A Kentucky woman tried to cancel her $60 Anytime Fitness membership after scheduling surgery and dealing with financial struggles. She couldn’t believe what the customer service rep told her on the phone.
In a video with over 212,000 views, TikToker Lilly Colton (@lilly_colton) stands in her kitchen, sharing that she and her family bought a house in Kentucky about six months prior. Soon after, she says she signed up for Anytime Fitness, a popular gym chain.
“Unfortunately, a bunch of things have happened that have caused me to be in a very bad situation to the point where we are selling stuff on Facebook marketplace, rapidly looking for second jobs, and probably going to be selling this house,” she shares.
To cut costs, she says she decided to cancel her Anytime Fitness membership. However, it wasn’t that easy.
What Did Anytime Fitness Tell Her?
“Obviously, I’m not going to the gym anymore. So I called Anytime Fitness, and I said, ‘I need to cancel my membership,'” she recalls. She says the first person she called transferred her to another customer service representative, who put her on hold for 20 minutes.
When she finally talked to the rep, she claims they told her she can’t simply cancel the membership for financial reasons. Instead, she says she was told she either has to move states or have a medical reason.
Colton says she told them that she has a surgery scheduled for endometriosis the following week. She says they didn’t accept the surgery as a valid reason to cancel.
The rep, per Colton, told her she needed a signed doctor’s note on letterhead and must be “permanently disabled.”
“I said, ‘Well, OK, what happens if I cancel my credit card?'” Colton recounts. “‘Well, we’ll send it to collections.’ Send it to collections. Send it.”
What Is Anytime Fitness’s Cancellation Policy?
While Anytime Fitness is a chain, each location is independently owned. So each Anytime Fitness may have slightly different cancellation policies.
According to the Anytime Fitness website, these cancellation policies may include an early-cancellation fee or a cancellation-notice requirement. Some locations may offer the option to suspend a membership temporarily at a lower cost than an active monthly membership.
Redditors who had memberships at various Anytime Fitness locations shared the hoops they had to jump through in order to cancel theirs.
“Anytime Fitness thinks they can charge me like $2800 to cancel my membership. They can go to h—. I’d rather set that money on fire than give it to those vampires,” one wrote.
Another shared, “Just called to cancel my Anytime Fitness membership. They told me it’d be about a $600 fee to cancel, which is basically the year contract. Thinking about just changing my card and ignoring them.” They shared an update 123 days later, “No more calls or emails. Nothing on credit or not attempted charges.”
What Do Viewers Think Of The TikToker’s Experience?
In the comments of Colton’s video, viewers bashed Anytime Fitness for not accepting her medical reasoning for canceling.
“I signed up for Anytime Fitness and it’s like canceling with the devil,” one joked.
“Why on earth is a gym asking for medical things anyway. That doesn’t seem right or legal,” a second remarked.
Others shared ways she could get around the strict policy.
“Tell them you are moving and give an address that’s over 50miles from any of there locations, they will cancel your membership,” a commenter said.
Another suggested, “HIPAA says any medical records are confidential. if they try asking you can sue for that. They can’t even ask what ur medical problems are, or it’s illegal.”
“That’s insane. My roommate has an issue like this with a similar gym. They sent it to collections and he explained that he tried to cancel and they wouldn’t let him and they removed it from his credit,” a third added.
@lilly_colton what a joke. send it to collections i don’t care anymore #gym #subscription #blackmirror #news #scam
BroBible reached out to Colton via TikTok direct message and to Anytime Fitness via email for further comment.