THE WORST PLACE EVER!!!!!!
DO NOT JOIN

Im trying to get my daughter out of a contract that has messed her credit up. Excellent information.

I was a GM of a BTF in MD for over a year and I will let all of you know that my bosses were all crooked! The Area VP George Hernandez was the worst. They didn't care how I signed people up just as long as his area made it's daily numbers. Fitness dosen't matter to these people it's all about money. All the fitness talk is just hot air.

I will provide a follow-up soon however, like many others, I have moved and Bally's will not honor the cancellation policy as stated in their contracts. They are "allowing" me to buy out my contract for 50% of the balance (about $400 is what I'll have to pay). Reluctantly, I am going to pay it since otherwise I'll have to pay $800. During the process, I obtained the email address of their Senior VP of Membership Services and the email/phone of their Director of Membership Services. As soon as my issue is resolved, I will post this information (all public information, mind you) so you can call them directly and see if they can help you out.

Bally's refuses to cancel my membership and has submitted negative information to the credit bureau.

Bally sucks! My husband and I joined a 30 days free trial membership in January. At that time, the sales man told us that we can cancel the membership anytime during the 30 days, and at the end of the 30-day period, we can choose either month by month or by year. Since we bought a house and the builder of the house offer a year's free membership of their club, we went to the club and canceled the Bally membership at the beginning of Feb. The manager there told us it was done and the membership was canceled. They were lying! Yesterday, we found we were charged $63.90 on my credit card. I called them and they asked us to call the customer center(It was the first time we have ever heard they have a customer center). The woman in the customer center told me that the membership is still active and we cannot cancel it, because the contract is a 3 year contract and the reason of the cancelation is not eligible, and whatever the sales man said to us has nothing to do with them. (Isn't this ridiculous???) Believe it or not, we have never recieved any contract copy from them. When my husband signed the contract and asked for a copy, they said they would mail it to us. But they never did! They are playing a trick to fraud the consumers. I am now trying to find a lawyer for this! Bally sucks! Never join Bally!

When you sign up with Bally's you are signign two things: one is a high interest loan. The other is your name in blood that you will never leave. DO NOT EVER EVER EVER sign a contract with Bally's.

bally's is no good

If I could give Bally's a O rating I would! I have been through hell and back with them for 13 years!! That is NO joke and certainly not an exaggeration. In 1992 I joined Bally's in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A month after joining I was hospitalized with a blood clot in my leg and in my lung. I was in pretty rough shape and was advised by my physician to "take it easy" and not exercise as rigorously as before. The Bally's contract that I signed stated that I could cancel my membership with a valid doctor's "note", which I had presented to them with other medical documentation. I thought I was clear of my obligation, but I continued to receive bills. I spoke to customer svc many MANY times with NO results whatsoever. Finally, Mr. Blackwell (from Bally's Customer Svc) said that they had canceled the membership ... period. That was back in 1993. In 1999, I went to buy my house and saw that Bally's had reopened a claim against me and that I still owed over $500 to them. I, again, fought this tooth and nail and had the debt removed from my credit ... foolishly thinking that I had heard the last of them. Well, 3 days ago I received a bill from a credit agency who had acquired my Bally's unpaid bill for $589.... they are ruthless, relentless and evil! STAY AWAY from Bally's!! They will get you coming and going, living and breathing and probably STILL want more when your dead.

I have found the entire experience at Bally’s to be disappointing, from the cleanliness of their clubs to the over crowding and constant waiting in line to use equipment. In addition, their customer service is terrible, and the run around tactics employed are despicable. When I called customer service to I was told the club will not allow cancellation due to “dissatisfaction” with service provided. This concept in of itself is ridiculous. If a client isn’t satisfied with the service being provided a moral organization would stride to make the situation better, by either improving the level of service, or dissolving the agreement. Instead you rely on a contract that is poorly communicated, and deceptively written to lock you in. I have since moved to a distance of greater than 25 miles and I am still getting the run around. The latest scam is that they increased my dues by 54% after one year because I had to pay a "membership fee" and "club dues". When i asked what the dues included they said use of the club and machines, when I asked what the membership fee was for he stumbled and said, "well also for the use of the machines". I said, so basically you felt like taking more money for the same service, he said "well sir, it was in your contract". The hell it was. All I can say, is STAY AWAY from this company. I have told any one with ears to stay away and will continue to do so. The only compnay I know of that is more poorly run is UHAUL truck rental. They took advantage of my younger (and gullible) sister, like you wouldn't believe. But that is another story...

