Goodbye Gym Membership

I was hesitant to renew a 24-month contract with the gym. The new lower rates still lock me into a commitment that was hard to get out of. But at that point in time, last August, I still liked the classes offered. In December, everything changed. The gym decreased the number and frequency of the LES MILLS GRIT classes, making me shift my entire schedule to their pathetically limited GRIT timetable. Fine, I'll deal. When they rolled out their own gym-certified Reformer instructors whom I don't feel are any good, I wasn't pleased. I've had a lovely year of classes with wonderful Reformer instructors. When those instructors left, leaving only two instructors (whom I like) whose classes are fixed at a timing I couldn't make it to, there was very little incentive to go to the gym.  

I was even more annoyed because when I opted out of gym class booking confirmation emails in the first three months (three years ago), the gym arbitrarily took me out of the entire mailing list although my email address is registered. I've requested many times to be placed back on the list. They said 'yeah sure', and it never happened. I've never received a copy of my membership contract or any sort of essential communication via email or phone from them. When the gym re-opened in this Phase 2, they were non-committal and slightly evasive in their replies when we pressed them about the LES MILLS GRIT classes. The gym has to pay LES MILLS for the rights to these programs, and in this uncertain climate, they might not want to do so.  

I only had access to information about the gym through the friends who're also members, and whatever posted on the gym's social media channels. I asked for a copy of the friends' membership contract, scanned through the fine print and marked out relevant portions on termination. The Circuit Breaker and its Phase 1 gave me the perfect loophole to terminate the membership contract early. I bet you, after this, the gym is going to fine-tune and redraft its contract for new members, or update its membership terms. Hahaha. To cut the long story short, the gym tried to play punk with the dates, indicating that I submitted my request to terminate too late, and I pretty much pointed out that they were wrong because, helloooo emails have got time-stamps on them, duhhh. Then they came up with a three-digit penalty fee that didn't even list a breakdown. Say what?! NO. I sent them their membership terms with the mark-ups at the relevant paragraphs. I refused to pay the penalty fees for early termination of my 24-month contract. (I'm only seven months in.) At the end of the day, the gym had to let me go without a penalty fee. YES. I was relieved because I was prepared for a long fight with them. ✌🏻

I'm not the type who knows what to do on my own at the gym floor. So a gym membership is useless to me if their classes aren't meeting my needs. The past three months have only highlighted what I missed at the gym, what I could do without, and what I truly needed. Pilates and gyrotonic classes more than fulfilled my needs. I've been running, and doing it fast because I don't really like it. Hahaha. So running 5km under 25 minutes = cardio! While I don't mind (slowly) shopping around for a boutique gym that doesn't require that much of a financial or time commitment, I definitely don't need a physical gym to do HIIT. These gyms should revise their business models. Honestly, subscribing to 'LES MILLS On Demand' works. 

It was a wonderful three years, with you, Gym. Still. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Goodbye Gym (s). No more lengthy contracts for me again!