Gold's Gym Deceptive Sales

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21

[quote]Petedacook wrote:
I signed on with Gold’s a while back and was tod if I ever move, the membership will transfer to the other Gold’s gym.

Today I found out that was a bunch of crap. They said their membership does not transfer, but if I sign a contract at the other gym, they will cancel my current membership. I may get double billed for a month or two by the time they get the membership canceled.

Thats crap man. I don’t want to get locked into another contract for a year or more with Gold’s, and I definitely do not want to pay another several hundred dollar initiation fee.

Man, I swear I hate getting into a contract with a business.
[/quote]

First of all did you read the contract? Does it say in the contract that your membership is transferable? If not, don’t blame anyone but yourself. You are a big boy and know how to read right?

22

Pete,

I’ve got about 240 lbs worth of weights, an ez bar, an oly bar and a bench. Lets get some DC/NOVA/MD homies together and set up an underground gym somewhere.

23

[quote]beebuddy wrote:
Pete,

I’ve got about 240 lbs worth of weights, an ez bar, an oly bar and a bench. Lets get some DC/NOVA/MD homies together and set up an underground gym somewhere.[/quote]

I am game for something like this, but not sure how it could be coordinated. I will be moving to an apartment in Fairfax by Fair Oaks mall, so I have no room for weights.

24

[quote]XxMAGxX wrote:
Out of curiosity, how much does an annual membership cost?[/quote]

Not sure. I paid $200.00 initiation fee, and $54.99 a month. And it is a 2 year contract.

25

[quote]Edders wrote:

First of all did you read the contract? Does it say in the contract that your membership is transferable? If not, don’t blame anyone but yourself. You are a big boy and know how to read right?
[/quote]

No, I did not read the contract. I was there for about 2 hours signing up as it were. I specifically asked if I need to read the contract, or if the guy can tell me what I need to know about the contract. I was assured he could answer my questions about the contract. That is deceptive sales, and I blame the salesman.

Locking people into a contract and dropping the ball for them is nothing new. Cell phone companies do it all the time.

26

[quote]Petedacook wrote:
beebuddy wrote:
Pete,

I’ve got about 240 lbs worth of weights, an ez bar, an oly bar and a bench. Lets get some DC/NOVA/MD homies together and set up an underground gym somewhere.

I am game for something like this, but not sure how it could be coordinated. I will be moving to an apartment in Fairfax by Fair Oaks mall, so I have no room for weights.

[/quote]

Maybe we should start another thread. My neighbor is in a band and he rents a shithole of a space to practice. It’s somewhere in NOVA, I’ll ask him.

In the next couple of years this will be much easier for me because both my wife and I will be working and I’ll have more cash on hand. Presently and for the next year we are living on one income.

Judging from some posts on this forum there is a demand for a hardcore gym in DC so it might be a good business idea too.

27

[quote]beebuddy wrote:
Petedacook wrote:
beebuddy wrote:
Pete,

I’ve got about 240 lbs worth of weights, an ez bar, an oly bar and a bench. Lets get some DC/NOVA/MD homies together and set up an underground gym somewhere.

I am game for something like this, but not sure how it could be coordinated. I will be moving to an apartment in Fairfax by Fair Oaks mall, so I have no room for weights.

Maybe we should start another thread. My neighbor is in a band and he rents a shithole of a space to practice. It’s somewhere in NOVA, I’ll ask him.

In the next couple of years this will be much easier for me because both my wife and I will be working and I’ll have more cash on hand. Presently and for the next year we are living on one income.

Judging from some posts on this forum there is a demand for a hardcore gym in DC so it might be a good business idea too.[/quote]

Keep me up to date with this. I could certainly be down.

28

The gym I train out of was a World’s Gym up until Jan 1 of this year.

Dropped the franchise cause it just cost us $500 dollars a month for the fucking name. We didn’t get anything extra from them. When Ivan hit and shut us down (and our economy) for however long, we got no help, no breaks. How many members are here cause of the name? 0. How many times did we have a World Gym member from elsewhere come in to use our facility? All the time, we didn’t charge em shit. So we actually lost money on the name. Plus, they have “preferred vendors” that we must go through for our merchandise. Yeah, they don’t hike up the price.

But to my point, a gym contract can be negotiated, depending on the owner. Especially at the end of the month. And where there’s a contract, there’s usually a loophole.

I’ve got family, couple, student, military, corporate, and temporary memberships and NOT ONE CONTRACT. Granted we are a smaller gym, but what the hell. Whatever works, right.

