The frustrating part about becoming a member somewhere is that when you want to leave – it’s a lot harder than it was to join. In fact, sometimes it’s nearly impossible. I’ve had memberships where you were required to fax in a letter stating you were terminating the membership and then you would have to give them thirty days in which to process this termination – if you got billed in the intervening 30 days – oh well.
I’ve had memberships where even when you faxed in the paperwork, they claimed to never receive it and you can fax it in two or three times and it’s still an issue. They won’t let you cancel by phone, they don’t have an internet interface and you can’t just turn it in to the people at the facility – you have to snail mail it or fax it to another office in another city and hope that it doesn’t fall through the cracks.
Memberships Are Hard to Cancel
There’s a reason why they make them so hard. From a business standpoint, the longer you are a member whether you make use of the services or not, it’s going to make them money. Your member fees are usually an automatic deduction and they don’t allow you to just terminate them at the bank’s end – for some reason I can’t begin to explain, the bank won’t let you just stop all payments coming out of your own account –even if you have a legitimate grievance against it.
These are some of the key reasons why many people avoid memberships at fitness clubs whether they are a niche club, a specialized club or a large chain. When you compare the inconvenience associated with trying to leave a membership, is it any wonder that people are wary of joining a fitness or health club?
Joining a Club
We talk about fitness and the need for it and we talk about the fitness clubs that are out there and available for us to use – but the simple truth is, those clubs need to make some changes too. They need to change their billing practices and yes, they need to make it easier to cancel the membership. Maybe it will cost them some business in the short term, but the money it costs them is not money they are actually earning.
Believe me, I am not painting all fitness clubs with the same brush. Yet at the same time, it is important to recognize that if these businesses changed some of their practices – they would be doing better by their clients and customers. I’d also be more inclined to maintain a membership that I could cancel when I needed to and pick it back up when I needed it too.
What about you?
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