Bally's Total Fitness (need advice)
 

I went to a Bally's total fitness yesterday to sign up.
When I got there, I recieved the usual pressure sale and was given an offer that seemed too good to be true.
I'm a little nervous that l might get ripped off. I never trust salesmen, having worked as one for a little while.
I was wondering if anyone here has a membership with Bally's and if they like it.

im about to go to Bally's right now.

be prepared for the pressure sell. They love it there

go there to work out, get the most out of it. dont go to pick up chicks, that shit is wack.

also its best to go with headphones on and a hoodie so u dont get pestered by the "talker".. u know the people that know you and want to chat while u are trying to get your work out on.

thats my :2 cents:

All gyms give offers that are to good to be true. Its like a casino they know the odds are in their favor from the start.
Most know they can only have 100 or so people in the gym, but will sell 3000 memberships ect. Simply for the fact that most will stop coming within 2-3 weeks and be stuck paying monthly for a year or more.

oh ive had a membership since i was 18.

I plan to go to workout. I am going to get the most out of my money.
I just hope I don't get charged for a lot of things I didn't know about when I signed up.

Sorry. Do you like it there?

I had a membership to a Bally's in Tampa back in 96' and it was a bitch to get out of. They said in order to get out of it, I had to live farther then 25 miles away from one of their locations, which I didn't when I moved back to San Diego.

So, I ended up giving them my brother's address, which was fortunately farther then 25 miles.

Not sure if their policy has changed on this or if you plan on staying in your city for a longtime, but I would check on this. It was a pain because I had to send in documents and do the usual paper trail to get it sorted out.

cross sale ?

They did say you had to have a valid excuse to get out of the contract,
I guess living 25 miles away from a location is one of them.
They also said a doctor's note would get you out.
I'm sure I can find a doctor who would hook me up.

Thanks for that info though. I was wondering about getting out of the contract.

Dude, is this your first time ever leaving your house? come on man.. Just go there and signup if you want a membership.. Use common sense.. if you think your gonna get ripped off.. its not like there are "secret upsales" that you arent informed of.. your not going to pay a $40 a month membership and also get signed up to 50 magazine subscriptions.. its a freakin gym man

Here is an interesting tidbit:

For 50% of the people who join fitness centers, the week they join is the last week they ever step foot in the gym.

Damn, that's pathetic! So they say that you can *never* exit the contract unless you give them an excuse that's acceptable to them, like the 25 mile thing? Besides being totally unenforcable, that's just bush-league tactics.

I know, but he was so vague in his sales pitch, it made me nervous.
I will sign up, but I wanted other opinions. I assumed that all those people that work out there probably didn't get scammed.

they want 2 proofs of id, and then you still have to be careful. if i was you i would HOLD OUT for a better offer. they will try telling you that they have a special offer thats only good for like 1 more day and if you dont sign up you will have to pay more. dont believe it. before you sign anything wait until you are almost done with your free trial period. just tell them its too expensive and you wouldnt do it unless you had a better price. if they want like $40 a month tell them you wont pay more than like $25 and stick to it. they might not give it to you at that price, but stick to it until your period is almost over and they will keep coming up with better offers. every time you go in there to work out the salesperson will bug you to sign up, they will call you too.

Dame I haven?t worked out in 2 years. No time!

Just drink beer!

:glugglug

:thumbsup

also.... if they promise you anything get it in writing.

Anybody who joins a gym like Bally's is a tool.

If you want to be in shape, just do 4 sets of pushups every day, 4 sets of crunches, and jog a few miles.

If you want to be really muscular, buy a weight set and bench for $150. It will be cheaper than your gym membership.

http://www.ballysucks.net/

you'll thank me for sending you that link.

justin
focusadult.com

and dont listen to hawkeye.

A gym is a controlled environment that is free of the distractions you'll have at home.

you go there, you use calibrated equipment, in a clean and safe environment, are motivted by dozens of people looking better than you, or worse , depending on your personal makeup, and have a chance to focus on the body parts you need the most work on.

Just find the right gym for you, thats all.

Justin

I got a pretty good offer from them. I will probably go with it.
but he did give us the "good for one day only routine". They had a special one day deal because the Marlins won, really funny.
I nearly laughed in his face.

lol

I can't believe there is an entire site devoted to Bally's hatred.
Thanks for the link. I will definitely read it

Why the fuck would anyone do business with a company that forces you to do business with them? A doctors note to get you out of the contract?

Bally's is for pusses that can't get their lazy asses off the couch and happens to see one of their commercials.

Go join a real gym such as Golds Gym where there's no contract and there's not a bunch of overweight soccer moms thinking they look good.

