24 Hour Fitness also has huge, huge disparities. I paid too much initially for a year in advance, but I now have a $50/yr membership forever, and my wife has $25/yr (!) because her timing was even better.
But the base rate is what, $150 to join and around $50/mo? I assume some people pay that, but it seems steep -- doubly so given what I'm paying :-)
Are you sure that's what actually happened? It sounds to me that they were trying to negotiate a higher price, realised that you weren't going to take it (when you didn't) and so you effectively negotiated them back down to $199/yr.
Visited the location to sign up for the $199/yr my buddy paid. "That promotion [wasn't] currently running," but I got a call two days later saying that it was back on.
It's a shame to delay a customer like me who'll wait for the better price, but I bet you lose a lot of low-hanging fruit if you make the better price available permanently.
Without the system, eventually everyone gets the better price. And though slightly inconvenienced, I ended up joining for $199/yr.