Planet fitness unfair

[DBoy_25]

can any one please tell me, if i was stupid enough to go to planet fitness and start signing up but it was not completed as i did not have all the documents required. so i left and did not return. all of a sudden im a member for the last 4 months and they want there money. but i havent even completed the signing up process. CAN I DO SOMETHING??please help

[nivek]

did u sign the membership application form?

[DBoy_25]

i think so, but i was unemployed at the time and they needed a bank slip which i never gave and i also didnt give my bank account details.

[Skeptik]

Some of these fitness places are just money suckers. They know a lot of people go once and never again. Also, I felt like I was at one of those timeshare conventions when I was 'having the interview' hard sell routine.

[DBoy_25]

Do you have to be employed to get a contract or not??

[stoke]

Both parties should have the same understanding of what the contract means. In other words, there must be a meeting of the minds. If one of the parties doesn’t properly explain what is in a contract, for example, misrepresenting what is in a contract, or not explaining the details properly to a person who is illiterate, then the contract will not be valid. Source: http://www.paralegaladvice.org.za/docs/chap11/02.html

Is there a possibility that you can use "i did not completely understand" to get out of the contract?

Perhaps you are married in community of property, and your wife has not signed?

Whatever argument you want to use, the bottom line is that you must indicate that you are in breach of contract clearly. Do not let them carry on assuming that you are not in breach of contract. At the moment you can tell the judge that you were under the impression that the contract period had not started, so the damages is minimal if you have not used the facilities on offer (If you did use the facilities after signing, you have accepted the goods offered), and the damages that planet fitness can nail you for is nothing more than admin fee's and perhaps the legal fee's.

BUT .. if you let this drag on, then they can claim that you knew about the contract starting, and you did nothing to stop the contract continuing.

i.e. Send them a FAX indicating that the contract has started without your permission as per a verbal agreement, and that you would like it made crystal clear that this contract is not to begin until you are ready for it to begin as verbally agree'd, and as per the verbal agreement, the contract is not to start until you furnish them with the bank statement and a bank account number.

[DBoy_25]

sounds like plan. thank you

[stoke]

Gewd luck, but be very clear about what your intentions are and when they threaten to blacklist you you are going to have to get a lawyer involved, and cos lawyers cost money, get the most expensive one that will see you involved and tell him to go straight for their jugular and get his fee's back from them.

[noxibox]

Do you have to be employed to get a contract or not??
Not necessarily. That is up to them.

If you signed you may have a problem, but if the forms were not filled in completely that could count in your favour.

[Skeptik]

I think this is quite straight-forward. You haven't signed a contract, so they cannot do squat. Best you tell them sooner. You also have not used their facilities (I hope).

[DBoy_25]

i haven't even got the gym card yet. never once worked out in the gym.

[Ou grote]

Any news on what happened ?

[Khyron]

The prices these gyms charge are astonishing. R400 for the opening of your account and then R350 a month.

All this to stand in line waiting for some sweaty dude in front of you without a towel to get off the bike as at least 30% of the equipment is out of order at any one time.

[Ou grote]

We`ve got a Sports Science Institute gym in Pinelands, CT.
R170 pm.

[kobie]

Planet fitness will let you haggle when it comes to gym fees, my first contract was at something like 125 a month (with a student discount though). My new one also got quiet a big discount when i indicated that i wasn't happy with what they were offering me. I didn't know there was a sports science gym in pinelands, kind of sad really since i live in pinelands!

[Ou grote]

science gym in pinelands, kind of sad really since i live in pinelands!
Any Pinelands resident can join.
It`s at the Old Mutual building, West Campus.
They`re busy building a mall there as well, few shops are open.

[stoke]

shhh .. don't tell them ... next thing you know you're waiting behind kobie and you don't even know it .. :p

[DBoy_25]

well after months of fighting they gave up. i never completed signing the contract and i never handed all the information that was needed for the contract to be complete. these bastards had the nerve just to sign me up thinking i would just play along with it.

F***K PLANET FITNESS THEY WANT TO SCREW EVRYONE!!!!!

