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.

My Bally's "7 day pass"

Well, I got one or two things right regarding how my visit to Bally's would go.  My sales rep was from the east coast- Baltimore.  Second, I didn't get to use the "guest pass"... lame.  I didn't even get a workout in.  That's even worse.  We arrived at 6:45- dropped the kids off and I had to wait and wait and wait....  My fiance went to go work out and I got the "grand tour" followed by meeting another trainer and filling out paperwork.  Our youngest son got upset and I had to leave the meeting.  Resumed the meeting once I went to go get him. (Awwww- he missed me after I had worked all day!)  Once I was out of the meeting, it was 7:45 and the childcare area was only open for 15 more minutes.

My fiance had joined us in the office part way through the earlier portion of the meeting and asked what was going on.  When I told him he was upset and I felt badly that I hadn't discussed the decision with him.

When we got home, we looked at the contract more closely.  I was shocked- even appalled that the childcare people will not change diapers or give a baby a bottle.  How am I supposed to get a work out in at all???

I will be submitting my "give me my $ back" notice and contract tremination today.