Letters | Gym chain closure not fitting in city like Hong Kong

Readers discuss the shutting down of a fitness chain, and a foundation’s donation of a cutting-edge healthcare device

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Ads for Hong Kong gym chain Physical, which announced it was shutting down after 38 years of business, at a building in Wan Chai on September 10. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 2:30pm, 27 Sep 2024Updated: 3:47pm, 27 Sep 2024

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A decade ago, I thought about joining a gym to keep in better shape. But I didn’t, not because I was afraid of the gym folding like the Physical chain recently did but because of the large prepayment required and the loss I would incur if I quit halfway.

By mid-September, the Consumer Council had received over 4,000 complaints involving HK$141 million (US$18.1 million) related to Physical’s closure. The council said three cases involved over HK$1 million, the highest amount being nearly HK$2 million. Around 670 former Physical employees have sought the Labour Department’s help to recover unpaid wages and with other employment rights issues.

In recent years, at least three fitness companies have closed down. Many fitness centres try to convince people to sign up by inviting them to a trial session. However, after this session, company representatives tend to be very pushy, even coercive, in trying to get one to sign a long- term contract with them.

Though the government has expanded the Trade Descriptions Ordinance to include wider areas of trade, forbidding institutions from employing threatening or misleading means to get customers to sign contracts, there have still been many cases of customers prepaying for services and ending up losing money.

And so once again the idea of a “cooling-off period” for prepaid contracts has come up for debate.

As far back as the 1990s, a cooling-off period applied to the insurance industry. Today, if a person eventually decides not to purchase a long-term insurance policy and withdraws during the cooling-off period, they can get a refund. This seems to have worked well in the insurance sector. Why not apply it to the fitness industry?