Last Christmas, My husband wanted to get us a nice healthy present. He thought he would go around to all the new gyms to see which had the best membership, and came home from the first gym he went to, with a years membership for both of us. The guy who signed him up sure was a smooth talker, (the initiation fee was only $100).
Well we might have had a couple days to cancel, but the gym by our house with all the promises would not be open until February. The only reason why he got me a membership as well as him is because the guy promised him there was a child fun center exclusively for members! Wow, we can not afford daycare for our 3 kids, to go work out together, but now we could at our gym, where everything is part of our membership! You could imagine our dissappointment and shock in February, when we went to the gym to work out together for the first time.
We had no money to our name for anything extra like taking the kids out to McDonalds, because we were now spending $50 a month for a gym membership. And now to get our kids into the Fun Center they wanted payment. To work out together 3 times a week with my husband was going to be an extra $30 dollars a week! Well to make a long story short, it is now July and I have only used my membership four times. My husband has a very busy work and school schedule, so it is hard to trade off babysitting for me to go work out by myself. Besides I never would have gotten a membership to go work out by myself. And all the other things they promised: Well the raquetball and lap pool are free, but all the classes are an extra charge.
A YMCA membership would have been much better for our family. Not only is their daycare free to members, but swimming lessons for the whole family are included and there are things for the kids. Gold's gym does not allow any activities for children under the age of 16. Anyways, don't want this to sound like it's only buyers regret, because it is, but is also the fact that the guy who signed up my husband made it sound like the childcare was included and that this was a family friendly place.
Now as much as we are unhappy with Gold's Gym, we did sign a one year contract and even though i never get to go, we do pay on time every month. The $26 dollar charge and the $28 charge come out every month automaticly. Last week only the $26 charge went through and we had $200 dollars in our bank account. I thought that was strange, but didn't worry about it, thought it would go through later. Now I got a letter from National Fitness Financial Systems in Layton Utah, who apparently forgot to put throught to $28 dollar charge and want us to send them $44 dollars to make up for it!
They want to take me to a collection agency and ruin my credit for their mistake. And charge me a 20 dollar late charge for a payment that is one week late. (The one payment went through on the 20th of May and the letter was dated the 27th of May.) Do I recommend Gold's Gym to anyone... No! Do I reccommend anyone ever using automatic payments to pay for it (like NFFSystems)... No! But of course my husband wanted to pay by check every month, and
I guess they do not trust their members, because they made him sign up with thie EFT out of our bank. We have had enough trouble with EFT's and Banks to know that they make mistakes, I don't trust them, sometimes them take out double payments. When they do, it's your responsibility. When they don't take any at all, you're still in trouble.
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