Okay, so I found a local gym that is just as close as my current place. I want to break my contract but am not sure on what grounds.
The place I've been going is:
- a meat market
- always full, busy, long wait times
- the open gym floor always has classes, little stretch space for martial arts, etc
- terrible music, 10 requests to change havent done anything
- broken lat pulldown machine been broken for 12 months, now the sign is gone and its just bar-less
- sign says '24 hours' but on friday and saturday it closes around 11:00 at night
Now Im fine with it closing, but this could be grounds for opting out of contract right? I understand that if nobody is there on a weekend evening, they'll just go home. But the sign says 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
ALSO, there's nobody to ask for advice, or anything. It all costs cash. My new rec centre is amazing, and equal price ($30 a month).
Help! I havent been to my current place in a while cause I HATE the vibe, the lines, everything.
Do you have a copy of your contract? I know most standard contracts. I have to see the language on the contract to tell you if there are any loopholes. I can tell you that they are generally few though. How much longer do you have?
Thanks JP, Ill pick onw up tonight. I have until August I believe. Im just so fed up with the gym...its really killed my motivation and I stopped going for a while, taking up martial arts instead.
If you're paying by credit card talk to the gym, express your issues - equipment that you've paid for isn't working, etc. Then maybe cease paying after you let your CC know. I know with Amex if I'm not happy with something I call 'em and they'll take care of it.
Curls in the squat rack...*smack*. We had a guy who would go into the free area, drag a bench to the rack, gather up weights, then would sit there for an hour doing curls, shrugs, etc. I asked the gym staff about him, he played HS football, was a "star" for a few months, got booted for drugs and hasn't realized his 15 minutes are up. Haven't seen him in a while though.
You're profile says you're in BC.. there must be a "Consumers' protection" bureau of some kind you can call to find out.
I know that here in Québec a few years ago.. it was not publicised at all.. but gyms HAD to permit you to break a contract. (although there was a penalty.. I don't know if it's one or three months? something like that) but they didn't tell you. They'll lie about it..and say you can't but if you know the law they end up saying OK... but Québec laws don't always work the same way as the rest of Canada. I don't know if it's still like that.. but consumer protection doesn't tend to diminish with years.. on the contrary.
I would express your frustrations to the manager and not only tell them you want to cancel, but that you also want part of your money back. The services that you signed up for are not available like they were promised, so they are actually in breach of their contract to you. The 2 things I would focus on are the broken machines and the not being open 24 hours. The other things are out of the gyms control so you can't really complain too much there.
Of course their contract could say something along the lines of we can do anything we want and there is nothing you can do about it, but most of those types of contracts are unenforceable.
Hopefully by you expressing your frustrations they'll either fix the problems or get tired of you complaining and just let you cancel.
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"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." -- T.S. Eliot
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."-- Aristotle
ROCK HARD.. The rest of Canada and Québec don't have the same ways of interpreting laws.. Québec is on the same system as France and the rest of Canada works like England.
I think this explains it.. Common Law and Civil Law
As I understand it, for the contract.. because it IS a contract.. there is a penalty for getting out of it.. a fine.. or a few months to pay anyways.. something like that..
I entertained breaking my current contract b/c i found a better option. In the end i did not do it for a few reasons but the only way i could have broke mine was to move something like >25miles from the nearest branch or get a doctors note stating i could no longer workout due to some condition.
So i considered giving them my old address in PA or getting a doctor friend to cook something up by in my case I am free in March so i am just taking advantage the extras i don't use like the adbucter/adductor machine
I allow people to break my contract early, but there is a penalty. They have to pay 50% of their remaining balance. Thankfully, this rarely happens to me.
I am pretty sure that faulty equipment won't get you out of it. Most contracts state that you are bound to that contract, even if they have to shut down for a few days due to renovations, or even if they move within a certain mile radius. The only place you may have a leg to stand on is that you don't have access on the weekends when they promised 24 hour access. I doubt that their hours are part of the contractual offer though. Most contracts leave that kind of stuff really flexible for the gym owner so they don't lose their membership everytime they make a little change. Their answer may just be to give you a key and tell you to knock yourself out.
It sounds like they are struggling a bit though. This is a very competitive business, and someone is always coming along with newer, shinier equipment, which means that the only way (in my mind) to survive for the long term is to make your service what you sell, not the fancy gym. Equipment is very expensive, and also costly to maintain/repair. If something is going unfixed for that period of time, then they probably don't have really good cash flow. Most people don't sit on stuff like that if they have a lot of cash sitting around.
Good luck. Post some of that fine print when you get the contract.
I think you probably mis-interpreted the sign. Most likely it says open 24 hours 7 days a week. Seeing as signs don't usually have punctuation, you should be reading that sign as "Open 24 hours, 7 days a week." Which from your description is true. They're open 7 days a week and at least one day in that week they're open for a 24 hour period. My current gym does this kind of advertising as well. However they do have another sign that shows exactly what hours they're open so I knew their actual hours when I signed up.
I also find it hard to believe that the gym is packed 24 hours a day during the week. Most likely you choose to exercise during peak hours which is right after work from 6pm-8pm.
About the music, you could bring your own portable music device.
With the broken machine. I doubt that's their only one either.
Now that I think about it, you've described my gym almost perfectly. Even down to a broken lat pulldown machine. Well, there's no open floor in my gym though. The good thing about the gym for me is that even when packed, I can hog up the only squat rack or power cage, since very few people really use them. So the place works out nicely for me.
I am pretty sure that faulty equipment won't get you out of it. Most contracts state that you are bound to that contract, even if they have to shut down for a few days due to renovations, or even if they move within a certain mile radius.
I agree JP, I was just thinking from a pure legal standpoint. If you signed a contract for a gym and later the equipment went into a constant state of disrepair, I bet it wouldn't be too bad of an argument if you took them to small claims court. Basically you're paying them money for service they have quit continuing to provide. Closing down for a couple of days I agree wouldn't count. Closing down for a couple of months would though IMHO.
__________________
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." -- T.S. Eliot
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."-- Aristotle
I had a similar problem. the place said open twenty four hours seven days a week yet they closed on friday night. also, they closed for holidays. I mentioned this to the owner telling him I would persue small claims and he said I could break the contract if I did not persue the small claims complaint.
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Fool give wife grand piano,wise man give wife upright organ.
I've broken a few contracts over the years, but always because of location. When I've moved where I work I've needed to join a different gym. Every gym was happy to do this after just talking to them. On the other hand my last gym (and I mean my last I'll never join another one) I moved 150km away and they wouldnt let me break (well, I could pay out the ENTIRE remaining contract). About a month later they changed to allow it if you proved you'd moved, however I still needed to pay about 50% of remaining out.
I dont like them very much.
People always tend to get too complicated about these things. First step is to just talk to them. If you do want to get sneaky because you really dont think they'll let you out on anything else, tell them you've moved jobs rather than house, that way you wont be able to prove it. Maybe they'll be considerate.
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