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Comment by ozzythecat | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of my story with LA fitness. They closed down their only location that’s in a sane driving distance to me and said I could use my membership at the next closest location without paying extra, as if they were doing me a favor. After calling them to cancel, they refused to cancel on the phone and insisted I go into a physical location… well, it’s 30 miles away, and I didn’t have a car and I’m on crutches. Getting around was very difficult for me.

In the meantime, they refused to even accept my phone call as a request to cancel. I was charged for three extra months, until I finally paid $100+ round trip to Uber to their location and cancel in person.

LA Fitness is a soulless leech, and the fact that company is allowed to stay in business is testament to a corrupt government system.

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Sounds like a credit card chargeback to me.

I've never been to LA Fitness, but I know Planet Fitness requires you to provide a voided check, and they directly withdraw from your bank account.

Planet Fitness requires you to visit one of their branches to cancel or write a letter to the branch where you enrolled. I cancelled my membership last week.

That's what I did with 24 Hour Fitness. I had to cancel in person, which is ridiculous, but the guy told me that because of the way their system works, they will charge me for the next month too. When the charges showed up a month later, I use chargeback to refund the money and that was the end of it. Their system supposedly being slow to process isn't a reason for me to be charged another month; one shouldn't be rewarded for incompetence. I was ready to fight them on it because nowhere in the agreement did they mention charging me another month after cancelation but they let the chargeback stay -- probably because they know it's baseless and was hoping people won't bother fighting them.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if credit card companies essentially screen calls from some gyms. I can't imagine you're the first person to have a terrible experience with 24 Hr Fitness. I don't know if it'd go so far as to effect their credit score, but I imagine businesses like that are flagged in processing systems.

They will submit the debt to a debt collector and ding your credit if this is done. The debt is governed by the contract you signed, not by their ability to charge your card.

> The debt is governed by the contract you signed, not by their ability to charge your card.

Yeah, but my ability to cancel is also governed by contract, not by their arbitrary policies around it. Unless the contract explicitly says otherwise, an email, chat, or phone call saying "I'm cancelling" is sufficient notice.

Have you ever read a gym contract?

Yeah, but apparently I go to much more ethical gyms.

> Unless the contract explicitly says otherwise, an email, chat, or phone call saying "I'm cancelling" is sufficient notice

This would not constitute legal notice under most contracts. There will be termination instructions. Often involving mailing a letter. But almost no contract technically permits termination via phone call.

Huh, okay, today I learned! Thanks for the correction. I'm used to employment contracts which just require "notice". That said, I'd argue the "often involving a letter" part:

For all my web/app/software products, including streaming video services, I can cancel within the site/app. My cellphone provider is the only one that specifies a phone call.

Even the New York Times TOS says a chat with an online agent is sufficient, and that's one of the ones being complained about in this thread.

I don't think I've ever seen "mailing a letter" required outside of a few unethical gyms.

Based on responses, I would edit/delete this comment if I could. Thanks for setting me straight

Same problem with a gym I joined. They required a certified letter to hq to cancel. (well didn't require it, but recommended certified)

LA fitness doesn't process cancellations. You have to call and work with ABC Financial Services. I was able to actually get a refund because in my contract I was due a refund if the gym was closed for 30 or more days.

For me, I ended up going to their location and they still did not cancel.

I noticed it when I still got a charge. I then initiated a chargeback with the credit card company.

Seems like this is common enough with them that they quickly gave me my money back.

They had me mail in a cancellation letter a few years back. But I guess the scumbags have upped their game.

Sounds like an episode of Friends from the 90's

I WANNA QUIT THE GYM!

I WANNA QUIT THE BANK!

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