The FTC is finally making it easier to cancel your gym membership
www.theverge.com
Maybe it will finally make gym memberships easier to cancel.
  • Makeitstop@lemmy.worldEnglish
    661·
    2 months ago

    It’s been nice seeing the FTC actually doing stuff lately. Guess we’ll find out in few weeks if this is going to continue or if they’ll be taking the next 4 years off.

  • solsangraal@lemmy.zipEnglish
    581·
    2 months ago

    the jumping through hoops bullshit rigamarole to cancel my gym membership didn’t dissuade me from canceling the membership, but it DID ensure that i’d never sign up for a fucking gym membership ever again

    i don’t even care if it’s “click to cancel” now–fuck gyms in general

    • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
      14·
      2 months ago

      Pretty much stick to a non-corporate gym like YMCA. Or, find a place that will let you do month to month. There is absolutely no reason why gyms should be requiring a year long commitment. It’s not like they’re giving you some “subsidized” piece of hardware like a cellphone.

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
        10·
        2 months ago

        Pretty much stick to a non-corporate gym like YMCA. Or, find a place that will let you do month to month.

        Many years ago I used to use Planet Fitness because they allowed a pre-paid membership with cash. You pay up-front for a year, and at the end of the year your membership expires with zero action on your part. Because you pay with cash there’s not credit card for them to try to charge or any bank account they can try to pull funds from.

        Thats an acceptable gym membership to me, but I doubt they still offer that.

        • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
          6·
          2 months ago

          That sounds reasonable. What you want to avoid is signing a contract that requires you to make a monthly payment for 1-2 years. If you move of just don’t like the gym it’s a pain in the ass to cancel. I’ve even seen some with hidden fees… like “surprise! we charge you an extra 50 bucks this month for some bogus reason that was buried in the fine print when you signed up.”

        • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
          3·
          2 months ago

          I tried to sign up recently (online) and it only gave an option to give them my checking account which I promptly noped tf out of. Haven’t tried in person tho.

          • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
            2·
            2 months ago

            No way will I give a gym my checking account info. I don’t give that to any merchant. Merchants can charge my credit card, accept me pre-paying, or for big purchases wire transfer.

            In the past they only offered it a few times a year. From memory once around Thanksgiving (in the USA), and again for a couple weeks around xmas/new years. You have to go in in-person anyway to pay anyway. You’d likely have to contact your local location to find out when/if they offer it, and how much. It used to be $99/year prepaid, which was a great price in itself.

            • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
              1·
              2 months ago

              I’m in the bay area, and the location was built in the last 5 years. I almost guarantee they are cashless. I might give it a go at some point. I’ve got a garage gym with everything I need, but I wouldn’t mind having access to a proper gym for some of the machines.

  • ieatpwns@lemmy.world
    291·
    2 months ago

    Idk about yall but it was easy for me to cancel. I just had to call the gym and they told me to call corporate and I got the run around so I just called the bank and reported my card lost and just like that gym membership cancelled

    • Wogi@lemmy.world
      20·
      2 months ago

      Gyms typically want your checking information, rather than your card to avoid exactly that.

      So you just have to go to the counter and tell them to remove your payment information and when they don’t, (they’ll say they have but you’ll magically get another change months later) then report them to your bank for fraud.

      They’ll get a hold of you real fuckin fast.

      When they take your checking account details they’re required by law to remove them from your system when you ask.

      • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        required by law

        What’s the penalty if they don’t? Because if it’s a fine, then they’ll just build the fine into the cost of membership.

        • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          4·
          2 months ago

          A bank account that you use to pay for stuff, the one that your card is linked to, as opposed to a savings or an investment account.

          • The Octonaut
            1·
            2 months ago

            I live in a country that hasn’t used cheques in a couple of decades. Being reminded of their existence and spelling it “check” was beyond my aging 40 year old brain.

            • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
              1·
              2 months ago

              That’s interesting. Never heard of that term. Guess we both learned something today!

              It’s pretty cool how there’s so many people from around the world here, you can learn a lot that you’d never come across otherwise.

    • MeatPilot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      Another trick is to tell your bank to block charges from a certain company.

      I had to do this because some asshat at a shoe store signed me up for Sport Illustrated even though I declined at checkout. Took multiple calls and verifications it was “canceled” with Sports Illustrated customer support and after the third time it popped up on my CC statement, I just called my bank and they were fine just reversing the charge and blocking all further charges.

      Also I don’t buy shoes from those mall chain stores anymore.

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 months ago

      Yeah but that requires making phone calls, and I’m a Millennial. We don’t do phone calls.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    191·
    2 months ago

    But if I don’t have to call the New York Times to cancel my subscription, how will they stay in business?! /s

      • laranis@lemmy.zip
        7·
        2 months ago

        It isn’t the calls per se, though I’m not a fan of sales calls. It is the number spoofing that drives me nuts. I’m not an expert but I’ve got to believe allowing scammers to appear as valid phone numbers on caller id has got to be a solvable problem. Even just an indication that the call is coming from a VoIP relay and not my kid’s school’s landline has to be possible, no?

  • barkingspiders@infosec.pubEnglish
    13·
    2 months ago

    god it’s nice when government works for the people occasionally, kudos to the many people who made this happen

  • Coreidan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    2 months ago

    If you can’t be profitable without being honest then you don’t deserve to be in business.

    Shut them the fuck down.

  • comador @lemmy.world
    41·
    2 months ago

    Now they’ll just fire half of their customer support to make the call times as slow as calling the govt in order to cancel and throttle their cancellations page speeds to do the same.

    Not saying this doesn’t help, it will, but they’ll do anything they can to circumvent this.

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
        21·
        2 months ago

        If only it worked for all the dnc and petition site spam I keep getting, despite having unsubscribed a hundred times.

        • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 months ago

          Yeah, I don’t remember donating, but maybe I did during 2020. I get emails all the time now and on my work email which is weird. (I don’t think I would have gave them that) I’ve moved them to spam, tried to opt out, and they keep coming.

  • ManixT@lemmy.world
    3·
    2 months ago

    Naturally, republicans are against it.

    Could they please take a position that helps normal Americans at least once, please?