Equinox Gym

[ad rian]

Does anyone have any thoughts about Equinox Gym in NYC? I have belonged for two years, but am thinking about quitting. I am not sure its worth the extra money. They seem to add a premium on to everything, but I don't think the quality is all that bettter. I just learned that they have a 45 day (so two months in effect) cancelation notice period. Is this standard? It looks and feels like extortion to me!

[Guest fukamarine]

>I just learned that they have a 45 day (so two

>months in effect) cancelation notice period. Is this

>standard? It looks and feels like extortion to me!

 

If you didn't give them that notice period, would they sue you? I doubt it as it would cost them more than they would get.

 

Or have you paid for the year in advance and you have to give the notice in order to get the remainder of your year refunded?

 

fukamarine

[ad rian]

>If you didn't give them that notice period, would they sue

>you? I doubt it as it would cost them more than they would

>get.

>

>Or have you paid for the year in advance and you have to give

>the notice in order to get the remainder of your year

>refunded?

 

Iconverted to a monthly plan last year, but they still debit the card automatically. I called Amex to dispute the charge but I am not optomistic. The Gym industry must be very profitable between initiation fees and cancelation fees!

[trilingual]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

Am I seeing things? Is the big, big spender from Planet Plaza Athenée whining about having to pay what his gym charges? After maintaining that it's unseemly (to say the least) to tip less than 100%? After telling a visitor to Rio that he should expect to pay a hustler who invited himself to the visitor's table at a sidewalk café US$250 for the privilege of watching the hustler eat the food he bought him for an hour? After telling everyone that anyone who doesn't pay an escort in Brazil the same amount that a NY escort charges is an exploitative low-life? After regaling everyone with his tales of hiring the most expensive escort in Paris, who besides his exorbitant fees requires dining at three-star restaurants and lodging at the most expensive hotels in France? After informing us he bills at $500/hr.? Please, tell us it isn't so! Has the Big Spender from Planet P.A. had a change of heart? Or has the "international lawyer" business gone bust? Behold, the REAL Auntie S. has now revealed himself in all his cheap tawdriness. It was just a matter of time. . .}(

[ad rian]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

It's really a lot more simple than all that. I just don't understand why in an age instantaneous communications - of computers and the internet - it takes 45 days to remove someone from a system. I always understood that the initiation fee was intended to act as a disincentive for folks constantly changing their memberships. I don't like paying it, but I can understand it. The cancellation fee, however seems redundant and unnecessary to me.

 

As a general matter, the Equinox gyms just seems over-priced to me relative to gyms I have used around the world. The equipment is not noticeably better, nor are the trainers, nor are the facilities. Does anybody else have any thoughts on this?

 

As for the rest, it's good to see that your classless struggle continues!

[+ deej]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

>The cancellation fee, however

>seems redundant and unnecessary to me.

 

It's good business. Even worse, YOU AGREED TO IT when you signed up.

 

Acquiring a new customer is VERY expensive in a subscription-type business. Making it inconvenient to become a non-customer works in their favor. Plain and simple.

 

Ever try to resign from an ISP? Just *try* to cancel your AOL account. They'll put up so many hurdles you'll end up keeping it just to not be hassled. Same with cell phones. And porn websites.

 

Disincentives for leaving is a business model that works.

[ad rian]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

>It's good business. Even worse, YOU AGREED TO IT when you

>signed up.

 

I admit that when I signed up I was more focused on the initiation fee than the cancellation fee. However, I made it clear to the Membership person that I might want to get out at short notice because I move frequently. That's why I was advised to go on the monthly plan, but now it appears that the notice period applies also to monthly plans. I am still waiting to see if I actually signed anything to that effect. If I did, I will feel pretty stupid, I admit. I am not impressed with a business model where oral information that contradicts the written contract is routinely dispensed. It seemed to me that they are very familiar with this little scam as the Manager I spoke with acknowledged as much. He had a very smug and practised air about him. (I vaguely recall seeing some Consumer Reports story about these practices in the gym industry recently.)

 

What concerns me is that if I get caught by this, what about others who are less savvy? So hopefully by disputing the charge and making a stink here and elsewhere, I can cost them some money. (You are right about AOL too. That's the only thing working for them these days.)

