hi, me and my boyfriend bought gym pass a month ago and now they are making us to pay each 122€. We can’t get any information about reason of this payment and about this 70€ bonus for online registration. What can we do about it? Is it a scam or our misunderstanding? What happens if we don’t pay that?

by Slight_Chemical5679

6 comments

  1. A not so untypical gym that hides a lot of fees in its terms & conditions.

    Vorabnutzungsgebühr: 27,90€ (WTF is this?)

    Care package (half yearly): 29,90€

    Registration fee: 29,90€

    Transponder fee: 10,00€

    It is debatable if some of these fees are “surprising”, than they would be not valid (§305c BGB). But only a lawyer could give a reliable hint and that will probably cost more.

    Link: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/__305c.html

  2. Seems you missed the fine print

    its all there in the ad: every month you pay 27,90€ plus a fee of 27,90€ (I think once) plus 29,90 every 6 months first payable at the first month, plus a reduced connection fee of once 29,90€ (instead of 99,90€ here is the advertised 70€ bonus) plus a10€ fee for the transponder that’s pretty much 122€ that you are asked to pay

    so not a scam just scummy tactics

    you could of course quit but that won’t recover those costs, from now on you should pay 27,90€ per month

  3. No, that adds up. According to the second screen shot, the fees you have to pay in the first payment are:

    vorabnutzungsgebühr 27.90
    first month 27.90
    betreuungspaket (twice yearly) 29.90
    registration fee 29.90
    transponder fee 10.00

    That adds up to 125.60€. It does include the 70€ rebate, the undiscounted registration fee is 99.90€. Second month should be only 27.90. If you don’t pay, they’ll send it to a collections agency, and if you don’t pay that they will move to garnish your wages or otherwise get the money.

    It’s not illegal and you did agree to that, but it’s not a sign of a good gym. In a good gym all those various fees (apart from the monthly payment) would be part of the registration fee. But it does explain why they are comfortable to allow you to leave monthly instead of the more typical yearly contract: you already get fleeced in the first payment.

  4. Yeah, 95% of the gyms in Germany work on a scummy basis. Either with hidden fee’s like this one, or they advertise a low monthly payment, but only for the first couple of month, but with a yearly subscription. With that yearly subscription it gets worse, if they close their gym within that city and think it’s acceptable that you could drive to the next city 50km away.

    So yes, their maths for the fineprint checks out. I think it’s legally just on the edge, as you had to confirm the fees on the second page, unlike some more scummy websites, where they write the fees just into the AGB’s. So even with a lawyer the chances are relatively slim.

  5. To add, if you did it online: Within 14 days, you can cancel, and you’ll get back you money.

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