So, we have had for a while a membership in a thing called “Anytime Fitness”, whose basic premise is that they issue keyfobs that give 24 hour access to a fitness facility; exercise machines, etcetera.
This stuff is pretty cool. The problem is that they use a company called “ABC Financial” for the billing, and this is a really crappy and annoying billing company. In particular, if a scheduled payment fails for any reason, you get socked for a late fee. I once managed to get them to cancel half of that fee, but not the full fee. And last time we had a card compromised (yay for the security of the Internet!), this happened again. I was going to try to use their web site to correct the information, but their privacy policy makes it absolutely clear that if you sign up, they will send you promotional stuff. There is no opt-in or opt-out; if you have an account, they will use the address to send you stuff if they feel like it.
However, I have interesting news. I mentioned my complaints to the local franchise we actually visit, and he mentioned that he is able to take payments by check locally, which removes the need to deal with the crappy billing company. So if you’re interested in a fitness club with some basically good ideas (24 hour access, relatively low costs), be aware that you may be able to avoid the supremely annoying billing company.