They’re easy to join, but can be hard to get out of. We’re talking about gym memberships.

They’re often written in ways to discourage cancellations. From written requests, to 30-day notices.

One FOX SA viewer is finding out the hard way that cancelling his gym membership turned into a long and costly process.

Darrell Mayes is working hard, getting in his reps, and doing his best to keep his 70-year old body fit as he settles into retirement.

“So a lot of people 70s and above, even sometimes younger. Once you retire, you just kind of fall into this little, little slump,” Mayes said. “I don’t want to be that guy.”

Of all the gyms out there, he decided to go with Trufit.

Darrell signed a contract and got started right away.

But it didn’t take long for him to realize he needed help.

Investigative reporter Darian Trotter asked, “Did you try to work out by yourself? I did, but I’m not disciplined enough,” Mayes replied.

That’s when he thought it best to hire a trainer, and commit to regular appointments.

Afterall, he admits, he’s had gym memberships in the past, but would cook up a long list of reasons not to go.

“I said, it’s too hot, that’s too long, but I’ll find any excuse,” Mayes said. “But when I’m committed to pay, I hated to see throwing money out a window so I would go for those appointments.”

His workouts included solo sessions several times a week, and once every other week with his trainer.

“He was good. He was a good young man,” Mayes said. “He worked me, he listened to me. He knew what my goals was, and he put me on task, you know.

Trotter asked, “Kept you motivated? Yes, he did. No problem with him,” Mayes said. “No problems.”

As good as his trainer was, Darrell says he never planned to keep him long-term.

Just long enough to get him started.

“I started the program back in July 2024.”

Last summer…

Here’s where he says things went south.

According to the contract Darrell was to pay $140 dollars every other week, for an hour session with his trainer.

He set up auto pay and forgot about it.

To his surprise the payments continued long after he stopped working with the trainer.

“I said, well this is Darrell mays,” Mayes recounted. “I just want to know when is my contract over. And he said, oh your contract has been over. I said, oh okay. I said, but y’all are still charging me. I said, yeah, well, if you don’t stop it, it continues to go until you stop it . I said oh, was that pointed out to you in the beginning? If it was I don’t remember it, and i want to say no because I would have. I would have been proactive on it.”

Darrell says he had to submit a request to cancel in writing back in February, but that did not solve his problem.

Mayes said, “They told me I can’t cancel my membership because I have a contract with a trainer.

Trotter said, “But you don’t have a contract with a trainer. Yes, Sir, ” Mayes replied. “I know but that was what I was told.”

Not only does he say he was still being charged. Get this, bank records show he was charged $140 every week instead of every other week.

That went on for unnoticed for seven months.

When Darrell finally figured it out, he says he went straight to gym management and says he was told…

“They have to figure it out. I said, well what’s to figure? I said, y’all was charging me every two weeks,” Mayes said. “Now you’re charging me a week. So just you know, that’s like easy math.”

He says he cancelled autopay, made several calls to the gym, and made in person visits.

He even tried calling the corporate office to get a refund, but he says he just kept getting the run around.

“If you come to me and you’re supposed to pay me $50 and I actually charge you $100 and the next day you come, I just give you your $50 back,” Mayes said. “I don’t understand what the problem is.”

So he called the Problem Solver to help work things out…

Trotter asked, “You want what? Just to refund me whatever they overcharged me,” Mayes replied.

We reached out to the gym directly. We also called Trufit’s corporate office to ask about Darryl’s refund.

No one ever got back to us, but they did get back to Darrell.

Just days after we got involved, he told us he was finally refunded $2,240.00