I like Gold's, but Bally's is within walking distance of my place.
Gold's is much further away.

As long as Bally's has the equipment I want, it will do

If you want to go to a social club for fat middle agedrecent divorcees and soccer moms then Bally's is probably the place for you.

Otherwise, join a real gym and get some results. Gold's, and World gyms have locations all over the place.

Werd-

Yep, I got the same treatment when I signed up with them about 4 years ago..

Lets just say I'm with another gym now and will never go back to Balleys.. or L.A. Fitness for that matter

Bally's fucking sucks! I was with them a few yrs ago and I got locked into a 3yr contract for 1,000. The only way to cancel is for a medical condition or if they don't have a facility within 25mies. DO NOT JOIN THEM! I'm with another gym and I pay $50mth. I can cancel anytime I want :2 cents:

They are FORCING you to do business with them by having you sign a contract? Do they put a gun to your head when they show you the contract? If you dont like the contract dont fucking sign it.

what was the deal they gave you? if you hold out they start offering you free power bars, etc. then they should lower the price if you hold out even longer.

Bally's also reports to the three credit reporting agencies! They report it just like a regular tradeline. If you pay late it gets reported and you get bad credit.

It was signup and get another person on your account free.

Since I was signing up with a friend of mine, it comes out to 50 down, 30 a month.

It is a three year contract, and a $50 cancellation fee.

Is that good or bad.

Fuck Bally's, even if you got the membership for $10/mo with no contract it wouldn't be worth the paper it was printed on.

If you're serious about your training (no sense in doing it if you're not) go to a real fitness center where you will have access to real equipment, real trainers and you can get real results.

The equipment at Bally's looks fine. They have two workout rooms and plenty of cardio equipment.
Gold's and World's are definitely more macho, but this is more convenient than travelling 30 minutes just to get to Golds


Are you a Gold's Gym rep by chance

You could do what I do it's cheaper than getting your membership in person and gives you full access to the gym. I pay $20 a month and just order my Ballys membership over the net.

http://www.ballyfitness.com

I would risk going to the YMCA in the Castro District before giving any money to an "operation" like Bally's. Seriously, they have the worst consumer record of any health club.

membship at Depauls gym!

Mostly little hotties, I switch around the aerobic machines and strike up conversations with the hunnies.

I personally goto golds, I just go really late at night when they don't even check memberships, so I just walk right in. There's VERY LITTLE talking in that place, and everything you could need.

Just join bally's though. If golds is 30 minutes away, trust me, you won't go that much after a while, because it will seem like a huge hassle to get down there. You can pretty much ignore those "anti company sites" by the way. Just about any company doing a lot of customer orientated business has one of those about them. Dell, Bestbuy, Paypal, etc... they generally do a good job, but a small 1% gets fucked over, and that 1% is the squeaky fifth wheel that makes a WHOLE lot of noise. Chances are, you probably won't end up in that 1%.

of the people i know who go to bally's, none were charged for things they did not order HOWEVER a few kept getting billed after their contracts expired.

a nice thing about bally's, though - after your contract period runs out, you can get a mega low price per month - i paid $11 per month for the last year. my friend rick has paid $6 per month for over ten years.

i have belonged to bally's twice. the best thing about them - they're all over the place. if you're visiting someone or on the road, you can always work out. the worst thing about them is the meat-market atmosphere in many of them, or maybe the crowds that you can find at busiest times.

if you want to cancel ballys you have to do it right. you need 2 proofs of address to send with your cancellation letter. when you send the check write on the back something like " By siging here i terminate _____'s obligation to ballys contract" or whatever. also send the letter certified mail so they cant say they didnt get it.

My ex got suckered in on a deal. It was supposed to be a short term membership plan. She didn't like it. Couldn't cancel. They kept sending us bills despite written and verbal requests to correct the erroneous charges.

I finally solved it by just ripping up the bills and throwing them in the trash can.

:1orglaugh

i've never heard of a short-term membership plan for bally's.

Had one since I was 16. Most of the clubs suck and are over sold which mieans they are really busy after work and it is hard to get on anything. One good thing is that I only pay $5 bucks a month for the membership. Try to get low renews.

Masturbation Man

i have a membership with bally's and i like it. signed up for one year and everything is fine. just make sure you understand what you're signing and you'll be fine.

i'll keep that in mind when my year runs out in july :)

any tips of getting under 10 a month?

That doesn't sound that great, just go buy one off Ebay,
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tegory=16 709

FlyingIguana, they usually offer it automatically at the end of the period of your contract, but you'll be looking at $11. $5 and $5 were for old time members.

I worked out at a Bally's for about a year. I had no probs.