[remybfg10k]

are you not worried they blacklist you though?

[broken1]

I had a contract and went for about 6 months. Waiting until my year was up, phoned them...and said how do I cancel. I must just send a fax, so I did...I sent the fax 3 times and confirmed all 3 times they got it...do you think they've stopped taking money off?

[ebudae]

Planet Fitness are a bunch of slimey creeps.

I have been to Planet fitness for their sales pitch a few times and it always works the same way.

The salesman will show you a form on the back of which is their pricelist. On the pricelist it states that when you sign up with planet fitness, you have to pay a joining fee that is somewhere in teh region of R2000. Maybe its more or less I can't really remember beacuse I have a memory like a bucket used for target parctice.

Anyway, the salesman will then tell you that if you sign up right now, i.e. sign a 2 or 3 year contract, they can reduce the joining fee. Or they can reduce it to maybe R300 or some amount in that region and you will pay R200 a month.

If you say that this is still too expensive, they disappear so they can go discuss something with the manager. Then they come back with a pamphlet. They then go on to explain how you just missed one or another promotion by a few days, but they still have a few vouchers left and if you sign up today, you can qualify for the special rate. They will even waive the joining fee.

Of course, in order to qualify, you have to pay for the entire contract upfront.

Do you have a credit card? They will put the entire 3 year membership on your credit card, on budget over however long your contract will be.

The sales pitch always follows this form or soem variation. And they are beyond pushy. I am sure this kind of tactic is illegal.

[Iwojima]

Thankfully my gym's R155p/m, no contract style of running the place would never cause this kind of grief. Always seems to happen with the big gyms that are intent on locking people into contracts to make money of those that don't come back after 3 months.

[Skeptik]

The staff are always hitting on the pretty women their too.

[jetpacman]

Planet Fitness are a bunch of slimey creeps.

I have been to Planet fitness for their sales pitch a few times and it always works the same way.

The salesman will show you a form on the back of which is their pricelist. On the pricelist it states that when you sign up with planet fitness, you have to pay a joining fee that is somewhere in teh region of R2000. Maybe its more or less I can't really remember beacuse I have a memory like a bucket used for target parctice.

Anyway, the salesman will then tell you that if you sign up right now, i.e. sign a 2 or 3 year contract, they can reduce the joining fee. Or they can reduce it to maybe R300 or some amount in that region and you will pay R200 a month.

If you say that this is still too expensive, they disappear so they can go discuss something with the manager. Then they come back with a pamphlet. They then go on to explain how you just missed one or another promotion by a few days, but they still have a few vouchers left and if you sign up today, you can qualify for the special rate. They will even waive the joining fee.

Of course, in order to qualify, you have to pay for the entire contract upfront.

Do you have a credit card? They will put the entire 3 year membership on your credit card, on budget over however long your contract will be.

The sales pitch always follows this form or soem variation. And they are beyond pushy. I am sure this kind of tactic is illegal.

Sounds almost like an MLM pitch

[DBoy_25]

they can't black list me if i never correctly joined. the salesman filled in the empty fields in the contract and i asked for a copy and when receiving the copy you can clearly see the difference in the hand writing and half the information was incorrect. bank account details, my address, where i work.

[bwana]

They're opening up a branch here in PE that I'm joining.

[Eugene66]

Planet fitness used to be The American something or other here in Midrand. We had the same "unfair" treatment here. A month before they closed down here they were still selling up to five year contracts. In the small print it read "If you are within 15 KM of a brnach bladi bla" Nobody could cancel their contracs because they opened a branch in Lonehill. After a helluva fight and a three month waiting period. (In which I had to pay) I managed to get my contract cancelled.

But I will never forget a mother with four children who paid 5 g's for a three year contract UP FRONT a month before they closed down. Poor woman had to live with her loss.

[Koloni]

Sho kobie all you need to do is comfront them with the incomplete documents if you have them and if not you in trouble.

[Hendrik01]

Planet Fitness are a bunch of slimey creeps.

