Gold's Gym

This is a copy of the letter I emailed to the Golds Gym corporate office:

Several weeks ago I received a phone call from Allstate Collections informing me that I owe a sum of $80.00 to Golds Gym. The following day I called the Golds location in question, and spoke to a gentleman named Justin. I explained to Justin that my boyfriend and I opened our memberships together and that the payments for both memberships were withdrawn directly from my boyfriend's checking account until he cancelled them last year. Justin informed me that my membership was never cancelled, and that the payments for my membership were being withdrawn from my boyfriend's account on a month-to-month basis until his card expired, at which point the account went into default.

After many phone conversations, Justin acknowledged that a mistake had been made on the part of Golds Gym and promised to take care of the issue for me. I called back a few days later to confirm that the situation had been handled. Justin told me that he was still working on it, and that he had to wait for his manager to come back into town before everything could be resolved in totality. In the meantime, I asked him to contact Allstate Collections to let them know that the situation had been rectified, and Justin said that he would.

Yesterday, at approximately 4:50 in the evening, I called Golds again to make sure that everything was cleared, and was told that Justin quit on the 31st of December. The front desk clerk transferred me to another gentleman, and I explained everything again under the supposition that he could be of help. This staff member told me that there were no notes left by Justin regarding my situation and that there was nothing he could do to help me. When I asked to speak to his manager, he said that he would try to take care of the situation and that he would call me back.

Roughly ten minutes later he called back and detailed my two options:

Option 1: Pay the $80.00.

Option 2: Pay $40.00 and reopen my membership at $20.00 a month.

Obviously, these options completely undermined everything I had told him, everything that Justin told me and were of no help whatsoever. I asked once more to speak with his superior, and he told me that he was, in fact, in charge of the billing department. I asked for his name and job title. He gave me the name Jim Harrison and told me that I did not need to know his job title. When I asked to talk with the general manager of the Gym, he told me that he was in charge. I expressed my disbelief, and he told me that the General Manager quit and that no one was in charge.

At this point, he put me on hold and called me from a new number (480.970.9239). When I answered the second line, he gave no explanation of this odd behavior, and instead told me to call 1.800.693.3948. Again I asked for his job title. This time he told me that he was no one, just a floor guy. I asked how he had access to my membership information. He ignored my question, and again gave me the 1.800 number. When I asked to speak to the manager on duty, he said This is it (referring to the 1.800 number), Im giving you the number to the top guy of the whole company. He put me on hold again, and a moment later the line disconnected.

I called back, and the same front desk clerk answered the phone. He seemed quite confused when I asked to speak to Jim Harrison. Apparently, no one by the name Jim Harrison works there. Again I was transferred to someone else. This time a gentleman by the name of Mike Storui answered the phone. When I asked for an explanation of what was going on, he said that he did not know and asked me to explain the situation again, which I did.

I will spare you the details of this conversation, but I assure you that it was as lengthy, unhelpful and bizarre as my conversation with Jim. In the end, Mike told me that there was nothing he could do and referred me to the same 1.800 number, which turned out to be Member Services. I cannot be sure whether Jim and Mike are in actuality the same person. I prefer to think not, but at this point I would not be terribly surprised.

I called Member Services, and finally spoke to a trained and professional staff member who provided exceptional service; this gentlemans name is David. I explained the situation again to David and also told him about the experience I just had with the staff at Golds. He apologized and explained that there was nothing he could do except refer my case to another agent.