Massage Envy – Eastgate

Been here twice so far. The staff are friendly and helpful, and I’ve never had to wait at all. The décor isn’t great, but it’s adequate. The massage itself: The first time it was a little disappointing, but the second time was AMAZING. Devija (pronounced «day-​vee-​yuh» by the staff) is awesome. She found every hard-​to-​find knot in my back immediately and gently but firmly worked at them until they were gone. I haven’t had such a good massage in years. I’m now a loyal customer.

Short version: VERY DIFFICULT TO CANCEL MEMBERSHIP!!!
Here’s how it went:
1. I fill out cancellation form; 2. manager leaves voicemail to confirm receipt of cancellation form, proposes that I «freeze» my acct, asks me to call to confirm cancellation form; 3. I call to confirm cancellation form, front desk relays cancellation message to manager; 4. manager calls and leaves another voicemail to confirm receipt of cancellation message and cancellation form, again proposes «freezing», asks me to confirm cancellation message; 5. I call to confirm cancellation message and reiterates cancellation intent; 6. manager calls and leaves confirmation of cancellation.
The whole process took over a month, and they charged me $ 54 extra.
A cancellation request should be processed like this:
1. I fill out cancellation form; 2. form is stamped «RECEIVED» and membership cancelled.
Long version: I signed up for Massage Envy (ME) in fall 2011 when I moved to NC for graduate school. Most of the time I received my massages from the ME in Durham (on Renaissance Pkwy) b/​c it was closer to where I lived, but this review is with the Chapel Hill ME because this is one that gave me the most headaches.
Signing up for ME is no problem, and they automatically charge your credit card every month even if you don’t show up (will discuss this part later).
I knew I would be leaving NC in late April 2013, so in the beginning of March when I called the Durham ME to make a reservation, I asked to cancel starting in April. They first tried to get me to stay by saying instead of cancelling, I can freeze it for 6 months and they won’t charge me, when I said I’m not coming back in 6 months (or ever…), they said my membership is valid at franchises across the country.
After I said no thanks to that, they said that I can’t cancel my membership anyway because (1) cancellations have to be done IN PERSON, and (2) cancellations have to be performed by the franchise that signed me up, in my case, Chapel Hill.
1^st sign of cancelling trouble: If I’m only allowed to cancel in person at the franchise I signed up at, what would’ve happened had I moved back to CA first and wanted to cancel, fly back to NC?
In early April I went to the Chapel Hill ME to cancel in person. Only the manager can process cancellations, so I was told to come back. By now I’m getting close to moving time and knew I had to pay for April’s massage, another $ 54.
Mid April, I go again, manager not in that day and not the next day either, but I fill out a form and the front desk told me the manager will call me back in a couple of days to confirm my cancellation.
2^nd sign of trouble, cancellation isn’t valid until a manager «confirms» it, and a manager doesn’t come in every day. Looks like I’m in it for the long haul.
I ask the front desk as to how many «pre-​pays» I have left. A pre-​pay is equivalent to an hour’s worth of massage. In any particular month when I’m too busy to go, they still charge me $ 54, and that becomes a pre-​pay. If you do go in for a massage on a particular month, then your credit card is charged in person.
So I ask the front desk if I can give one of my pre-​pays to my Fiancé, they said yes, but with a $ 10 transfer fee. This seems highly unfair. I’ve already paid, it’s my credit, and they want me to pay $ 10 so that I can give the credit away? But I do it, b/​c I wanted him to have a massage.
So the next few days, I went in several times to use up all my pre-​pays, leaving one for my Fiancé.
On my last trip into ME, I go with my Fiancé, he uses my prepay (which cost me $ 54+$ 10), and I pay for my massage in person.
Then a couple of days later we’re out of NC, but the manager never called. Silly me, I assumed they figured out that I was quitting since I used up all my pre-​pays in less than a week.
Almost 30 days later (!), I got a voicemail from the manager, informing me that she’s calling to let me know that she’s received my cancellation form and offers to freeze my account instead of cancelling. and then I had to call her back to confirm that I’ve received her voicemail and to confirm that I really wanted to cancel, and that if I really wanted to cancel, I have until tomorrow to use up my prepay.
3^rd and 4^th signs of trouble. After more than a month I’m still not cancelled! And they’ve charged my credit card automatically even though I’ve already gone and paid for one in person, and now this pre-​pay is set to expire in one day.
So I call back AGAIN to confirm that I want to cancel, and the front desk says the manager is out at lunch and wanted me to call back later, I insisted that they just take down a message because I didn’t want to play phone tag and I had to work. They were reluctant to do it, but I wouldn’t get off the phone until they did.
Next day, manager calls to let me know that the message was received and wanted to confirm with me that I wanted to cancel, I call again to confirm, she calls again to confirm. ARGH.