Bally Total Fitness Consumer Reviews - Page 7

QUEENS VILLAGE, NEW YORK -- Anyone. Please I am begging you DO NOT GO TO BALLY TOTAL FITNESS. After my second pregnancy I decided to work out and I was so idiot by choosing btf. I did the membership with them. For the 1st month they take the money out of my account which they told me that will be better to do, with no problem at all. The next month came, they take the membership payment twice, after fighting with them, they finally put it back. In the month of september the next thing I know is bally take out $1165.00 on my account instead of $58.56.

Please if you can run from Bally Total Fitness run as soon as possible and run far away as you can, and don't ever ever ever let them take money from your account. They will take all of your money. The customer service, the supervisor will treat you as a **. They even hang up the phone on me on top of my money that I'm fighting to put back on my account. Be aware.

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -- Bally completely scammed a friend and me. The over-pumped guy on steroids who signed us up flat out lied to our faces. He gave us some "great" promotional deal and said their contracts are month-to-month and we can cancel at any time. Simple. Easy. No strings attached. NOT! Then he handed us the contract to sign away our lives and bank accounts.

Well, I never used the membership, so after a month, I called to cancel, and guess what? I couldn't because there was no such thing as just canceling at any time for any reason like I was told. It just so happens that I ended up moving away for a while the next month because my dad was sick. You would think that I could then get out of for relocation. Not without a sneaky $50 fee I learned.

I was getting bills for over $500 owed for a yearly membership. I called the initial steroid man and he said to not pay anything, I owed them nothing and I had a right to cancel. That didn't help because I am still getting phone calls and bills in the mail asking me for credit card payments. No way! This is ridiculous. Someone has been deceptive from the start.

Absolutely do not join this gym if you think for ANY reason you may need to get out of a contract. There are other much better gyms that really do allow month to month contracts these days. I do not appreciate being lied to, especially when my money is involved.

Bally's didn't screw me over know why? Because I actually read the contract before I signed the agreement and I willingly agreed to the terms and conditions. All of you guys have no one to blame but yourself for being so stupid and not taking the time to read the contract. Most states are bound by law to give 5 days to cancel any type of contract if you are not happy. It's called buyer's remorse. Okay, so you might have been misled but you act like this was the first time... Car dealers, gyms, grocery stores don't care about people so please save everyone the sob story. It's your own fault for not taking the responsibility to read over what you sign... Who does that?

I have been a Bally member for about 10 years now and I have visited all the 41 locations in Southern California, such as Los Angeles Area, San Fernando Area, Orange County, Ventura County and Inland Empire. I find out that Rosemead Bally is the worst out of all, maybe the worst out of the whole Bally nation. The reason is that they always keep their facility dirty, the cleaning staff are so busy talking to other members, receptionist busy for doing makeup and will not help the member who is waiting.

As well as members, they do not know how to work out and do not know how to wear proper gym attire, they wear sandals or thongs to work out and the staff doesn't care about it. Also in the locker room it is full of urine smell and paper towels are all over the floor, the pools smells like urine also. My advice is, go to any Bally except Rosemead.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- I have never been to any gym as filthy as this one that is located in Rosemead, Los Angeles right off freeway 10/Rosemead Blvd. In men's locker room you see paper towels all over the floor day and night (instead of using cloth towel guys here use paper towels to dry their body after shower). In the sauna and steam room you see guys shaving their beard, head (yes, I am not kidding, guys shave their head in the steam room), legs, armpits and toss those hairs on the floor, on the bench. Once I sat on a bench in the sauna and ended up with big pile of sticky curly hair stick to my towel.

Guys also use the hand dryers on the wall to dry their socks, underwear, swimming trunks and their feet (they lift up their legs and cling their entire feet onto the machine to dry the bottom of their feet). This is like a third world country zone. Maybe this the reason you see so many guys here don't wait in line to use equipments or you rarely see people putting the equipments back to where they belong after they finish them.

Do the managers know all about this? Sure they do. My friends and I went to talk to their managers many times. Every time we get the same answer "We knew about those issues and we are working on them as we speak" and years go by, nothing changed if not getting worse.

MIAMI, FLORIDA -- We were informed yesterday in our Salsa class that starting next week all the dancing classes will be a charge of $3 for the members. When I started my membership at Bally's a year and a half ago I did it because I was interested in the dancing classes, that was my primary interest, I change my month to month membership for a full 3 year contract in order to use different localizations and avoid to miss my classes. Everyone in the class was very disappointed, because they started for doing "master classes" and charging $10 every 3 or 4 weeks, but now this is not enough and they are charging all the classes extra.

I've just visited a Bally's in NYC to (maybe) become a member. My wife has a Bally's membership so that's why I wanted to go there as well. In the meeting I had with the salesperson I was warned that I should probably avoid the steam room. Wink, wink. My wife instantly knew what she was talking about, I didn't. When I asked, it dawned on me. She (Bally's salesperson) joked I would have to be careful not to drop my soap. She continued to tell us she caught two men just last week having sex. When I asked what they would do against it, she said they couldn't do anything since they're members!!! She also insinuated that whether gay or not I might be harassed.

Mind you I'm from Amsterdam Holland and in Amsterdam I was with a gym which was known to have a big gay population. However in the contract it was said that "anybody engaged in any sexual act will be barred from the gym and their membership will be revoked". What I don't understand is why they would continue to allow these practices in their gyms without taking any actions!!! Needless to say I'm unsure this a gym I'm willing to join due to the fact that they do not protect their members.

LAKE GROVE, NEW YORK -- I have been a member of Bally Total Fitness in Lake Grove, NY since May of 2006. I joined to use the pool. Since I have been a member the pool has been closed numerous times. After a ton of complaints the Area Director told me that the Health Dept has been coming down on them because their lifeguards do not have the proper qualifications.

Today, I went into the sauna, found that it was not working and decided to go into the steam room. When I went to walk in, a naked man walked out, and when I got in to the doorway I witnessed two other naked men commencing in homosexual activity.

I immediately went to find the manager, who of course was not there. I complained to the front end supervisor and asked that the manager call me immediately. I have called the corporate office, the Area Director, and the manager again and have still not heard back from anyone. I can only be lead to believe that this is normal for this gym.

CAPITOL HEIGHTS, MARYLAND -- On more than one incident, I have experienced very unfortunate unprofessional childcare attendants at the Bally's Total Fitness Center in Hampton Mall, Prince George's County, Maryland. The most recent incident involved a lady by the name of Monique who was supervising two small children upon my arrival to the nursery. When I walked in, she was in no uniform to identify herself to be a Bally's employee, she was sweating profusely claiming to have just finished a workout, she failed to introduce herself until I asked who she was and where the attendant was for childcare.

Also, her back was turned to the children and she was not interacting with them. As a matter of fact she was eating a plate of food with her hands. 1 complaint was filed with the manager of the club who failed to take any real action regarding the matter. The next time I saw this attendant, she was working the counter of Bally's eating candy.