Did I get her in trouble?

RoisinDove

Something small has been bugging me all day!

To cut a long story short, I have been a member of a gym for over a year now and would be friendly enough with most of the staff. I suspended my membership for 3 months due to an injury but it got better and I really wanted to get back into some light training. With my gym, you can pay 15 quid to go for just the day, so I planned to do that - either that or try to unsuspend my membership. When I got there, the girl on reception was the one I was the friendliest with and she said 'ah sure go on in, just don't tell anyone'. I said 'grand', figuring nobody would see or ask me.

Well, wouldn't ya know, I'm on my way out and the membership assistant is sitting there, recognises me immediately and says 'are you not still suspended?' I said yes, I just paid in today (the original girl is still sitting there as well). I had to ask how are you and all that, she asked me if I'd missed the gym and I said 'yes, actually, I was wondering if I could unsuspend'. She said it wasn't possible, but then she said I could take advantage of a deal they have on and register as a temporary member. So I filled out the forms and she asked me how much I paid in today, 15 quid (member rate) or 25 (non-member). I just mumbled '15' and tried not to make eye contact with either of them...wittering on about my upcoming holiday and my leg injury...

I just feel bad because I suspect your one knows I'd gotten in for free and then lied about it...I HATE lying but in this case, I really had no choice because I didn't want to dob in the poor girl who'd been lovely enough to let me in for free...I probably should just have kept walking and not engaged the membership one in conversation or asked about unsuspending, but a) I didn't want to be rude and b) I really wanted to unsuspend....aghh! I'm worried that she might have gotten into trouble - should I say anything to her next time I go in? I feel so stupid now.

Thoie

I'd phone in the morning and see if you get the reception girl, and offer her the €15 if there was any question about the till being out or anything like that.

RoisinDove

It would have been with card, not cash. I don't know if anything would be 'out' or not, as I wasn't officially there at all. I don't know if there's a way of checking on the system. I don't know if she would have checked.

I just feel so bad and I wish I'd insisted on paying the money...once your one from Membership spotted me, I was found out anyway, whether I'd stopped or not... I thought not by not stopped, it would be totally obvious something was up! Perhaps it actually helped things that I then up (and paid for) a temp membership, so by the time I left, the fact I'd got in for free had been forgotten about...I don't know.

I just feel bad that the poor girl's good deed totally backfired...

R.D. aka MR.D

You don't know the relationship between the two. Is the membership person above her in the chain of command? Would the receptionist be directly answerable to her?

It also may be common to let people in so it isn't even something that is worried about very much.

Just relax. What's done is done. Worrying about it won't change it.

RoisinDove

R.D. aka MR.D wrote: »

You don't know the relationship between the two. Is the membership person above her in the chain of command? Would the receptionist be directly answerable to her?

It also may be common to let people in so it isn't even something that is worried about very much.

Just relax. What's done is done. Worrying about it won't change it.

AFAIK she's not above her and they are quite good friends, but I also reckon the membership girl sticks to the rules and wouldn't let anyone in for free. The problem is that I didn't know if she'd have minded or not, and I promised the girl who let me in I wouldn't tell 'anyone', so I felt like I couldn't.

Merkin

I'd have a chat with her next time she is on her own and just tell her that you were worried about getting her into trouble. I'm sure it's fine but say it just in case the €15 ended up coming out of her own pocket.

RoisinDove

OK Will try to...just wondered if that would make it even more awkward and I should pretend it hadn't happened.

I hope she doesn't think I made it worse by hanging around and asking for a temp membership...perhaps when the membership one put the temp membership on the system, it showed that I hadn't paid? My thinking was, sign up for a temp thing so the reception girl isn't put into the position next time where she feels she has to let me in for free because she did this time, but maybe it backfired.

I'm so bad at this stuff!

Chattastrophe!

Couldn't it just as easily have been a case that the girl who let you in said to this membership girl that she had let you in for free today, but that you might be interested in that temporary membership deal, so it might be worth her while trying to sell it to you.

In which case the membership girl might have been slightly bemused when you said you'd paid in!

Honestly I wouldn't worry about it. If there was a chance of her getting in real trouble for letting someone in for free, why would she bother, especially when you're not even a friend or family member of hers!

My guess is that it was completely fine for her to let you in free - seeing as you had been a regular, and you had only temporarily suspended your membership - but she did see it as a potential sales opportunity, and sent the membership girl your way.

