I went to the gym today. This is such a rare occurrence that it is news. There have been times when it was part of my routine. And others when I have been a member but not an attendee for months. For most of July, I thought I was a member and tried to get in, but my PIN for the door wouldn’t work. And as the gym is unstaffed most of the time and the customer service agent is a poorly educated chat bot, it took me nearly a month to resolve the issue.
After trying every couple of days, some when I was fully committed to working out and others when I was just passing by, I finally found the gym staffed. First, I was asked to enter my PIN to demonstrate that it didn’t work. Then, I had to let the PT enter the code. Then, he looked at my app and determined there was something wrong. After seeing the email with my PIN, he needed a manager. Note that I didn’t ask for the manager; he did. Any middle-aged white woman wants to avoid being labeled a “karen” if they can and I’m no exception (and being named Karen is not the same).
The manager investigated and then figured out the issue.
“You registered to start your membership in July 2027,” he said.
“Wow. I am a procrastinator, but that’s a bit extreme.”
He wasn’t impressed by wit or self-deprecation. “You’ll need to email customer service. I’ll wait for you to write the email.”
Not one to give up, I remarked, “I guess if I came back enough times, I would have eventually gotten in.”
He was still unimpressed with my attempts at humor and proceeded to walk me through how to send an email from my phone. I didn’t have the dignity to explain I work in IT and really think their UI is questionable. My inability to register for the gym properly had destroyed my credibility.
The PT who tried to help me in the first place was back and ready to sell. He got my phone number, gave me a tour and asked if I wanted to work out that day. I was wearing jean shorts. Unlike RFK, Jr., I don’t think that is good gym attire. Before I was home, the PT had texted reminding me to reach out for my free session. A week later, I still owe him a message.
Impressively, customer care got back to me and also pointed out I had spelled my email address incorrectly. I didn’t understand how this could be true because I had received multiple emails from them, including my PIN, but I didn’t reply about that. Miraculously, their response had no notes of a passive-aggressive tone and actually resolved my issue.
With my new PIN in hand today, I avoided going until 5pm and then made myself walk through the door, then through the sliding door into a small holding cubicle and then through the next sliding door into the gym. It’s quite the fanfare of sliding doors.
I rowed 1000m and got nowhere then lifted some weights. I was going to do the leg press but found out it is on the 2nd floor (which to an American is the third floor) and after making the effort I did to get to the gym for the past month, I had done enough.
Since I can finally get in, and since my Ultrahuman ring has now set my age to 50 (I’m 47), I might even go tomorrow, or the next day…