Opinions from club members

My club opened for the season on May 1st. I joined the club shortly after for $1400 +$100 club house money. On June 14th I injured my wrist and could not play anymore. I gave it a month before I requested my membership on hold for the season. I sent a letter out lining that I injured my wrist on the course on that day and I had not played since. The board granted me my request.

Today I received a gift certificate for $638 stating this was half my membership to put towards next years membership.

First of all it is not "half" and second, should I feel slighted or appreciative? The season usually ends in Octoberish... I am not sure how I feel about the whole thing. $762 for 6 weeks of golf...

I would love to hear some feedback on this....

I would inquire with management, maybe they will grant you a little more.

Plus it would probably satisfy your questions to hear their policy and review their calculations.

My thoughts exactly. The club did you a favor. No need to get greedy.

I'd be happy I got anything at all.  I voted 'satisfied' to soon and didn't see the "happy" option.

I can't speak to the calculation as I don't understand the "+ $100" club house money.

Does that mean $100 of the $1400 gives $100 of free club house stuff?  In a sense, the fee was discounted to $1300?

Maybe so but most people join to use the club to play golf. I know that some people join and do not use their membership but to me it was like throwing money away.

The membership has a required $100 loaded card for the clubhouse plus $1400 to make the total $1500. I still have the card so the money total was $1400.

I think the assumption is no refunds unless stated otherwise.  I joined a fitness club and hurt my shoulder while using their equipment, was out for the rest of the year.  They didn't give me a refund.

In that case... 50% of $1,400 = $638?!  I'd probably leave it alone because the difference is small and I'd be happy about any refund at all.  But you could ask them about that, something is wrong there. You could also ask them how they came up with the 50%.

I agree, unless you were injured due to negligence on the clubs part I'd say their offer was generous.  They seem to be taking you at your word and doing the right thing, most clubs would tell you there's a no refund policy.  I realize from your perspective it seems a bit petty but I think they are trying to be fair.

So you paid for a year membership and didn't ask for a refund?

I did not ask for a refund at all. Most of the people I mentioned the request to felt like they should allow the membership on hold because it would damage future membership possibilities. For example, what if I get hurt again and lose out on the money I spent on the membership a second time. Had I not gotten some sort of reimbursement, I definitely would hesitate to join a club again. I was not sure that I  would get to push the membership over, even though I thought it was a reasonable request.

The club has been very fair.

Putting your membership on hold is basically requesting a full refund for the current year and applying it to the next.  Most likely having it open ended was an accounting issue so they took action to resolve it.  They booked your dues as paid and offered you a club gift certificate that you can apply to next year to encourage you to come back.

The voting result so far speaks for itself.   My club has no such return policy and it clearly says so in fine prints.  I think the only exception is if one dies.  Then, some part of the annual membership fee is returned.  Then again, when one dies, he can't really use the refund ...

I agree and I think it was reasonable and understandable. I had mixed results when I mentioned the result to friends. I really didn't take any time out to think of different perspectives of the club in a business stand point until later. It was not mentioned above but I do think the outcome was fair.

This may be true, but in the example as I above stated, they could have every right to tell me that I am SOOL but I am not dead, and it would have affected my future decisions on becoming a member again, at least a full one.

I voted "Happy".  For a club to offer a refund, even if it's only towards future membership dues, is a pretty generous gesture!  Like others have said, a lot of clubs would have told them that they're sorry but a contract is a contract.

As far as the math, if one thinks of a year's membership as running from 1-1-2015 to 12-31-2015, cancelling on or about 7/15 results in a refund close to the $638 returned.  My guess is the refund was based on a pro-rated portion of 12 months.

I think it is a pretty good gesture from the club.  I don't know if they have any small print in their membership agreement that covers the specifics of this type of case but it seems like it isn't the sort of thing they would have to reimburse you for just because your situation changes.  (Would they refund someone who simply moved away from the area for instance or decided to just stop playing golf?)

I think I have seen some Golf Insurance policies that cover membership fees in cases where you get injured for a long period of time and can't play so maybe not getting refunded is the default situation and in your specific case the club is doing a good thing.