How to Cancel Your Planet Fitness Membership in 3 Steps

As your personal fitness friend, I want to help you through canceling your Planet Fitness membership – which can often feel downright impossible with their tricky policies!

In this detailed guide, we‘ll first walk through why cancellation is so difficult before outlining your two options: canceling in-person or via snail mail. I‘ll provide plenty of insider tips, sample scripts, nightmare stories, and data-backed research to help you get it done smoothly or negotiate a temporary membership freeze instead.

Trust me, with the right approach this can be far less intimidating that it first seems! Let‘s start by understanding the method behind the madness when it comes to PF‘s cancellation tactics…

Why Planet Fitness Makes Cancelling a Nightmare

The core of Planet Fitness‘ entire business model is retaining as many members as possible through ultra-low $10 per month rates. But how can they afford to charge so little? Volume.

The math only works if the substantial majority of members continue forking over those small monthly fees indefinitely…even if they rarely or never set foot inside an actual Planet Fitness location again after signing up.

Let‘s look at some numbers:

As you can see above, PF has more than doubled their memberships over the past 5 years while nearly tripling revenue by keeping a firm hold on all those $10/month payments.

But this model only thrives if people don‘t cancel despite lack of activity. Enter the draconian cancellation policies intentionally designed to stop quitters in their tracks:

• No online or phone cancellations allowed whatsoever
• Mandatory in-person cancellations only at your home club location
• Cancellation requests routed through retention team for desperate save offers
• Temporary membership holds rarely approved over 1-3 months

Now that we know why Planet Fitness fights so ruthlessly against cancellation attempts, let‘s explore how to cancel successfully anyway…

Cancelling In-Person at Your Home Club (Recommended)

Canceling at your home club in-person is the most surefire method, albeit still messy. Let me walk you through what to expect:

Step 1: Arrive and Request Cancellation

First, enter your home club and march straight to the front desk. Then plainly state, "I want to cancel my membership immediately, please provide me with the cancellation paperwork."

At this point, nearly 100% of front desk associates are trained to pose objections to try keeping you signed up.

Here‘s asample script they often use:

"Are you sure about that? Why are you looking to cancel – maybe I can find a solution instead if you tell me what issues you‘ve been having or offer you a special rate?"

Stay strong in insisting, "No thank you, I simply wish to cancel my membership at this time. Please direct me to whoever can provide the cancellation form."

Eventually they realize you won‘t bend and will supply the form.

Step 2: Expect Last Ditch Save Attempts

Next comes the final desperation save. At over 50% of locations, they route you straight to the sales team rather than having front desk process cancellations.

These specialists use every psychological tactic imaginable to rescue quitting members:

• Flattering you to stay
• Empathy about life getting too busy
• Up to 60% off discounted offers
• Reminders of goals you set originally
• Asking what else they could provide

I‘ve seen tough salespeople keep people trapped there negotiating for over an hour until they reluctantly agreed to stay.

You must stand firm until the paperwork is in your hands!

Step 3: Fill Out Form and Turn In

Now comes the home stretch. Carefully complete the cancellation form with your information then return to front desk staff. Stay strong even if they warn the sales team will keep attempting retention calls until your next billing cycle processes the termination.

On average, cancellation forms take around 15 business days to fully process depending on the member‘s next billing date. So if you submit on September 24th and your next bill date is October 15th, it will cancel then.

Once you receive final confirmation your membership is terminated, celebrate and treat yourself for breaking free! ☺️

Cancelling Via Mail (Alternate Method)

If unable to…