The Consumer Protection Committee on Sunday offered tips on avoiding disadvantageous gym contracts, after nearly 4,000 complaints were filed against fitness centers last year.
Before signing a membership or training contract, people should make sure that the terms of service are clear, the committee said in a statement.
Included in the contract should be the hours of operation, gym capacity, accident insurance, total payment amount and method, and services provided, it said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Contracts with personal trainers should disclose the number and duration of classes, student-to-trainer ratio, name of the trainer, and payment amount and method, it added.
Loan referrals should be clearly explained, the committee said.
If a gym arranges payments through a third-party lending service, it should inform the client of all relevant information, it said.
If a client wishes to cancel the loan within seven days of signing a contract, they may do so by filing a request in writing with the gym and the lending service provider, it said, adding that gyms that are unable to continue providing their services must apply for loan cancelations.
Consumers also have the right to put their contracts on hold if the Central Epidemic Command Center announces COVID-19 pandemic controls in their area, during which gyms may not collect payment for memberships or classes, the committee said.
Regarding cancelations, the amount paid to the gym must be proportional to the time remaining in the contract, although contracts terminated for reasons attributable to the customer could be subject to a handling fee, it said.
However, if the customer terminates the contract for reasons attributable to the gym, the gym should refund the balance based on the remaining time and number of classes, and it should provide damages equal to the amount of the customer’s termination fee, it added.
Customers also have a three-day contract review period, while operators must provide contract protection equal to half of the down payment as long as the total amount is more than NT$5,000, it said.
The committee also reminded consumers not to feel obliged to sign a contract due to aggressive sales techniques, promises of discounts or personal pressure and to read the terms carefully before signing.
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS