Suspending Membership to Gym?

[2008]

Lets say you want to take a 3 month break from training, how common is it to suspend your account? Do most instructors/gym owners allow this? Is this considered bad etiquette?

I was toying with the idea why training BJJ doesn't have an 'off season'. Like to heal injuries, to refocus from burn out, to focus on other aspect of your life, and to take a break from the daily/weekly grind of training.

Don't get me wrong, if you love training, keep on training, obviously.

For example, I officially ended my membership to the school I trained at, but if there was an option to suspend my account temporarily like 3 months or something I would have strongly considered this option vs. (planning) to take a year off.

I also understand running a BJJ gym is a business and the owner needs to pay rent and put food on his table as well, I get that!!

What are your thoughts? gym owners and students?

 

[lechien]

That is weird.

You are saying that on your gym: the only way is to sign up for an entire year or else there is no other options.

I thought the idea of long term contract was to offer greater discount but you could still pay monthly but no discount

 

[Foppa21]

You can ask. I'd say the odds are in against you that they'll let you suspend your membership for a period of time for anything other than injury or illness

 

[2008]

That is weird.

You are saying that on your gym: the only way is to sign up for an entire year or else there is no other options.

I thought the idea of long term contract was to offer greater discount but you could still pay monthly but no discount

I don't know if my old gym coach/owner had side deals with people because he definitely wasn't the most professional when it came to running a gym, but no.

The general membership was month to month. You get a permanent partial discount if you were a student/police officer, I think it was $25 less for unlimited. You could pay less if you didn't want to pay for unlimited classes, but that limited you to coming only 2 classes per week.

There was no long term contract to sign, it was month to month payment. You can cancel anytime but needed a 30 day notice. But the catch was you basically had to pay with a debit card; so every month, the money would be automatically withdrawn on a specific date from your checking account.

You couldn't pay with a credit card from what I know, unless that recently changed.

I trained there for 6 years. When I first started, 6 months in, I actually used to pay cash, but he never gave out receipts(again, wasn't the most professional when is it came to running a business). He eventually switched over to a checking account system.

Again, I don't know if he had side deals with people that he allow not to pay with a checking account.

 

[2008]

You can ask. I'd say the odds are in against you that they'll let you suspend your membership for a period of time for anything other than injury or illness

Before I officially took a break from training at my gym I basically paid a year membership($1500) for nothing in 2017. Again, no one's fault, but due to being sick on/off and being busy with work(starting a new job) I only manage to come to class like once or twice every other week. Basically coming to class like 3 times a month at the most! So looking back, I wasted a lot of money.

That was why I was toying with the idea if a gym would allow an 'off season', where they can suspend your account for 3 months then resume it again, after.

At this point it would only make sense for me to train by doing drop-ins, if I could only train like once a week.

 

[lechien]

The general membership was month to month. You get a permanent partial discount if you were a student/police officer, I think it was $25 less for unlimited. Y
You couldn't pay with a credit card from what I know, unless that recently changed.

So it is a yearly membership but you are paying on a monthly basis?

Because you mention that you can stop on a monthly basis as long as you give a 30 notice.

So what stop you from giving your 30 days notice in October and take November, December and Jan off...

Then resign on February..

Or if you live in a hot country, take 3 months at each summer.

 

[2008]

I probably can but I didnt think of that at the time. I told my coach I was going to take a year off.

It just occurred to me now to think of this. Like take off season on my own.

But if I do come back earlier than a year I might check out a different BJJ gym. But at the moment my schedule is still hectic so it's probably not a good idea.

 

[esteven]

Even if you have a contract, most will still suspend it. If it's month-to-month, they obviously will.

For gym owners, that's actually the best way to have someone "take a break" (apart from simply continuing to pay, but that's what the year-long contracts are about). If they can schedule the payments to resume at a specific date, it's much more likely that you'll come back.

 

[007]

Cash only at my place and pay as you come

 

[Foppa21]

Before I officially took a break from training at my gym I basically paid a year membership($1500) for nothing in 2017. Again, no one's fault, but due to being sick on/off and being busy with work(starting a new job) I only manage to come to class like once or twice every other week. Basically coming to class like 3 times a month at the most! So looking back, I wasted a lot of money.

