Money Moral Dilemma: Should we leave our golf club and rejoin later to get cheaper membership?

Cantabilly

Absolutely you should leave. It's a despicable practice to charge existing, loyal members more than new members.

Gerontious123

It will always be the senior section who complains about situations like this. I hope your blackmail threat backfires on you. Membership of a golf club should always be more than the fee paid per year. At my club we have a 15 percent discount on all bar and food purchases. The spend is calculated at year end and the 15 percent discount total is taken from your next year subscription. This rewards individuals who support the club. If I were a member of your committee I would introduce a £300 new member fee. That would stop the penny pichers dead in their tracks.

Epsomdtc

Through family members, I have seen the practice of both privately & publicly owned Golf clubs.
The former were a law unto themselves. 
The exclusivity was part of the appeal.
The latter was much more down to earth & open to scrutiny.
So it depends on why you play golf & what you want from your club.
Swings & roundabouts!!

royclamp

presumably the cheaper rate only applies to the first year then everyone pays the same ?

IvonH

Why are you even worried about harming the club.  They are not showing any decency, loyalty or fairness towards you.  And you might even enjoy playing elsewhere, especially if some people you like also switch.  

surreysaver

This isn't a question over morals. Its a business decision. You take your business elsewhere.

JayD

BJV said:

Yes, it is unfair, I cannot stand it when new customers get better deals than loyal long-standing customers.

But I think it would depend on several things?

1. If you leave, will you be allowed to go back?
2. What is the price difference, if it is pennies, is it worth it?
3. Is there anywhere else local that you would like to join?

Once you have answered these, you will know the right way to go.

Nuff said!

Muttleythefrog

Leave for good.... sorted

PixelPound

Cantabilly said:

Absolutely you should leave. It's a despicable practice to charge existing, loyal members more than new members.

Organisations/businesses that use the practice of discounts to new members are basically abusing people's loyalty. How many Martin Lewis blog posts do we have about haggling for renewals or leaving, going elsewhere, and optionally re-joining at a later date if you want for the new customer discount.

The despicable part is when they try and put hurdles in the way of existing customers been able to take advantage - e.g. a period before they can be classified as a new customer.

Why is the "moral" part on the onus of the customer and not the business to be fair to existing customers.

royclamp said:

presumably the cheaper rate only applies to the first year then everyone pays the same ?

Yes, most likely, otherwise it's an even bigger scandal. You do see some companies extending the discount to keep people e.g. renew at same price for second year or if the customer goes to cancel offering a smaller discount to stay.

PixelPound

MSE_Kelvin said:

This week's MoneySaver who wants advice asks...

My golf club offers cheaper rates to new members than to those renewing. We've approached the owners about the unfairness of this, but they didn't seem to take us seriously, so a large group of us are now all thinking of leaving, playing somewhere else for a year, then rejoining for the cheaper rates. While I don't want to damage the club, we're being penalised for our loyalty. Is walking out the right thing to do?

Does the "group" communicate, and how many is the group? Would the group be happy to stay with some discount, if not as good as new members? If so you could have one person contact the club say how many members are in your group and ask for a one-off "cost of living" discount, you might get some joy if the club don't want to lose members.

Of course if you go elsewhere - is it further away, do you need to factor in the cost of addition time/fuel etc into the equation.

On the question of damaging the club, if they are struggling for numbers, a large group leaving might damage them, but then conversely they don't respect you being loyal because you are penalised to stay and renew.