No thanks....

I handed in my resignation from my Bally's membership on 12/23/2010.  I never even used it.  The more I thought about the space (very warehouse like and unmotivating) paired with the children's area not willing to fulfill my children's basic needs (food, water, diaper/bathroom - we're potty training our 2 y.o. now) I just was not  comfortable with the situation.  I went and surrendered my membership card, along with my very formal typed resignation-- which included where to find the rules of my contract (section 2 paragraph A in this case). I left my ice hockey game and uncovered, or in this case, attempted to uncover my snow covered car and hoped that I would get to Bally Total Fitness before they closed at 10p.m. 

It was 9:50pm when I stood at the entrance.  The doors were locked and a blonde attendant sat behind the counter.  I had left my phone in the car- believeing this would be a quick in/out.  I knocked, I waited.  Since the door was locked, the attendant had to get up (which I felt bad about because she had some sort of physical problem that hindered her walking).  I handed her my resignation along with my club member card and explained that I just needed to drop this off.  She retorted that I could not drop off a resignation and had to mail it to corporate.  I replied that "..according to section 2, paragraph a of the contract during the first 3 business days I am allowed to drop off my resignation to the club -- if I were already a member I would have to give 30 days written notice and send that to corporate".  She took the paper and said she would put it on the managers desk. I felt like I had been a bit of a "b" to the employee- I hadn't meant to and apologized.

I emailed the manager today to ensure that he had infact received my letter.  His email was short and curt.  Clearly not happy that I had declined my membership.  I hadn't planned on cancelling- it's not something that I do for fun... sign up for things only to opt out later.  Especially a gym membership that I have waited so long for.

In the end, I couldn't justify the lack of options and the lack of quality child care. That and my fiance is always telling me things are broken there (i.e. the whirlpool specifically).  The staff is probably worried about hitting their quotas and I probably screwed things up for them a bit in that area- but what they had to offer- blah.

To digress to the scene at the entrance of Bally's- I guess the argumentation class I took in college is proving helpful.