ED HAYES

Working for USG has been great for many reasons, but the most recent reason was that it saved me $10! I lost my Gold’s Gym membership barcode pass thing a while ago, but I have been able to work out by having them look me up. I usually don’t loose things, but this pass was like one of those super market discount cards you attach to a keychain; very small and easy to miss place. At first it was hard to have them look me up because they spelled my name “Hays” and not “Hayes”. How crappy. Anyway, they told me that I needed to buy a new pass for $10 next time I came in. I was almost going to get angry, but I had a stroke of genius!

For the past month or so I have been making barcodes for USG! There are many barcode standards, but one of the most popular is “3 of 9” what ever that stands for. USG uses it, so I thought I would try scanning my friend’s Gold’s Gym membership card and see if it would be readable by a scanner at USG. Sure enough it did! I had my membership number saved on my computer in a document I made to cancel my membership, so I used that, added the asterisks in the front at back (part of the barcode standard) and printed it out in the 3 of 9 barcode font USG gave me.

This morning I scanned my printed barcode when I got to the gym, and it worked like a charm! Saved me $10! Let’s hope I don’t get caught using my fake barcode. Knowing the silly way companies like to make profit for selling replacement IDs, I am sure Gold’s Gym would not like me using my home made one. I don’t know what they could say to make me buy one; the only thing on the card is a barcode and Gold’s Gym logo.