29

[quote]Professor X wrote:
[/quote]

Bally’s tried a similar scam with me. I scared them enough into backing off. I have had memberships at at least 3 different 24 hour fitnesses, and have never had any problems with them.

30

I worked at a Gold’s where the owner’s owned a total of 3 gyms. You could use the one you signed up at as much as you want. You could use the other gyms for a small additional fee added to your monthly dues, I believe 5 or 10 dollars a month.

The “Travel Pass” was a card used so that members could use other Gold’s facilities when out of the area. The pass could be used up to 14 times per year/per location. After the 14th visit, you had to pay a fee to use the club.

As an aside:
Jack London used to come and workout at our gyms when he was in the area. I’d let him workout free and “hookup” his protein shakes. The level of enthusiasm/intensity with which he worked out was unbelievable. He gave me a ton of useful hints and was very open about his experiences in the bodybuilding world. Plus he scared the shit out of most of the members and their complaints were almost comical. I just ignored them anyway.

Any other questions about Gold’s practices???

31

[quote]Petedacook wrote:
XxMAGxX wrote:
Out of curiosity, how much does an annual membership cost?

Not sure. I paid $200.00 initiation fee, and $54.99 a month. And it is a 2 year contract. [/quote]

i paid ?250 for a year (this is around $500 total), and i didnt have to pay any initiation fee, then again, my gym owns :smiley:

I thought golds was a company like walmart (a example) where there is a main manager, state managers, regional managers and gym managers. Not a colaboration of gyms calling tehmselves golds for advertisement and such :confused:

32

[quote]Kayrob wrote:
To top it off, the contract was never valid because it was signed by a minor. For the contract to be valid, you would have to affirm within a reasonable time after you turned 18. Not paying and not using the membership is most certainly not a way to affirm the contract.[/quote]

The fact that they turned it over to a collections agency made it even harder to clear up. It wasn’t until the law suit was filed that the company accepted my birth certificate and admitted they were at fault. I personally think any company that would allow something like to happen is pure shit and I hope they eventually lose enough business because of it.

33

[quote]Sean H wrote:
Petedacook wrote:
XxMAGxX wrote:
Out of curiosity, how much does an annual membership cost?

Not sure. I paid $200.00 initiation fee, and $54.99 a month. And it is a 2 year contract.

i paid ?250 for a year (this is around $500 total), and i didnt have to pay any initiation fee, then again, my gym owns :smiley:

[/quote]

My gym was $260 for the year and no initiation fee :P~

I’ve always wondered how expensive I would pay to keep working out in a gym.

34

[quote]Petedacook wrote:
XxMAGxX wrote:
Out of curiosity, how much does an annual membership cost?

Not sure. I paid $200.00 initiation fee, and $54.99 a month. And it is a 2 year contract. [/quote]

holy crap!

I signed up at a brand new gold’s 2 years ago that was 5 mins from my house,it cost me $25 a month.there was no initiation fee or anything like that and when i told them i was moving to MS they said i could keep my membership and use the one in jackson(though i dont wanna drive 1.5 hours to workout and 1.5 hours to get home). Though they charged my account for 2 months after i canceled it.But I got it back via a few phone calls.

the local gym down here rocks. i pay $25 a month,no contract,all i had to sign was an injury waiver and give the guy my contact info.he plays nothing but rock(all types)and maybe 3 people talk while they’re there.im gonna miss when i move again in may.

sorry you got screwed bro,and when i saw the Bally Fitness commercial i called bs on it,they promised too much free crap for only $35 a month with a 1 year contract.

35

what the hell happened to gyms that will just let you pay cash, month to month?

I just don’t understand this contract thing. Why the fuck should I sign a contract. I just want to pay monthly.

In Mass. there is suppose to be a law that says a gym “has” to take cash monthly if the customer wants to. I have no idea if this is true, but I have heard this from several different people.

Now I will only pay gym memberships by cash only up front. Most gyms will let you pay for 6 months at a time.

36

[quote]Petedacook wrote:
I signed on with Gold’s a while back and was tod if I ever move, the membership will transfer to the other Gold’s gym.

Today I found out that was a bunch of crap. They said their membership does not transfer, but if I sign a contract at the other gym, they will cancel my current membership. I may get double billed for a month or two by the time they get the membership canceled.

Thats crap man. I don’t want to get locked into another contract for a year or more with Gold’s, and I definitely do not want to pay another several hundred dollar initiation fee.

Man, I swear I hate getting into a contract with a business.
[/quote]

I used to work at Golds as a trainer and the salespeople would pull this sort of BS all the time.

