Fitness 19 Fitness 19 Uses Fine Print and Deceptive Membership Fee Requirements - Buyer Beware Wildomar, California

While their lawyers have no doubt ensured that they are "legally" within their rights to charge you all of the hidden and/or time-delayed charges, from an ethical standpoint, they are crooks.  

I walked into the Fitness 19 to personally close the memberships for both my wife and myself.  After suffering through the manager's (Brent) counter close sales pitch and having to tell him firmly that, yes, I wanted to close the memberships completely now and pay any and all required charges -- which I did -- and never be billed again, I just got another charge on my bank card from them for $16.  This amount does not even equal any combination of mine or my wife's monthly membership fees.   I have just had the charge reversed through my bank and a block on all further direct debits from Fitness 19.

Here is what you need to know before joining Fitness 19...  You can walk right in, sign up, and start using the gym immediately.  However, if you immediately decide that you don't want the membership, the fine print says that you not only have to pay for that first current month, but also for one additional month.  Why?  Because they can.  No other reason.  There is no need for them to charge you one extra month, but they can, and they will -- because you signed the contract that included that clause.

As cheap as the fee is, it is not about the money (in my case).  The problem is that, if you are already dissatisfied with the company and want to just quit and not pay anymore, they stick you for one more month of fees (without you even getting to use the facilities), which is just salt in the wounds.  It may be legally fine -- but it's just poor customer relations.  

For what it's worth, I have heard that most national chain gyms operate in a similar (one extra month of charges when you cancel -- in writing) type of system.  So... if you are not okay with that, don't even bother falling for their hard-driving sales pitch to sign you up in the first place.  Save your money and invest it in a home gym instead.