I have been to Planet fitness for their sales pitch a few times and it always works the same way.

The salesman will show you a form on the back of which is their pricelist. On the pricelist it states that when you sign up with planet fitness, you have to pay a joining fee that is somewhere in teh region of R2000. Maybe its more or less I can't really remember beacuse I have a memory like a bucket used for target parctice.

Anyway, the salesman will then tell you that if you sign up right now, i.e. sign a 2 or 3 year contract, they can reduce the joining fee. Or they can reduce it to maybe R300 or some amount in that region and you will pay R200 a month.

If you say that this is still too expensive, they disappear so they can go discuss something with the manager. Then they come back with a pamphlet. They then go on to explain how you just missed one or another promotion by a few days, but they still have a few vouchers left and if you sign up today, you can qualify for the special rate. They will even waive the joining fee.

Of course, in order to qualify, you have to pay for the entire contract upfront.

Do you have a credit card? They will put the entire 3 year membership on your credit card, on budget over however long your contract will be.

The sales pitch always follows this form or soem variation. And they are beyond pushy. I am sure this kind of tactic is illegal.

DAMN SPOT ON!
This is exactly what happened to me! And for those of you not familiar with "standard Planet Fitness unethical business practise" I can add the following:
- They increase their debit amount every year -> this is not mentioned when signing the contract
- They take a DOUBLE DEBIT in DECEMBER -> "equipment maintenance levy" is what they call it, yes while 30% equipment is broken throughout the year.

Not me nor anyone even remotely related to me will ever take out a Planet Fitness contract again... I really hope someone from PF reads this thread!

[Syndyre]

The staff are always hitting on the pretty women their too.

Damn that's just dodgy.


Sounds almost like an MLM pitch

It really does, I don't trust companies that conduct themselves like this.


DAMN SPOT ON!
This is exactly what happened to me! And for those of you not familiar with "standard Planet Fitness unethical business practise" I can add the following:
- They increase their debit amount every year -> this is not mentioned when signing the contract
- They take a DOUBLE DEBIT in DECEMBER -> "equipment maintenance levy" is what they call it, yes while 30% equipment is broken throughout the year.

Not me nor anyone even remotely related to me will ever take out a Planet Fitness contract again... I really hope someone from PF reads this thread!

Rather go with Virgin Active.

[bwana]

My missus commented the other day that April (when the one in PE opens) is an awful long way away - should I take that as a hint? :o

[Syndyre]

My missus commented the other day that April (when the one in PE opens) is an awful long way away - should I take that as a hint? :o

Lol, not a very subtle one. :p

[Waaib]

My missus commented the other day that April (when the one in PE opens) is an awful long way away - should I take that as a hint? :o

It's April!

[Ou grote]

It's April!


:D

[Velenoso]

These bastards. My girlfriend has been pushing for us to join the gym, so I decide to pop by and get a price list. No such luck, they want me to fill in a form before anyone would even see me. I filled it in and told the guy that he better not call me, I would call him if I was interested.

Anyway after an attempted shakedown as described by posts above, the guy tells me he'll drop the two joining fee's (900 a piece) and give me a rate of R 510 for two people. PROVIDED THAT I sign a 36 month contract and pay for it upfront or pay with a credit card. Twelve month contracts they don't do apparently.

Ok, so I decide against it due to it being a 36 month contract and my whereabouts at that time are still unknown even to me. Anyway, the bastard phones me this morning asking whether I'd still be coming through today! I say coming through for what? To sign up he says. Now I'm really annoyed with this bastard and I tell him as politely as I could that I told him not to call me and that I wasn't interested due to the 36 month story. He then immediately offered me the same deal on a 12 month. I politely told him to go **** himself and hung up.

This is ridiculous! What kind of con artist bull**** is this? I'm going to try Virgin Active tomorrow. Anyone know their rates / deals?

[Ou grote]

Isn't this thread in the wrong section?

