Gold's Gym

Don't be fooled by the $10/month thing you hear about in their ads. The business gets off on the wrong foot right away, because the last thing you learn right before you want to sign a contract for membership is that there is a $30 annual fee (?WTH?). There's some sob story about how this goes toward getting new equipment etc. OK fine, but advertise $12.50/month instead. This is a monkey trick.

Their ads in the newspapers or radio state in plain English $10/month... it ends up being $12.50/month w/ the $30 annual fee. OH and this doesn't even mention their other monkey trick of sign up fees. You MUST pay for your first and final month up front, so that's $20. Then there's some monkey trick "sign up fee" that varies, depending on their promotion. Wes (a decent enough human being) offered me the "Student Discount" so I only had to cough up $20 instead of $50. Apparently the Gold's company suffers a lot and has to offset its costs by adding you to their list of donors, so they hit you up for, in my case, $20 for the privilege of tithing $12.50 a month until they either raise the rates on you, or you cancel.

Regarding cancellation. Beware this monkey trick. They'll hit you up for the $30 "annual fee" (the one that for all intents makes your monthly fee = $12.50) preemptively. In other words, not after you've been there a year, but before. In my case they helped themselves to the $30 during my second month as a member. So if you decide to pull the plug, you're already out $40.00 (1st and last month mandatory up front) + $20-$50 registration + $30 annual. Basically if you change your mind within the first month and want to quit, you lost up to $120... Wait there's more monkey tricks.

You need to make up your mind within the first month that you're going to quit, and send them a letter before a month passes, IN WRITING, to their Appleton office. No you can't just drop it off at the desk in green bay. You need to ask them for a form at the Green Bay Gym, fill it out, purchase a stamp, and drop it in the mail with the correct address on it. The monkey trick about paying for your first and final month comes into play here. If you wait more than 30 days after you join, they'll help themselves to $10 more of your dollars, & your fiasco will cost you $130 instead of $120.

I joined Gold's on Oneida after I had been eyeballing it several months. I intended on joining over a year ago, but some unprofessional hack of an employee working the desk really revolted me. I didn't have my wallet with me and she demanded my drivers license. That's a fair enough, honest enough request, but the way she did it was so disgusting that I threw up in my mouth and didn't go back until about a year later. I guess I'm glad I waited because contracts were even more of a nightmare back then. I'd been using the gym @school, anyway.

This time I went b/c I was entering summer break from school so I already had it in my head I was signing up and I walked in early June, 2011 to do so. Lucky for yet another extremely rude and unprofessional hack at the front desk who told me they don't honor the 7 day passes, I already knew I was going to join regardless of how crass these hacks are. What's weird is, I printed this 7 day pass off of their GREEN BAY website, only to have some hack rudely inform me they don't honor them. Other than these gross encounters of the 3rd kind w/ their ghetto unprofessional staff, the gym itself is nice. I like the cardio cinema and their weight room is awesome. I generally ignore the creatures that troll around wearing "Golds Gym Staff" polos, with the exception of a few of them. The night time staff is pleasant: the buff dude at the desk (Brad?) and the Mexican cleaning guy. These guys are the reason I work out @night, they're chill and friendly. I avoid going during the day b/c it's crowded & u c a bunch of unprofessional a**holes running around in "Gold's Gym" polos.