We’ve all dealt with the repercussions of a bad contract, and when it comes from not being able to cancel a membership, gyms are notoriously the worst.

In this story, this guy realizes he does have to fulfill his end of the contract, but figures things can still come out in his favor.

Let’s read the fine print.

Won’t take my money to pay in full? Ok, I do it your way

I was a customer at a gym in town.

I had moved to another area of town and it was no longer going to be convenient to go to this location.

I had signed a 2 year contract (don’t do this kids).

And still had about 8 months left.

Gyms will lock you down.

I looked at my contract to see how I could cancel, nothing I could find so I thought, “Oh well, life lesson. Don’t make that mistake again.”

I called their customer support line to see if they had a “termination fee” I could pay to get out of the contract.

You live you learn.

Customer Service Rep: There is no “termination clause” and you are responsible to pay out the rest of the contract.

Me: OK, give me a total for the rest of the bill and I will pay if all off right now.

Rep: I can’t do that.

Me: You can’t give me a total for the next 8 months so I can pay it off right now?

Rep: That’s correct.

Going great so far.

Me: Why not? Multiply my monthly bill times 8 and I will pay it now.

Rep: The bill could change.

Me: How could the bill change?

Rep: Taxes could change, X/Y/Z could change, blah blah blah.

Me: OK, never mind. I’ll just pay it month to month till the 8 months is over.

Something tells me this is gonna be a tough customer.

At this point, I had it on auto draft so they just pulled out my bill monthly.

So the first thing I did was block them from drafting my account.

Next month they tried to draft my account, rejected.

I received a letter that my bank rejected the draft.

I proceeded to ignore it.

They sent me an unpaid bill letter and threatened to send me to collections (I had a feeling they actually would and I wasn’t going to let it happen).

Waited a little bit longer and got a 2nd letter for unpaid bill and possible collections notice.

Waited a few days then mailed them a check back.

He’s paying the bills but making them work for their money.

I proceeded to go through this cycle for the next 7 months with them.

All they had to do was take up my offer to pay the bill in full and they could have avoided all that trouble.

They really had to muscle this payment out of him.

What do the comments think?

Somebody suggests gyms are a scam.

Another user says autopay is hazardous.

One poster says, why not lie?

And this person thinks it’s a cutting off your nose to spite your face situation.

Another user says, all gyms are like that.

This gym had to some heavy lifting to get their money.

One small revenge for the rest of us.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.