A TikTok creator who goes by Kate, posting under the handle @katehallwilson, said in a video that she was told to leave a Planet Fitness location after an employee informed her she owed a $500 balance. She said she was never given an explanation for the charge.
According to her video, she had been going to the gym without any issues and scanning her membership as usual. She said that one day she arrived and found an employee she did not recognize working the front desk, and that the employee stopped her when she tried to scan in.
“She tells me that I have balance due,” Kate said in the video. She said she was confused because she paid her Black Card membership every month along with her annual fee. When she asked what the balance was for, she said she was told the amount was $500.
The dispute reportedly ended with a canceled membership and a disagreement over a signature
Kate said the employee refused to give her any breakdown of the charge. “She said, I can’t tell you. You can either pay it or leave,” she recalled in the video. Kate said she responded that she was not going to pay for something without knowing what it was for. For Planet Fitness, the complaints don’t stop at unexpected charges, as one member discovered what she had been laying on in the tanning beds.
She said the back-and-forth lasted around 15 minutes and that she eventually walked out to her car before going back inside to ask again for an itemized list. When she still did not get one, she said she asked for her membership to be canceled. Kate claimed the employee said she would sign the cancellation paperwork on her behalf, and that she objected to that. “So you’re trying to take $500 from me and you’re gonna forge my signature?” she said she asked. She said she then waited and signed the cancellation documents herself.
In the caption of the video, Kate wrote that the employee “was the manager too.” She also said in the video that she could not remember the employee’s name.
Planet Fitness left a comment under the video that read, “Hi Kate! We’d like to look into this further and better understand what happened. Please send us a DM with your full name, the club you visited, and any additional details so we can review this for you. Thank you!”
Kate posted a follow-up video in which she said she sent the company a direct message describing the situation. In screen recordings shown in that video, Planet Fitness appeared to reply that it wanted to escalate the matter to its franchise team and asked for her contact details. She then shared an email she said she received from a man named Ryan, who identified himself as a district manager for Planet Fitness locations in her area.
In the email shown on screen, Ryan appeared to apologize “for the confusion as well as our manager’s behavior on that day” and said that “additional training and corrective action have already been implemented.” He also appeared to write that he had reviewed her previous accounts and could see “where some confusion may have occurred, but the way you were treated by our team was inexcusable.”
Kate said she had mixed feelings about the response. She said she appreciated the company reaching out, but added that she was upset because, in her words, “so many other people have experienced what I’ve experienced with them.” She said the email contained an apology but no breakdown of the disputed amount, telling viewers, “All there was was an apology, no explanation to anything really.”
She also said she had opened another membership months earlier using her husband’s email so she could keep working out, because she was not going to pay the $500. She said she does not plan to return, describing the company as “a really c—py corporation.” Kate ended the update by saying she would post again if anything changed, but that as of that moment “I still have no information as to what the $500 was for.”
The comment sections of both videos drew a large response. “no gym is worth 500 lmao,” one viewer wrote. Another added, “I belong to OTF and $500 pays for 4 months of my membership. At PF $500 pays for about 4 years 😅.” At Planet Fitness, disputes have also centered on dress codes, as one woman was told she couldn’t come to the gym unless she wore more clothes.
Several commenters focused on the company’s reply. “An apology doesn’t tell you WHY you were being charged $500 or what it was for. That’s literally insane!” one wrote. Another said, “that makes it sound like they still think you owe $500. but won’t explain???!?!! fkn odd.” A separate commenter asked, “Are you not worried about strangers having your email?” Kate replied, “No. It’s in my bio for brands to email me. It’s specifically a business account.”
Published: Jul 29, 2026 08:36 am