I have always hated they way gyms do business. Why should I have to pay for them to do the paperwork required for them to have a customer? is that not a fairly forseeable cost of business?
Does a shop charge you a fee to keep a record of your purchases? no. They are required by law to keep good records anyway.
Why should I have to commit to give them money for two years? If they want me to stay a member for two years they should be working their asses off to make sure I stay happy with them.
For that reason they will never get any money out of me untill they rethink their strategy.
scottbud,
You hit the nail right on the head.
I just don't like high pressure sales, I mean I know I want to get fit, but I like to be able to just know how much something is going to cost, fully read and understand the paperwork on my own time, and pay for it. The internet is great for this, I stayed away from getting a real cell phone for a while exactly for this reason, because I didn't want to get attacked in store. I don't know what I'm going to do when i have to buy a car, since can't really buy one of those online.
How much can it really cost to print out a few forms and have you sign them? I mean stores don't charge you an extra fee to buy something in addition to the purchase price for most items.
And someone mentioned that they charge it for some type of fitness assessment, what if I just want to work out and not deal with any of the people there and do my own workout strategy. I mean my main purpose is just to get some activity back in my life, and just get back to a more normal level of fitness, its not like I'm training for a marathon or anything, so shouldn't they just make the fitness assessment an optional thing.
I didn't know gyms had 2 year contracts, but I wouldn't doubt it. I totally agree rather than locking people into a contract especially with the way the current economy is, they should just work to keep people happy.
I know I worked as a lifeguard at a gym for a while, and heard all the horror stories of the way that they would mis charge people and made it practly impossible to cancel, and I had my own issue when I stopped working there as they tried to continue charging me for the membership though they weren't paying me for it anymore, it was weird but they wanted to count employees as members, and I called several times and never got a resolution until I called corporate, and talked to the person in charge and they were like this would have to go across my desk and it never had, so they were just trying to scam me.
I totally think a rethink is in order!!, Have any contacts in the business industry? we should open an all male non gay gym, that treats customers the way they should be treated!!
It's so simple. If they can get you past that hurdle, get you to make that commitment, the rest is gravy. At every point when you think "I'm not really using the gym that much; I should give it up", you'll think back to the initiation fee and think "Oh, but I don't want to throw that away" and keep on paying that monthly...whether you're using it that much or not. It's a brilliant, long term sales hook.
Nick8, I think you totally got this right, since alot of people sign up in January for there new years resolution, and then by the time like March or April comes around, they are so not going to the gym anymore. Least that's what happened at the gym I was a Lifeguard at for a while.