Planet Fitness is retarded

4cylndrfury wrote:

novaderrik wrote: i'll just leave this here: http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/884/planet-fitness-no-judgment-day/

I also have a Planet Fitness membership. In fact, i spring $20 a month for the "Black" membership. (Wife gets in for free)

I don't think i've actually seen anything in that article at my location. In fact, my location is a pretty popular spot for "meatheads." They stay in the free-weights section, and we certainly do have weights over 80lbs.

There's a reason that gyms in general have very poor BBB ratings and rank right around car dealerships for customer satisfaction ratings.

And if you got a new account to fund it, they would still go after you for the unpaid balance once the account ran out of money.

I have zero plans to do any sort of trickery to give business to asshats who obviously don't want my business.

I'm voting with my wallet on principle.

I'm also not joining anyplace for more money to use a treadmill... and I'm not paying for a year when I only want it for winter.

It's 7F... I'm wearing layers when I run today. berkeley. There are no good treadmills on CL locally.

<<<Ice hockey player and referee

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: It's 7F... I'm wearing layers when I run today. berkeley. There are no good treadmills on CL locally.

Wear a cup and jock strap. It will keep the fella's warm.

Do their shirts look like this?

Duke wrote:

donalson wrote:

914Driver wrote: YMCA. Cheap, free if you're old.

Cheap? Around here they are about 65 a month per person with a 100 buck fee to get started... One of the most expensive gyms around

Plus, YMCAs are never not crowded.

I pay the $65 per month and paid the $100 initiation fee. The Y I go to is busy, but I wouldn't characterize it as crowded. I've never had to wait to use any equipment or had any difficulty finding a locker. Of course, YMMV.

The problem is the business model of most of these fitness centers. And it hasn't changed for decades. They lure you in with a low monthly fee and hope you never show up and then use tricks and deception to continue to ding you for the fees even when you want to get out of the program. By ripping off a lot of people that aren't using the facilities, they can offer a low monthly fee...

Bally's is also notorious for this, though there are some that are more legitimate.

The Y does cost more, but they aren't going to try to rip you off. In fact, my Y will allow you to suspend your monthly fee for a few months at a time if you are not using the facilities for any reason.

I use the hell out of mine so I don't mind paying for it. While it has reduced prices for seniors, it isn't free.

It's January, they are all packed. Lots of people with their new year resolutions. By mid February they will be gone and the gyms will be back to their normal populations.

I/we also use the local YMCA. Not the cheapest, but they've got a lot of gear, a lot of classes, and a nice ambiance. No gorillas, no oglers, just generically real folk.

I like planet fitness. $99 a year prepaid? Can’t beat it, unless you can somehow find a better gym for less- which is doubtful. Mine has free weights (I wish there was more than one squat rack, though…), plenty (PLENTY) of cardio equipment, is staffed by super-nice people, and is about as cheap as is imaginable. They’re totally losing money on me- it costs me about 50 cents for each workout I do.

It’s right by my work, which is 40 miles from my house- it’s SO cheap, that I’m keeping the membership at PF and joining another gym so I have access to a different gym at night and on weekends.

novaderrik wrote: http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/884/planet-fitness-no-judgment-day/

The author of that strikes me as the kind of person who makes a competition out of everything.

Some people are conflict adverse and not competitive. The gym works well for them- they just set goals and compete against themselves.

The one by me is 24 hours, which is pretty cool.

Well... they shut down at i think 11pm on Friday and Saturday. 24 hours the rest of the week.

The local YMCA works great for the wife and I. $66 a month for both and that covers everything except special classes. And it is a nice stroll(7 blocks) down the street.

In reply to Hal:

I like the Y fine but it's $65/mo for just me ($100 for a family plan), and it's 8 miles away. A 16 mile round-trip plus a shower cuts into the time I can spend getting my money's worth. I would like to start swimming again though and they are the only game in town with a pool.

You can blame the business or you can blame the clientele. From the business's viewpoint, a large number of customers (members, whatever) are deadbeats and will be habitually late with their payments. Collections costs money. Bad debts can kill a business. If they can draft your checking account, they stand a better chance of getting paid, and getting paid on time. It's a payment method that is becoming more popular, at least with businesses if not customers.

That said, pigs will fly before I enter into such an arrangement. Oh, wait. I already have.

I bet they do it this way not to screw you when you want to quit, but because people are far less likely to cancel the payment if they actually have to do something other than just stop paying. Gyms survive on the assumption that most members wont actually use the gym, just pay for it. You have to pay some price to get a membership that cheap, and that's what it is.

I think you should just suck it up and join with a new free chequing account and pay year round. The $120 cost is only 3 months at a normal gym anyway. Think of it as paying for 3 months and getting a years worth. I don't go to the gym through a good part of the racing season, but have continued to pay for the last 5 years because it's still the best deal.

I go to anytime fitness because I get 24 hour access and I was able to pay for a year up front, with cash. At our branch the dumbells go to 150.

Another vote here for anytime fitness. I had a really cheap introductory rate and work discount, plus it was nice to go after work around midnight and not have to deal with the hardcore gym rats.

Gym chains have been shady (being generous there) since their inception. When my dad was in law school in the '70s the practical side of his contracts class leaned heavily on gym contracts because they were so rife with abuse, and that was still the case when my girlfriend was in law school in the '00s.

They hired my heroin addict, multiple DUI, no-driver's license having sis-in-law's live in mooch as a personal trainer.

Class.

But yeah. Seems like the profitable ones run on the "get them to sign the berkeleying contract" business model, which, while shady as berkeley, is probably the only way you make money in that business; dinging hundreds of accounts that belong to people who don't use the service, monthly.

Any reason you can't/shouldn't throw $200 at a berkeleying pimpy used treadmill on CL? I'm guessing May would be a great time to buy...when the New Year's resolutioneers get their "refunds" and realize their recently purchased, never used, $500, 100lb. paper-weight could equal $200 more toward a lease on a new Nissan Altima or whatever.

Between CL and GovDeals I have a nice treadmill, Liferower rowing machine and plenty of weights and racks for less than a year membership would cost me at the local place. I find having the equipment at home means I don't get into the excuse mode of "cant make it to the gym today" and I stick with it more, or at least I did till I tore my rotator cuff but that's mended now so Im getting back to it.

Brett_Murphy wrote:

novaderrik wrote: http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/884/planet-fitness-no-judgment-day/

The author of that strikes me as the kind of person who makes a competition out of everything. Some people are conflict adverse and not competitive. The gym works well for them- they just set goals and compete against themselves.

but it was funny..

This thread prompted me to action. The site I'm at has an employee gym, but I'd been told contractors weren't allowed to use it.

Turns out we are, if we pay a 20 dollar yearly membership.