That was why I was toying with the idea if a gym would allow an 'off season', where they can suspend your account for 3 months then resume it again, after.

At this point it would only make sense for me to train by doing drop-ins, if I could only train like once a week.

I did for for awhile. If yo're going to spend money, consider 1 on 1s but make sure you have a plan going in. The good thing about those is they're about you, just make sure you show up super early to warm up so you don't piss about during your time finding gear etc. The only down side is you won't get the variation in rolling but you've got to make the best of your situation.

Depending on your relationship with your gym, you could try to negotiate it. Most people I've talked to that's had semi rational owners may be willing to work something out with you. I tend to find that if you're fair to them, they'll be fair to you. I've heard of injury and out of town (think restraint of trade type) clauses put into contracts too to make it official. I know of a gym that takes a roll call every day (people sign in) and the owners will call a member if they haven't showed up for two weeks just to give them a "what's up? You all good?".

Don't get me wrong, not all gyms are this way. Maybe I've just been lucky on top of choosing good people to be around.

At my gym, we've got all those clauses, break fees etc but at the end of the day, especially if a person is relatively new and just changed their mind (it's not what they were after or they didn't like the vibe after the initial excitement) the owners have basically just torn up the contracts out of goodwill. Reputation wise, it was just better and easier for them to move on and it didn't feel right to keep taking money from someone that's unhappy or not using the services.

 

[Foppa21]

Even if you have a contract, most will still suspend it. If it's month-to-month, they obviously will.

For gym owners, that's actually the best way to have someone "take a break" (apart from simply continuing to pay, but that's what the year-long contracts are about). If they can schedule the payments to resume at a specific date, it's much more likely that you'll come back.

As I mentioned before, it does depend on the relationship between the student and gym (customer and supplier). If a guy has a nasty habit of cancelling multiple times a year, then the gym should not have any qualms about saying no without fair cause. If you're upfront and say "hey, my work has me on call every 3 months for a month and I probably won't be able to come in at that time can we do something about it?" it's going to be more well received than "hey it's summer break here, mid semester break here, here and here I want to spend that time drinking".

 

[2008]

As I mentioned before, it does depend on the relationship between the student and gym (customer and supplier). If a guy has a nasty habit of cancelling multiple times a year, then the gym should not have any qualms about saying no without fair cause. If you're upfront and say "hey, my work has me on call every 3 months for a month and I probably won't be able to come in at that time can we do something about it?" it's going to be more well received than "hey it's summer break here, mid semester break here, here and here I want to spend that time drinking".

I agree. I didn't want to be that flaky student who wants to supend/cancel his account multiple times in one year.

That's why being a 'good paying experienced, older student now', if I join a new gym I'll ask about being able to temporary suspend my account just to take a break, at most one time a year, up front first!

Like you said, it will largely depend on me and owner business relations with each other.

I rather train hard for 9 months and take a 3 month break vs sporadically training 12 months and paying for services I'm not using.

I'm not trying to sound cheap either I was a loyal paying member for 6 years with no hiccups.

 

[esteven]

I really don't get this. Are there REALLY gyms out there that will kick you out for taking a break? That doesn't make any sense. If you're not under contract (and most of these "contracts" are pretty flimsy at best), then what's the big deal?

As a gym owner, I would obviously much rather people keep paying. If they want to stop paying, though, I'd be insane to think that I have any reason (let alone the right) to tell them that they have to continue. In fact, I just had someone suspend their membership for a month. It wasn't a big deal. I had no right whatsoever to demand that he pay me, and what was I going to do? Tell him not to come back? That's absurd.

Even if there's a year (or whatever) contract, it's only actually valid if you recieve something in exchange for the time commitment. And even THEN, it's still just good costomer relations to suspend their membership, and resume it at a scheduled time later.

 

[esteven]

If your membership is month-to-month (and even in many cases where it's not), and you think your coach gets a say in whether or not you take time off, then your coach is an asshole, you're in a cult, and you should go somewhere else.

