Having been burned before, I broke a lifelong rule yesterday and signed up for a gym plan. Within 90 minutes, I was at the post office sending a certified letter to cancel it.
My insurer, GEHA, has been advertising this Active&Fit Direct plan -- pay $25 enrollment and $25 a month and you can go to their member gyms. There's a mandatory 90 day enrollment and then it's month to month you can cancel in any month.
I look at their gyms and there's one that is near my work (none are near my home). The next closest one is three towns away but the one near my work will suffice. I go take the tour and it looks okay.
I get home to sign up online via the GEHA website which leads to the Active&Fit Direct website. They explain they'll hit the credit card for $75 for enrollment, current month, and next month's fees. Okay -- $25 and $50 for two months. Do it. Except, then I get a final receipt showing $50 for enrollment and $25 for July 30th through August 30th. Arrrgh! My two-month sign-up just dropped to one month in one click!
I pack up my gym duffel (which I had to make because I haven't been to a gym in a very long time). I go to the gym with my Active&Fit Direct ID "card" (a sheet of printer paper with my name and number on it). Turns out that the gym wasn't part of their network. The Active&Fit Direct site has been listing them for a long time but they've never been a member gym and Active&Fit Direct haven't removed the gym despite their several requests to do so! Arrgh #2
So now I have to cancel this thing that I can't use, that charged me incorrectly. I call the toll-free number and I'm told that I have to send an email to cancel. Arrrgh #3! Now I am remembering why I made that personal rule to never, never, not ever join a gym. I look at the Terms & Conditions and I have to cancel by Snail Mail. Email is not mentioned. So within 90 minutes of signing up to this lemon, I'm in my post office -- still in my workout clothes -- sending a Certified Mail letter to the Active&Fit Direct people because I have 5 days to cancel for the refund before the 90 day compulsory membership starts.
Let's watch them screw this part up too. They know nobody is going to notice the contract and do this -- they're all waiting for customer-(no-)service to answer an email they won't read. Probably nobody will read my letter either but I have met the contract and will be on solid ground when I cancel the credit-card charge.
I hate gyms.
That business model needs to die.
PS: Seems like I'm not the only one with some of these problems
Submitted July 31, 2018 at 08:30PM by funchords https://ift.tt/2LDyh93
