I don’t like this catch

So I went into the gym on Monday (June 28) before we went out of town and had a chat with the guy at the front desk.  I said that I had to put my account on hold, since my husband quit his job the Wednesday before and I was going on furlough that coming Wednesday and money is looking VERY tight.  So I asked if I could work something out to not have a gym membership payment for a month or two.

Well, after chatting a little bit, he said that he could “push out” my payment for a month.  I should just keep on coming in like normal, but they wouldn’t charge me in July for my membership.  I thought, “That sounds great!  What’s the catch?”  And I went home and told Justin about it and he said, “That’s great!  What’s the catch?”

Well, I found the catch, people.

I went to the gym tonight for the first time since the 28th — we’ve been out of town and busy doing other things, so I hadn’t been in until today.  I thought it was odd how many of the 30-minute parking slots were open, but I thought maybe the complex was getting more strict on parking times or something.  And then I got to the door and it was locked.  And the swipe thing for my card didn’t work.  And the whole building was really quiet.

And I thought, “Well, that’s weird.  What don’t I know?”  And I went home.  “All dressed up and nowhere to go!” I told Justin when I got home.  We were both baffled because we couldn’t think of a reason why the gym would be closed.  And why their website was missing when I looked it up online.  I finally found this written on their Facebook page from June 30:

Friday at 6pm is the official time that we’re closing for good. Thank you to all of our members that have supported us over the years. Good luck to everyone in achieving your fitness goals!

Well, I guess I won’t need to pay my membership for July!  What the heck?!  Seriously, there was no indication at all that they were closing down — they were still doing sign-ups for programs and promoting different classes and NOT ONE PERSON was saying anything about being closed.  Even when I was at the building tonight, there wasn’t a sign that the place was closed down for good.  If I hadn’t found it on their Facebook page, I would have gone back on Wednesday and wondered AGAIN what was going on!

So I’m bummed out and I’m frustrated.  Frustrated because they really did a crappy job with the PR on this one.  I mean, not even a sign on the front door?  “Sorry, we can’t pay rent.  Good luck finding another gym.”  It would have been nice guys.

But I’m bummed because now I’ve got nowhere to do Zumba.  And I’ll have to figure out if there’s somewhere to do yoga that’s not too expensive.  And I don’t have a reliable scale or a body-fat percentage thing so now it’s not going to be nearly as much fun to lose weight.  And gosh darn it, I enjoyed going to the gym!

This catch sucks.