 

[2008]

I really don't get this. Are there REALLY gyms out there that will kick you out for taking a break? That doesn't make any sense. If you're not under contract (and most of these "contracts" are pretty flimsy at best), then what's the big deal?

As a gym owner, I would obviously much rather people keep paying. If they want to stop paying, though, I'd be insane to think that I have any reason (let alone the right) to tell them that they have to continue. In fact, I just had someone suspend their membership for a month. It wasn't a big deal. I had no right whatsoever to demand that he pay me, and what was I going to do? Tell him not to come back? That's absurd.

Even if there's a year (or whatever) contract, it's only actually valid if you recieve something in exchange for the time commitment. And even THEN, it's still just good costomer relations to suspend their membership, and resume it at a scheduled time later.

I have only trained at one gym, so I have never experienced this personally, with owners wanted to kick people out if you suspend your account. But this wouldn't surprise me, though, if gyms like that do exist. I know when it comes to money it can be awkward and make people act funny.

I asked a jiu jitsu friend his thoughts, he said, if he was a gym owner he wouldn't allow 'off season' or for people to suspend their membership to take breaks...obviously barring injury or long term sickness or whatever(but then again, my friend, is very very financially well off) so his opinion is probably skewed since money is not really a problem for him and he has a lot, and I mean a lot, of free time to train.

 

[Foppa21]

I agree. I didn't want to be that flaky student who wants to supend/cancel his account multiple times in one year.

That's why being a 'good paying experienced, older student now', if I join a new gym I'll ask about being able to temporary suspend my account just to take a break, at most one time a year, up front first!

Like you said, it will largely depend on me and owner business relations with each other.

I rather train hard for 9 months and take a 3 month break vs sporadically training 12 months and paying for services I'm not using.

I'm not trying to sound cheap either I was a loyal paying member for 6 years with no hiccups.

Shouldn't be a problem then if you're on good terms. Just be upfront about it. All things being considered, if you feel that terms are unreasonable, let your wallet do the talking after you weight everything up.

In saying that, from personal experience, you're better off taking a week or two off every 3 to 4 months is better than taking a straight 3 months off. Cardio doesn't suffer as much and you don't lose timing which is the hardest to retain.

 

[Foppa21]

I really don't get this. Are there REALLY gyms out there that will kick you out for taking a break? That doesn't make any sense. If you're not under contract (and most of these "contracts" are pretty flimsy at best), then what's the big deal?

As a gym owner, I would obviously much rather people keep paying. If they want to stop paying, though, I'd be insane to think that I have any reason (let alone the right) to tell them that they have to continue. In fact, I just had someone suspend their membership for a month. It wasn't a big deal. I had no right whatsoever to demand that he pay me, and what was I going to do? Tell him not to come back? That's absurd.

Even if there's a year (or whatever) contract, it's only actually valid if you recieve something in exchange for the time commitment. And even THEN, it's still just good costomer relations to suspend their membership, and resume it at a scheduled time later.

Depends on a lot of factors biggest one I've found is how much the school is struggling financially in the short term. Some may just need the money.

When I first started the gym I was at utilised a 10 class concession ticket type system where you clip off your ticket after each class. I was in Uni at the time and had other sports I was playing, coupled with, 10 years ago in a very small market the instructor was also doing the job to get started and supplement income so there was only 3 evening classes a week and maybe a Saturday class and of which I could at most I could only make two midweek classes and maybe the Saturday class so in general, my concession card would last me 2 to 3 months. It worked for awhile, then the instructor decided that that that wasn't good enough so he instituted a 31 day expiry under "If you can't make 10 classes a month you won't improve, I'm making sure you improve".

I had a buddy that very much took it as a hobby and would go to less classes than me, he just wanted a better idea of what he was seeing used in the UFC and didn't want to compete nor cared much beyond a bit of self defence and cardio. He bought a new card came back a month later and got told of the rule was told "You can use the card one last time but next time, you'll have to get a new card". That has turned out to be the BJJ class he's ever taken. Close to 10 years on, I still hear about it when we catch up.

