Beware of the Little Dirty Gym Tricks
(with video below) The first few months of the year is when thousands of people in your city start going to the gym after setting up the world's most common New Year's resolution: losing weight and being healthy. Just like an unfortunate school of fish heading exactly where the bait is, a lot of people are unaware of the little dirty tricks gyms use to get your money – most of the time without you even knowing. How does the scam work?
Watch the video below to see a few variations of the Gym Membership Scam exposed:
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Gym Membership Scams Video
People get lured into signing gym memberships after seeing a great advertised price. This is followed in most cases by a big surprise when the credit card statement comes in the mail. Several gyms charge unnecessary add-ons as well the monthly payment.
When you go and fight the charge with the management of the gym they tell you that the extra fees are for the "fitness improvement center", "maintenance and upkeep", "insurance", and other payments. While you challenge this, saying you should have known about it beforehand, you will be shown the fine print, where the extra charges are mentioned (of course, they never talked about them when you signed the contract and gave your credit card number).
How to Avoid the Gym Membership Add-Ons Scam
Every time you want to join a gym, read the fine print and ask in advance about upcoming fees. If they mention "fitness improvement centre", ask exactly what they will do and when. But above all, never, ever sign a contract without reading the fine print. If it makes them impatient, just tell them that you always read the fine print before signing and they will just need to wait.
How to Report the Gym Membership Add-Ons Scam
Make your family and friends aware of the Gym Membership scam by sharing it on social media using the buttons provided. You can also officially report the scammers to the Federal Trade Commission using the link below:
Report To The FTC Here
How to protect yourself more:
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I moved back to CT from Maine in the summer of 2015 after my little brother Kevin Adorno died on his big east coast bike ride.(This can be googled, you probably covered it.) ANYWAY, my life was up-rooted and as part of settling into my life here in October 2015, I joined the ZOO Health Club in Simsbury, CT and added my mom. I became an Athletic Director for a School district and moved and therefor canceled the membership with them in April, 2016. I emailed the owner in July 2016 telling him that Paramount was still collecting my gym membership and that I needed him to pass along to them that I was canceled. I never received a response from him or received instruction on how to cancel. I am a teacher, have a 100% clean civil record, and an 835+ credit score and feel that I am pretty diligent with this stuff. If this confusion and deception is happening to me, it’s happening to many. I got a call today for $1,837.92 because Paramount sent my account to Precision National Recovery, a collections company. They ended up charging me $837.92 because of my clean records. However, it all makes sense now why the desk personnel didn’t tell me I needed to call the bank back in April, and why the owner didn’t write me back and tell me to call the bank in July. They were getting paid and wouldn’t be if I knew to call them.
We’re all doing so much in our lives, this just shouldn’t have been so deceiving to cancel just so Zoo can make the additional months membership fees.
i was scammed by synergy fitness in Astoria York. there was a automatic renewal clause in the contract. and also they want you to send a certified return receipt letter within 30 days. Not mentioned when i was sold the membership but it is in the contract in fine print. however its month to month after one year. Why did the manager contact me one year after demanding payment for an additional year. Why not a month or two after the one year was up? When I asked his response was "it’s not our responsibility to inform you, you should have read the contract. ok then I should only owe one month not a year, since it’s month to month not an additional year.
@Amanda, where was this? which one is this gym?
Im a mother of a 4 month old and with a tight budget. i got scam and blantly lied to not by one but three sales reps who offered to transfer over my husbands current personal training sessions if i buy a memebership that same day. when i call to make the personal training appointment the GM said it wasnt possible. called customer service same response and didnt feel like i was lied to, played, and not taken seriously when i confronted the issue. I wasnt compensated for my money loss or the two months it took to figure out i wasnt getting those sessions. only reason i signed up was for those sessions they knew that and made promises. LA fitness scams people .