(caught the spelling mistake afterwards ugh)
I once tried to quit a Union in my place of employment figuring I could protect and take care of myself and because my union guy was this arrogant dick. Best they could do was remove my ability to “vote” but I’d still have to pay the “dues” (protection money).
How does that work? Are they saying you are forced to pay? Would they sue you if you just stopped paying?
Automatically deducted from my pay.
You wanted the perks of the union but didn’t want to pay the dues. Got it.
Perks?
If you work in a union shop you benefit from the union contract, with wages, healthcare etc etc. Union workers earn roughly 10–15% more than similar non‑union workers on average. You working at that place, you are getting the benefits/wages the union fought for.
I know the theory of unions so save your breath. The best I got was various plastic shit from time to time, with the unions logo imprinted upon the cheap plastic shit. I still have that plastic union frisbee. Let’s let government control wage imbalance between corps and citizens through laws. We don’t need multiple middle-man rackets who take protection money when it is within ourselves to be a national “collective”. Don’t get me wrong. Like most things, unions started out with good intentions, and were desperately needed at one time, but now they are just little pockets of power using you for their voting blocks, with still no laws to protect workers and provide them a living wage. Rest in your comfort and mall purchases knowing you are better off than most of the rest of society who are not part of a union collective. Brotherhood indeed. I subscribe to the Musketeer motto, for the most part.
I’m all for unions but they should not be forced.
I am all for unions, but union jobs have a union for a fucking reason. I’d rather not work for an employer that is or was so hostile that the employees needed to rise up.
I’d rather not work for an employer that is or was so hostile that the employees needed to rise up
That sounds horrible. I have never seen nor heard about a situation like that (in a legal setting, illegal work conditions are another matter). I am also not from the USA (which I assume OP), so my perspective is perhaps different.
Joining a union is never forced where I live, and you can join a union without your work having an agreement with one (they will give legal aid, probably more, and try to improve all workers’ rights. A lot of benefits I enjoy today is because someone else took the fight before me).
Amazing thing about unions, everyone complains about leadership yet no one votes. As a Union man I have no sympathy.
$10 a month for doing nothing, how is that even legal?
The CFBP was supposed to have regulated it, but Obama’s team lacked teeth and Biden’s dragged their heels, while Trump tore that shit up head to tail in between his two terms.
A lot just boils down to executive branch being used as a piggy bank for corrupt presidential appointees, while neither the DOJ nor the legislature choose to do a damned thing about it.
Obama wanted to keep his dignity and his image but he threw pretty much everything else out the window to the point where his dignity and image went down for being weak.
IMO, Lina Khan was maybe the best appointment of the Biden presidency and as FTC chair, pushed hard for consumers, even for unlikely winnable battles. Unfortunately the click-to-cancel [1] rule was struck down by the Court of Appeals, but I think if she were still in that position she’d fight the ruling. You’re right that the legislature needs to do their job and formally outlaw these practices, rather than having this be brought up by the FTC and struck down on a procedural matter.
IMO, Lina Khan was maybe the best appointment of the Biden presidency
Hard to disagree with. But then Harris did a bunch of backroom deals as part of her presidential campaign with an eye towards throwing Lina under the bus.
Unfortunately the click-to-cancel rule was struck down by the Court of Appeals
One of the more obnoxious consequences of our modern fascist turn is witnessing the role of the judiciary in theory versus practice. Identify and punish obvious predatory billers and scammers? Totally outside their scope or purview. Gut even the pretext of an administrative regulatory state? No problem.
You’re right that the legislature needs to do their job and formally outlaw these practices, rather than having this be brought up by the FTC and struck down on a procedural matter.
But we’re still back to the question of “Who does the enforcement?” Clearly not the CFPB. Clearly not the SEC or the FCC or the FTC. Clearly not the DOJ. Clearly not any state or local DAs office. Nobody is doing this work, even when they are fully empowered to it. Because if you try to challenge a powerful private entity, a bit of money changes hands and you’re fired.
It’s to keep the account active so you don’t have to pay a new account activation fee of you decide to resubscribe.
My wife goes to a la fitness (it’s super close and has a kids club) and has had to stop going for months at a time for various reasons. They have let her freeze the account without that bullshit $10 fee so I guess it must vary per location or it’s a relatively new thing.
Beats me
The corpos write the laws.
Stuff like this is why I’d rather be fat than go to a gym.
That’s a fair stance, though i will say living an active lifestyle feels great. I sleep better and I feel better. A gym is the right way to do that for some people, but there are other ways to get in shape. Body weight exercises do so much more than most think.
That’s like saying you’re gonna get back at road ragers by crashing your car into a tree
When setting up my LA Fitness account, I used a virtual card so if they try and pull any shenanigans like this the card cane just simply cease to exist. Many credit cards offer this as a feature, and if not, privacy.com does this as well
Yeah good call, I’d do this too. Just watch out though because the gym will send any unpaid bills to collections. Might be worth it though to get out of the contract - just make sure to pay off the debt within 30 days.
