$47/month at Extreme Fitness, good deal?

[Aquila22]

I am a student and I just signed a deal with Extreme fitness for $47/month (tax included). It is actually $60 bucks/month but they gave me 3 months free. So it comes down to $47 bucks/month.

I am going to transfer this membership to someone who is not egligible for student fee so he gets the benefit of the gym without paying regular fee.

Am i getting a good deal here? What do you guys think?

[The rep at Extreme fitness was full of BS and marketing pitch and I seemed so disinterested in his other offers and he got a bit pissed and finally said OK to giving that deal to me so I assume it was the best deal I could get at the moment]

[silenthunder]

sounds like an okay deal - he could find a similar deal by looking on craigslist and transfering someone elses membership. not sure why more people aren't doing this...


oh yeah.

here is a scam that extreme is well known for:

offer 3 months free up front.

then say: you are now on a contract for 12 months with us.

when you try to cancel after the 12 months are up you get:

-hard sell tactics - someone at extreme will tell you that you were obligated to PAY for 12 months, so if you want to get out of your contract you now owe them for the 3 months you originally had for free.

-when you try to claim that the guy who you signed up with told you differently they tell you to go talk to him; SURPRISE - that guy doesn't work here anymore (the turnover in fitness places is very high)

NOW - Heres something i found out thats interesting:

-it's illegal to sign someone up for a fitness contract greater than 12 months in canada. Which is basically what they tried to claim above (i.e. 3 free months + an ADDITIONAL 12 months obligation = 15 months)

I am constantly appalled by the bait and switch tactics and plain all around sleazyiness of the fitness industry. while there are some exceptions, all of the chains seem to be running some kind of scams (well maybe not goodlife - their service is just exceptionally bad - which leads to some accounting errors in their favor)

READ YOUR CONTRACT BEFORE SIGNING IT. don't feel pressured to sign it because some sales rep is sitting in front of you waiting. just tell them you need to read the whole thing, since thats what a smart consumer does.

i wish there were more 'mom and pop' gyms around, but even these can be crappy too.

Cheers,
Silenthunder

[V A N Q U I S H]

I had a similar deal when I first joined in 2008, 2 months free, then $47 for the remaining 10 months.

I went to renew, and the new contract will be 2 months free, and then $40 a month for the remaining ten.

This is taxes all in.

[ptownplayer]

Does this include towel service and all extreme locations? If so then its pretty much the standard for the first year...they then jack up the price after the first year to like $70 a month..but its month to month.

What I hate about extreme is after you sign up they make go for "Fitness Assesment" which is really just a giant sales pitch for you to sign up for personal training sessions...You will meet with a personal trainer/sales person who will make you do some excersises and then will go on to tell how fat and out of shape or scrawny and out of shape (choose one) you are and that the only way you will ever meet your goals is if you sign up for some ridiculously over priced training sessions...if you dont sign up then, they will then send you to there manager aka "The Closer" who will push more hard sales tactics on you.

[V A N Q U I S H]

Does this include towel service and all extreme locations? If so then its pretty much the standard for the first year...they then jack up the price after the first year to like $70 a month..but its month to month.

What I hate about extreme is after you sign up they make go for "Fitness Assesment" which is really just a giant sales pitch for you to sign up for personal training sessions...You will meet with a personal trainer/sales person who will make you do some excersises and then will go on to tell how fat and out of shape or scrawny and out of shape (choose one) you are and that the only way you will ever meet your goals is if you sign up for some ridiculously over priced training sessions...if you dont sign up then, they will then send you to there manager aka "The Closer" who will push more hard sales tactics on you.

Yeah I mean the PT that was trying to sell to me still gave me good fitness tips, and the ones that walk around will sometimes stop you if you have poor form and will help you for free if you wish.

I simply told them that I did not have the money and that even coming to the gym itself was a struggle... they looked at me funny given my job title and employer but they eventually gave in.

[Aquila22]

Thanks a lot guys!

I paid everything in full to make sure they don't recklessly charge fee to my card. I would hate that, hahaha.

And this includes access to all Extreme locations.

And I've heard about the assessment + personal trainer thingy. Horrible tactic.
Thanks for the reminder though :)

[silenthunder]

i was wondering what the transfer charge is?

[storch]

To be honest what they offered you will be the same they offer the next guy who walks in. First 3 months free is pretty standard with them. Really nice gyms though especially in the downtown core and really nice women.

[gilboman]

ya, the $60/mth and 3 free months is a decent deal. (effectively $47/mth)

but if you dont need multilocation/towel service, you can get them to do $485 a year (works out to $40mth)

or $525 -->$44/mth with just towel service