New York Sports Club — billing

Back in Dec 2010, my wife and I were having a baby. Therefore, she wanted to cancel her membership 4 months early. As this would have incurred a fee, she was told by a NYSC staff member that she could freeze the membership and that we would be notified before the unfreeze.

We received no notification, the credit card that I used was also one that I used for business expenses and so I did not notice that $74 per month charges began again since Dec 2011. It is only now, since my job situation is terrible (and so much less charges to review on this credit card) as well as my scrutinizing our budget and expenses that I noticed this error.

After notifying NYSC customer service, and much arguing, they reluctantly credited me 3 months (rather than the full 11 months) of overcharges. However, they deducted $15 for each of these 3 months, as fees for freezing these 3 months. NYSC could have just retroactively canceled 3 months of my wife’s membership which would have enabled us to recoup at least 3 full months of membership fees. But in the end, not only denied our plea to cancel and refund the 11 months, but gave us less than 3 months of fees back.

The biggest issue with this whole mess is that my wife was told that she would be notified prior to the unfreeze, and was not. Yes, it was my error for not noticing the charges for so many months. But how can NYSC justify these charges when my wife and I never received notice and she never set foot in the gym since her initial freeze. They stand by the fine print in their contract but from a ethical perspective, this company is as bad as it gets.