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Bally Total Fitness

Bally • Sales Practices, Contracts • The 12-Day Rule • "Lifetime" Contracts • Moved Away • Maintenance • Child Care • Opening Late • Headphone Policy --- News • Bally's Customers Hope To Exercise Their Rights

We get so many complaints about Bally Total Fitness, it's a workout just to sort through them. Maybe the most important thing to know about all health clubs is that the contracts are legally binding. If you want to cancel your membership, you must do it in the manner specified in the contract -- in writing, via certified mail, usually. Otherwise you end up like Kathleen (below).

Kathleen of Waterford, MI (8/4/05):
In April of 1990, I went to the Waterford Balley's (which at that time was called Vic Tanney) with my sister-in-law to see what it was like. The girl that met with us talked me into joining. After I filled all the paperwork out, she told me that I needed to bring back a cancelled check to verify my checking account. She also informed me that if I wanted to cancel that I should contact them within 4 days. The following day I called and cancelled the membership. I was then under the impression that everything was taken care of.

Now 15 years later, as I am trying to get my finances in order to buy a house, I find out that I was turned over to a collection agency and I owe over $1100.00 to Balley�s. 15 years later!

Bruce of Falls Church, VA July 31, 2009

please note the following correspondance with Bally's: a letter of dec 10 2007 follow up email numerous phone calls I spoke to the manager of the club about a verbal assault in the gym the first time I visited the club. I told them I did not feel comfortable (safe) in thier club and they told me that I was welcome to use the gym that is 30 miles away.

I sent a letter and made a phone call to corporate within 3 days of starting the contract telling them that I was not interested in spending any more time at their club. -------------------- According to the BBB, Bally's fitness has more than 3000 complaints of a similar nature. I;ve been sent to collections for 1500 and my credit rating is in the toilet

elena of Brooklyn, NY July 29, 2009

Yesterday i came to this club.Swiped my card, and was on my way downstairs,talking on my cell phone, when a guy grabbed my hand and said he needed to speak to me. I came to his office, and he said i can`t come to this club because its a different club, and he showed to me the membership card that was different from mine, but was still bally total fitness. I asked him what was the difference he said to me that i am paying to little for my membeship that people in this club pay 85 per month and asked me if i see the difference now.

I told him that it doesn`t matter how much i pay, that i am a member for 3 years and got a discount and i know that normally people don`t pay that little, but rather 60-80 a month, on what he asked if i can give him the names of people who go there, so that he could look up at their accounts. I told him its illegal to give people names to go into their account to see all personal info. Then i asked him if i could speak to a manager, since i felt assaulted and humuliated, and he said the manager was not there.

i came home and called to the club, asking a manager. A person picked up the phone and introduced himself as Andrew, i asked to speak to the manager, and he said that he was a manager,on what i said that 1 hour ago when i was at the club he introduced himself as an assistant manager ,not manager. I asked him why he is misintroducing himself, and reminded him that i was the lady who he didn`t let into the club, and then he started arguing saying to me that he was a manager while real manager was not in the club, and i said you can not claim yourself a manager when you are not, and then he was trying to tell me that i need to open up my ears, since told me right away that he was an assistant, not the manager, and asked him why he was so rude to me and if he think he should talk to customers that way, and he replied that if i have problems with myh ears i should call at all.

I feel insulted and disrespected, since nobody ever talked to me that way, grabbing my hand, telling me that i pay too little and going to the cheap club, and then saying to me that i have problems with my ears. Employees should be fired for this behavior. I am 26 years old, work as an QA/QC Officer Assistant, have 2 degrees and and never i would talk to our clients this way. Please take any actions regarding this situation.

Mumtaz of fullorton , CA July 29, 2009

I enrolled my daughter in Bally fitness but due to the family emergency , I cancelled her regestration with in 12 hours , they cancelled her regestration but didn't refund my money 168 ,please help to get my money back , I called them, e.mail them , fax them but no answer.

