A Chinese man was recently scammed by a Hangzhou gym into spending more than 870,000 yuan ($121,000) on hundreds of years of gym memberships and private lessons.
The average life expectancy in China is around 78 years, but one Hagzhou man will have to figure out a way to live a lot longer if he plans to take full advantage of the 300-years-worth of gym memberships he was scammed into paying a fortune for. The victim, referred to only as Jin by Chinese media, had been training at the Ranyan Fitness gym in his home city for three years, when he was approached by a salesperson with an offer he simply couldn’t refuse. Mr. Jin was told that Ranyan was launching a special offer for loyal members only, selling them cheap long-term memberships that they would then resell to new members for double the price. As it often happens, it all turned out to be too good to be true.
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“They gave me a special price of 8,888 yuan to buy a card, and told me they would sell it for 16,666 yuan, with only a 10 percent commission,” Jin said, adding that the salesperson even gave him a guarantee that he would get a full refund if the gym couldn’t resell the membership. “They said that if the memberships couldn’t be resold within two months, I would be refunded in full. If it was sold at a price of 16,666 yuan, they would take a 10% commission and transfer the rest of the money to me.”
A few days after buying a one-year membership, Jin was once again approached by the salesperson, who told him they still had a few promotional memberships available and that this was a great chance for him to increase his profits. The gullible man ended up paying 130,000 yuan ($18,000) on gym memberships, at which point he was introduced to the manager of Ranyan Fitness, who congratulated him on his business sense and presented him with an even more enticing investment plan.
“Between May 10th and July 9th, I purchased nearly 1,200 classes and 300 annual memberships at Ranyan Fitness, spending a total of 871,273.27 yuan,” Jin said, adding that all he got in return was 26 thick contracts that clearly stated that “membership benefits are non-transferable.”
By the time Jin’s refunds were due, in mid-July, the Ranyan sales clerk, store manager, and owner had all disappeared, and their phones had been disconnected. He never got a cent back for his investment and is now stuck with 300 years of gym memberships and 1,200 private lessons.
Mr. Jin approached Hangzhou police after realizing he had been scammed, and he has now filed a lawsuit in hopes of recovering some of his investment. However, lawyers have warned that it will be a difficult process, considering that the scammers are nowhere to be found and that Jin signed a contract agreeing to buy non-transferable gym memberships.
