Pay-to-Use Gyms are the Scum of the Earth

Many of us have fallen victim to a gym’s predatory contracts. You can’t join unless you join for 1/2/3 years, and you can’t cancel without an exorbitant fee. They do this because they know that most people won’t go to the gym for more than a couple of weeks, but you’ll have to pay anyway.

Well I decided that if I was going to join a gym again, I would not sign such a contract. I already got screwed once, and I won’t get screwed again.

There is a gym near me called “Crunch.” I had tossed around the idea of joining…but there was no way I would walk in there to be hassled by a salesman. God damn, how I hate dealing with sales people.

So I went to the Crunch website, to my location, and requested more information. I asked that they email me a list of their rates, and the services that you get at each rate, and a copy of any document I would have to sign should I join the gym. I received no response.

Moral of the story: Businesses don’t like dealing with smart consumers. Ralph Nader once told a story of a man who went to a car dealership. They gave him the contract that he needed to sign to buy the car, and he made changes to it, and handed it back to them for their approval. They proceeded to call the police on the man.