New York Health And Racquet Club - NYHRC NYHRC "No Commitment" plan is Pure BS: Fraudulent Cancellation Policy Requires REGISTERED LETTER 30 days ahead of next billing!!! New York New York

This contract is bogus, it has as much integrity as a subprime loan. Jeff, YES, when we make a request to have our membership terminated, we expect it should be done:

- immediately
- in person
- at any location

When I joined your location 4 years ago, I canceled from Crunch in person, in 5 minutes- all I needed was a picture ID.

Veiling and justifying any other terms as 'proceedure' is NYH&RC's way of squeezing a last month from your customers.

THERE IS NO WAY TO CANCEL YOUR MEMBERSHIP WITHOUT AN ADDITIONAL MONTH'S FEE. No matter when you tell NYH&RC you are canceling, because you have to do it 30 days in advance, you will get charged another month. This is a plain crooked practice.

Id like to share a solution I found, as I managed to get my contract canceled via email and in 24 hours. NYH&RC insisted that I maintain this membership for another 6 weeks and with an additional month's fee (as they explained was outlined in the fine fine fine fine fine print of my contract, although not disclosed at all by a sales person during time of initiation, or I would have crossed it out). I let them know Dec 2 that I wanted to cancel, but they said they would charge me again on the 17th and my membership would be done Jan 16.

As long as they were sticking me with the membership, I let Jeff know that I intended to use as many as my member resources as I could, which would include draining all their shampoo, soap, paper towels, bath towels, water, hoard equipment, sit in the lounge with stinky food. Frankly, I was determined to get thrown out as an option to being racquet-eered by these devious business practices.

I'm not sure if this was the catalyst that got the management to cancel my membership, but they did threaten that if I ever walked into their club again they would have me thrown out and subsequently arrested. So, now I'm a criminal because I refused to get jerked around by a bogus business practice.

Jeff, just change the d**n contract. I realize it will probably mean millions of dollars that you aren't shafting from your customers, but I bet you are losing a hell-of-a-lot more money from potential members turned away from the exposure of your lousy and crooked business practices.

I, too, have a month-to-month membership with NYHRC. I have been a member since 2005. When I visited the gym, I was hesitant about joining it, but the Zach, the one who signed me up informed me about the month-to-month "No Commitment" membership. Needless to say, I signed up. Three years later, I find myself wanting to cancel my membership. I called NYHRC and told them that I wanted to cancel my membership. The woman I spoke to over the phone was curt (NYHRC's customer service leaves much to be desired).

She told me that I would have to put it in writing that I want to leave the gym. She gave me the number to call in which I should request a fax copy of the form that I was to fill out. When I called the number, the other woman said that she would fax it to me immediately and informed me that I will have to give it at least 30 days before the date of cancellation. No problem. I received the fax and sent it out on the June 19th, 2008, knowing that I will be charged for June and July, and my membership cancelled for August.

June and July has passed and I received a bill for $101.00 from NYHRC. I called the billing department and explained that I requested to cancel my gym membership starting in August and was not to be billed. He said that this was not noted in the records, call Member services. I called member services who directed me to the two women I sent my request for cancellation to: Heidi Krebs and Erica Smith. I called them both and left two messages on July 28th, July 30th, August 5th and today, August 13th. I have yet to hear from either of them. I have even called the corporate office and now, their number is busy. I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that their phone system is down today, but not to hear from ANYONE for the past couple of weeks? I don't think so.

If Zach would have told me when I signed up that cancelling my "No Commitment" membership would be such a hassle, I would have NEVER signed up.

Note: I've contacted the BBB and NY1 for You to help resolve this issue.

The employee above claims that "exceptions are made" but fails to elaborate. Strange, because I was told by several employees that NO exceptions are made under ANY circumstances. I was then referred to a member of management who did not return calls or emails.

Keep in mind that I had a death in my family and was forced to leave the country. If that's not grounds for an exception, I wonder what is?

Over to you, Jeff.

This complaint is simply untrue. Any member can get a cancellation form faxed or e-mailed to them at any time. There is a 30 day notice requirement on cancellations, but this is told to all members when they enroll, is clearly written in the membership contract, and is even posted on signs at every front desk! What more can they do to tell the members about the policy? They are not hiding that policy. Exceptions are also made, depending on the situation.

The reason members are required to send the cancellation request certified or registered mail is so they will have a receipt, thus ending any dispute of who cancelled and when. It appears as though this member wanted her membership cancelled immediately and heard nothing else.

This passage, repeated twice in the NYHRC New York Health and Racquet Club online Terms of Service, raises some questions...:

NEW YORK HEALTH AND RACQUET assumes no responsibility regarding the accuracy of the information that is provided by NEW YORK HEALTH AND RACQUET and use of such information is at the recipient's own risk. NEW YORK HEALTH AND RACQUET provides no assurances that any reported problems may be resolved with the use of any information that NEW YORK HEALTH AND RACQUET provides.

NEW YORK HEALTH AND RACQUET assumes no responsibility regarding the accuracy of the information that is provided by NEW YORK HEALTH AND RACQUET and use of such information is at the recipient's own risk. NEW YORK HEALTH AND RACQUET provides no assurances that any reported problems may be resolved with the use of any information that NEW YORK HEALTH AND RACQUET provides.