[trilingual]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

Does anyone understand the Big Spender's problem? He's repeatedly proclaimed bargaining immoral. He's made it clear that in his universe it's an unspeakable sin not to pay a seller exactly what is asked for. In fact, if the seller is in a country with a lower cost of living than New York's, the Big Spender has decreed that it's exploitative to pay less than New York prices, even if they are more than three times what the seller asks for. You're simply supposed to hand the seller 300% more than he asked for, because the Big Spender has said this is the way things should be done. Of course, the Big Spender has also gone on and on and on about how he can afford to do this because he's so lavishly remunerated (down to telling us all how much he's allegedly paid by the hour).

 

Given all of this, if the Equinox Gym (the seller in this case) demands some extra fees, it's an utterly immoral and exploitative for the Big Spender to suddenly start complaining and trying to get out of paying what the gym is asking for. According to the principles expounded by the Plaza-Athenian, endlessly and ad nauseum, he's required to fork over and and be grateful for the privilege! After all, this is the same guy who excoriated a poster for not paying a Rio strong-arm artist US$250 just for sitting at the poster's sidewalk cafe table, to which the strong-arm artist had invited himself, and eating the food the poster bought him! According to the Big Spender, the hapless poster should have known what he was getting himself in for when he allowed the strong-arm artist join him at his table, even though the creep never mentioned any monetary expectations up front before sitting down! If the Rio strong-arm artist was entitled to the US$250 he demanded, after the fact, for doing absolutely nothing, why isn't a New York strong-arm artist like the Equinox Gym entitled to whatever it can extort out of Big Spender?

 

The answer, of course, is that in real life the Big Spender from Planet Plaza Athenée is a cheap-ass miser who nickles-and-dimes every escort he hires (threatening to ruin their reputations here on M4M if they don't succumb to his threats); stiffs waiters, escorts and service workers who depend on tips to supplement their income; and spits on the less fortunate, wherever he finds them. Auntie S, we've got your number. Like the visitor to Rio, you should have known what you were getting into when you joined a gym. Now pay up and shut up!

[ad rian]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

I guess the plane to Fantasy Island was fully booked, or was the drug store temporailly short on your Meds?

 

Actually, I don't mind paying the going rate for a good gym in NYC. That's why the initial post asked if cancellation fees are standard. As for the rest, I think Equinox is over-priced having regard to relative price and quality. I am still interested in anyone else's thoughts on this. And if in asking this, I help someone else out that's great too.

 

The great thing about liberty and about markets is that there are lots of avenues to get redress. By the time I am finished with Equinox, they will regret their actions, at least in this particulr case. It's one thing to catch a lawyer off guard, but the great thing about being a lawyer is that I can impose costs on scam artists like Equinox without losing anything but my own opportunity costs!

[ad rian]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

>After regaling everyone

>with his tales of hiring the most expensive escort in Paris,

>who besides his exorbitant fees requires dining at three-star

>restaurants and lodging at the most expensive hotels in

>France?

 

Before this becomes an urban legend, let me say again I think Paris is a very bad city for escorts. I never hire locally. I always import escorts based in Amsterdam or London, and my only experience was with a French escort (highly-touted here and elsewere) based there, but who goes for the going rate in Amsterdam. Having lived in Paris, I don't tend to frequent 5-star hotels because I know a lot of hidden gems. (My favourite one is on Isle St. Louis.)

[ad rian]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

>Having lived in Paris, I don't tend to frequent

>5-star hotels because I know a lot of hidden gems. (My

>favourite one is on Isle St. Louis.)

 

Sorry, I meant to say restaurants, not hotels! Too quick on the draw today!

[+ deej]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

>I am not

>impressed with a business model where oral information that

>contradicts the written contract is routinely dispensed.

 

You obviously haven't bought a car recently. Or a cell phone.

 

I'm usually surprised if what the SALESman tells me agrees with the written contract. The SALESman just wants your signature, and generally couldn't care less what you think about the deal afterwards, if they even have a clue what's in the contract.

 

In ANY corporation, front-line "customer-facing" personnel have only a glancing familiarity with corporate policy.

[ad rian]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

>I'm usually surprised if what the SALESman tells me agrees

>with the written contract. The SALESman just wants your

>signature, and generally couldn't care less what you think

>about the deal afterwards, if they even have a clue what's in

>the contract.

 

In truth, I am not sure that the cancellation policy would have been a deal-stopper when I signed up. I probably still would have chosen Equinox then for convenience, but it is annoying. I guess I expect to be ripped off with cell phones. The gym notice took me by surprise.

