Gold's Gym
Reviews and Complaints

The owner of the companies son (we will call him BOB) is second in command. His wife we will call her (SUE) recently got hired, then promoted after 4 months of working, to a supervisor position. Releiving a much more qaulified employee of her duties, and ignoring much more qualified employees that were available for the job, and had worked for the company much longer. Sue is still not qualified in her duties. Many complaints are made yet nothing is done. Employees work under fear, often picking up slack for sue, while Sue does whatever she pleases. Running her own side business in the work place with out giving the company a %. Most employee's are fearful of even expressing how they feel, and just quit. It's hard to watch. I have recently put in my two weeks because of this. Affects it has caused. A big problem that the Golds Gym Utah owner fail to see is the devastating effects nepotism is causing in their workplace & that has been going on in their business. I mean it is normal for a son or daughter to want to continue the family business, but there is a limit to where you can go with hiring people from your family. The most important aspects of this problem are for me legitimacy and competence. You need to make sure before you hire any family member in a business you manage that they have the adequate skills for the job. Which Sue, does not have. If you show special treatment and ignore better suited candidates than it will most likely backfire on you, because you will have poorer business performances. When it comes to legitimacy, it is crucial that the family member you hire can prove capable, and be a valuable member of the team, not promoted after 4 months, otherwise, his or her co-workers will start feeling frustrated and discriminated, and again your business performances will drop. I will focus on other problems that might are arising regarding this nepotism in the workplace in the paragraphs to come, but I just want to point out that if these issues of competency and legitimacy are resolved, than there shouldn’t be any problem with you hiring someone from your family as long as you don’t show him or her preferential treatment. Saldy for Golds Gym this was not the case.

Lose the trust of your employees. The biggest problem this has caused which you will have to deal with is your employees losing trust in you. Nepotism in the workplace becomes a problem when your employees feel that the person you have hired isn’t qualified for the job, or that someone better was rejected. If it comes to this than it will be very hard for you to try and earn back the trust of your employees. And if you are unable to get your employees to trust you than for me the only solution is to start over again because without trust any business is doomed.

Hiring unfit people for the job. When Sue does not know how to perform duties such as closing, desposit drop, etc it is a big problem that this company will have to deal with when people that are not qualified for the job are promoted. Don’t let sentiments get in the way when it comes to business. Don’t hire someone just because you believe it’s a family obligation. Any business is just about simple math. You need to make sure that the people you hire bring value to your team and produce a good quality product which you can make a profit of. So sentiments have nothing to do with it. If the person you hired is not bringing extra value fire him or her without any regrets.

Lowers employee morale. Nepotism in the workplace is hurting you in the first few weeks no matter how qualified the person you hired is. It is inevitable for employee morale to drop when you hire someone from your family. They will immediately make the connection that you are preparing the person you hired for your job when you retire, and so their chances for promotion will be blocked. It will take a very long time for that person to convince the rest of the staff of his or her qualities no matter how good he or she is, because prejudices will always exist in any group.
Increase chance of lawsuit. Your Nepotism in your workplace might also bring you a lot of unwanted attention. You must realize that whenever you are hiring somebody from your own family to work for you, you are opening the door for litigation for any unsatisfied employee.

Employees might start undermining the new person. Prejudice can be very impressive in some people and it might even go so far as trying to ruin someone else’s work. If some people of your team feel that the person you hired is unfit for the job they might actively try to bring him or her down by sabotaging his or her work.

Misconceptions. Many people have misconceptions about certain things like nepotism in the workplace which you will not be able to change no matter what you do. And these misconceptions might lead to a very tense working environment.

Employees are leaving. If some valuable employees feel that there has been committed a grave injustice by you for hiring a member of you family than you might find yourself with a full blown mutiny, with all of your employees deciding to leave. This is why your turn over rate there has been extremely high since the promotion of Sue.

Nepotism in the workplace has become a real problem in your business.

Don't ever sign with golds gym! There are plenty of other fitness options in austin to choose from. Golds gym cares nothing about you as a person, even if youve been there for 10 years! Like I was.