Well.. i had a contract in Bally's but my question is, why they are promoting something like pay as you go without contarct?? I mean, it doesn't make any sense because at first they want everybody to get the contract and they have to pay for it for 3 years no matter what!! Then, they gonna have that promotion pay as you go.. don't you think it would unfair for those people who already had the contract?? then i asked them, i'm just gonna cancel my contract and switch to the pay as you go because i haven't been active going in bally's for almost 3 months now because of my schooling and they told me that i'm gonna pay more.. i'm not only gonna pay the full amount of my contract but also im also gonna pay some fees by switching to other contract.. I'm like??? WHAT???? so why the hell are you promoting something cheaper??? I mean it'll be fine with me.. if their service is so good but its not!! the swimming pool are so dirty it seems like they're not changing the water for 2 to 3 days and the washrooms are so dirty.. and then when you're gonna pay you're monthly bills when its not automated. they gonna charge you $5 dollars extra by giving your account number. I'm like why? it doesn't may any sense.. they said its only for debit?? I'm like didn't you know that if you use your debit it will automatically deducted by your checking accnt.. IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE RIGHT?? it seems to me.. that they just wanna get more money from their customers and they are so strict by getting from your account but they don't give a damn cleaning and serving the customers better than just making alot of profits from their customers!!!

i was a former employee and they do scam customers and their district manager mike mallonee sleep with all his employees

I signed a family contract and am regretting it. I pay approximately $110 per month and none of us ever go because we have grown to dislike the club, the people and the atmosphere. I have lost 20 lbs in the past two months ON MY OWN. I have not gone to the gym for about 5 months. I am going to begin the process of trying to cancel the contract but from experiences I have been reading about, it sounds like a nightmare to try to do so. Bally's is NOT worth the money or the aggravation. It is always too crowded, never enough machines and muscle men growl at you if you try to use one of "their" machines. Thoroughly disgusting. This is what happens when brawn gets in the way of brains.

Whatever you do not get a gym membership here. I moved from california to upstate new york where there are no gyms anywhere nearby. The bastards not only charged me fifty dollars for the right to cancel(had I not moved more than 25 miles away from a gym I couldn't cancel period, from the second you sign the contract you are signing away thousands of dollars with virtually no way out) they charged me for a month that I was not anywhere near a gym because I didn't get the paperwork to them quick enough. The only way I would even consider joining this gym is if you have worked out for more than a year straight, if you do the typical go to the gym a couple times for a couple months then get bored, well this is the biggest scam ever and you probably paid a hundred dollars per time you went to the gym

I was on a pay-as-you-go no contract membership as well. I called in January '05 to cancel because I was moving to Nevada (where there ARE no Bally's) and they said fine -- you're cancelled. Around April, I'm still receiving bills so I call again. Oh there just trying to get you to sign up again -- disregard those bills, is what I was told. I call AGAIN in July because I don't want the bills anymore and they finally tell me that I have to write a letter with proof that I moved back in January. Ridiculous. Bad business practice and bad customer service. Don't bother. Go to 24 hour fitness if it's available or join a non-corporate gym. Save yourself the hassle.

Don't be fooled by the pay-as-you-go, my boyfriend and I signed up for that thinking they wouldn't try to screw us....but they are. We cancelled about 3 months ago and since then have recieved 3 phone calls regaurding our membership dues and each call we said we were cancelling. Now today, there is a bill in the mail for the last couple months. We were told with the pay as you go membership we would simply have to stop payments to be done....not at all true, we are still getting calls to confirm cancelation like they have told us so many times....bad place, crappy equiptment, dirty locker rooms, and lazy employees.

Bally's is very sneaky about taking your money. They are unavailable if you wish to cancel your account. DON'T JOIN!!

Re: Bally Total Fitness. Like so many others, I wish I'd done my research before joining this establishment. We (my spouse and I) have paid dutifully every month on our Bally contract for almost 2 years-then we discovered an accounting error-resulting in our having overpaid Bally's more than we had agreed to pay them for the entire 36 month contract. We immediately began trying to straighten out the problem-without success. Now they're trying to say that we owe separate finance charges, dues fees and membership fees. Not so-according to the contract we signed with them. Since they haven't worked with us to try and resolve this matter over the past 4 months, we've decided to sue. Don't join. Buy your own equipment, or do anything else to get fit, but don't join this organization. I've heard nothing but horror stories since I began researching them.

Ballys in Puyallup WA is disgusting! The equipments is either missing or broken. The people are sleazy skanks who screw (literaly) in the parking lot. Its like trying to work out in the middle of a F rated porn show staring F rated trailor trash actors. So what if they have daycare? Its not worth the filth you have to walk your kids through to get to it. Its not worth paying for.

