Aussie calls out gym for not letting her quit her membership for bizarre reason

By ASHLEY NICKEL, NEWS REPORTER, AUSTRALIA Published: 09:51, 9 June 2026 | Updated: 09:59, 9 June 2026 A customer of a major women-only gym franchise has called out the chain for making it extremely difficult to leave. Steph Briese shared a video last week slamming Fernwood Fitness for its difficult process to cancel membership. Ms Briese claimed she attempted to quit her gym, in Melbourne, as she was moving but was told she needed to come in-store to fill out the paperwork. She spent hours over the following days trying to explain to staff that she'd moved and it would be too difficult to show up in-person, but staff remained firm on the policy. Upon checking the fine print of her contract, Ms Briese found Fernwood Fitness does allow customers to cancel their membership over email. Ms Briese called her location to point out the clause, but claimed staff insisted email cancellations were 'at the club manager's discretion'. 'Again, I was told the only way I can do it is by coming in a person, not that it's their preferred method, it's the only way I could do it,' Ms Briese said. Fernwood Fitness runs 74 women-only gyms around Australia, primarily in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. @Fernwood Fitness if you could let me know how one contacts head office, that’d be brilliant <3 #gym #fitness #australia #storytime #story Steph Briese (above) claimed she was told by Fernwood Fitness staff that she had to cancel her membership in-person, despite having moved Fernwood Fitness runs 74 women-only gyms around Australia, primarily in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane The fitness company prides itself on being a 'leader in women's health and wellbeing'. It enforces a strict 28-day cancellation period, meaning any delays in cancelling membership could result in an extra payment.  Ms Briese said she was 'annoyed' by staff insisting she came in-store to cancel her membership as she ran the risk of paying for additional days. 'I wouldn't have been able to get into the gym for a while, and that would have meant that they continued to keep billing me,' she said. 'Because a cancellation period is 28 days and that day wouldn't be able to start for ages until I could actually get in there, whereas I could have sent an email on the spot.' While staff at the Fernwood Fitness location eventually agreed to process the membership cancellation over email, Ms Briese said she was 'enraged' and made a formal complaint with the company.  '(It felt like) they were trying to keep me on the line for more money by not telling me the ways that I could have cancelled, and actively telling me that I actually couldn't have done it via email,' she said. 'I made a complaint because this is a women's run gym for women, and I'm concerned that they're not letting women know the real ways that they can cancel a membership.' Ms Briese (above) slammed the gym for the 'enraging' cancellation process She took particular issue with the gym because it is heavily marketed as providing a safe and welcoming environment for women.  'I'm just frustrated because Fernwood bills itself as this brilliant club for women, run by women, owned by women and all the sort of jazz,' Ms Briese said. 'Why make it harder for women to cancel?  'I understand that every gym wants to make it hard for you to cancel because they need your money but to actively tell me that I can only cancel via coming in person, knowing full well that is difficult for me to come in person is freaking disgusting.' Daily Mail attempted to contact Fernwood Fitness for comment. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.