World Health Club/GoodLife Fitness Club Prices.....

[pylon]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I would never ever go back to Gold's gym, it nearly got to the point where I was getting a lawyer involved to get away from them.

Plus it wasn't a fun place to work out at. Too packed and you had to basically wait in line to do anything.

Gold's gym are blood suckers. I had a cancellation clause on my contract for a legit health issue. So what the person did, is write in on my copy, and not theirs. Unfortunately, I didn't notice they did this. So when the time came, for me to cancel, I went in, showed them what I had, and they said fine. 5 months later I get a collection notice in the mail for unpaid dues (I had also closed the credit card they were billing.) Went back in to speak to the manager, and they accused me of writing the cancellation clause on my contract, and they decided to keep billing me. When I asked why they didn't notify me this was their intent when I came in with a doctors note and cancelled 5 months ago, they told me "No problem, you can cancel." Her response was, "You're a liar, we don't deal with liars, so we lied right back to you, and kept billing you." Those were the actual words that came out of her disgusting face.

The person that amended my contract no longer worked there, and I cannot have collections on my credit because of my job, so I was forced to pay a $400ish cancellation fee to get out of it. However, I did get my revenge on them the honest way, and converted 4 Golds members I worked with and knew over to Talisman when I was clear to work out again. At $30 a month each, I figured I cost them in the neighbourhood of $12-1300, and I got a free month at Talisman for each referral. So it was almost a wash.

But now that this discussion is in the open here, hopefully I can cost Golds more business 5 years after they screwed me. Do not go to Golds, they will lie to you, and make you pay a cancellation fee even if you have a legitamite reason to cancel. They are a very dishonest company. And will take advantage of people who have legit health issues. Talisman on the other hand is awesome. You can cancel without penalty, and suspend your membership if you need to for health or any other reason.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by username

How does refusing cash make them a con artist? Doesn't it just make it easier on them to not have to take your 55 dollars cash every month and instead just direct deposit the money?

What do you mean by auto renew? You get a membership and once you're over your initial year or whatever it is you can quit at any time. What are they auto renewing - one month??

Yes, it makes them easier on them to bend you over for more money. You need to be a Philadelphia lawyer to decipher their contracts. Most of them also require written notice to quit. What a bunch of crap.

[username]

Originally Posted by habernac

Yes, it makes them easier on them to bend you over for more money. You need to be a Philadelphia lawyer to decipher their contracts. Most of them also require written notice to quit. What a bunch of crap.

Weird because I've been going to gyms for the better part of 12 years now and I've never had an issue switching gyms. I've changed gyms probably 5 or 6 time during that period and it's always been a smooth transition......that being said I was never a member at Gold's which is where the complaints seem to be directed towards.

[ranchlandsselling]

Pylon that sounds awful. I'd be so mad I'd likely go back and steal something worth a significant amount of money to break even. Weasels.

WHC also has that option to put your membership on hold for the small price of $20 biweekly or something ludicris like that. It's not much cheaper than the rate you're already paying. Why TF would somone want to hold on to something for a few months and pay almost the same cost.

Amazingly I ditched WHC because they were being cheap #######s and wouldn't waive any of their awful sign up fees when I had been a member 4 months earlier (I took summer off) and wanted to bump my rate when I had been a member for 12 or more years. So I went to the YMCA.

[darklord700]

The entire Gym business is predicated on signing up tons of people and keep charging them for eternity. And the Gyms know people will stop going there after a while so they coerce people into signing contracts.

Now I just go to the Ys and pay per use for like $12 a time. No fuss no muss, if I don't go, I don't pay. I will never sign a contract with a gym in my life time.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by ranchlandsselling

Pylon that sounds awful. I'd be so mad I'd likely go back and steal something worth a significant amount of money to break even. Weasels.

What bugs me even more, is we are/were neighbors with them, and we have a lot of mutual clients. Tons of times people in our service dept, would go for a workout across the street while their car was in the shop. I even mentioned that to them. Nope, didn't care. I told the manager this could cost me my job, and her response was "Good, I guess you have incentive to pay this off right away then."

This is their LOL record at BBB:

http://www.bbb.org/calgary/business-...ints#breakdown

I was so happy when they went under/were bought out by Good Life. From the horrid conditions at the Northland location, I can only assume they went Bankrupt. That place was a hole.

[Bobblehead]

Yeah, I tried to cancel, "it didn't go through", and when I called I told them to cancel and I didn't want any more charges processed while the person on the other end argued that the contract required 3 months notice(!). I told them to check their records, I hadn't scanned in in longer than that, and that I wanted my membership terminated immediately with no further charges.
They continued to bill me. For months. I called them and they said they saw the notes on my file that I wanted cancellation with no more fees but they couldn't do that so they just ignored the cancellation request.
Of course now I "needed to speak to a manager" but he was always busy/at lunch/on break/on the phone/ but would get right back to me. Which never happened. I left lots of messages.
I called the credit card company and had the charges reversed. Apparently there is no way for the credit card to refuse a charge from a place. I was told I would need to call in each time and have it removed.
Eventually I'm not sure which message did the trick but the charges stopped showing up.

That was 4 or 5 years ago and I won't pass up a chance to try to steer people away from Golds.

The facilities were decent. It is purely the billing practices that I hated.

If you plan to join and never ever quit, they will work fine for you.

[AcGold]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

Have they upgraded it recently? I havent lived in the city since the summer of '04 so I dont know whats changed, but I went to Mount Royal College from 2002-04 and they had just finished renovating it, and I was told at that time that it was superior to the UofC after all the renovations. Awesome, awesome gym when you consider all the extras that come with it(racquetball, basketball court, great track upstairs, steamroom, pool & hot tub). And to add to all that, it seriously has the most perfectly temperatured pool I've ever been in. Man do I miss that gym. I dont know what rates are like there as I was always a student, but if you live around the area you should consider checking it out.

UofC's is a little better now, they upgraded the track area a lot. I've been to Mount Royal's and UofC's and like the UofC's due to all of the features you mentioned being more spread out and less claustrophobic. The only one that I find way better than the UofC was at the UofS which for some reason has the best gym around.

Note to self: f#$% Gold's Gym

[JobHopper]

I must be the minority here that likes Golds and didn't like that they were bought out by Goodlife.

The gym I go to is still a good facility but seems a bit more crowded since Goodlife took over.

I just liked it better when it was Golds, good atmosphere with many regulars.

A gym membership is part of my lifestyle, for as many times as I go and what I pay for it it's worth it, even if I take a break once in a while.

The other option would be city facilities, they have drop in rates I believe.

[Voodooman]

Originally Posted by pylon

What bugs me even more, is we are/were neighbors with them, and we have a lot of mutual clients. Tons of times people in our service dept, would go for a workout across the street while their car was in the shop. I even mentioned that to them. Nope, didn't care. I told the manager this could cost me my job, and her response was "Good, I guess you have incentive to pay this off right away then."

This is their LOL record at BBB:

http://www.bbb.org/calgary/business-...ints#breakdown

I was so happy when they went under/were bought out by Good Life. From the horrid conditions at the Northland location, I can only assume they went Bankrupt. That place was a hole.

You're a better man than me Pylon. Had she said that to my face, there would have been some hard C bombs dropped, and anything not nailed down on the counter would have been in motion.

But really, what you should do if she's still there is slash her tires. Then when she takes the bus to go home, shove her in front of it. Measured response, that's the key.

Back on point, I'd recommend the YMCA to anyone. No hard sell, cancel or suspend at any time, and your membership is good across Canada. Nice, clean facility (at least at Eau Claire), and much less busy and kid-filled than Talisman.