
The $94B fitness industry is reinventing itself as Covid-19 spreads - Tomte
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/01/business/fitness-studios-coronavirus/index.html
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treyfitty
Good. The industry has a long history of deceptive practices. ABC Financial
serves as the merchant processor and membership management for many gyms. They
make it onerous to cancel memberships.

And then there’s Town Sports International (NYSC). They locked me in a
lifetime membership for $49.99/m which sounded great 10 years ago. Every year,
this increased 5% as a “service charge.” Fine, it was still a good price 7
years later. Then, they reneged and started charging me $80/m saying the old
deal was no longer valid and when I disputed they said “well, pull up the
agreement.” Damn, fine, I’ll pay $80. I finally canceled last month when they
changed my main gym to “elite” status and have been charging me $120/m for 3
months without any indication. On top of that, they’ve been charging $20 for
every “declined” transaction for those 3 months. Canceling was a nightmare in
itself and I still fear they might do something stupid like send a bill that
doesn’t exist to collections. They just look for any way to milk money from
customers- even charging members while all gyms are closed:
[https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-new-york-gym-
membership...](https://www.newsweek.com/coronavirus-new-york-gym-memberships-
sports-clubs-1494650)

They’re scumbags and hope their day of reckoning comes.

