Friday, January 13, 2012

Golds Gym

Golds Gym is an example of corporations not caring about the people they serve, they only care about getting their money.
I joined Golds Gym this winter. I don't like gyms but I decided to join because it is difficulty to run during the winter in Utah. We have horrible air quality and sometimes it is too cold to take my boys in the jogger. I decided to go with Golds Gym because their prices were reasonable and they have daycare included in the price of the membership. When I signed up the manager suggested I meet with a trainer to get a fitness evaluation. I decided to go for it just to see. I went to my appt. and the trainer no showed. The people at the front desk didn't give me a reason or offer me an apology.
A few weeks later as I was getting ready to workout a trainer offered me a free session. I did the workout with him and I really enjoyed it. I decided to sign up for four sessions with the trainer and just see if it helped my running and over all fitness. I paid $130 up front for the four sessions. I made an appt. to meet with the trainer again in a week.
I showed up a week later and the trainer wasn't there! The manager said he had no idea where he was and that someone would call me to reschedule. I waited over a week for someone to a call and no one ever did. At this point I decided the trainers at Golds Gym weren't doing their jobs and decided I wanted a refund. I called the corporate office and learned when I thought I was signed a contract for four sessions, I actually signed a contract for 12 months of training sessions. I also learned I could not get out of my contract without selling my contract to someone one else. So part of this is my fault, I know better and I signed a contract without reading all of the details. But I also feel like if a company sells you a contract and then doesn't meet their part of the deal why do I have to pay. I said as much to the customer service representative and I kept saying it. I made her very angry, so angry in fact she started yelling at me and telling me if I didn't pay Golds Gym would ruin my credit and then she hung up on me. I called back and asked for a supervisor to call me. I did some research on line and realized Golds Gym doesn't let people out of contracts and that if I didn't pay I would have my credit ruined.  So I called the next day and asked to talk to the supervisor or the trainer's supervisor. No one ever called me back. I called everyday for a week and a half. I even left emails asking for help getting this resolved.
Finally on Wednesday I called and asked to talk to the person in charge of the supervisors. The receptionists at the corporate office was very nice and helped me get in touch with that person. Finally that evening she called me back! I explained my story to her and she did have the decency to seem shocked by the behavior of her staff. But she couldn't really help me get out of my contract. She set me up with a new trainer and she would call me in a week so see how things were going. If things weren't going very well we would work out another solution.
So this morning I got up, got me and my kids ready, dropped my boys off at daycare and went to the gym ready to work. The trainer wasn't there!

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