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    Frustrated gym user sets up an automatic response for every time he gets a late fee notification in revenge for the one time they charged him an extra $11: 'I did what anyone with too much free time and a mild interest in how systems work would do'

    Author image for Olivia Arocena
    Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
    Jun 24, 2026 11:15 AM EDT

    Artificial Intelligence vs Organic Slyness

    Sometimes I think the robots are overpowering us, and then I come across stories like this and realize they still lack the flexibility and the sharpness it takes to adapt to ever-changing human demands. At least the humans who know a little about coding can find ways to slip through the cracks.

    This employee might have fallen into a trap of his own making cause he probably spent a lot of time and energy developing a system to get even with a machine, but in the end, it was worth it. Should we all start to learn programming? Or is it too late now? Maybe it's time to leave the internet forever and run away into the woods.

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    • man in black jacket and knit cap sitting on gym bench
      via Eddie Jones

      A male model at the gym representing the guy plotting his $11 worth revenge

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    • so this started about eight months ago and only just fully resolved itself last week and i need to tell someone about it.
      via Dazzling_Mouse_7804
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    • i've been a member at the same gym for about three years and for the most part it's been fine, nothing remarkable just a functional membership i use regularly and pay on time every month without thinking about it.
      via Dazzling_Mouse_7804
    • then one month i get a notification that i have an outstanding late fee on my account. the fee was for a payment that their own system had flagged as declined due to a processing error on their end, not insufficient funds
      via Dazzling_Mouse_7804
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    • on mine, their system had a known issue that month that affected multiple members and i had documentation from my bank confirming the payment had been ready and waiting and the failure was on their side.
      via Dazzling_Mouse_7804
    • i went to the front desk and explained this calmly with the bank documentation in hand. and the person at the desk was genuinely sympathetic but said they couldn't waive fees at the desk level and i'd need to
      via Dazzling_Mouse_7804
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    • submit a dispute through their online portal. i submitted the dispute with all documentation attached.
      via Dazzling_Mouse_7804
    • two weeks later i got an automated response saying my dispute had been reviewed and denied and that the fee stood. i called the membership line and sat on hold for forty minutes and was told the same thing by
      via Dazzling_Mouse_7804
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    • someone who clearly had a script and no authority to deviate from it. at this point the fee was eleven dollars and i was spending significantly more time and energy on it than eleven dollars was worth and i knew that and i
      via Dazzling_Mouse_7804

    • There should be something we can do when a customer service agent is repeating a script and not actually talking to us. It seems that bots were generated in humans’ image and likeness. Shouldn’t we all create bots that solve these kinds of problems with other bots, for us? Wait, I might have just come up with a great idea that someone is going to make millions from. Then we could hire another bot that fixes the mistakes the first bot makes, ad infinitum. The future doesn’t sound good.

    • kept going anyway because something about the automated denial of a documented error genuinely got under my skin in a way i couldn't let go of.
      via Dazzling_Mouse_7804
    • so i did what anyone with too much free time and a mild interest in how systems work would do. i set up a recurring automated dispute submission through their own portal, once a week, with the same
      via Dazzling_Mouse_7804
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    • documentation attached, with a note each time saying i was following up on my previous submission as i had not yet received a satisfactory resolution.
      via Dazzling_Mouse_7804
    • man using laptop to code
      via Procreator Global UI UX Design Agency

      A photo representing the guy using his free time to set up his revenge automated response 

    • six weeks later i got a call from someone at their regional membership office who was very apologetic and waived the fee immediately and also gave me two months free as a goodwill gesture. aita?
      via Dazzling_Mouse_7804
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    • man in gray t shirt at the gym
      via Gordon Cowie

      A picture representing the guy enjoying his free membership 

    • All right, he tried doing it in person first; he is definitely not a freak. The gym had the revenge automated response coming. It feels ridiculous to do all that just for $11, but knowing he won a few months of free membership changes my view about it. I’m so tired of not finding human beings behind companies’ responses; it’s all becoming too tiring and dystopian. I’ve said it before, but I think the collective exhaustion this AI revolution is generating will take us away from social media, bots, and the internet in general sooner or later.

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