I joined Gold's Gym as a result of making some decisions to change my body and loose weight. I joined a Gold's Gym franchise that was owned by Jerry McCall called "The McCall Gym Group".
Mr. McCall had trainers who were employed directly by him and trainers who were authorized to use his facility to train. Of course when I was joining Mr. McCalls Gold's Gym this distinction is never told to customers. I went to 2 of Mr. McCall's gym locations and talked specifically to the trainers that were working in the Gyms. There was only one trainer who took me seriously, and actually took the time to talk with me about technique, requirements, etc. I hired this trainer and his name was Phil Ruscigno.
A few weeks later as the other trainers observed my frequent training sessions with Mr. Ruscigno, they became angry/jealous. It was obvious to them, at this point that I was serious, I had purchased many sessions from Mr. Ruscigno and they had missed out on an opportunity. More importantly, is that Mr. Ruscigno was self-employed at Gold's where the other trainers had a portion of their earnings going to Gold's Gym, and therefore, whether I was a client of theirs or not, they made less $ than Mr. Ruscigno.
As a result, they had Mr. Ruscigno, suspended and subsequently fired. The reason I was given was the Mr. Ruscigno violated the agreement as a result of myself and others hiring him and that he crossed a "fuzzy" line between my hiring a trainer employed with Gold's vs. A trainer allowed to train clients usin a Gold's Gym facility. As a member of Gold's Gym, I was not informed of this, and upon showing up at a facility for a session only to find out that my trainer had been suspended/terminated. Gold's, McCall Gym Group, or Mr. McCall never made any concession for me other than I could find another trainer - however, the $ I had pre-paid to Mr. Ruscigno was never returned to me. Essentially, they were wanting me to spend more $ with their business and ignore the $ I'd already spent/lost.
Mr. Ruscigno, having been put into financial difficulty was unable to refund my $ to me either. The balance of what he owed me that was pre-paid was $350. After much correspondence w / Mr. McCall and Mr. Ruscigno, I only recieved $175 back from Mr. Ruscigno, along with a considerable amount of cursing, Mr. McCall's not taking responsibility for it etc. As a consequence I terminated my Gold's membership, and won't do business with Gold's Gym ever again in that they allow their franchisee's to behave in this manner. While its not a great deal of money, I had been unemployed when I joined the gym, and am still unemployed therefore, $175 is alot of money to me right now.
I feel the situation was abuse and exploitation of a member, and that Mr. McCall was ultimately the blame. If Mr. Ruscigno had in fact breached his contractual agreement with Mr. McCall, any disciplinary action, should have been chosen such that gym members were NOT adversely affected.
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