Basically, the membership is incredibly cheap, so it seems like a great deal, and most people just assume they can always cancel if they don't want to work out there any more. The problem is that in order to cancel, you must first call their corporate office (not any of the branches) and file a request to be cancelled. THEN, you must write a plain old postal service letter to their account people and send it in the mail. At that point, your membership will be cancelled in 60 days. They also don't notify you that you'll be charged an annual fee every summer of an additional amount (depending on the place, at ours it was $35) that will be automatically drafted from the same account you use to pay the dues. This IS in the contract, but it's hidden under a very obscure clause, and they make no effort to notify you it's there. When I called the local branch to ask about it, assuming it was a billing error, the representative acted as though I had offended him, and said I should have read my contract. It was at this point I decided to cancel.
I had previously cancelled my wife's membership, and everything went according to plan. When I decided it was time to cancel MY membership, letters were miraculously lost, information was scrambled, and it lasted JUST long enough to make it so I'd be charged the annual fee that came up in the summer. When I complained to their main office, the woman just told me "the only correspondence we received from you was in June. There's nothing more I can do." I explained to her it was in their best interest to make the cancellation go as smoothly as possible, not because I would sue or do anything else malicious, but because it's just a sign of professionalism that you won't be petty and try to hold up someone who's cancelling. Doing so will convince them not only not to come back in the future, but keep them from everything within their power to keep others from making the same mistake. She did not agree, and so this report has been filed.
Additionally, the annual equipment replacement fee was not used for equipment replacement. Mirrors in the fitness room were broken, multiple elliptical machines were in such a bad state of repair that they could not be used without endangering yourself or the people near you. The weights in a lot of the areas were cracked and showed signs of breakage. When I brought this up to the staff, they simply said "what do you expect? This isn't 24 hour fitness."
The level of apathy is the biggest concern for me, which made going there and dealing with them a major problem. If you want a cheap gym, use your money to buy some home equipment that you can be responsible for repairing; you'll find it a much better value.
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