How do I Cancel My Membership at The Joint Chiropractic?

Chiropractic Memberships

Did you sign up for a membership to receive the healing effects of chiropractic care with an affordable and convenient price? Did you also discover that the chiropractor there that you like got replaced by management, start his own practice, or decided to quit? Did you move away to a place like Petaluma where there are no The Joint Chiropractic locations?

I'll help you figure out how to cancel your membership.

Corporate will not tell you how in any easy way. They want you to sign up and continue being a customer. I think that's fine, and I've set up my own membership here at adjust.clinic Chiropractic Care. I find a lot of benefit to being adjusted once per week. I personally get adjusted once a week, and sometimes twice. But, The Joint corporate wants to make it an uphill battle.

The Big Problem with The Joint Chiropractic

When I worked at The Joint for a little over a year, I was perplexed why the guy who owned the clinic looked the other way while people let their membership auto-renew month after month while the person wasn't coming in. Corporate allowed this too. There weren't any systems in place when I worked there where we monitored who wasn't coming in with an alert. If they didn't come in, we ignored it. It's amazing how corporate gave people such a hard time to give refunds for months not used, or even to cancel in the first place. There are other chiropractors in Petaluma who offer a chiropractic membership, and I'm certain they don't have a draconian cancellation policy.

The other problem with The Joint is that they face a lot of doctor burnout with their high volume strategy. The chiropractors who work there tend to be new and inexperienced, or older and jaded. The Joint is a halfway house for doctors in transition from whatever situation they are in, to one they want to be in. After so much time, it can be demoralizing to work for a middleman owner for such a low reimbursement per patient.

Steps to take to cancel your "The Joint" Membership

But anyway, if you went to The Joint and you found a better chiropractor and you want to cancel, here's how to do it:

• Go to the location you first signed up with. Cancel in person. It's probably written in your original contract that you must do this. Cancel over the phone? Forget it!
• Alternatively, you'll have to call the original clinic to have the front desk cancel for you. They might still request that you come in person to sign the cancellation form. But if you explain to them that you are now 50 miles away and it's not practical, then they might do it for you. Remember, corporate is not a real person, but the person working the front desk is, so be nice.
• If that doesn't work, as them for their cancellation form to be emailed to you. See if you can sign it with a doodle from your phone and email it back.
• Make sure you follow through before your next auto debit date that they actually signed it. Tell them to not let it go through again. There might be a policy that they allow one more billing cycle to go through. Don't let this happen. It's wrong of them to do it.

Bad Reviews at the membership clinic

As a clinic owner, I love offering memberships to my patients. It's super convenient. It's automated. My patients love it. Some use it for a medium length care plan over the course of three months, while other use it in perpetuity. Most use it for sports performance with a hint of old injury that causes recurring problems.

But if The Joint Chiropractic keeps taking advantage of their patients, they're going to get the bad reviews they deserve. Like these:

I feel your frustration, but don't give up. Threaten another bad Yelp review, and they will take care of you right away. Never give up.

This one is a shame, and it hurts my feelings. This patient doesn't deserve this kind of treatment. If you cancel your membership, it's not right that they keep charging. Chiropractors in Petaluma would never do this. My advice for any membership business is to plan well ahead if you can. Cancel ahead of time if you know you will be moving or if other things have changed. Sending a patient to collections for services never used is a low down, dirty thing to do.

Dr. Lloyd