I think you should just forget about it, to be honest ... nothing to worry about. Most people in that sort of job have a certain amount of discretion re. who they charge, and how much. The gym got a sale out of it in the end, so why would she end up in trouble?

RoisinDove

Chattastrophe! wrote: »

Couldn't it just as easily have been a case that the girl who let you in said to this membership girl that she had let you in for free today, but that you might be interested in that temporary membership deal, so it might be worth her while trying to sell it to you.

In which case the membership girl might have been slightly bemused when you said you'd paid in!

Honestly I wouldn't worry about it. If there was a chance of her getting in real trouble for letting someone in for free, why would she bother, especially when you're not even a friend or family member of hers!

My guess is that it was completely fine for her to let you in free - seeing as you had been a regular, and you had only temporarily suspended your membership - but she did see it as a potential sales opportunity, and sent the membership girl your way.

I think you should just forget about it, to be honest ... nothing to worry about. Most people in that sort of job have a certain amount of discretion re. who they charge, and how much. The gym got a sale out of it in the end, so why would she end up in trouble?

Then I don't think the membership girl would have been so surprised to see me. I don't reckon membership would have let me in for free - she wasn't even keen on giving me the temp membership at first! Yeah, I figured that the gym got a sale out of it that they wouldn't have, plus I had a spa treatment at the recommendation of membership girl, so that was almost 100 quid rather than the 15 I'd have paid for an hour in the gym.

kylith

I worked in a gym for years and a receptionist doing something like this wouldn't be terribly unusual; they'd often let people off paying for towels or let in people who'd forgotten their membership card.

I'd say that if the woman from membership said anything the receptionist would just have told her that she let you in because she knew you were a member and that you were interested in unsuspending your membership; keeping you happy with the gym means that you're more likely not to let your membership lapse completely, and the fact that you asked about unsuspending would back this up. If she's been there for a while they likely trust her judgement. It'll be grand. If the pair of them are friends then I can't imagine that the rep would do anything to get the receptionist in trouble, and it'd be a rare manager that would chew out someone for buttering up someone who is already a member.

mikemac1

They already know you OP and most any business can throw some freebies at their regulars.

Reception in a gym is a busy job and she will be trusted in that role.

They made a sale so nothing is going to happen and even if they didn't make a sale well she still made an effort to keep a suspended member sweet. Both a minor favour to you and sales to them.

Now take out that stress on the weights! :mad:

dellas1979

As far as I read, the receptionist made a choice to let you in for free.

How is that you getting her into trouble?

Nice thing to do for you, but she made the choice.

Besides, they've 3 months of your money when you couldnt use it.

Id shrug it off, and maybe say something like "hope you didnt get into trouble that time..." not "I hope I didnt get you into trouble that time..."

CaraMay

How did you end up getting a free treatment? Did the receptionist know that? I would have thought you should have paid for that

Chattastrophe!

CaraMay wrote: »

How did you end up getting a free treatment? Did the receptionist know that? I would have thought you should have paid for that

She said she paid almost €100 for the spa treatment ...

CaraMay

dellas1979 wrote: »

As far as I read, the receptionist made a choice to let you in for free.

How is that you getting her into trouble?

Nice thing to do for you, but she made the choice.

Besides, they've 3 months of your money when you couldnt use it.

Id shrug it off, and maybe say something like "hope you didnt get into trouble that time..." not "I hope I didnt get you into trouble that time..."

Chattastrophe! wrote: »

She said she paid almost €100 for the spa treatment ...

Ah ok I read it wrong

RoisinDove

dellas1979 wrote: »

As far as I read, the receptionist made a choice to let you in for free.

How is that you getting her into trouble?

Nice thing to do for you, but she made the choice.

Besides, they've 3 months of your money when you couldnt use it.

Id shrug it off, and maybe say something like "hope you didnt get into trouble that time..." not "I hope I didnt get you into trouble that time..."

Well, I suppose I should have just sneaked out quietly and not drawn attention to myself and whether or not I'd paid by chatting to membership girl, but once she'd seen me anyway, I thought 'fcuk it, might as well ask about unsuspending now."

CaraMay wrote: »

How did you end up getting a free treatment? Did the receptionist know that? I would have thought you should have paid for that

It wasn't free - cost almost 100 quid on top of the 40 quid I paid for the temp membership.

CaraMay

Ok well then I don't really see why this is such an issue.