The Blink Fitness example is telling in so many ways. It's not just that it's evil in the sense of mischievous, it reveals a sense of entitlement. I think this sense of entitlement to customer money underlies many problems in contemporary commerce.
The equipment will be old and the clientele mostly giant men, but they'll spot you and what is lifting weights but some metal? Does it need to be new?
For example running , swimming , climbing, and general indoor sports are all activities that some gyms offer.
But in all seriousness, the Y is probably where I'd go if I needed that. They usually have favorable terms.
Climbing gyms kind of run the gamut. I was actually pretty delighted to find that the one I had been a member of, when I moved during Covid, actually never reactivated by subscription when they reopened, so when I nervously called to cancel, expecting them to have some ridiculous requirement, I didn't even have to cancel at all. They hadn't been billing me in the first place.
If you want to run, go outside. Even in fairly unpleasant weather, I think that's generally a better experience than a treadmill. And if you want strict measurements and not to worry about being hit by cars, go find a local high school or college and they almost certainly have a track that is sitting unused often enough for community members to run at. That's how I used to do it when I still ran.
Many years ago I was a YMCA gym member, and I canceled without any fuss. More recently I was a member of the boxing gym around the corner, and I needed to cancel due to an injury (not sustained at the gym!), and they even waived their policy of requiring 30 days notice to cancel. (I also just realized I wasn't going often enough to justify the membership, and could save money by just paying the drop-in fee whenever I wanted to go.)
I do wonder if COVID has made this a bit less bad; my partner was a member of a different gym for a while, and they were good about keeping her membership paused, even after they reopened for in-person classes, and then weren't sketchy about her eventually canceling.
A brand name gym may offer a competitive and value added service at branch via equipment offered or rent bargaining, or financing of such, or network effects or being part of a larger organisationIt is simply a rent seeker that happens to be a gym. Some may seek to be this and the above, with varying degrees of flexibility in having both cakes and eating them.
I usually attempt to cancel the "legitimate" way as well. No collection agency has ever called me. But hey, do what makes you comfortable.
Do you have some special skills that I don't know about?
> Credit cards become invalid in the normal course of human activity
Yes, but it doesn't mean you aren't liable for the charges that get placed on them.
> I usually attempt to cancel the "legitimate" way as well
It seems like you don't actually do it all the time then.
You insist "this can't possibly work." That's funny; it's working for me. Maybe you should try it out?
Or keep paying. It's up to you.
It doesn't come up often, because most places charge you before providing a service. For example, if you have a NYT subscription, and it goes to renew and your credit card has been turned off, you don't actually get your NYT subscription. No services rendered, no accrued charges.
However, if your gym bills your credit card at the end of the month of your membership, then you are still obligated to pay it, even if your credit card has been disabled, because the service has been provided.
does that actually happen? Most places make you pay up front, at least one month's worth, even if they subsequently bill at the end of the month.
In any case "No services rendered, no accrued charges." is actually the case I'm talking about. You pay a month's worth, then forget about the monthly renewals, and they love to keep billing you anyway, but surprise, surprise: the CC declines. At that point, you can decide if you want to keep paying or not. Which is how it should work.
With all due respect your tone made it hard for me to deal directly with your point. But, maybe you only had that tone because I poorly expressed my understanding.
Are gyms usually post-paid? Every one I've been a member of (admittedly only 3) has been pre-paid.
You had to send a certified letter to headquarters.
I've had my own experiences with gyms being hard to cancel. But in principle if I want an easy cancellation then I'll go month to month. If I have a 12 month contract I'm not going to cry if they resist when I want to cancel early...
Don’t ever move to Europe. This is standard practice across the board there. One thing North America does well in comparison is customer service.