John signed up for a Gold’s Gym membership with the understanding that he wouldn’t have to fork over the $25 monthly fee after he moved away for college. He was told that would be fine, but the manager he spoke to reneged on the deal and now he’s stuck paying for something he can’t use.

He writes:

Last year (2009) in May I signed a one year contract with the Hamilton Mill’s Gold’s Gym in [redacted], Georgia. The only reason I signed the one-year contract was because it was a good deal (25 dollars a month) and the lady that I signed with told me that it would be very easy to cancel the contract at the end of my stay in Georgia as I go to school in TN. So basically I was expecting a 25-dollar a month Gold’s Gym membership for four months (May-August) then to be able to cancel it in August before I headed off to school out of state.

Well when I went in August with my Fall semester schedule to show that I was going to school out of state, a different lady made it very difficult for me saying there’s no way they can cancel my membership, and would not hear of anything even when I explained to her that the salesperson that I signed with specifically told me that all I would need to do is show my schedule and that they would cancel my one-year contract. The only thing the lady would do for me was to suspend my membership during the school year and said she would make it reactivate during the 2010 Summer. I was hesitant to even take that deal because I planned on taking Summer classes, but with that being the only option shown to me I took it.

Well fast forward to now, I have been billed from May to July of 2010, and have not been able to use the Gold’s Gym membership as I have been out of state in TN taking Summer classes. So my mom go’s to the Gold’s Gym and asks if they can now cancel my contract as I live out of state, they told her that I needed to fax in some documents or come there to cancel. So I make the drive to come down to my parents house and I go to the Gold’s Gym and I talk with one of the owners, a big and tall brown haired Caucasian man. He tells me he will cancel my membership in August, so I will still be billed an additional month which I can’t even use. So I ask him if there’s anyway he could let me mom use that month and he says no. So I say to him that the only reason I signed the one year contract was because I was lied to and told that it would be easy to cancel. He must have taken offense to that because he starts yelling at me saying that he will NOT transfer my one month to my mom because I said that he was “ripping me” off.

The funny thing was the lady that lied to me and told me it would be easy to cancel was still working there, and the other lady that would not let me cancel came into his office near the end of him yelling at us. Well as I left I gave him a thumbs up and told him sarcastically that I hoped his business did well (which I obviously do not).

Consumerist I beg of you please find me justice! All I want is the three months I have been billed in 2010, and to not be billed a final time in August, a month that I cannot even use as I go to school in TN.

It seems most people have wriggled out of gym memberships at some point. If you’re a member of that club, share your pointers in the comments.

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