Initiation fees for gyms

[skywalkerbeth]

Do you try to get small initiation fees waived, or don't bother? Small meaning 50 bucks.

I have a new "Super Golds" near my house. 66,000 SF. Tons of classes at convenient times, lots and lots of machines and cycles and equipment and you name it. Two pools (one is a kiddy pool) and three classrooms (spinning, dance, and yoga - each dedicated). Indoor BB court (not that I play). You get the idea - has just about everything. Even a cardio cinema (movie theater with cycles and treadmills).

It's still a new gym and the monthly fee is 36.99 as a teaser, for two years.

The monthly rate is so dirt cheap, and I can afford the initiation fee (duh) but I initiation fees seem like such a ripoff. On the other hand the monthly fee is a joke for a brand new, nice gym.

[alpinerabbit]

Well, it's their cost structure. I guess they are so dirt cheap, the inital admin is charged to you.
When you buy an airplane ticket, do you try to get the fuel surcharge waived?
Or do you heckle at the supermarket.....?

[badger]

do they have a penalty for canceling if you need to get out? I know a few people who had a really hard time when they wanted to leave the club.

[jessmarimba]

I paid at my old gym - we had an initiation fee, and a yearly upkeep fee, but the gym was only $10 a month.

(It was pretty grit. I'm pretty sure the floor in the class studio had NEVER been cleaned.)

I don't belong to a gym anymore. They either are moderately priced but don't offer what I want, or offer what I'm looking for and cost a fortune (which, to me, is anything over $50...a lot to pay for someone who uses next to none of the equipment).

[ultraviolet]

Since most gyms frequently (and by frequently, I mean several times a year) run specials that include waiving the initiation fee, it never hurts to ask. All they can do is say no and then you can decide whether or not you want to pay it. Personally, I've never paid a sign-up/initiation fee to a gym and it doesn't seem like something I'd be likely to do in the future. *shrug*

[Becky]

I knew that the Y offered no-fee memberships twice a year (January and September), so I waited to join until January.

My membership does cost me a fortune, but they have a pool and they take housekeeping seriously. I've considered joining a cheaper club, but no one I've asked raves about the cleanliness

[indysteel]

I'm in the it doesn't hurt to ask camp. For profit gyms often have some wiggle room in their prices. Just read some review of LA Fitness. I'm on the board for a local Y and it doesn't have as much discretion, except for published promotions, to waive the fee. The fee is largely used as a deterrent for people who would prefer to cancel their membership during the summer months.