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If you were charged gym membership fees despite your gym being closed due to COVID-19, you may be able to take legal action.
How Is COVID-19 Spread?
COVID-19 is a respiratory disease which is spread through droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, talks, or breathes.
When these droplets are inhaled from the air, they are thought to cause an infection in a healthy person. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is growing evidence which suggests that airborne droplets could remain suspended in the air where they are inhaled by other people.
Should droplets land on a surface, a healthy person could touch this surface and then touch their own mouth, nose, or eyes – again causing an infection. However, the CDC notes that the primary way that the virus is spread is through airborne droplets.
Have Gyms Been Affected by The Coronavirus?
At the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak earlier this year, many gyms closed their doors due to the sudden pandemic. With people running, working out, and generally breathing heavily, gyms could quickly become an environment of quick COVID-19 spread.
Although the choice to close gyms in the face of the pandemic was done in favor of public health, some gyms may still be charging membership fees despite being closed.
Are Gyms Charging Gym Memberships Despite Being Closed For COVID-19?
Although some gyms have remained closed for months, consumers may still find they are being charged each month for their gym membership. This practice has sparked widespread indignation from consumers who say they should not have been charged for services they weren’t able to use.
Consumers can try to cancel their gym membership to avoid fees, but they may run into serious roadblocks. Vox details the store of one New Yorker who was charged monthly gym membership dues but was unable to cancel her membership online or over the phone. Instead, she was allegedly told she had to go into the gym to cancel her membership.
“Hey [Crunch Gym], ironic that you’re making me go in-person to freeze my membership, when the reason behind freezing my membership is because I’M TERRIFIED TO GO INSIDE A GYM and catch Covid-19,” the woman wrote on twitter “Why do you not have remote customer service to handle this?”
Unfortunately, many consumers may have had similar experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if they manage to avoid gym membership fees, members may still have been charged for fees during months that their gyms were closed. In these cases, consumers may be able to take legal action against their gyms.
Have COVID-19 Gym Membership Fees Class Action Lawsuits Been Filed?
Have COVID-19 Gym Membership Fees Class Action Lawsuits Been Filed?Several consumers have already taken matters into their own hands by filing lawsuits against their gyms.
New York Sports Club has faced more than one of these complaints. In March, plaintiff Mary Namorato filed a class action lawsuit against the gym – saying that she was charged $69.99 on March 1 despite the gym being closed.
The same gym also faces a lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James. According to James’ complaint, New York Sports Club and Lucille Roberts gyms violated state laws by charging fees to New Yorkers despite their facilities being closed since March.
To make matters worse, Town Sports International – the gyms’ parent company – allegedly failed to give the refunds they promised, charged additional fees for membership cancellation, and even ignored cancellation requests from their members.
“Many of [Town Sports International’s] members cancelled their memberships because they were unemployed due to the pandemic, and could no longer afford the luxury of a gym membership,” James said.
“Under the circumstances, [Town Sports International’s] ‘Hotel California’-style approach to its members — ‘You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave’ — is not only unlawful, it is reprehensible.”
James seeks a restraining order from the court which would force the gyms to stop illegally charging gym membership fees to their customers. The attorney general also seeks restitution for affected members and penalties – including $5,000 for each unlawful act and $2,500 for each violation of the Health Club Law. This law carries a provision which gives gym members the ability to cancel their membership if they are not able to access the gym’s services.
The New York Sports Club Membership Class Action Lawsuit is Namorato v. Town Sports International, et al., Case No. 1:20-cv-02580, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The New York Sports Club AG Lawsuit is Case No. 451969/2020 in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York.
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19 thoughts onAre You Still Being Charged Gym Membership Fees Despite COVID-19 Closures?
I emailed billing twice letting them know I had to cancel my gym membership at Crunch Gym as I’m unable to workout with a mask on. Also, as I had a knee injury. They sent me a few more bills so I called and told them I had cancelled my membership. I didn’t her anything for a month only to discover they’ve put me through collections for 4 months when I thought my membership had been cancelled. Crunch Gym is highly unethical. I would have rejoined, but not the way they are treating me. I called the corporate office and all the jerk on the phone kept saying was “I’m trying to help you.” When he did nothing to help me.
