Tomorrow is the big day!  I appropriately titled this post from one of my all-time favorite movies. (5 points if you can name the movie)

Last night I went to my gym for the last time (I won’t give the name of the place but I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t offer me anything to stay).  I went with the intention of putting my membership on hold, but things developed from there.  My being pro-active and trying to put my membership on hold was not good enough, as I was a few days late for the May 4th billing cycle — I needed to tell them last Thursday.  As a result, I am going to be paying for 2 weeks of sitting on my butt at home.

Continuing on…I told the guy helping me that I wanted to put my membership on hold for about a month.  He took me through the billing cycles and said I could put my membership on hold until June 1st or June 15th.  I said June 15th — I am going to be in Cali on June 1st.  The next words out of his mouth were “ok, that will be $12.”  Now, I think I paid the stupid hold fee last year, but seriously the head membership lady has seen me on my crutches, talked to me about my injury, and knew what I went through last year.  I said I’d like to talk to her.  She came over, and explained exactly the same thing to me.  I told her I understand the policy and that you have a 3rd party billing system, but that’s it??  You are not willing to offer me anything?  She took me through the billing cycles some more - however, she explained that I can’t come back mid-month.  I’d have to come back June 1st or June 29th.  She also tried to explain that when I returned that cycle I’d only be paying $6, blah blah blah.

I then pulled my last straw and told her I’m moving at the end of July.  Based on what she was telling me, I might as well cancel my membership now rather than pay for one billing cycle in July and then cancel it the next week.  This was her chance — her chance to offer to not charge me for putting my membership on hold.  But she didn’t offer me anything.  Instead, she continued to make small talk with me, asking me about when my surgery is and how I recovered last year.  HELLO!!! I’m cancelling my membership right now — you seriously don’t care?? We are in a recession and you don’t care that I’m cancelling my membership?  I understand gyms are a business, and that they need to make money, but they also need loyalty.  I think they could have eaten the $12.  As a result, they just lost over $150 by letting me cancel yesterday as opposed to mid-July.

So here I am, ready for my surgery and no longer attached to a gym. Depending on how my PT goes, I might join somewhere for a month but am certainly not signing any long term contracts until I’m settled in my new residency (wherever that may be). :)

Next post will be post-surgery!