I was and still am a Gold's Gym member, but not by choice. They have done everything, including lying, to make sure my membership does not get canceled.
I became a member of the Gold's Gym in Santa Maria, Ca in February and was very happy with it. I found out a few months later that I got accepted to CSU Monterey Bay, which is about 3.5 hours north of Santa Maria. I informed Gold's Gym that I would be relocating and was told by an employee that it was not a problem. Once I was at my new destination, I was supposed to go into the Gold's Gym in my area and give them my account information to transfer it over. I did this and found out that are owned by different people, and they could not transfer me, I would have to cancel at the old gym and open a new account. It is this misinformation that started the fiasco.
I had just moved up to Marina, CA in August to start school, and called the Gold's Gym in Santa Maria to cancel my membership. I was told that only a manager had the authority to do cancellations, and that that I needed to physically bring in a hand written letter with my signature stating that I wanted to cancel my membership and why.
This was a huge inconvenience since I was now so far away, but my wife was to be in Santa Maria for business soon after, in late August. I gave her a letter, hand written and signed by me, and she went in to cancel on my behalf. She was told they could not cancel my membership because she couldn't provide "proof" that I had moved. We had only lived there for a week or two, and didn't have anything with our new address yet. I probably could have gotten a document with the needed information if I was told about this in the first place. It is hard for me to get down to Santa Maria, since I work full-time and I am a full-time student, with a wife and two children.
I then preceded to call and received the exact same response every single time. I was told that I would need to speak with a manager, but there wasn't one on duty at the moment, but they would be in later that day, and would call me back. I left my name and number to no avail. I called at different times—mornings, afternoons, nights, weekdays, and weekends. It didn't matter when I called, I received the same response. I asked for a manager's name, but they wouldn't tell me. I then preceded to fax and e-mail my request with the proper information, on many occasions, only to never get a response. I tried calling ABC Financial, the company that handles the payments, but they couldn't stop the payments, I would have to go through Gold's Gym. This was not getting me anywhere. Finally a desk employee looked at my account over the phone and said my membership was up for renewal in February. I was told that If I did not want to renew, then do nothing, my membership would not renew unless I chose to do so. I made sure to state that I definitely did not want to renew my membership anyway.
It is now May and I am still getting charged. I have placed about 50 phone calls and numerous e-mails and faxes over the last 9 months and have never received a return response. Never. I have never been able to speak with a manager or someone in charge. Not once.
Finally, today May 16th, I closed my account at my bank, as a last resort to prevent 55 dollars a month from taken out further. This is a major hassle, as it was the bank account I have had for over ten years, with many automatic payments and direct deposits. I now have to re-arrange my life because of the bad business practices of Gold's Gym.
I am still a member at Gold's Gym against my will, even though my membership has expired four months ago and I chose not to renew. At 55 dollars a month, for 9 months, that's 495 dollars they owe me.
It might not yet be over because as of today, May16th ABC Financial said that I will still be responsible for payments to them until I cancel my membership with Gold's Gym.interesting how they seem to work together on this.
Please do not support the Gold's Gym in Santa Maria and the bad business practices they conduct. Upon filing this complaint, I noticed that this particular Gold's Gym has a history of monetary issues and complaints, from previous employees and customers.
Don
Marina, California
U.S.A.
0 comments