[Nerfherder]

I had a contract with Planet Fitness, R175 pm. I got this deal because I was an Edgars club member.
They phoned me a year later to renew my contract. When I came in to do this they told me that they no longer had the Edgars deal and I would have to pay almost R300 pm. They also told me that they only had 36 month contracts andI would have to pay a "new card fee" even though I was already a member. I'm sad to say that they did put the pressure on and I signed the 3 year contract.
Two weeks later my buddy (we had origionaly got our first contract on the same day) told me that he signed at a new branch closer to where we lived. They had let him sign up at R160 pm and he only had to sign up for 12 months. Also they told him that they still had the Edgars special..
I phoned the head office and they brushed me off.. then I took it up with HelloPeter and they let me resign my contract with the lower rate and they refused to give me any money back, later I found out that my membership had been changed from a national membership to a regional one.

They are sharks... I have moved now and there is no Planet fatness close to me. Found a private gym for R160 and I wont be looking to renew my contract again.

[bwana]

I'm still waiting for them to finish building the Planet Fitness so my membership can commence. :o

[Syndyre]

These bastards. My girlfriend has been pushing for us to join the gym, so I decide to pop by and get a price list. No such luck, they want me to fill in a form before anyone would even see me. I filled it in and told the guy that he better not call me, I would call him if I was interested.

Anyway after an attempted shakedown as described by posts above, the guy tells me he'll drop the two joining fee's (900 a piece) and give me a rate of R 510 for two people. PROVIDED THAT I sign a 36 month contract and pay for it upfront or pay with a credit card. Twelve month contracts they don't do apparently.

Ok, so I decide against it due to it being a 36 month contract and my whereabouts at that time are still unknown even to me. Anyway, the bastard phones me this morning asking whether I'd still be coming through today! I say coming through for what? To sign up he says. Now I'm really annoyed with this bastard and I tell him as politely as I could that I told him not to call me and that I wasn't interested due to the 36 month story. He then immediately offered me the same deal on a 12 month. I politely told him to go **** himself and hung up.

This is ridiculous! What kind of con artist bull**** is this? I'm going to try Virgin Active tomorrow. Anyone know their rates / deals?

I think Virgin's about R250/month or so, 12 month contract.

[Ecco]

I am a Planet Fitness member.

Went through the same hard sell, when i went to "view" their premises. I also put up resistance and the prices were coming down. They also tried to get me to sign for 36 months upfront, I said no, eventually signed up for 12 months.

They told me if you sick or go on holiday you can suspend you membership for a month, so that you don't waste the month. This sounded good to me cause i often travel for long periods. When i tried to do this, i found out you have to pay a R50 fee to do this. Crooks. Also getting through to their help line is almost impossible.

Another horror story, my friends mom, only signed up for 12months, but not upfront so had a debit order going. After 12 months she thought its all done and stopped going to them. Only to find the fine print says they have an automatic renewal on their contracts, she lost out big time.

Be careful with these guys. Make sure you are clear on everything and dont be in a hurry to sign up. Will help you in the long run.

[Ecco]

Oh, to people thinking of singing up with Virgin or Planet Fitness, if you have any policies with Momentum check out the the Momentum Multiply program.

You have to pay an activation fee of about R800, but it might save you about R100 or more off the normal monthly subscription (depending which options you take). The activation fee is once off, provided you use the gym more then 36 times a rolling calendar year.

Also see what discounts your medical aids can offer. You definitely can get a better deal then the first price the gyms offer you. Again as per my previous post, look around, and don't be in a hurry to sign up.

*If other guys know how to get a cheaper rate from these two gyms please post.

[AutoX]

I think you will have to pay, they will find a loophole

[gboy]

I am a VA member,

The service and gym is very good and the instructors realy know there stuff. However i cant figure out how a gym can have fat (read realy fat) fitness instructors,

[TKD01]

Both Planet Fitness and Virgin Active is completely "Commercialised" Gyms in my eyes - long queues (don't expect to even get a treadmill at 5pm) - lots of faulty equipment - the ATTITUDE of muscle pumping loudly grunting idiots giving each other "the look" the whole time! LOL!

I am paying R150pm, no contract obligations...