Man in China pays S$160,000 for 300-year gym membership, staff uncontactable

A man in Hangzhou, China has sued Ranyan Gym after allegedly being scammed of RMB870,000 (around S$160,000) of memberships when the management fled with his cash.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the man known as Jin, had even enlisted the help of a television station to expose the gym located in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Memberships lasting for generations

Jin who has worked out at this gym for three years, supposedly signed 26 contracts with the gym for buying memberships and coaching sessions.

“From May 10 to Jul. 9, I bought about 1,200 lessons and membership cards," said Jin.

If all the contracts he signed were valid, it would have an accumulative validity period of 300 years.

Too good to be true

A sales executive told Jin on May 9 about a promotion for existing customers.

An ad for the gym read that after customers bought a one-year membership card for RMB8,888 (around S$1,600), the gym could sell it to new customers for RMB16,666 (around S$3,000).

The sales executive added that 10 per cent of the mark-up would be kept by the gym while the rest would go to the customer. 

Though Jin was sceptical, the sales worker allegedly guaranteed it would work out in his favour.

"He said if they did not sell it within two months, they would return all the money to me," claimed Jin.

He was lured by the high returns and bought two such membership cards for more than RMB17,000 (around S$3,031).

In the following weeks, sales staff allegedly persuaded Jin to buy more membership cards and private tutoring lessons.

Jin once spent more than RMB300,000 (more than S$50,000) in a single sitting.

Realising the scam

However, on Jul. 15, Jin supposedly did not receive any money though the gym was supposed to return some of the principal to him.

A sales executive told him that that the finance department of the gym was still reviewing the transaction, Jin claimed.

At the end of the month, Jin found out that the gym’s management and all its sales staff had "disappeared".

Zhejiang TV found that the gym located in the Binjiang District of Hangzhou is still open to customers, although only receptionists and administration staff are at work.

Jin later discovered that all the contracts he had signed with the gym did not mention the returns promised by the sales executive and the membership could not be transferred to others.

He told the media: "I admit that I have been brainwashed by them, because I believed I was only one small step away from getting back all my money."

He added that he loved working out and saw the memberships and lessons as a "health investment" and did not actually count on using them for 300 years.

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