"BIG MISTAKE"

She says she wishes she had never signed a contract with her gym. She signed, and then was laid off, then fell and broke her finger, causing her to have surgery on her hand. They would not let her out of her contract.. well they reworked it to lower her payments, but didn’t tell her that they extended her contract an extra year to do so. She hasn’t been to the gym in a year and a half and still owes them over $2,000.

You’ve got to be careful signing a contract. Why? Because you can’t predict the future. You sign a contract, but the contract doesn’t have a “if my circumstances change” clause in it. No matter what your circumstances are (other than death or judgment), you are still obligated to fulfill your part of the contract, and the company is under no obligation to let you out of it.

Obviously my friend couldn’t use the gym; she couldn’t use her hand. She also was laid off, and couldn’t afford it anymore either. It makes sense to us that she shouldn’t have to pay for something she can’t use or afford… except she signed a contract agreeing to do so. We have to remember that even though we sign a contract with a “nice” employee, a contract is a contract, and it is a legal agreement. It is very unlikely that you will ever, not be held fully accountable to fulfill your obligation to that company.

Gym memberships are sold with 3yr agreements because they know most people wouldn’t keep their membership otherwise. They don’t accept settlements and most keep attorneys on hand because they end up suing so many of their customers. If a gym believed that their services were of value to their customers, they wouldn’t have contracts, because their customers would recognize the value of their service and keep going.

What is your “big mistake?”