At the end of the day, it's all about being fair to all parties. Understand that there is a person trying to put food on their table but don't sell yourself short. Depending on the situation, if a guy was stopping regularly the owner might just show them the door and say it's not worth trying to budget around it. Cut nose to spite face, maybe but it's a headache and worry they may not want to deal with. They might be willing to negotiate and write it into the contract or suggest a 6 months contract. Yes you'll have to pay more, but again it's about being fair and allowing the owner to budget with more clarity.

 

[lechien]

I really don't get this. Are there REALLY gyms out there that will kick you out for taking a break? That doesn't make any sense. If you're not under contract (and most of these "contracts" are pretty flimsy at best), then what's the big deal?

As a gym owner, I would obviously much rather people keep paying. If they want to stop paying, though, I'd be insane to think that I have any reason (let alone the right) to tell them that they have to continue. In fact, I just had someone suspend their membership for a month. It wasn't a big deal. I had no right whatsoever to demand that he pay me, and what was I going to do? Tell him not to come back? That's absurd.

Even if there's a year (or whatever) contract, it's only actually valid if you recieve something in exchange for the time commitment. And even THEN, it's still just good costomer relations to suspend their membership, and resume it at a scheduled time later.

I think is that TS is talking about gyms that would offer a 9 months and 3 months off.

As we all know, most modern BJJ gyms are now using the fitness gym business model which is sign people for a long term only basis and give the option to pay on a monthly basis but you are still committing for 1 year or 6 month or so.

Very rarely, they would offer a month by month basis but if they do...it would be very expensive because the concept is to still receiving an income when they do not feel like training.

I would assume it makes the gym owner life must easier when he can go the bank and show how many people he signed under a contract in order to get a loan to buy equipment or even apply for the loan for a car or a house,

Edit:

The way I run my club is different... well to start it is not my main source of income.

I have a limited mat space and time.

Let say I can only have 22 people on the mats.

So my maximum number of members would be around 30.

I do not do contracts and I would expect an automatic payment on a weekly basis (can be fortnightly or monthly) but it has to be recurring.

I do not have contract as such but I have a waiting list of customers.

if someone said that they need 3 months to do other stuff, it is not fair on myself as I have another 7 potential customers waiting.

But I would cool about it and say no problem...when you come back.. you go back in the queue.

Obviously, if it is somebody that I trained for 7 years, there might be no queue after all.

 

[2008]

Cash only at my place and pay as you come

This would be ideal to me IMO as customer because I can pay cash and come and go as I please. But i imagine for an owner this could be a headache if students don't come and pay consistently every month, when you have rent to pay.

In this situation I think an owner should keep a record book of which student paid, take attendence, and give out recipts with an expiration date. I would do that if I was a gym owner, it only takes a minor effort in being a little organized with a record book, pen, and a receipt.

 

[shunyata]

Since 2003 I've only lived in areas where there was plenty of supply of schools (Los Angeles, now Seattle) and so I've never had to deal with stupidity like 12 month contracts.

I've never heard of this being an issue.

Everywhere I've trained had you either auto debit a monthly fee or pay for ten or so classes in advance (which if you weren't going more than twice a week was a bit less than the monthly unlimited rate).

In all cases you would just tell the coach or office manager to freeze your auto debit because you're going on vacation or rehabbing or whatever. None of them would have any beef about someone saying "freeze my auto debit starting next month, I'll be back in September and you can resume the auto debit starting Sep 1" or something to that effect.

Did you actually talk to the people who handle billing at your gym?

This would be ideal to me IMO as customer because I can pay cash and come and go as I please. But i imagine for an owner this could be a headache if students don't come and pay consistently every month, when you have rent to pay.

In this situation I think an owner should keep a record book of which student paid, take attendence, and give out recipts with an expiration date. I would do that if I was a gym owner, it only takes a minor effort in being a little organized with a record book, pen, and a receipt.

In my experience many gyms will overwhelmingly prefer a recurring debit charge so that they don't have to have someone hounding people for their dues so that the gym can pay rent.

Cash is a terrible idea for the owners, some people will show up with nothing on them "oh can I still train? I don't have any cash on me, I can pay you next week."

Auto debit = reliable money coming in.