They ran a promotion for $50 that came with personal training and a gym back with accessories.
I paid the $50 and did what I needed to do. I emailed my schedule and my exercise. Eating habits to get started.
I was dropped off altogether. I told the general manager, who passed me to the manager, who threw me back in with a trainer to get taken care of.
It happened again! The same way. Just left in thin air, like I was invisible. I told again, and then it happened a thirda time.
This was a 12 week program, and now 6 weeks into it, my chances are over. I tell them to cancel me, give my money back, and cancel my membership altogether because ive never been treated like such crap in my life.

They call me to collect dues two months later, saying I didn't pay. I said.. I canceled my membership and where is my $50 refund?

They pushed me all over the place and still demanded I pay these two months after I canceled my membership, which they simply didnt cancel me. And they see that I haven't been in the gym for two months, since I canceled!

I've given $350 a year for over 10 years now. I would have gone another 10, maybe 20-40 years with them. Im only in my early 30's and ive been there since I was 20 years old. What does that tell you?
All that for $50?
Gold's doesnt care about you.. How ignorant of them in business to lose so much for only $50!

Corporate has treated me like some kind of scammer who doesn't like to pay. Please! 10 years, folks, 10 years! Auto pay. I've never missed a payment.
I eat lunch that costs me $50 a meal. The money isn't the problem here. It's being treated like trash. Like my time isn't worth something. Over and over again. It's disgusting. It's inhumane the way ive been treated and the frustration ive been through. Drug through this process of going nowhere, over and over again, and then to be spit on with disrespect, not acknowledging how i've been treated, and now sending me to collections before ever following up with me after we left off from a corporate call that she would do some research and get back to me.

Hi,
I would like to warn anyone who is thinking of joining Gold;s Gym in Foxboro. It is nothing but a scam and the employees have never been ruder. I was a loyal member for 3 years and when I decided to move out of state and wanted to cancel my membership you would have thought I asked for a million dollars. I was 5 days late to the 30 day notice because I was out of the state..they told me that I would then have to pay for next month to if though I would be 1000 miles away in another state. They said the wouldnt charge me the annual fee of 49.99 so after 30 minutes of arguing I setted for paying an extra 20.00. Come June I look at my bank statement and the 49.99 was taken out of my account. I give Gold's gym a phone call and the lady politely told me she would look into it and refund me and give me a call back. I never received a call back..a week later I called again and spoke to the "manger" I have never spoken to a more rude arrogant man who is suppose to be running a business I argued for 15 minutes on the phone before hanging up. I am a customer I should never be disrespected the way I was. He accused me of lying. I just want to prevent this from happening to anyone else so save yourself the money and go to a different gym where you are treated with respect.

So I joined golds a little while and before I signed anything I asked if I ever want to cancel how would I do that? The lady Ashely said you pay 199.00 that's all. So now I want to cancel due to the rude customer service and the lady's part having about 5 machines in their. So Ashely tell me yes it's 199 to cancel plus they need 3 months notice. I was so shocked because what's the 199.00 for them?! I got the number for head office and will be contacting them. Ashley is the " accounts manager" for a manager she is extremely rude and lacks customer service but wow was she ever nice when I was signing up. Anyways READ the reviews before even thinking about joining golds on 130th ave (mckenzie) in calgary! Worst customer service ever!

First of all, I've never heard of a contract that never ends, however, I signed it for 1 year. After the ending of my contract with Gold's Gym, I was still being charged monthly fees, including a one-time maintenance fee as of today. I called to ask 'why' am I still being charged when my contract is over. I was given an 800 # to call, & a rep told me that I have to fax, or mail in a cancellation statement which would be submitted in 30 days, and any fees within that time frame will still have to be paid. So I obviously will still be paying next months fees as well. My thing is, I thought a contract meant that there is a SPECIFIC agreement within a SPECIFIC time-frame from 'this date to that date', no if's, and's, or but's about it. This is the first I've ever heard of such a thing. This is a gym for goodness sakes, even homes & apartments which are so much more in worth do not make contracts this ridiculous. Once a contract is over, it's over, unless re-signed. I don't appreciate the garbage they are throwing out to me. I had moved out of the area & was not able to attend Gold's Gym because there is no Gold's Gym in my new area of residence, however, being the person I am, I still payed my monthly fees due to the contract I signed, and this is the thanks I get in return. I hope Gold's Gym go out of business quickly because I hate seeing people trying to misuse others. People work hard for their money & are simply trying to stay healthy throughout all the stress by working out in your gym, stop scamming Gold's Gym!

