Ny Sports Club Fees

• Nysc Membership Fees

Coronavirus Update: New York Sports Club Freezes Gym Membership Fees Syndicated Local – CBS New York 4/9/2020 BLM vs Capitol protests: This was the police response when it was Black protesters. That fee will vary by location (it may be $49 at suburban New Jersey club, Gallagher says, or up to $250 at a Manhattan location), and it will also vary depending on your monthly rate.

Elizabeth Kuster wants out of her NYSC membership. No question about it. But the gym won’t let her go, and it won’t stop charging her. But when she files a credit card chargeback, things go from bad to worse. Is there anything we can do to help here?

Question

• Pricely.org has a summary of NYSC pricing but does not officially represent the gym. They list an initiation fee of $20, and monthly fees as low as $19.99 for a one club membership and $59.99 for a monthly fee for a multi-club passport. There are annual fees.
• New York Sports Club Responds To Lawsuit Over Membership Fees During Coronavirus Shutdown March 27, 2020 at 8:03 pm Filed Under: Coronavirus, Local TV, New York, New York Sports Club.
• New York Sports Club membership fee question? Ok so im considering on joining NYSC. It seems really good, great equipment and the people there are so nice. Now they're offering me a great deal 140 membership fee and 55 a month. Now its great but im 17 and dnt rlly have a steady income.

I read a story on your site about another person, just like me, who you helped get out of her New York Sports Clubs membership.

I am having trouble with NYSC in Park Slope. They keep charging me even though I told the manager I wanted to cancel my contract. I canceled over the phone four months ago. The reason I decided to cancel is that NYSC suddenly increased my monthly fees. They did not give me prior notice. And they admitted this via email. The manager promised me a credit, which of course never appeared. Instead, NYSC just kept charging and charging me.

I want them to refund the 2018 annual fee of $50. And I also want a refund of the four months at the higher rate that I didn’t agree to. Then I want New York Sports Clubs never to call or email me again.

I disputed all the charges on my credit card. In the end, the bank said no fraud occurred. So I lost that case. And now I’m getting collection notices from NYSC.

Can you help me? I just want to get out of my NYSC membership! Why is this so hard? — Elizabeth Kuster,Brooklyn, N.Y.

Answer

If you canceled your NYSC membership, then the company should stop charging you. And it goes without saying that it should take your canceled account out of the collections department.

However, there was a significant problem with your case. When I read through your entire paper trail, it didn’t appear that you had ever officially canceled your NYSC membership.

You can’t cancel a New York Sports Club membership over the phone. Nor can you cancel via email. The NYSC website notes that members should consult with their contract for specific cancellation terms. It further goes on to say that if a member is not under a specific term contract, then cancellation can be made:

… in person at any club location or by sending a cancellation request by Certified Mail to the club or the Member Services department.

“I just want to get out of my NYSC membership!”

Unfortunately, you didn’t know what kind of NYSC membership you had. And you weren’t sure if that contract locked you into a specific term or rate. That fact complicated your case a bit. I thought perhaps your contract hadn’t been canceled because you had agreed to a certain length of membership. But with no contract to reference, I could not test my hypothesis.

Your written correspondence with NYSC showed that you first complained about the rate increase and the annual fee charge in early February. And although you told me that you canceled in December over the phone, there is no documentation of that cancellation.

Contracts are legal documents. And these contracts are always written in favor of the company, not the consumer. So if you want to terminate one, it’s critical to follow all of the steps outlined by the company.

And there may have been some mixed messages coming from you regarding your specific intention about your NYSC membership. In February you complained to the manager about the $10 per month rate increase. You explained to him that you hadn’t even been using your membership because you like to run outside.

If my monthly dues are increasing to $31.95/month, I want to cancel my membership completely. I never go; I just keep the membership in case of inclement weather (I prefer to run outside). For $21.95/month it’s worth it but for $31.95 it isn’t.

After this interaction, that manager processed a credit to your account to cover the rate increase for three months. He didn’t process a cancellation, and your email didn’t specifically ask for one.

Filing a credit card chargeback

And then you filed a credit card chargeback for the full monthly payments from November to February and for the annual fee. This chargeback attempt was a mistake.

The Fair Credit Billing Act protects credit card using consumers against billing errors by merchants. It doesn’t allow consumers to break legally binding gym memberships.

Any consumer considering a chargeback should carefully review the specific types of billing errors that are covered by this act before filing a dispute. Otherwise, as we have seen many times previously here, these chargeback cases can just lead to bigger problems.

Ask Christine Edwards how an ill-advised credit card chargeback almost ended in her losing $1,600. Or worse, Philip Paul’s premature credit card chargeback almost cost him $4,000.

The reason that you lost this chargeback is that you still had not officially canceled your NYSC membership. But you were contesting charges from November 2017 onward. And in your own paper trail, in February 2018, you appeared to be waffling on your NYSC membership cancellation.

Your bank informed you that your situation did not qualify for a credit card chargeback.

This credit card chargeback attempt made your situation worse. Now NYSC threatened you with a collection agency. And you couldn’t use your “delinquent” gym membership even if you wanted.

The good news

I contacted New York Sports Club on your behalf, and it has now closed your account. You are no longer in collections, and you are finally free of your NYSC membership. Unfortunately, the monthly dues and the annual fee that you paid before your official cancellation aren’t refundable. At this point, you are just relieved to have this unpleasant situation come to an end.

Happy running (outside)!

2020 Coronavirus closure update:

In April 2020 when the governor of New York State ordered all gyms to close during the coronavirus pandemic, NYSC continued to charge monthly dues for a service it could not provide. The NY attorney general took action and order NYSC to stop charging monthly dues during the closure. If you were charged monthly fees during the coronavirus pandemic you can file a written complaint with your gym and with the attorney general in your state.

(Bloomberg) -- New York Attorney General Letitia James sued the New York Sports Club and Lucille Roberts gym chains for charging dues to members for facilities that remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic and failing to honor cancellation requests.

James filed suit Wednesday in state court in Manhattan against Town Sports International Holdings Inc., which owns both chains. The attorney general is seeking a court order blocking the company for charging for shuttered facilities or canceled memberships.

The gym chains came under fire from James earlier this year for charging April dues despite being shut down by Governor Andrew Cuomo in March. They agreed to stop billing members while they were closed, give credits to those who were charged and allow customers to cancel their memberships.

But James said they resumed charging members Sept. 1 even though some gyms remain closed. They have also not offered the promised credits for the dues that were charged in March and April, according to the New York suit.

Town Sports filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month, saying it was unable to keep up with debt payments after it was forced to shut its gyms for months. The company is seeking to close certain locations permanently, depending on the outcome of talks with landlords and has support from its lenders to pursue a sale of its business.

The company didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on James’ suit.

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Nysc Membership Fees

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