Day 5: 365 Project

Goodbye Gym

Have you ever seen that episode of Friends where Chandler wants to cancel his gym membership because he never goes? You know, because what's the point of having $50 taken out of your bank account every month for no reason, right? Chandler can't do it alone because they always get him with this beautiful woman named Maria, and the worker at the front desk asking him if he's completely satisfied with his body. Ross ends up going with him for support and to get Chandler to stay strong. The most commonly used phrase in that episode was, "I wanna quit the gym!" It's a great episode, but I've never really understood how so very true that episode is until now.

Sam and I have been wanting to get a gym membership somewhere, probably not at the moment, but when I get a job and we can make a monthly commitment. We just want to get some prices. There's this new gym that recently opened in Clovis, not to far from our apartment, so we decided to check it out because they seemed like they had decent prices. It looked like a great deal from the outside looking in with their cheap prices, new equipment and atmosphere. Then we stepped inside and that's when all hell broke loose. 

From the first sentence with the guy at the front desk, I knew we had a Friends-gym-esque situation on our hands. He showed us around the gym, everything was alright. We sat down with him, and then a guy came up to us, all muscle, all manipulating. He said to the other guy that something or other was going on at the front desk. Obvious lie, at least it was to me. He starts talking to us and asking us about lives, health and weight goals, etc.

He finds out our majors and asks us if we're eggheads? What are we? In the '90s? Pretty sure I just heard that on an episode of Boy Meets World. He's like "oh, I'm a jock, I don't even know how to read." Something he seemed proud of for some reason. He EVENTUALLY tells us his (turns out he's the owner) prices. They were actually pretty cheap, but we just don't have the money to make a commitment. We said it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. He continued to badger us. I was getting aggravated, but I'm not one to get angry at someone and express my opinion. He could not just understand how a couple with one income who recently got married don't have any money. Shocker, right? He was like, "You're going home to think about it? You've thought about it, you've got to do something about it." And Sam responds with, "Well, we don't have the money right now." And he says, "Well, did you think it was going to free?" 

And this was my breaking point. I say to him as nicely as I can that we have said numerous times that we don't have the money right now, maybe when we do we'll come back. I'm know there was anger in my tone, because well, I was angry. And he tells me that he's just trying to help, so there's no reason to be rude. He called me rude?! I'm not the one who isn't listening to their customers! I knew that if I hadn't said anything, he wouldn't have stopped. I was just sick and tired of this. He kept saying that he cared about us and wanted to help us. He gave us a cheaper rate, but he wasn't getting that we didn't have any money to give him. None. Not one cent. 

Of course, after I say something, and he accuses me of being rude, he stops trying to get us to sign up then and there. He gives us some free passes, which you probably noticed at the top of the page. So if I were you, stay away from this place. If I'm going to a gym, I want to feel comfortable there, not be patronized.

As we're walking out, he tells Sam to take me to get some ice cream because that'll make me feel better. As if I was shaking with anger enough, he just had to add to it. 

And we won't be going back to Fitness 19 again.

Sorry for the long post, wanted to give an explanation to my picture. And vent.