Chinese man sues gym after paying over RM500k for 300-year membership, owner disappears

The Sun

5 days ago

A fitness enthusiast in eastern China has taken a gym to court after spending over 870,000 yuan (approx. RM506,580) on memberships and lessons spanning an astonishing 300 years — only for the management to vanish with his money.
The man, identified as Jin, told Zhejiang Television that he had been a loyal member of Ranyan Gym in Hangzhou's Binjiang District for three years when a sales executive pitched him an offer too good to resist.
'From May 10 to July 9, I bought about 1,200 lessons and membership cards with an accumulative validity period of 300 years, at a total cost of 871,273 yuan (approx. RM512,312),' Jin said, showing the station 26 signed contracts.
According to South China Morning Post, the sales pitch claimed that an 8,888 yuan (approx. RM5,226) one-year membership for existing customers could be resold to new clients for 16,666 yuan, with 10% of the profit going to the gym and the rest to the seller.
'He said if they did not sell it within two months, they would return all the money to me,' Jin recalled.
Initially sceptical, Jin bought two cards worth over 17,000 yuan (approx. RM9,996) before being persuaded to make larger purchases — including one transaction exceeding 300,000 yuan (approx. RM176,401).
By mid-July, when he was supposed to receive some of his principal back, no payment arrived. A sales executive told him the finance department was 'still reviewing the transaction,' but by the end of the month, the management and sales staff had disappeared.
Zhejiang TV found the gym still operating but staffed only by reception and administrative workers.
Contracts Jin signed made no mention of the promised returns and prohibited transferring memberships to others.
'I admit that I have been brainwashed by them, because I believed I was only one small step away from getting back all my money,' he said.
Jin described the purchase as a 'health investment,' adding, 'I actually do not count on using it for 300 years. In my eyes, it was a kind of commitment to health.'
His story has ignited both shock and amusement online.
'He bought the gym card for the grandsons of his grandsons, ha,' one netizen joked, while another remarked: 'When a person's wealth and his intelligence quotient do not match, the redundant wealth will flow back to society in some form.'