Paige* signed up for a one-year contract with a gym near her home. Due to an unforeseen move, she decided to cancel her membership because her new place was too far from the gym. Paige was within the first 10 days of her contract, so she had the right to cancel. “She [the owner of the gym] told me that once I signed up, that was it. She said I wasn’t going to get my money back,” says Paige. “It was really frustrating.” After multiple emails back and forth, the owner agreed to partially refund Paige for the membership. The owner claimed she had applied the refund to Paige’s credit card, but nothing was showing up. “At this point, the gym had stopped returning my emails and I wasn’t sure who I could turn to. I started doing some research and that’s when I contacted Consumer Protection BC,” said Paige. “[The investigator] was wonderful. She told me to leave it with her and validated that I was well within my rights to get my money back,” says Paige. An investigator from Consumer Protection BC spoke to the owner of the gym and she eventually agreed to refund Paige the total amount she paid for her membership. Paige hopes that others who are stuck in a similar situation don’t lose hope and know Consumer Protection BC can help. “The situation really restored my faith. I’ve told a lot of people about what happened – it’s important to know that there’s someone there to back you up when you’re stuck,” says Paige. “It’s a lesson learned.” *Names changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.
Curious about your rights when it comes to gym memberships?
Do you have a membership to a gym or yoga studio? Are you signed up for dance lessons, personal training or self-defense classes? These types of contracts are ongoing and physical in nature and they’re known as continuing services contracts. By law, you have certain cancellation rights. Find out more.
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Hi,
I found this website is pretty helpful after reading all the cases I learned a lot. I want to know in my case if there’s anything I can do. I was shopping at a furniture store. When I was about to give the salesman my cheque, I inquiring about their return policy. It clear said in the receipt that stock item order can be cancelled before delivery. The store manager came up and said this is a non-cancellable sales. (It’s not a final sales) He said there’s another customer would take the item right away so I can’t have the store policy like everyone else. Well…my question is that if I do purchase the item and found out later I do not like it. Do I have the right to return it? I mean most people would just stop going there but there’s only very few store has the item. So I was wondering if store can just change their policy and treat customers differently.
Hi Vicky Lin, thanks for reaching out to us here and I’m happy to hear that you find our website helpful! That sounds a little odd to me too. While this isn’t something we oversee directly, I’m happy to provide as much help as I can here. It’s important to note that in BC, retailers are allowed to set their own return and refund policies. I would suggest trying to contact the store again (I’m not sure if you ended up purchasing the item) and explaining what the manager told you. If what he said is actually in their policy somewhere (in writing) and the store can explain why this purchase is different than others, then they are within their right to abide by that policy. However, if it’s not anywhere in writing then you may want to see if you can escalate the situation further and ask for an explanation as to why you are not able to return this item and why it’s outside of the parameters of the return policy. Does that make sense? In these situations, the most effective method to reach a solution is by dealing with the store directly. I hope this helps and please let me know if any of this is unclear!