LOL at someone bumping this thread and me realizing that the pandemic shutdowns started about six weeks after this thread. I hope the OP got her refund!

What if it was a child 15 that sign up ? They child was talked into it. Those sales people get you everytime. The child has gotten ill and can’t go. And I signed for her. It’s all in her name including the payment. I have explained in detail as to why and that it wouldn’t be in The best health interest for other members and the child. They still denied. This is a child. They just scam these school kids. Great place to hang out for a teen.

Reading this thread makes me love my gym. It’s all monthly & you can cancel with 30 dats notice. We have stopped/started a lot in the 2 years we’ve been with them.
I had too many bad experiences with LT contract gyms. Like going into cancel & still being charged 6+ months later. Never again

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably depends on the gym, but for the people I know who have done this (for legitimate reasons—surgery, etc), it was only for a period of time. I don’t know of any medical condition that requires a 15 month break from a gym.

This. They would only give me 90 days. I was hit by a car and not allowed to do any non-PT stuff from 6 months! They told me I could use the sauna and tanning bed. I’m AA and also have a chronic illness exacerbated by heat. I finally cancelled my debit card and wrote them a letter that my doctor was prepared to testify in small claims court. They never pursued it.

Good for you, but you shouldn't have had top jump through such hoops top get out if it.
I hope you're feeling better now.

OP, like someone else said, you KNEW you had your endometriosis when you signed up for the gym, most likely knew you needed surgery too, so you can't blame it on that.

I wouldn't advise you with going this PP's route either because if they require documentation of the accident or anything that would prove your claim, you are SO f#cked.

Not sure why everyone is so keen to give the gym OP's money when she's not using the facility. Gym contracts are such a racket under the best of circumstances, and so many gyms don't GAS about the customer. I would absolutely pursue this with a Dr. I joined a crossfit style gym with a 12 month commitment and wound up with an absolutely intractable elbow injury. I paused the membership, PT, cortisone, and it kept coming back. I didn't even need a doctor's note to get out of my contract because the staff knew how much I was having to modify everything.

Anonymous wrote:Probably depends on the gym, but for the people I know who have done this (for legitimate reasons—surgery, etc), it was only for a period of time. I don’t know of any medical condition that requires a 15 month break from a gym.

This. They would only give me 90 days. I was hit by a car and not allowed to do any non-PT stuff from 6 months! They told me I could use the sauna and tanning bed. I’m AA and also have a chronic illness exacerbated by heat. I finally cancelled my debit card and wrote them a letter that my doctor was prepared to testify in small claims court. They never pursued it.

Anonymous wrote:No idea where to post this.

I (stupidly) signed an 18 month gym contract. 3 months into it and I’m over it. I need a new gym/routine.

I don’t have the contract in front of me now. My friend said you can get out of any contract with a doctors note.

I’m going to the doctor this week and I guess I’ll ask for a note...? Saying what I’m not sure but I like the doctor and I think he’ll write it.

Will the gym accept it and let me go? Or will I have to pay hefty fees?

new years resolution fail, lol. sorry you don't get to cheat and lie your way through life and no doctor is going to jeopardize their reputation or job for your bs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this is why I won’t join a gym. There is no legitimate reason a gym needs to charge someone for 15 months when they no longer want to go to the gym. Their whole business model is making money off of people NOT using the facility. I hope you are able to get out of this contract, OP.

That's great but most gyms have no commitment memberships as well.

Be very careful of the gyms that tell you that you can sign up for a monthly membership or less. My large corporate gym says you can do a monthly membership and they never give customers a copy of the contract. They charge a higher monthly fee for the monthly contract but the contract you sign is very clear that you are signing up for a year long contract or longer. People don't realize this until they try to cancel. They get screwed with a higher overall fee and are committed to the same old long term contract.

Misleading customers is grounds for breaking a contract.