Please ad me to the class action. After months of failure to reach their billing department by phone and emails that were never answered, I recently received a letter from a law firm for collection. I never actually signed a contract with them either. They billed me several time, and are continuing to ask for money. I have everything documented, and am ready to teach them a lesson.
Please add me as Crunch Fitness has now put me in collections. They took out monthly charges up until September and even charged me $70.95 at the end of September. I called twice in October and November to cancel my membership. They asked me to come into the office and I explained i wasn’t able due to the pandemic and being pregnant. I had to call the bank to request a stop payment on this transaction. On March 31st we received a letter from a collection agency with a total charge of $206.79. The name of the agency is Aldous & Associates located at P.O. Box 171374 Holladay UT 84117-1374. Their phone number is (385) 388-8005. I explained my situation and they would not budge in listening.
This is unacceptable especially the gyms being closed due the pandemic and also explaining why i was not able to go into the gym location due to being pregnant.
This has been a very stressful experience.
Please add me as well. I have all the correspondence from when I asked them to freeze/cancel my kids memberships to when they charged me. When I tried to cancel, I tried calling the membership services, the district manager an d even reached out to them on Twitter and facebook with no answers. Then I also received a letter for collections
Crunch Fitness center in Parkway Plaza has charged my card on 4 occasions between March and December of 2020, During these times when they should have been closed and not charging, they seem to have opened and closed whenever they felt like it,
They refuse to refund any of this and completely ignore your requests.
I would like to be added to the list of former and disgruntled customers.
Please add me also Crunch club continues to charge me even though our contract was with a specific youfit location that was for that location only and is closed. We have been out of contract for at least 3 years.
I even stopped payment and they continue to take money out of my account monthly.
Crunch Fitness! Someone needs to stop those thieving monsters! They are ridiculous and unapologetic thieves! They will continue to charge your card even after you revoke permission. With the pandemic, the gyms have been closed, and the only other way you’re allowed to cancel your membership with them is to go in. I went in and they told me I had to write a letter. How are they allowed to charge you for something they CAN’T PROVIDE? How is that even legal? I hadn’t been in that gym since I’d signed up for the membership, and they had the audacity to charge me annual membership fees, plus monthly fees the very day they were allowed to reopen!!!! EVEN after I’d already requested to cancel with them 3 months prior! I can’t wait for Crunch Fitness to be called out on their thievery and sued into oblivion…. Just insidious trash.
I have been overcharged and charged for things I shouldn’t have been close to 100 dollars. By crunch fitness here in canada
I would like to be added as well, with the same happening to me from Planet Fitness. I joined on March 14, 2020, which they charged me $3.00 on that day. 3 days later they charged my account for the full monthly service fees, on March 17, 2020. Funny considering that that is the date that they closed all locations across the nation. I tried to cancel 3 separate times and they are forcing me to go into the location this evening to sign something to cancel. There is a reason I don’t want to go into their business at this time to do so. And they have continued to charge me every month since then. Including twice that they overdrafted my account.
Please add me too, screwed over by Crunch as well
Please add me I just kept sending numerous complaints to Crunch Fitness such as this one. My name is Epigmenio Omar Vaquero and due to the Covid 19 Pandemic closure back on July 2020, I was not able to enjoy my gym membership because my gym on University Square was closed for several and I was still billed many ridiculous fees for a service that I could not use. As a result when the gym reopened on University Square I decided to cancel my membership. I was billed several times 29.99 and I had a billing for 90.00 for months that I did use the gym back in August, July and September. As I understood when the gyms closed billing is temporarily paused. I’m looking at my credit card statement and despite cancelling my membership I got billed 29.99 even though I want nothing to do with Crunch Fitness anymore.
Same!!!!