The Situation.

My SO has been using a massage company for the past several years due to some back issues, it has been a wise allocation of money for this reason. However, I do have a problem with the “credit” system this company has. In order to get a discount, they require us to be a member and buy credits for $65 a month, and we can only use these credits if we continue to pay $65 a month, keeping an active account.

That's all fine and dandy if we use it consistently every month, but my SO does not, especially now during COVID. In March, we postponed the payments six months so they wouldn't charge us during this pandemic. But, the 6-month mark ends next month. We reached out to them again to extend the postponement another 6 months, but they said they couldn't. So we have to make a choice:

1. Cancel the subscription, and lose three credits we already have on the account.
2. Or be charged every month for a service that we don't feel comfortable using during the pandemic.

My Grievance.

I've had an issue with this “credit” system for a while now. Its a problem when we give people money and not be able to use that money (in some form); unless I give them more money. About 18 months ago we thought about this, and my SO started getting multiple massages a month to draw down the amount of credits we had.

I understand the profit model of giving people a discount in exchange for buying massage credits that must be used and cannot be reimbursed for cash. But I find it unreasonable when the company requires us to give them more money in order to keep an account open to use the credits that we already bought.

In light of this, my mind is already made up. I want to cancel the service and lose the 3 credits we have in the account, rather than give them more money and have to revisit this again in 3 months ($195 poorer) because the pandemic is still around. My SO is still mulling this decision over.

What do y'all think?

1. Cancel the subscription (saving $65/month), lose three credits and probably re-establish the account after the pandemic is over?
2. Or continue the subscription (spending $65/month), which we’re probably not going to use until the pandemic is over?

Thanks for reading.

Credit for Image:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/59937401@N07/5930043516
https://freesvg.org/annoyed-man