Had something like this happen to me. Luckily, we have laws in place stating that collections companies cannot follow up disputed claims. So I emailed the collections company, with the people that sent the claim to them on CC, telling them I disputed the claim (with some attachments to back up why). They responded by basically saying “sorry, our bad, the people that sent this claim can pound sand.” Then I never heard anything more about it.
What sucks though, is that it’s really stressful to have something go to collections. Most people would probably just have paid, because they get stressed out and don’t know the law.
Full disclaimer: This law may very well not exist where you live.
Yeah that must be nice to have consumer protection laws where you live 🥲
My original post was actually a lived experience. Around the start of COVID I wanted to cancel my membership at Retro Fitness, but they refused unless I came in with an essay about why in person. Yup you read that right.
Fun fact: the gym was closed to guests because of COVID
Pretty easy decision
So this is why some gyms like mine are now doing discounts for using a checking account now. I wondered why that was when I set up my account last year.
Nah there’s legitimate reasons to do that. Banks don’t charge the fees that credit card companies do.
Also, you can have your bank refuse payment, anyway.
I didn’t know that was a thing but makes sense. Do banks have a similar name to it like credit cards have chargeback?
That makes sense on the fees, I had forgotten the fees they get charged for processing plastic.
Yeah it’s a stopped payment. Checks or bank accounts.
That’s good advice, I’ll do that for my next gym membership. Tx.
Just because aware this doesn’t terminate whatever contract you had and they can take you to court if they wanted to.
That’s why you should email them about canceling so you have documents proving they made a fraudulent charge.
Most definitely. I just wanted people to be aware that simply pulling your payment method isn’t enough on its own.
Fair enought yeah
Damn, goodbye home after bathroom renovations
joe.exotic.never.financially.recover.jpg
Or you could not sign up for known predatory businesses.
what happened next? (do the terms actually allow you to cancel it immediately for no cost, or is their $10-per-month-for-nothing offer an alternative to paying a cancellation fee?)
Nothing so far, I sent the email in the screenshot. If they reply anything other than my membership is cancelled, I’ll require them again to cancel my membership and point to the fact that I requested the cancellation in writing 3 times and if they charge me one more time i’ll tell my lawyer to take them to small courts (I don’t have one but who cares).
The whole point of small claims court is that it doesn’t require a lawyer. In fact, many small claims courts actually bar lawyers.
very generous of you to give them three strikes
Paying to not use a service is peak gym membership logic 😭
I always use virtual cards for any subscriptions these days. If it takes more than a couple clicks to cancel a service, I just delete the virtual card instead.
Can I assume you use https://privacy.com/ for this? If so unfortunately only Americans can utilize that service.
Because rest of the world is civilized enough to not have gyms that do such an exorbitant thing. And also we have access to Revolut.
Of course, there are outliers, which is sad and I feel for them.
There is also this:
https://wise.com/help/articles/1AqrRndtxosydM2GLR3U6T/getting-started-with-your-wise-digital-card
You can get the digital card if your Wise account has a registered address in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the EEA (European Economic Area), Japan, Malaysia*, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the US*
*You can only get a digital Wise Multi-Currency Card for your Personal account, not your business account, if you live in Malaysia.
But if you just turn off your virtual card, if they have not agreed to end your membership don’t they just send you to collections?
If you continue to get push back, consider going to the manager during business hours and discussing it with them. They don’t want a grumpy Google review on their location.
I once had a card skimmed and cancelled. I forgot about my Anytime Fitness membership until three months later when I had racked up hundreds in late fees. Talked to the manager, who just went in and removed the charges from my account while I waited.
This is why I use a privacy.com card for just about everything. Anybody gets hacked or tries to pull some shady shit I can just turn off the card and it doesn’t affect anybody but them.
but what do you do if privacy.com gets hacked?
Then I just turn off my regular/real debit card and I’m no worse off than I would have been in the first place.
For just $2,000 USD we can buy extraprivacy.com from GoDaddy and make a killing!
Some gyms require your account & routing number to sign up.
Wow, that’s some really invasive stuff. If a gym ever asked for my account and routing number I would just go somewhere else, but I understand not everybody has that option.
Like Randy would say, ok I was going to do it for a cheeseburger, but give me the $10.
Make a privacy. Com account
Change all of your card info to one of theirs for 3 months
Cancel
The card
Or just tell your bank to blacklist them and leave it at that
You’ll be taking a credit hit either way
File a complaint with your state’s attorney general and theyll handle it beyond that point when they get to you
Why would you take a credit hit. It seems like once a year, something random comes up in a credit card statement, and requires a dispute. Those aren’t sent to credit agencies AFAIK, although i’ve never been ruled against any, so I’m not 100% about this.
