Gold's Gym contracts are a rip-off

Beware of signing a contract at Gold's Gym in Auburn Alabama. They make it very difficult and inconvenient to cancel. During the initial sign-up they will say that it's company policy not to do a month to month service or they will quote a huge month to month fee to encourage you to sign a contract to save money. They will also try and get a signing fee from you for the privilege of becoming a member. The cell phone companies at least give you a free phone. Gold's Gym tries to talk you into a sign-up fee and delivers nothing or at the very best tries to make you believe they are giving you a huge concession to waive the sign-up fee.

My daughter signed a 2 year contract after they assured her she could cancel upon Graduation from Auburn one year later (I don't know why they just didn't let her do a one year contract - oh wait - it's company policy) and told her that she could just come into the office and take care of it. This was a lie. They also neglected to tell her of the $50 cancellation fee and count on clients not reading the fine print. When she went to cancel the contract she was told she had to contact the company corporate offices in Columbus, GA. It took her awhile but she finally got someone and they told her she had to fill out a form and provide proof she was living somewhere else (what!!!). It turns out the form filling out thing is just a delaying tactic so they can continue to charge monthly fees. This form filling out process took 2 months!!! And they wanted to be paid for those two months plus the cancellation fee even though my daughter was no longer located in Auburn and it was their process that was so slow!! This tacks another couple of weeks to the process to pay the bill and hopefully for them they can continue the charges and send another bill later. My daughter will never use Gold's Gym again anywhere especially in Auburn, Alabama. Their business practices are slimy at best and doesn't encourage a lifetime commitment from their customers which I just don't understand. Maybe it's the locally owned nature of Gold's Gym. They figure they will never see this person again anyway so why not try and milk them for another couple of hundred. The local Gold's Gym hides behind "corporate policy" and Corporate hides behind "Each Gold's Gym is independently owned".

P.S. If you do sign up for membership don't fall for the personal trainer scam.

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My wife and I signed a one year contract with Gold's Gym which has recently expired. Apparently there was some fine print on the contract that allowed them to charge a monthly fee AFTER the expiration to my credit card. In order to cancel this monthly fee I must fax a letter or notice that I would like to cancel, (which I did) and then wait 60 days for termination. I have not received a confirmation of receipt from Gold's for the fax and my registered letter was returned. Corporate has not answered the phone (I called at 10am and 3pm) and has not returned my messages. The employee at the local gym told me that they would refund the money and cancel the account immediately, then during another visit to ask why they had withdrawn YET AGAIN, I was given the same fax number and a good run around about corporate policy and registered letters for 'my own protection'.

This single franchise has received 24 complaints in the Kansas City area alone in the last 10 years and 12 in the last 6 months alone. To prove this, a link to the BBB is below:

http://kansascity.app.bbb.org/search/results.html

Everything that I have described has been without embellishment and cannot be disputed.

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This is 100% true. Never allow Gold's Gym to get your phone number because they will call you all the time. I had knee surgery, and this was not good enough of a reason to let me out of my contract. I had to pay over $1,000 because they sent debt collectors after me!