Marketplace

Big Gym Ripoff (38x1)

Air date: Jan 07, 2011

The fitness industry in this country is huge, worth more then 2 billion dollars a year. As the new year arrives, many Canadians may be thinking of joining a gym. But before signing up, watch the season premiere of Marketplace. In his debut with the program, Tom Harrington investigates the sneaky charges and over-billing that have been plaguing the gym industry for years. Just how bad is it? Marketplace commissioned the first-ever poll on this topic in Canada, and uncovers a startling percentage of Canadians are getting ripped off. Canadians are clearly fed up, so we also asked people to fill out an online survey, telling us their stories in our Big Gym Ripoff Search. The results are clear. The gym with the most complaints is one of Canada's largest chains. Watch as we tell the unsettling story of an industry gone awry through the experiences of three frustrated people who, despite their best efforts to cancel, keep getting charged.