Gym closing indefinitely but not freezing/extending memberships?

mrcheez

My gym is closing for several weeks (or even months if things turn bad!), but not freezing or extending memberships which were only renewed annually in January, or offering partial refunds.

I understand why they need to close, but are they under any legal obligation to provide the option of extending memberships or partial refunds if they cannot provide the service that was agreed?

robman60

Bad form from them. I am not certain but it is a contract that you're not receiving anything for, so it does seem to potentially be a breach of contract if they don't extend your membership at the end.

For what it's worth, my gym in the UK has frozen my monthly direct debit, as I would expect them to do.

Purple Mountain

They're not playing the long game.
Maybe send them an email to remind them that you find this distasteful and probably won't be renewing your membership in 6 months.
You could also just cancel your direct debit with the bank?

antix80

Devil's advocate.. But you joined for a calendar year and it's understandable that they are not open every day... They still have to pay insurance, hopefully pay staff..

And if you're not happy, don't renew next year. Or ask for free months upon renewal.

High chance a lot of gyms will go out of business.. Insurance costs are high and they're missing out on summer renewals even now.

Peregrinus

The legal situation here does depend on the exact wording of your contract. And it could be a bit arbitrary, since the contract was probably not drafted with this situation in mind.

Mostly, this situation is going to be resolved by non-legal considerations. On the one hand, even when closed the gym still has costs - e.g. rent on the premises, lease payments on the equipment, possibly franchise fees. On the other hand, they will have lower costs, esp. if they lay off all the staff. On the third hand, they very much want patrons to come back to them when all this is over, and from that point of view some investment in goodwill is indicated. On the fourth hand, they have no idea how long this closure may last. If they promise now to extend memberships, they do not know what it will cost them to deliver this promise, because they do not know how long they will be extending them for. They would probably prefer to wait until they are opening again, and then make an offer of extension, or reduced renewal rates, or whatever. Whereas customers are - understandably - pissed off at not knowing what the situation is at the start of this closure.

In the end, the customer is king. If a customer cancels their direct debit, even if it's legally possible to sue them and recover the rest of the year's payments (and it may or may not be; it depends on what the contract says) it may be commercially ruinous, in terms of damage to reputation.

mrcheez

OK I guess best to wait until they re-open and see how many months have been lost in the intervening period.

whippet

My gym has given the option of freezing payments .. however they are a small independent gym and I’ll leave my direct debit running as I know that many of these gyms won’t reopen after this all ends .. and I’d like to give them every opportunity to reopen.