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Coronavirus News: Pandemic closed this NY athletic club, but members still charged

Friday, April 3, 2020

Pandemic closed the athletic club, but members still charged

Nina Pineda with outraged gym members who were charged despite facilities closing

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- New York Sports Club facilities, like all gyms, have been ordered to shut down since March 16.

But, what really has their members in a sweat? The fitness giant continues to charge members for monthly dues while the doors are shut, and many members are out of work.

Raquel Perazzo was incensed when she got hit with a full $70 charge for her New York Sports Club dues for April. This after all gyms closed in mid-March to comply with COVID-19 guidelines.

"We don't have access to any of the clubs or online classes," Perazzo said. "I don't think they should be charging anyone at all."

New York Sports Club's Facebook page is chock-full of angry clients.

One person posted, "this is disgusting." Another person wrote that the practice of continuous charges are disgraceful.

The gym kept posting the same reply, apologizing for the delay and asking members to please email them.

When they didn't hear back from NYSC, one member called her bank to block the charge. She proclaimed, "They can't charge me."

Days before NYSC closed, Daniel DeMarco and his mom froze their NYSC memberships.

Yet, this week, both got socked $16 apiece, the monthly charge to freeze their memberships.

For comparison, both Equinox and Lifetime froze memberships at no cost and even issued credits for unused classes.

"It's disturbing they would take advantage of people during this time," Perazzo said.

The big takeaway: Put your cancellation request in writing in an email, dispute the credit card charges and also cancel future automatic payments with your bank.

New York Sports Club apologized for the delays getting back to members, vowing it would deal with refunds and credits once their gym is back up and running.