They are dishonest and bad people, don 't join, that is my only advice.

I need legal help in order to opt out of the contract for bally's. I've surfed and surfed and all I got were people's complaints on them. I was thinking of joining a class action lawsuit in California since most cases resolved on bally's were in NY.

Run as far away from this establishment while you still can. They WILL con you out of as much money as they possibly can. Don't be among the hundreds of another people victimized by this wretched company.

Okay. My local Bally's gym is gross... there are psycho men there. They watch you while you workout. They don't STOP watching you. They watch you when you leave. You worry that they'll follow you home. The facility is infested with huge roaches ... and the bills are ridiculous. Please don't sign your life away to a four year contract like I did. $38.50 a month is ridiculous. I am in Bally's debt. Someday when I pay this insane bill off I will be able to visit creepy men and cockroaches again. On the positive side... working out releases endorphins so I did release a lot of stress in my gym crazy phase... but I'm sure there are better (and cheaper) gyms to release endorphins in! Do your research before you sign up!

Like a car salesman Bally's rep's are there to sell you the most expensive plan they can. After you sign, they're done with you. They did not live up to their promo for me and after a while I just gave up. If you are sure you are going to stay with them for a long time(6 years or more) it may pay off if you use it enough. They hope you'll sign a contract and then stop coming(in my opinion).

I would not recommend Bally's to anyone, and wish I did more research on the hassle they cause people before signing up. They make you think you are getting an incredible deal, and instead you pay out your a$$ and they make it nearly impossible to cancel your contract. I am on the phone with them right now trying to get customer service and have already been on hold for 30 minutes.

I would never recommend Bally's to anyone. Their buildings are extremely dirty, their customer service is horriable. I have been tring to cancle my account for 8 months. Consantly sending in notification that I have moved. I have send notification 6 times. Argued with them more times then I care to count and they still will not cancel my account.

After my 3 year contract was up I paid for the club month by month. When I paid for 6 months recently I only got four and a half months of use before I had to pay monthly again. They had raise my monthly rate without informing me. Horribly dishonest company that doesn't care for it's customers.

Ballys in Puyallup WA is another example of the company using false promises to lure customers. The salesman renewed our contract without giving credit for the remaining month on the previous contract. He also promised an extra 3 months free for renewing with him personally in order to make up for the lost month. Never happened! The next year he promised the same thing so we switched to another salesman to give them another chance. That salesman took our money for one year advance payment, and after one month started charging dues on only my wifes card. My advice is to double check everything they say, and never believe any of their promotions or promises. If you sign up and get a card, make sure on your first visit, when they scan your card, that the info that comes up on the screen shows the dates you paid for. Be aware that if it doesn't, they probably will NOT be able to correct it and will make some false promise about next time. Robert Morrow

Overall a horribly dishonest company designed around fast-talking you into contracts rather than providing a legitimate service. Whatever you do, do NOT step foot inside a Bally's.

My wife and I have had a very good experience with Bally's Their Child Care has been excellent. Their machines are always in good working order. When I have noticed that a machine was down it was for usualy only a doy due to parts. The staff has been extremely helpful. We use their child care all of the time. The only complaint I have had is that their Child care hours are not open longer on the weekends. But that is easy for use to work around.

I live in CT and Bally's had made it easy for me to help lose weight. In the Middlebury gym there is a daycare and Bally's is the only gym that provides this service with trained girls. The gyn it self and always being cleaned,the equipment is in very good condition and enough for everyone to use on a busy day,. The staff is very helphful and nice and I think Bally's coculd be what ever you make it. Thank you

In the Bally's Total Fitness contract it states that if you move 30 miles from the nearest Bally's your contract can be cancelled. I have since moved approximately 60 miles from the nearest Bally's Total Fitness. I have sent in a letter to the Cancellation Department with a bank statement showing my new mailing address and asked for a confirmation that my membership would be closed. Bally's continues to take my monthly payments directly from my bank account. To top it off, my Bally's was closed on December 31, 2003. Bally's transferred all it's members to surrounding Bally's in the Saint Louis area. These Bally's may be within 30 miles, but it takes at least 40 minutes to drive through the city to get to the Bally's. It's a huge mess and I'm certain there are other members of the Ballwin, Missouri Bally's that are having the same frustrations I am. I need legal help!

BAD, BAD, BAD. They have bad ethics and lie to their customers just so they will sign a contract that ends up being a loan! My x and I had a very bad experience with this company. The front desk person even yelled at him. I am sure it is still haunting his credit. Please tell us your stories good or bad!