My name is Brian, I’m 34, and I live in San Diego, California. Like many people, I signed up for a gym membership with the best intentions.
The problem is that “best intentions” and “actually going to the gym” are apparently two very different things.
I joined this gym early last year when I was motivated to get back in shape. The facility looked great — lots of equipment, nice locker rooms, the usual sales pitch about “investing in your health.”
The monthly membership was about $45, which seemed reasonable.
For the first few weeks I went regularly.
Then life happened.
Work got busy, my schedule got messy, and slowly the gym visits stopped. At first I told myself I’d get back into the routine soon.
That “soon” somehow turned into 14 months.
Yes, I paid for a gym membership for over a year without actually setting foot in the building.
Finally, last month I decided enough was enough and logged into my account to cancel the membership.
The website didn’t make it easy, of course.
After clicking through several menus and reading warnings about “losing access to premium benefits,” I finally submitted the cancellation request.
A few days later I got an email confirmation saying my membership would be terminated.
Problem solved, right?
Wrong.
A week later my credit card statement showed a new charge from the gym.
$99.
I called their customer service line and asked what it was for.
The representative calmly explained that it was an “early cancellation fee.”
Apparently my membership had automatically renewed into a new annual contract earlier this year. Because I canceled before completing the new term, they charged the fee.
I asked when exactly the renewal happened.
She told me it renewed three months ago.
Three months during which I had not used the gym even once.
I told her I hadn’t been notified about the renewal.
She responded that the information was included in the original contract and that renewal reminders were sent via email.
I checked my inbox.
Sure enough, there was a renewal email.
Buried between spam promotions and receipts from months ago.
At that point I was just annoyed.
Not because of the $99 alone, but because the whole system felt designed to quietly keep charging people who forget to cancel.
So I called my credit card company.
I explained the situation and asked if it was possible to dispute the cancellation fee.
The representative asked a simple question:
“Did you authorize these charges?”
Technically, yes.
But then I remembered something.
I hadn’t used the gym in over a year.
So I filed disputes not only for the $99 cancellation fee…
But also for every monthly charge going back to early 2023.
The credit card company said they would investigate.
Now the gym has emailed me asking why I disputed multiple transactions.
Honestly, I’m not sure how this will end.
But if they’re going to charge me $99 to cancel something I barely used…
They might end up reviewing 14 months of membership charges in the process.