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It was kind of douchey for them not to refund the money, but how were they supposed to know he was dead? Yes, the should be a f-ing human and do so, but I don't see how they were required to.
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Well, when the dead guy's mom comes in with the death certificate, you'd think that would pretty much seal it. No one's upset that the auto-debit kept auto-debiting, it was about their reaction when it was finally brought to their attention. And yes, extremely douchey.
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Auto-debit is for convenience, and it should be implicit that just because they took the money doesn't mean they deserve it. If you don't deserve it, give it back. Thanks, Planet Fitness.
How long should Planet Fitness do this. If he was dead 10 years? Whoever was in charge of the estate should pay this. It would take all of 10 seconds to look for auto deductions on a dead mans account.
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When Planet Fitness took over World Gym, the group fitness employees were given... oh, five minutes notice that they were no longer employees. Although not all instructors need the money from teaching, some definitely rely on it. Not cool, Planet Fitness. Not cool.
I couldn't find an article on it (and I'm lazy and didn't look really hard), but I read multiple personal accounts of this happening at a site discussing group fitness.
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Just a note here: All Planet Fitness locations are individually owned and operated. I joined the new one north of Detroit in Madison Heights before they even opened and I've loved it. Tons of machines, love the anti-lunk attitude, great staff. I was actually thinking about sending in a tip about how I finally found a gym that was honest in pricing AND in the fact they have no contracts.
This shows nothing is perfect, but indivudally, PF is the best I've found after joining 4 in my lifetime previously.
If that picture is really you then color me impressed that you're actually visiting the gym. I'd be a third your age and don't exercise as much.
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What was the checking account doing in the meantime? I mean, they didn't take the money out of it?
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Reports said it was a \"second checking account.\" It may be his executor(s) was/were not aware it existed.
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When my father-in-law died in a motorcycle accident, we had a heckuva time tracking down his various checking accounts, credit cards, insurance policies and the like. We even had to get credit reports to see if there were any open accounts that we didn't know about. So I'm not surprised that an account may have been missed. Particularly if the only activity on that account was the gym membership.
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It sounds like they didn't even realize it existed for a while.
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This is how I got Bell Canada to do something about the ton of money they charged me. I emailed them and Consumerist and whatever media outlets I could think of. They called me back in no time.
I can't believe Planet Fitness even tried to fight this as they were completely in the wrong legally. The second that man died all of his accounts became estate accounts. It didn't matter that there were automatic debits on it. There is a process for a creditor (Planet Fitness) to get money from an estate and having an existing auto-debit on it isn't the process. Further, depending on the man's estate, Planet Fitness might not have been legally entitled to any of the money as there is a priority order for paying out of the estate. Funeral expenses are first. Then hospital. Secured debt. And so on. Credit cards and gyms are near the bottom, I'm sure. If this had gone to court, Planet Fitness would have been required to pay back the estate every cent it had auto-debited after his death. It wouldn't have mattered that they didn't know that he died. The money in the estate wasn't theirs.
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I was thinking similarly. When I worked at the bank, when informed a client had died we were legally obligated to freeze the account and, once out of probate debits against it had to be countersigned by the executor.
Any chance this was a joint account
All the more reason to work out at home.
Or, in typical Consumerist phrasing, \"I make my own workouts at home.\" :)
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Mine are free-range workouts.
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I would really like to know what happened to the \"manager\" who was (hard to tell) either telling the woman her son's shooting death was her fault, or not notifying them (after she had notified them) was her fault.
How do people like this get to be managers? There really needs to be a personal campaign against him getting rehired in a similar capacity anywhere else on places like LinkedIn, FaceBook, etc. The Advocate is remiss for not publishing the jackhole's name and subjecting him to the public scrutiny he so richly deserves (and I have let the reporter know this).
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Wait, if he's dead, why was his bank account still open and allowing debits?
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Always escalate and remain calm and professional. Works for me every time.
That said, the propery of those who are deceased goes into probate and how the heck \"Gregory Rowell has been dead for nearly two years, but no one knew that he'd set up an auto debit with Planet Fitness on a second checking account.\" escapes me.
His bank accounts were not checked into? No one found statements showing a second checking account in his home? Nothing? Was the account ONLY used for this one charge? That seems odd.
Sounds like really bad estate management is the original cause of this.
It seems logical enough that that would be the only auto-debit set up on that account. And, as others have said, sometimes it's harder than one would think to find all of the checking accounts a deceased person may have.
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Two years, call that 20 months...that's 20 bucks a month or so. Normal for a gym?
Anyway, it sounds like this problem didn't need escalation, and in fact escalation was the problem to begin with. I can't really count \"outside media\" as escalating my problem in the system.
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not the most insightful post, I agree... but damn. Why do so many corporations have to be forced by public humiliation to do the decent thing? It boggles the mind.
Every PR officer in every company that follows this sort of policy should be summarily sacked.
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This sounds just like those bastards at GloboGym!
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.. ... Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, Dodge!
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$401 doesn't seem like a lot of money to a gym. But might make a difference to this woman. :(
I do not understand people.
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A bank account is supposed to be frozen at the death of the account holder. It's one reason why any married couple (or couple living together and pooling funds) should have at least one joint account because when one dies, it's hell trying to pay bills from a frozen account until the probate opens. In this case, it would seem that Planet Fitness' right to take funds from the account ceased at the date of the account holder's death. But just a question. Didn't anyone look at the bank statements for 20 months? I mean Planet Fitness were a bunch of idiots but I'm sure statements were being sent somewhere.
That said, it's sad that a business will do the right thing only when the press or a site like The Consumerist gets involved. That simply stinks.
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This is why you don't do auto debit from your bank account..
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Auto debit is normally always a loser for the customer. Hearing a story makes me glad that I have my Gym Rig at home.
\"The manager said it was Rowell's fault for not alerting them, and offered her a six-month free membership, Rowell said.\" Thats just plain evil.
*sigh* I used to be a member of Planet Fitness (moved on to a gym that gave more services, like a pool & classes), and I'm really surprised by this. I loved it when I was there. I'm guessing this is a case of a franchise who didn't want to be out the $$$.
As it turns out, it was not the Franchisee. They were co-operative. It was the district manager who went crazy..