Why I will never join a gym. I can do pushups in my living room.
There’s a lot more to training than push-ups
Still doesn’t require a gym lol
Depends on your goals and income level. I couldn’t afford to rent a place with the space for the equipment I use let alone the equipment itself. Of course training isn’t required for anyone, and there’s a lot you can achieve with little or no equipment, but there’s a reason why people pay for gym memberships rather than simply “doing pushups at home”.
I would wager you can emulate any exercise you do at a gym at home.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calisthenics
There is a well known method for that designed by Olivier Lafay.
It doesn’t require any specific equipment and can be completely done at home.
The only thing you’ll have issues with is the pull muscles like biceps and upper back. But a door frame pullup bar fixes the problem.
Regular gym bro here, tried home gym for a while, didn’t work for me. Main issues are:
- progression, you have to increase difficulty over time which is difficult with no equipment
- equipment is fucking expensive, although it may pay off after a year or 2. Resistance bands may be an alternative but restrict you in other ways
- no pull exercises in my case, my house is fragile and I’d break things. Literally no place to attach anything to
- I ended up not training regularly anymore because it’s harder for me to maintain a routine like that. It’s helpful to have a separate space for that
Overall, if you spend several hours per week with exercising, I’d recommend you use proper equipment. It’s just so much nicer. Home gym can work if you have the space and routine, but not in my tiny ass apartment. Fortunately gyms are not as extractive where I live.
Also, exercise is great for you, don’t listen to the haters. Gym weirdly does it for me, although it’s the most boring shit. Other exercise like bouldering often even comes with other people so you can socialise.
Hey you should check out the Lafay method I mention.
It’s a method without any specific equipment required.
Most of the increased difficulty is managed by how long you rest and the posture for the exercise.
That said you need something to suspend under.
Most people pay for gyms to cancel it before the end of the year, it’s not popular because it’s smart.
Yes, if you’re competing or if you’re essentially homeless maybe rent a tiny studio, yes gym membership can be smart, even necessary. The shower is the biggest value you get out of a gym membership. But, if you have space to lie down on the floor at home and you aren’t competing, you absolutely do not need one.
What were the terms of the contract?
You did read the contract right?
I don’t blame people for being upset because gyms are disgusting money grubbers but it doesn’t invalidate their own responsibility to not enter into bullshit contracts.
I get where you’re coming from so I won’t downvote, but I thought you might want to know that this has some real “men shouldn’t rape women, but women shouldn’t dress slutty or get drunk” or “police shouldn’t shoot black men, but black men should just comply” vibes.
What?
How is this in any way related to rape? Being raped is horrible and should not be compared to being locked in a dumb contract.
Didn’t think I had to spell this out, but in all three cases it’s victim blaming. Men blaming women for being raped, white people blaming black people for being shot by the police, and the previous poster blaming people for getting caught in shitty contracts by predatory companies. On a scale of severity they’re in completely different universes, but that’s kind of the point of an analogy: to use a more extreme example to illustrate why something is wrong.
Edit: And to be clear, this comment was not addressed at your comment, but the poster who replied to you.
What the fuck are you talking about? I couldn’t care less what “vibes” your crazy ass is feeling.
Presumably you had some point that you were trying to convey with your comment, which is going to get lost by the people who will see it as simply victim blaming. The tone of this reply and your other comments suggest that you’re fine having an abrasive personality and care more about some sense of being right than constructive criticism, so I’ll just leave it there and wish you a good day!
I don’t know that even matters much, most of these contracts tend to have a clause they can change the contract at anytime and they may or may not notify you.
Yeah it sucks
Anyway I think they are legally required to notify you but I’m not a legal professional. If they are required they probably sent out a single email that was designed to look like spam.
It’s insane that this happens. I’ve had memberships at six different gyms over my lifetime. For all but one, I’ve had to explicitly tell them that I want to renew, or else the membership gets automatically cancelled at the end of the contract term.
Join my gym program it’s called LB Fatness. You sign up for this gym scam, cancel immediately using a fake card number so they don’t get a dime, and as time goes on joining the gym will become too expensive. If you can’t afford to get scammed you won’t get scammed. Workouts include carrying a fat wallet, riding a bike outdoors in air that smells like car exhaust and not sweat, and lifting cinderblocks while sitting on a weathered piano bench outside on a patch of dirt. Front yard is optional dirt patch is not. You gotta buy yourself a bike and a few cinderblocks but the piano bench should show up on garbage day on a curb somewhere eventually. Just keep an eye out and you’ll see one sooner than you’d think.
Send me your CC#, a photo with your shirt off, and home address and I’ll order you clothes that are just a little too small but otherwise look great and will slowly shrink in the wash.
