Gym
A few weeks ago, Annie was going to the same gym I was as she got ahold of a coupon for a 21 day free trial. On the last day, we were both going to the gym at the same time, and I asked the lady at the desk if I could just add Annie onto my membership.
Well, apparently, Agnes (which makes for a good blog story name, though I swear that it is really her name) didn’t have that authority, so she would have to defer our names to the “book” - that being a spiral notebook which she wrote down our names and my telephone number with a pencil. She said that she didn’t think it would work, since we don’t living together. I was a bit baffled at why the gym wouldn’t want an extra $xxx per month (where xxx is an unknown number which would be filled in later by the person who was going to call me on the phone), but I left it at that.
And we never heard back from the gym. I was a bit baffled as to why they A) Wouldn’t call me to tell me *no*. B) Wouldn’t call Annie and try to get her to sign up for a real membership. C) Wouldn’t call anybody at all
Then I figured that perhaps they just covertly went ahead and added her to my membership. There really was no clear way to tell, since I go to the gym at 5:30 AM or on the weekends when there are no people there who actually handle membership issues. I figured the best thing to do would be to wait for my bill for the next month and see if it changed.
It didn’t.
So, Annie has been going haphazardly to another gym in town, which lets you go for 5 bucks a pop (my gym charges 12). The downside is that the less expensive gym is considerably less nice, and much further away from my house.
Last night, while working on my bills, I noticed a bank draft from the gym for exactly 25 dollars more than usual. So, I realized that they *did* add her to my membership - nobody bothered to tell either one of us, however.
Today, I called the gym - because while the end result is desirable, I feel like that I’m owed 25 bucks back for the month that we didn’t know she was eligible for the membership. Also, I wanted to ask about long term deals, as I’ve been going for 2.5 years now, and I’m well past my 1 year original contract. I want to know if I sign up for another year if I can het a deal out of it.
I call, and Linda answers. I see Linda every Wednesday morning - she is the only person who works there that is friendly (as best as I can tell). I introduce who I am - and she recognizes the name “Caleb” immediately.
Linda has to put me through to Vern (who is the owner of the gym). After a few minutes, she comes back and asks if she can put me in Vern’s voice mail, since he’s on the phone and has another call waiting. I say “sure, no problem”. After a little bit ,she comes back and says she has to “switch phones” because the one she was on didn’t have the ability to put people in voicemail. After a few more moments, she comes back and says she’s given up, and just takes my information for Vern to call me back.
This was about 2.5 hours ago, and I’ve yet gotten no call from Vern. My patience is growing thin. Vern gets one more chance before I explain how displeased I am with the whole situation. Let’s hope it goes well, or I may just be 48 bucks a month richer (yes, it costs me 48 friggin dollars a month).
Followup:
Called back, talked to Linda. Linda asked if there was “anyway she could help me”. I toldd her the story, and she “froze” Annie’s account for the month of Feb, which means that I wouldn’t be billed for it. I asked her if that meant that Annie could still go, and she said “sure”. Also, I asked her about resigning a contract and she told me “bad idea: you’re still paying the 2002 rate, if you renew you’ll be paying the 2005 rate, which is higher”. This again baffles me: “No, we don’t want you to guarantee your business for a year, you should just stay on the can-leave-anytime-you-want plan”
Oh well, at least I theoretically am getting 25 bucks back on the deal.