The contract, like every other one I've signed, also has strict provisions for going to mediation instead of suing etc. The terms of their contract are exceedingly anit-consumer. My gym even has a clause that members can't criticize them online even though the FTC disallows this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this is why I won’t join a gym. There is no legitimate reason a gym needs to charge someone for 15 months when they no longer want to go to the gym. Their whole business model is making money off of people NOT using the facility. I hope you are able to get out of this contract, OP.

That's great but most gyms have no commitment memberships as well.

Be very careful of the gyms that tell you that you can sign up for a monthly membership or less. My large corporate gym says you can do a monthly membership and they never give customers a copy of the contract. They charge a higher monthly fee for the monthly contract but the contract you sign is very clear that you are signing up for a year long contract or longer. People don't realize this until they try to cancel. They get screwed with a higher overall fee and are committed to the same old long term contract.

Misleading customers is grounds for breaking a contract.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What gym is this? Any reputable gym, even the most intense, will have trainers who can modify your workout. I think you would have luck if you spoke with the manager and were honest.

My gym, a sizeable national chain, can't manage this. My trainer keeps pushing exercises that hurt my back and is befuddled when I say I can't do a specific exercise. She also within the first 2 weeks of training repeatedly discussed her religion, her politics, and tried to sell me her mlm crap.

I would report her. That's crazy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell the gym you’re moving out of the area.

Omg so awkward would never work. It’s not dc; I’m in a small town now!

Tell them you are relocating to dc and with all the trips for interviews and housing you need to give up membership starting now.

Right, so when she continues to see people who work in this gym around her small town for the next 12, 18, 24 months, she'll look not only like a huge liar, but she'll look flaky AF too, because she didn't carefully think through her lie.

Brilliant idea!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this is why I won’t join a gym. There is no legitimate reason a gym needs to charge someone for 15 months when they no longer want to go to the gym. Their whole business model is making money off of people NOT using the facility. I hope you are able to get out of this contract, OP.

That's great but most gyms have no commitment memberships as well.

Be very careful of the gyms that tell you that you can sign up for a monthly membership or less. My large corporate gym says you can do a monthly membership and they never give customers a copy of the contract. They charge a higher monthly fee for the monthly contract but the contract you sign is very clear that you are signing up for a year long contract or longer. People don't realize this until they try to cancel. They get screwed with a higher overall fee and are committed to the same old long term contract.

Anonymous wrote:Injury from working out over your ability? Can’t use the gym if you are injured and have to recover / rehab.

Right, but no injury takes 15 months to recover from, not unless you're a professional sports player and even then it would be a career ending injury.

No matter how bad the injury is, your doctors and therapists will want you to eventually start doing some low rehab working out on it after the injury heals, so it doesn't stiffen up or so you don't lose complete muscle tone.

There's always something you can do in a gym for rehab, no matter how minimal.

I used to work in a gym in high school.
Do you think that you're the first person that's thought of this, OP?
We'd get at least one letter a week from a doctor from customers trying to get out of their contacts.

This is where we got smart...
Sure, we'd put your account on hold or freeze it for the time that you were injured and rehabbin... but the problem with this logic OP is, the time while you were out injured or rehabbing did NOT get credited towards the length of your contract.

So, wherever you froze your account, that's where you'd pick it right back up again when you came back.

Again, the time that you are out does NOT count towards the length of your contract... that's how we made sure that people like the OP couldn't get out of it.

This was in our iron clad contract OP, there was NO getting out of it.

Anonymous wrote:What gym is this? Any reputable gym, even the most intense, will have trainers who can modify your workout. I think you would have luck if you spoke with the manager and were honest.

My gym, a sizeable national chain, can't manage this. My trainer keeps pushing exercises that hurt my back and is befuddled when I say I can't do a specific exercise. She also within the first 2 weeks of training repeatedly discussed her religion, her politics, and tried to sell me her mlm crap.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s rude user behavior to ask a doctor to get you out of what is essentially your financial mistake.

Agree. Cheapskate. Presumably you knew your abilities going into this.

Stuff happens. This is not an unreasonable question.

OP not realizing how out of shape she is and that she can’t keep up and wants to go back to being lazy is not “stuff happening.”