Gold's Gym Mooresville cares just about money and profits!

They are cheating on the contract terms and not letting me out.
By law, they only need my notification i am moving 30 days prior.
The gym owner, Kevin Craf, demands ridiculous financial proof of relocation, even though its against North Carolina Statue!
So if I am moving internationally and cant show i have a job, rent or school, I have to continue to pay!

The owner wants me to pay even when i cant use the gym! He refused to take my proof documents because they were not in his loosely put together "list" that he even wrote in the contract (against the law!)

In addition, the gym is dirty and overcrowded! They always run promotions getting all kinds of strangers in and making it impossible to exersize for the members. Also, AC is bad, mashines are breaking down and the staff is RUDE

I used to use gold's gym until I gained an injury, I had a personal trainer at the time. Right from day one they had problems charging my bank account even though there's enough money in the account, they'd say they couldn't debit the account but didn't say why, so I look at my account but see no attempt of them debiting the account, so I'd write out a cheque every so often until they got their act together. I looked back on my account recently and notice they hadn't debited my account at all since I joined the gym, now (after 8 months) they're trying to debit my account of $1680 every two weeks (it's happened 3 times so far). My question is, if I still owe money to this gym (which I highly doubt), are they in their right to debit my account however much they wish?

Every time I go in to the gym here in bellmead I always receive horrible service. I walk in and people will be in the way. Sometimes they have the card scanners where you can scan them yourselves, other times they do it. Well tonight I waited at the counter for 5 min or longer with 3 employees just standing there offering me NO help! Even when my Keys were in the air. I'm 20 so i don't usually care about service but it's every time. I hate how I get no help and have to find things out on my own basically. They need to hire better people who will actually give you a hand when you need it! It isn't hard. Also there is this one girl who isn't in uniform so I'm not sure if she works there but she stands behind counter distracting the male workers from doing there job. UNPROFESSIONAL. Not sure who I complain to but I will find out. This is ridiculous :)

Here are some CTV news links that people should watch before they buy memberships at Gold's Gym Edmonton. Don’t ask which location, they are all owned by the same man, Nader Chehayeb. They lady being interviewed is on Facebook trying to warn people about what is happening over at Gold’s.

http://watch.ctv.ca/563992#clip563992
watch.ctv.ca

http://watch.ctv.ca/565429#clip565429
watch.ctv.ca
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Company sent out ad (see photso) of $19.99/month memberships (with some restrictions). Also says "Believe it. No Commitments. No Gimmicks. No Kidding."

I go to sign my wife up for this deal and ask what the restrictions are - the membership person tells us that there are two clubs in the area that she would not be able to use. I ask if that is all of the restrictions and he says yes. So I say I want to sign her up for the $19.99/month special, at which time he states that there is a $300 initiation fee. I show him the advertisement and that it does not say anything about an initiation fee. He responds that "at $19.99 per month we would have everybody working out here." Another membership manager said "we put that ad together to get people in the door. If we put the initiation fee on there, nobody would show up."

I sincerely hope they face a class-action lawsuit from all those people who signed up because of this blatantly false advertising claim.

I am being charged for a month that I paid for I have receipts cause I paid in cash and it wasn't applied to my account. I have been fighting and arguing to get the credit it noted in my account and they still wont credit my account. Now there making a excuse that they need to research my transaction number. I have been waiting for a month now and still they say I owe money.. This is wrong and I feel like im getting taken advantage of.

