Well, this should be entertaining for at least one person besides me.
I am presenting this case to inform anyone that is considering a membership with Pure Fitness, so they know in advance what to expect when the time comes to cancel. At the most, a normal person will only be out $25, but it still matters.
I left the state of Arizona late last August with the intention of returning a few months later. For this reason, I did not feel it was necessary to cancel my club membership, especially since I did not want to pay another initiation fee upon my return. The cost of eating a few months' dues was far cheaper than eating another $200 to get back in the door.
For the record, I assure everyone that I am not a snowbird. It is the dead of winter and about 3 degrees outside for me. I am aware of the attitude and resentment towards the snowbird community, but I am not a member of it. I will be back, working in 115 degree heat and/or 95% humidity with the rest of you.
When it became apparent that I would be spending more time out of state than I originally planned, I called Pure Fitness to ask if my membership could be placed on hold since I had been in Washington for over two months. I was told that option was not available and that I could simply use any club located within this state while I was up here. I explained the fact that the nearest club was on the other side of the state, 300 miles away, but that didn't seem to register as an unreasonable distance to the person on the phone.
I then bit the bullet and said I would be canceling my membership as of that moment but I was snubbingly told I could not do it over the phone. Nor could I do it within any reasonable amount of time, I was informed.
I had deliberately called a week before my bank account was automatically debited because I did not want to be charged for another month of membership while I was not using their serviceI had already eaten two months of dues.
I was told that I must send a formal letter stating the fact that I wish to cancel my membership, that it must be sent by certified mail, that it would NOT be processed before the next billing cycle, AND I must wait until after the FOLLOWING cycle before it took effect. This meant I would be forced to pay for two more months of memberships if I followed their rules. When I asked for the address to send my request to, I was told to look on my original application even though I had called the exact club that I joined. My application was still in Arizona, so I had to get the address online.
If I had gone along with their plan, my membership would have been done and over with at the end of December.instead, I sucked it up in the hopes that I would return to Phoenix by early spring and be able to forget about the whole ordeal. As it is, I will probably cancel my membership as soon as I get back because this whole experience has been nothing worth enjoying. They might get six months of unused dues out of me, but I plan on living a lot longer, to no benefit of theirs.
Maybe I am the only person that thinks I should be able to freely cancel my membership for reasons that are obvious. This is what I know I had to go through to join:
1) Hand over the cash
2) Immediate membership
This is what I was told to go through to cancel:
1) Write a letter of intent, with my signature
2) Send it to the club by certified mail
3) Wait for my checking account to be billed
4) Wait for my checking account to be billed again
5) 40 days and $50 later, I would be free from Pure Fitness
I don't recall having to send in my application by certified mail before they accepted me. I don't recall having to wait through two billing cycles before my membership was activated. I don't recall anyone being rude, unsupportive, or impatient over inquires when I joined. It is easier and so much more joyous to quit AOL than it is this placewhich is painful to admit. Now that I think about it, I didn't even have to pay to get in the door; I had a free week pass. Now I want out and they still want me to keep paying. I wasn't renting an apartment from Pure Fitness, I don't think they need a month's notice from me.
By offering a clean, pleasant, and enjoyable environment for people to make their lives healthier and happier, Pure Fitness is in no way guilty of operating a detrimental establishment. If not for the fact that they employ a totally annoying cancellation policy, I would never have wasted my time writing this. I could have just as easily sat down and wrote a two-sentence request, mailed it off and been done with it but I simply don't agree with the practice.
The only reason I can see to have this policy is to exploit the helpless people that pay dues month after month without ever using the facilitythey aren't motivated to work out, so they sure aren't going to be motivated to sing and dance to cancel their membership. There may be people that are in need of a policy that is difficult to escape at a moment's notice because fitness is not always easy. Quitting, and quitting NOW is. However, I am of complete sound mind and I want to stop paying for a service that I have not been within 1,200 miles of for five months. I don't want to stop paying in a few months. I want to stop now. It's not that easy.
This is just something to be aware of if you are considering a membership with Pure Fitness. Plan on canceling two months before you want to. Or keep paying for it in the futile hope that you will someday be able to return. I didn't think I was asking for too much
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