Hi,

I terminated my gym contract (I brought the letter in person, which was then accepted and signed by a manager), but now the gym is claiming that I didn't cancel and that I owe 500 Fr. What should I do?


Thanks

Sent them a copy of the counter signed letter and tell them they shall take you to court if they believe they have a case. After that it is just waiting a filing the letters they sent you. But you must react if they go the way of the Betreibung/poursuite/esecuzione.

Are you sure you gave notice early enough?

When did you give notice, what does the contract say about the notice period, and what did you write in the notice? Something like "ich kündige auf den nächsten vertraglichen Termin" ("annullo alla prossima data contrattuale" or similar) is usually helpful.

Been in a similar situation in April - the gym didn’t receive my cancellation email and charged me for annual renewal. Your ways out of that would be:

1) Call their support and explain the situation hoping there will be a compromise. If you both believe you are right, you can take a stand and start legal proceedings. Which will cost you a fortune here, so think twice.

2) Better way - most gyms allow you to transfer your existing subscription for nearly no fee. You have to find someone who will take it over and then give the name of that person to gym administration. Check your contract if there is such possibility. This is the way I chose - posted ads here and fb, and found someone in 2 days.

In the worst case you will end up with a Betreibung which will make your life here close to unbereable (again, from my own experience), so avoid is as much as you can, the gym won’t just forget about the bill after a while

Personally I have never understood why people always let themselves be bound and gagged into a Gym´s Knebelvertrag.

I did it once. And I was so repelled of the stink in the gym and the weird pushy people in the dance classes: I let my subscription fade out.

Working out in the outdoors and walking a lot just does it for me.

I did it once. And I was so repelled of the stink in the gym and the weird pushy people in the dance classes: I let my subscription fade out.

Working out in the outdoors and walking a lot just does it for me. And yes, chasing the children in my Kindergarten is lot's more fun. For me and for them. I can also do weights: Sometimes I have to get them out of the class to DaZ. Since I once took one of them out over my shoulder, kicking and screaming and laughing, they try to do everything to get that treatment, too. Free workout for me!

Nearly every gym contract I've come across insists in the terms and conditions that memberships must be cancelled by registered letter. As automated renewal of the contract can cost hundreds or thousands of francs, it's worth spending a little bit extra on the registered letter to make sure there is no wiggle-room for the club to back out (as is the case with a hand-delivered or emailed cancellation).

Migros fitness club automatically cancel if you don't renew.

Did you save a signed copy yourself, or did they take in the form after signed it, meaning you lack every possible proof of cancellation?

Looks like yet another case of "OP got lost".

Reactivating this thread. I'm still not in problems but I want to avoid them.

The gym is next to my job office. We were changed to 100% home-office so I'm not going back to the office and the gym. The contract says:

Signed on 20.04.2020. So, I'm within the notice period and I can write a termination letter and send it as registered letter.

But, people with more German knowledge, what should I put in the letter to ask for a signed answer from their part? Or is it enough if I keep a copy of the termination letter I will send? Any tips?

Just write (in a registered letter):


bitte bestätigen Sie die fristgemässe Kündigung zum ddmmyy


to confirm that they received and acknowledged the cancellation.

You could also try here: https://www.vertragshilfe.ch/kuendig...abo-kuendigen/

Or similar with this search string: "schweiz musterbrief gym kündigung"

Thanks a lot! Albeit I'll do a Crtl+C, no reason to put personal data randomly on the internet haha

You're still weeks away from the cancel deadline. Since the clause doesn't say that your notice must be sent by registered mail you could save that cost and use ordinary mail instead, requesting confirmation within a few days ("in den nächsten Tagen"). You can always send it again using registered mail if that doesn't work.

I have a similar problem. Just before the lockdown in March 2020 my wife renewed her gym membership (paid a year up front) and basically didn’t get to use it for most of the year due to the pandemic. Before this time the gym was very proactive sending regular emails, calling her if she hadn’t been to the gym etc. but this all stopped around March last year.

Around October 2020 we temporarily relocated out of Switzerland and actually due to the mandatory working from home rule, still haven’t returned.

I arranged for Swiss Post to forward our post but this seems intermittent. Anyway, My wife received a bill for renewal from the gym last week to which we replied that we haven’t been in the country for 8 months, hence didn’t get a renewal notice, didn’t even use the gym for most of last year & don’t know when we will be back in Switzerland.

Despite this they are still pushing for full payment and I am wondering what our options are. Any advice gratefully received.

You didn't keep track of or cancel your gym membership and it auto-renewed according to their terms and conditions. That is objectively your fault.

Your options are to pay it, or get involved in a lot of extended discussions and try and organise a discount (maybe try to say you will pay half the renewal price to terminate the contract) and then pay it.

Gyms have suffered badly under the pandemic, with many barely staying alive, and the result is that they are going to be very mercenary and brutal about collecting payments that they are legally owed.

If you join a gym, there are two good options:

Cross out the auto-renew clause on the contract you sign, keep a copy.
OR
Give them a cancellation on sign-up and have them acknowledge/sign a copy.

I guess the renewal notice is only courtesy. Somewhere in the contract says "membership is automatically renewed if the contract is not cancelled 30 days before expiration". Sometimes, 60 or even 90 days.

Not much to do. It's like renting an apartment and avoiding paying rent 1 month because I went on vacation. It's not going to work.

If something can be done, it's on the contract. What are terms?