John of Denver, CO July 28, 2009

I'd like to talk to one of the lawyers you work with briefly and clearly about discrimination which occured to me while a member of Bally's fitness - what specifically constitutes discrimination in terms of terminating a contract. As you know, Bally's makes it almost impossible to get out of a contract. Thanks much. Felt very unwelcome at the club and asked for my contract to be terminated 1 1/2 years ago. Nothing was done.

tracy of n/a, CA July 28, 2009

i joined bally up last year 2008 october. i was joining for the 18 per month special that was going on the salesman talked me into signing the 30 per month contract i said i was a traveller and was going home to New Zelaand soon. he said no problem if you fax your ticket through showing your flight details they will cancel no problems. sounded great i joined.

i returned to USA this year in may. only to find they are still taking monthly payments from my credit card which is now overlimts and i am paying fees too. not only that i just received a letter from the debt collectors saying i owe them 1000 dollars? not only have they not cancelled my membership on my request they continue to take monthly payments and now say i owe them 1000?

i have tried numerous times to get hold of someone but it says if you want to speak to someone on the phone number they provide you will be charged to your account for speaking to a human! hence faxing my details into them back in Dec 2008, when i left the country, way more than 25 miles outside the ballyup availability! so here i am a returning visitor from a different country still getting charged membership fees and now a collection agency is after me and i do not even know what for

Bally of Portland, OR July 24, 2009

I was going out of the country for several months so I decided to put my membership on hold. I called both the club as well as corporate (navigating their phone system is a nightmare) and made it know I would like to membership to be placed on hold. They said fine, 4/month. While away, I noticed Bally continued the 39/month for my membership. When I returned, they refused to refund me the money, despite my circumstance.

On top of that, they threw out my clothes in the locker I had rented on a 6 month term because it had lapsed a week prior to my return. "Customer service" said no to the cancellation of my account and wanted to be paid for the remainder of my 3-year contract. On both occasions, customer service reps seemed uninformed and curt. They were literally talking over their own logic. A very frustrating experience.

David of Arlington, TX July 22, 2009

The Bally's in Arlington TX closes and Bally's offers to cancel my membership due to the fact that the next closest facilities are quite a good distance away. When I call to cancel my membership I get the "OK" and I'm told that my business with them is finished. Now almost two months later I'm getting calls that I have to pay back months on my membership and a cancelation fee. They won't send a bill and insist that I pay by credit card over the phone.

Cliff of Rocky Point, NY July 21, 2009

For the past several weeks, the Bally's gym has felt more like a sauna then a professionally run workout facility. Apparently Bally's has instituted a new policy that requires the local facilites to keep the air condidioner temperature set to a much higher then normal level(perhaps to save money). The current temperature is not at all condusive to a productive workout, and in fact is unsafe for most people to excert themselves. You can't breathe, people are dropping weights because it is nearly impossible to get a grip on wet (damp)equipment, the front desk often opens the front doors to let in the the "cooler" New York July air, bacteria is most likely growing on everything we are touching.

From discussions with the folks that work at the gym, the local gyms can't control the thermostat and tell you to call corporate (who you can't get on the phone - I have been diconnected 3 straight times). When you do actually get someone on the phone, the only one who will talk to you is a customer service rep with no authority to change anything, but dutifully logs the complaint (which to add insult to injury gets read, and then routed to your local gym who has NO control over the problem), I find that simply incredible.

At this rate, someone is going to be hurt - or worse - and justifiably Bally's is going to have a serious lawsuit on their hands. I know that I am not the first to report on this issue and the reps themselves have told me that Bally's has loggged complaints nation-wide and they have still not done anything about it.

Cindi of Lindenhurst, NY July 21, 2009

Bally Total Fitness' Corporate Office has decided that the air conditioning should be set at 74 degrees nationwide. Although they have received many complaints about the heat in the gyms since this change (at high volume days in the summer the temperature in the main room at the gym I go to is in the 90's), they refuse to take any action or return customer calls. Because of the heat inside, you can't work out as hard, people have left overheated and not able to breathe as well. Upstairs, men have dropped the weights because they are sweating so much that they slip out of their hands. Local gym management says that their hands are tied but you can't get through to corporate on the phone. Customer service merely loggs the complaint. The heat inside the gym is so bad that in the middle of July, the front desk opens the doors to let in the "cool" air from outside because it's colder outside than it is inside. Yesterday, one of the members said that they were concerned about the bacteria that was most likely growing on all of the equipment we were using from the extreme heat inside.

prabjot of greenwood, IN July 21, 2009

Bally total fitness went bankrupt in june i was forced to cancel membership spoke to a representative and was told it would take up to a week to get everything canceled and i should see a refund for first and last month payments which were made when i got the membership. Its now almost the end up july I am still being charged it is impossible to reach anyone and they will not let you talk to a supervisor.

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