Friday, November 16, 2007

24 Hour Fitness helps facilitate identity theft

So a few weeks ago my wife joined 24 hours fitness. They gave her a free guest pass with her membership. So she asked me to come swimming with her.

Before she joined I had done a little research and found out that 24 Hour fitness employees will quite often put pressure on you to join when you use free passes. So I was prepared for that.

Sure enough they called a "membership counselor" as soon as we got to the front desk. I was already irritated by this when wifey calmly told them we were just there to swim and that I wasn't interested in joining.

To my surprise there were cool with that and let us go. But they did manage to upset me in a way I wasn't expecting. They had me fill out a form with all my personal info. I didn't like that. But I didn't say anything because I wanted to be able to spend some time working out with wifey.

Then they asked for my ID. That was a bit much. So I asked "why do you need to see my ID?"

"So we can make sure you're you."

(Now of course this question begs to be asked -- What if I wasn't me? Would I not be able to use the free guest pass? Or what if I was someone else pretending to be me?)

So I gave them my ID. Then they photocopied it! As you can imagine this really made me mad. If I wasn't looking forward to the workout with wifey I would have demanded the photocopy and my ID and left. As it was I had to let it slide.

So now I have to trust that 24 Hour Fitness will not abuse my personal information.

I think I need to go now so I can order a credit history report.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The reason 24hr fitness asks for a copy of your photo ID is purely to ensure the safety of not only you, but all of it's members. You were not asked to provide anything other than your photo ID therefore making ID theft highly unlikely. 24 hour fitness is dedicated to providing the highest level of service to all its memebers and is highly professional (which is one of the many things that sets them apart from other "gyms"). One of the leading gyms in the entire fitness industry, I find it hard to believe that they would use your information for any other purpose other than for quality insurance. The photo identification not only helps to identify that you are who you say you are (because identity theft does make it easier for someone to try to pass off as someone else) but also so that they may identify guests who are not in the member system. Personally, I feel a lot safer at a fitness facility which takes the time to check those types of things rather than at one which simply allows any random person to walk past its doors.

Travis said...

A simple google search will show that 24 Hour Fitness does not always deliver the "highest level of customer service." I do not have a problem with 24 hour fitness looking at my id. I have a problem with them photocopying my ID. It seems that you have a problem with your ID also, Mr. Anonymous.