Beware - Planet Fitness ******ing members with new hidden cancellation penalties for lost income due to 2020 lockdown by automatically extending contracts

I have been a Planet Fitness member from February 2020 and my 12 month contract with Planet Fitness would be finished/due for renewal come 31 January 2021. I am using my Discovery Vitality gym benefit Planet Fitness and am only debited an amount of R187 month from my own pocket.

Because I both started a new Job in a new area and am also relocating to a new area (neither has a Planet Fitness club even remotely nearby) I gave notice of non-renewal/cancellation to Planet Fitness in the last week of December 2020.

Planet Fitness now informed me that my contract has been extended to July 2021 because they did not debit me for the Lockdown period in 2020 and that a large early termination fee would now apply.

I find this entirely ********* since the decision not to debit was that of Planet Fitness and members did not have access to the club for that duration and hence would have received no service rendered or benefit from their membership.

The timeframe of my contract has still passed and I should be able to exit the contract without hidden fees. Instead Planet Fitness will now effectively be blocking my Discovery Vitality gym benefit unless I pay them a large cancellation fee for loss of income that is not due to default on my account or due to any fault of my own.

This loss of income Planet Fitness suffered is due to unforeseen circumstances and force of nature and they have to cut their losses just like everyone else had to. I strongly feel that now automatically extending the contracts of their members and enforcing penalties that would not otherwise have app**** is ********* and amounts to ******ion.