Me and my wife recently joined the Gold's Gym in Columbia, SC. We are pretty determined to lose weight and I thought we should talk to a personal trainer. We had a free meeting with a trainer named Brad. He was awesome, he gave us a great workout and talked a lot about the ways to achieve our goals properly and quickly. He went over nutrition and what the fastest way to lose weight is as well as the mistakes people without trainers make. It seemed like a dream. The price he quoted for me and my wife to have 1 session per week each was pretty high (280 a month or 35 a session), but I was under the impression that each session was 1 hour long (I asked Brad and he confirmed they were) and it seemed like it would be worth it. Plus he said we would get a customized nutrition plan and customized workouts for each of our goals (my wife's was to lose weight, mine was to tone up)
Me and my wife then asked if we could think about it and come back later, to which he replied no because the price he quoted was only guaranteed for that day and it could be different at a later date. We decided to go ahead and do it and paid $300 for our first month as well as the application fees.
We had our first meeting with our trainer, TJ, the following Monday. Our trainer then proceeded to go over all of the same information we got on our free session with Brad the Friday earlier and give a basic description of what foods are good and what foods are bad, the same thing you get with a simple google search. He rushed through weighing, taping, and determining our body fat percentage, once again something we did during our free session. He then gave us our "customized" workout and showed us where the machines were that were in the workout. This all lasted about a half hour and then he said our session was over. I told him I thought that they were supposed to be an hour long, to which he said no, they are only half-hour long sessions. I thought oh well, half of our workout is spent doing cardio anyway, no need to waste a trainers time for that.
We went to the gym two more times that week and did the workouts prescribed. It didn't take long for us to realize that we had the exact same workout with just different weight amounts. We were both unable to do some of the exercises at the weights he suggested and I ended up straining my right bicep after doing the upper body workout. For the next three days I could not fully extend my arm and then realized that he should have done at least a preliminary weight test to find out how much we could lift before giving us our workout.
Me and my wife decided to cancel after that one session because we felt that the service did not even come close to matching the $70/hr we were paying for. I called CBPT's customer service telling them I wished to cancel, they proceeded to tell that if I wish to cancel I have to give 30 days written notice first and that there was a $500 cancellation fee. I told them that I only used one session and would not be using any more and had already paid $300. I told them that that should cover any cancellation, to which they disagreed. I then received a letter stating my service had been canceled. I though everything was great until they charged me again.
I called them to ask why and was told that it was because I did not pay the cancellation fee and I would continue to be charged until it was whether I used the service or not. I then received another letter stating that I need to pay the fee and that I would be charged until I did, and that any charge due within 30 days of the fee's receipt would also be charged, meaning that after I canceled and paid the fee I would get charged for one more month.
I have now been charged over $600 for 1 session and have canceled my card that they are charging to prevent further charges. I refuse to pay a single cent more to this company. Stay away at all costs! Do not sign up for them, their free session is amazing, their service after you pay is horrible.
Tony
Columbia, South Carolina
U.S.A.
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