Yay! Worst in the class!
Since the end of the month is drawing near, last week I decided that it was time to put my gymstalking plan into action. A year and a half ago, a friend gave me a one-week membership pass to the gym I've zeroed in on, so I went into the branch closest to my home and activated it. A vacant-eyed redhead took the pass and a photocopy of my driver's license and asked me to fill out an information card. (I found out later that she promptly lost all of the paperwork.) She then sent me off to work out right away, which was somewhat surprising: I was expecting a tour and a sales pitch first, but I certainly wasn't going to quarrel about not getting bullied about signing up right away.
I trotted off to the locker room to stow my bag, and the first thing I noticed was how clean the place was. It was a massive, monumental change from the gym I used to go to. I also saw a great many amenities I've never seen at a gym before, including a towel warmer, a mouthwash dispenser, and courtesy razors, shaving cream, hair mousse, hairspray, and deodorant. Outside the locker room, there were two exercise studios, a cycling studio, two rooms of free weights, and a vast array of cardio machines - all functioning and all in good condition.
I had a great hour of exercise and then headed back to the front desk to pick up my week-long membership card. Nothing doing, as it turned out: after I reminded the vacant-eyed redhead that she had taken my information an hour before, she told me that the card wasn't ready yet and I could pick it up on Friday or Saturday. There was a rather large snafu involving the lost paperwork, and I ended up speaking to a membership coordinator on Saturday morning to explain why I was at the front desk without a membership card. She saw that she obviously had a live one and invited me into her office to discuss.
I wasn't ready to enter into negotiation, so I realized I was going to need to take control of the interaction quickly. I told the membership coordinator that I'm previewing several gyms over the course of the week and that if I like what I see at this one, I'll make an appointment with her on Thursday. I added that I do not want to have any kind of a discussion about membership before then, and she backed off quickly. I did get her to confirm the pricing, however, and she also volunteered that there is a promotion for 50% off of the extortionate initiation fee on at the moment, which brings it to around $245.
(I'm aiming for zero, but there was no reason to tell her that just yet. I don't think there will be much benefit in trying to talk down the monthly membership rate. I've read some extensive reviews online and apparently the monthly rate is completely inflexible.)
I continued trying out the gym by taking a yoga class this weekend. I've been a runner for about 27 years, and I rarely stretch. I was easily the worst in the class and probably a source of great amusement for everyone else, but after all the unnatural twisting and stretching was done, I actually felt slightly more limber and that was encouraging. All in all, I like this place.
I'm planning to be ready with a list of questions for the conversation about membership on Thursday, and this is where negotiating down the initiation fee comes into play. Here's what I have so far:
--Please talk me through each of the different membership plans and pricing.
--What is the normal annual membership fee increase and when does it take effect?
--What happens if I join a single club and then later on want to upgrade to all clubs? Can I do that, and if so, at what cost?
--What happens if I join all clubs and later on want to ratchet down to membership at a single club? Can I do that, and if so, at what cost?
--What is your guest policy?
--Are there any additional fees for certain classes? If so, which classes and how much do they cost?
--Do you give any discounts on other chargeable amenities, like spa services, for members?
--Do you have any preferential pricing for [my employer]?
--Can I suspend my membership temporarily for any reason?
--You mentioned that the initiation fee is currently half price. I'm actually looking to waive the initiation fee altogether. What are the available options that would make that possible?
--If I sign up for a two year membership instead of a one year membership, can you waive the initiation fee?
--My friend received a $60 initiation fee offer in June. (I have a copy of it and will bring it when I meet with the membership coordinatory.) If you can't waive the fee, can you match this offer?
--I'm looking at [X] club a couple of blocks away as well. Their initiation fee is [Y] and their monthly rate is [Z]. Can you match their initiation fee?
That's a lot, but I don't plan to be nasty or confrontational about any of it; this is one of those situations where being pleasant but firm will get me much closer towards what I want than being argumentative.
What am I missing?
Feel free to chime in with any own good or bad negotiation experiences of your own, too.
4 retorts. What say you?
I think you have most of those covered. I know I should know better, but I'm astounded that 50% still results in $245! I think your two approaches are good ones.
The only thing I can think of is that you should be very careful to get all details about the guest policy.
This sounds like a tonier gym than the ones I've been in, but in my experience:
1. Guests have to listen to the sales pitch pretty much right away
2. They have to live within a specific area. (24 hour fitness pulled this, and they have gyms all over the country, fer cryin' out loud!)
3. The guests cannot be previous members of that gym chain.
Also, it doesn't sound like you need a trainer, but in my experience personal trainers are glorified salesmen. Most have APEX training and not much else. So if the woman tries to sell you on what great trainers they have, see if any actually have, ya know, degrees. Sports medicine, for example. Or if any have worked with physical therapists.
If the answer is yes, you're getting a prudent gym that hires carefully. If the answer is no, you at least have some leverage over her. Sales people get very flustered when they can't back up their sweeping claims.
Hopefully you're not missing that she follows your blog. Good luck. You're always going to end up being the winner if you faithfully use all you're entitled to and your body will love you for the discipline.
One other thing they may offer you - freebies! At my totally overpriced but awesome gym they frequently give gym and spa services away as part of signing up for membership. So they may say I can't really lower such and such, but I can offer three free personal training sessions, etc.
The best one I heard at our gym was some one who got two sessions with the gym's nutritionist (told you it was way fancy), a $50 credit at the spa and three free pilates classes. She figured dollar for dollar that was about equal to the "non-reduced" membership fee.
I guess the bigger point being that these freebies are part of the incentives that the sales team can offer and if they are firm on price, you can at least get some out of them.
(not that you shouldn't for price first!)
Thanks, everyone - this is really helpful. Abby, you're quite right about delving into the guest policy; I'll be seriously annoyed if it turns out that I can't bring who I want to bring without subjecting them to a sales pitch. Anon - you are quite right about negotiating for free stuff if the initiation fee turns out to be inflexible.
Gord, with my luck, the manager's reading this blog entry right this very minute! Thanks for your support.
Post a Comment