To get the package where you could use all gyms you’d have to buy the deluxe membership but they only transfer you for free if you are moving more then 50 miles away from that location. Which in the DC area is some bullshit, if you used to live in Laurel and moved to DC sure you are less than 50 miles away but going back to your old gym isn’t feasible.

Sorry you got screwed man that is some horseshit. A lot of times if you play hard to get they will end up knocking a lot if not all of your initiation fee down. They are really eager to to make the sale and have all kinds of leeway, especially if you tell them “I still want to take a look at competitor X down the street.”

37

[quote]five-twelve wrote:
what the hell happened to gyms that will just let you pay cash, month to month?

I just don’t understand this contract thing. Why the fuck should I sign a contract. I just want to pay monthly.

In Mass. there is suppose to be a law that says a gym “has” to take cash monthly if the customer wants to. I have no idea if this is true, but I have heard this from several different people.

Now I will only pay gym memberships by cash only up front. Most gyms will let you pay for 6 months at a time.

[/quote]I’m in ohio and back in the 80’s it was common for these gym chains to come into the area open a few gym’s do alot of advertising for a membership drive then shut down and everyone lost their money.

I never joined a gym unless they let you pay cash monthly or at the very least 90 days and no contract.if they want all that other shit i figured they were out to screw you.Hell when i lived in SoCal i used to work out at the original Gold’s several times a month ,and only paid 3 bucks a workout.

38

[quote]kroc30 wrote:
You have to watch that stuff and read the fine print. The Gold’s, Powerhouses, and World’s up around here all pull that crap. Unfortunately, if they’re the only deals in town, you’re stuck. [/quote]

Kroc,Dont know how close you are,but do you know if the Cherry Hill ,Gold’s is still in business.Used to have a friend that ran it yrs. ago.

39

[quote]WRCortese5 wrote:
mazevedo wrote:
This is horse shit. I hate businesses that pull this kind of shit. It always seems to “take 30 days” to cancel anything. Why? All they have to do is punch a few keys on the computer and it’s done. Pure horse shit.

I worked at Gold’s for two years. I believe on the back of the contract, it states that each gym is privatley owned, meaning each rate will be different at every gym. I told that to whoever asked me, then again I wasn’t a sales person so… I just was working front desk at night.

The 30 day cancellation thing is basically your “30 day notice” to cancel, so if you do it after you have been billed for example on the 10th and cancel on the 12th, you would get billed again next month on the 10th and your membership would be cancelled effective on the 12th of the next month. It says on the back of the contract. Everything is in print. Sometimes the sales guys don’t always tell you everything, that’s why you gotta read ALL of the print on the back before signing anything.

Sorry they misinformed you, I would be pissed off too. Good luck straightening all the bs out.

Speaking of pissed off members, how’s this for bad? Gold’s here just recently closed up basically with no notice to any members, staff, etc. The owners were the only ones who truly knew what was going on, the rest of us were up in the air. I had to find out the damn gym was going out of business through the newspaper, and even then I had no idea what was a rumor and what was true. The damn owner was still taking $$ from people, selling memberships, etc from people even a week before he even knew the place was going under. So if someone (This really happened) committed for 2 years for himself and his wife for $1000, he was S.O.L because he paid in cash and there was no way he was getting the $$ back. Why? Because the owner had no $$ to give back! It was a bunch of horse shit let me tell you.

I still haven’t even gotten my last pay check still, and this happened about a month ago. I’m in the process though. It was a shitty situation to say the least. ALOT of pissed off people. [/quote]

In the end, I do understand that there is always writing on the back of the contract that states all the conditions.

However, it’s always some tiny-ass writing that’s printed in grey ink (not black) and it seriously hurts your eyes to even read the firt few sentences.

Plus, if someone were to actually stand there for three hours and read the whole thing, the salesman would be standing there the whole time with a look on his face as if to say “hurry up and sign you dumb motherfucker, I need to make a sale.”

Basically, the customer would be made to look like an ass for actually reading it. This is also what I hate about these contracts.

40

[quote]Petedacook wrote:

No, I did not read the contract. I specifically asked if I need to read the contract,[/quote]

Thanks for that piece of comedy. You asked the salesman if you needed to read the contract?

Funny stuff.

I Think there might be somebody out there who could sell you some good Florida property. And don’t worry about the agreement it’s all in order. :wink:

Please tell me you’re 18 or 19. That’s the only way this could even remotely be considered not supremely stupid on your part.