Personal Trainers are notorious for using their positions to satisfy their own sexual needs. One example is Michael Martin who worked at the Gold’s Gym in West Jordan, UT until July 2010. Michael Martin not only took advantage of vulnerable clients, but co-workers as well. In May 2010 a Gold’s Gym member and client of Michael Martin and mother of five lost her seven year old daughter. In an effort to get life back to normal she returned to the gym after taking a month off to grieve. Less than a month at the gym Michael began abusing her vulnerable state. He had convinced her that he was there for her and that they had a “connection” until he got her to sleep with him during an emotional breakdown about the death of her daughter. She later learned that he done something similar to one of his coworkers. He now is supposedly in the US Army.

Since there are so many having more or less the same problem with Golds Gym billing practices e.g. cancelled but GG claims "They did not receive the cancellation mail" I am planning to start a class action lawsuit against Golds Gym. I simply had enough of this BS!
Anyone interested email me with contact info to: gogycal at gmail.com

Personal Trainers are notorious for using their positions to satisfy their own sexual needs. One example is Michael Martin who worked at the Gold’s Gym in West Jordan, UT until July 2010. Michael Martin not only took advantage of vulnerable clients, but co-workers as well. In May 2010 a Gold’s Gym member and client of Michael Martin and mother of five lost her seven year old daughter. In an effort to get life back to normal she returned to the gym after taking a month off to grieve. Less than a month at the gym Michael began abusing her vulnerable state. He had convinced her that he was there for her and that they had a “connection” until he got her to sleep with him during an emotional breakdown about the death of her daughter. She later learned that he done something similar to one of his coworkers. He now is supposedly in the Army.

I was a member of Gold's Gym, than I found out that Workout World charges my card instead of Gold's Gym. I was told that Gold's Gym in West Roxbury exists no more, and I was automatically transferred to Workout World members. Besides my Gold's Gym membership was cancelled . I have no notification that I was switched, I have no contract signed with WOW and I don't want to. I contacted ABC company but I was told that my contract with Gold's Gym allows me to be "sold" to different business, despite the fact that I was never notified about those changes, never was send any membership card to Workout World, etc. I cancelled this fraud membership but I want my money back and I want ABC company to stop charging my account.

This gym has more use than any gym I have ever gone to. This translates to revenue in my opinion. Yet, this gym ALWAYS has broken cardio machines, weight machines and specifically, this week, the water fountain won't work. A gym without water! Even when attempts to fix a machine are made, they still don't work properly. Treadmill belts slip, give and bounce uncontrollably. The elliptical machines grind and move roughly. They have tanning beds which I have never used but my wife says you have to clean them after the person in front of you leaves and the bulbs don't have much power. I have been a member here for years (over $25/month per person for both my wife and myself; tied to minimum of 3 year membership in original agreement AND when you try to disenroll your membership they tell you OK, and then you get a letter from a collection agency - National Fitness is the company you must call to disenroll) and it is a constant frustration that all the equipment is garbage and the facilities as a whole are dirty and old. The staff are lazy it looks like they spend most of their time working out. The trainers are the biggest joke. They hound members (my wife included) with phone calls and interruptions in their workouts. I should note that its obvious the out of shape male trainers focus ALL of their attention on women. My wife had to call one back and quite sternly tell him to NEVER call her again. He was calling from his cell phone, not a business phone. When I called him from a number other than her cell phone he answered "Big Pimpin' Studios".
This place is grotesque with the staff and facilities as a whole. When compared to other Golds Gym facilities I've been in, to include the one on Bragg Blvd in Fayetteville and North Hills in Raleigh, this place doesn't deserve half the membership fees it requires.
Please, do something to remedy this. Currently the staff do little, and hand made signs put up claiming "put your weights back from where you got them, or else" doesn't seem to cut the mustard. I mean, its a paid membership gym. Yes, members should clean up after themseves but in the event they don't or there is disarray, staff are PAID to keep this place professional, healthy, safe and functional.
If the situation continues to worsen in the coming months I'll be cancelling both my wife's and my own membership. I also plan on contacting the BBB and any other outlet that will listen as requests for improvement are proving ineffective.