at the current gym.
We asked for the best deal after a while, and he worked out some sort of thing that basically gave us free gym hopping to any facility and a slight discount on the monthly rate. My husband and I liked that the gym had a pool and a lot of machines. We asked some questions related to classes (why weren’t there many) and the manager assured us that he was working on that and there would be a bunch more added. We signed up and paid the lump sum for a year-long membership. Did not get any swag for free, did not get a safety tour, just gimme your money and go.
Fast forward a couple months and my husband and I were both basically spitting mad about the gym. The staff stopped caring and everything immediately hit the dirt floor. Showers never washed, broken machines, inattentive and inappropriate staff and horrible advice from their “fitness” manager (they told me to lose weight I should only eat fish and use just my body weight.. no machines). We could go to the gym as long as we didn’t use the bathrooms, showers or lockers.
After complaining numerous times we were met with excuses and answers that never made sense (the janitor quit the day before… SO.. you as the manager just don’t clean or tidy yourself then?). After two separate issues came up for me (one involving a shower that wouldn’t drain (pictured) with flies stuck to the wall and another with the fitness manager making me feel like I would never lose weight because I wasn’t willing to do her a, b or c) I basically refused to go back to the gym.
It was a weird feeling getting emotional about it. My husband and I cared, but no one else at the gym did, and the reviews we saw on social media must have been posted by staff as they continually said the opposite of what we saw each week. And we felt like we (should have) held some sort of importance as we had paid for a whole year.. we weren’t about to end the contract and head off like other monthly members. Yet this didn’t matter and there was nothing you could do about it. Getting out of a year commitment is tricky and in our case would have required some deceit to end.
We haven’t been in months and in amongst that we have moved cities. My husband found the same gym name close to our new home and went and had a look at it. What a difference! Small, but clean. So we will be able to at least finish out our year-long commitment at a gym that is actually maintained.
It’s been a disappointing learning experience for us. There are a couple benefits to staying month to month:
· Negotiating power if you see they have a cheaper rate on, or if you are unhappy with stuff. Threatening to leave can often give you the cheaper price or a promise to clean up their act
· You can leave
· Paying all at once can hurt the bank account
Compare that to only having the one benefit of saving a little money if you sign on yearly, and in this situation I believe month to month for the little bit more makes more sense.
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