[trilingual]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

Attention, lecteurs Parisiens:

 

The next time you catch Auntie Semitic on the hidden surveillance cameras visiting his "hidden gem" on the Île-St.-Louis, blow up the bridges, cut the phone and cable lines, set up a police boat blockade, and M4M will finally have some peace and quiet! If you need help organizing this, private me and I'll send you the Elders of Zion secret Paris hotline number. If we can dominate the world, we certainly can take care of the Plaza-Athenian when he's fressing at some cheap dive in the middle of the Seine! }(

[taylorky]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

:o ...whoa dude u just can't let it go ...........can you..taylorky@02:38-12/30/02

[trilingual]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

Nah! It's too much fun (although rather too easy) to goad Auntie Semitic into exposing himself with one of his patented frothings at the mouth. . .

 

On the other hand, as of 4:30 last Friday afternoon I'm retired. I'm flying off to Rio later today, and I know there'll be far more interesting and entertaining things to do there than calling Auntie S on his, um, merde. I'll just turn over the responsibility of policing him to the rest of you guys and to the Elders of Zion. I just have to remember to give them a ringy-dingy before I catch my flight and let them know they need to assign another special agent to the case. Somebody needs to keep him in line and prevent him from scaring off the newbies and the people who just come here hoping to get some factual information.

 

For Uncle Tri, it's about to be beach and sauna time!

[ad rian]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

>On the other hand, as of 4:30 last Friday afternoon I'm

>retired. I'm flying off to Rio later today....

 

You've been threatening us with your retirement for so long now that I was beginning to believe that this was yet another of your false promises. Let me be the first to bid you Bon Voyage. May the spirit of Bali be with you on the beach!!!

[trilingual]

RE: Can I Believe My Eyes?

 

Thanks so much for your kind wishes but I wouldn't be caught dead in Bali. I know it's scenic and culturally rich, but SE Asia really isn't a top vacation destination for the dimensionally obsessed. Tomorrow night I'll be on the beach at Copacabana, hoping that the spirit of Iemanjá will be with me, and making wishes for a peaceful new year. . .

[btmstudnyc]

Most gyms have some sort of notice of cancellation thingy.

 

Each gym has a different appeal. So, it depends on what you want.

 

CRUNCH...they dont care who you are what you look like...as long as your a trendy freak or dont mind them.

 

Bally's traditional cheap corporate. Cheap everything machines, lockers showers and people.

 

New York Sports Club...Basic New York workout thats convenient and pricey as well

 

New York Health and Racquet....VERY CORPORATE..the good ole boys club

 

Gold's good equipment...trainers...minimal everything else. Reasonable memebership if your in the area. HOT MUSCLE BOYS everywhere

 

WORLD's....see GOLD's above...except...a few extra wanna be bodybuilders

 

All the rest....depends on what your looking for...19th street gym...chelsea boys...24/7 on 14th street gym....very cheap...yearly..equipment but open 24/7....Lots of knucklehead bodybuilders....damn they are hot.

 

Equinox...has the convenience of all the other amenities...usually facials acupunture chiropractic...etc...but if your not into that..than only the 19th street and village location are worth the price.

 

JIM

[ad rian]

That's a great summary! Re Equinox, I don't mind the Wall Streeet one relative to some of the others, but I just think the whole thing is over-priced!

[btmstudnyc]

ad,

 

You may be right about it being overpriced (Italians own it, does that help your dilemna about wanting to cancel?) But, I have to say that most gyms in new york dont even give you any amenities, let alone choices of amenities. Cleanliness goes a long way in my book too. I love Gold's gym...but damn...I always feel something is growing on my feet when I take my shoes off.

 

You are paying for the prestige...Like the amex platinum card. Different set of folks go to that sort of place....Im not saying its justified...it's just something to consider. The best way to choose a gym is to get a 2 week trial membership....and go to the gym when you would usually go.....It will make up your mind quickly. Sometimes paying a little extra is worth it...just for your own personal peace of mind. Although Huey would bargain...U should ask them for a cheaper renewal Negotiate buddy.

 

JIM

[ad rian]

>You may be right about it being overpriced (Italians own it,

>does that help your dilemna about wanting to cancel?)

 

The Sopranos, perhaps? I don't care much for NY Health and Racquet. I like some of the NY Sports Clubs. Like you, I put a premium on cleansiness, and Equinox is clean. However, I don't think the equipment is the best or the newest, and I am tired of the nickling and diming for every service they offer. I feel like I am personally financing each of their new locations! I also don't care much for the clientelle. Is it possible to get the nice amenities without being gouged and without having a "precious" clintelle? I wonder.