Gold's Gym

I joined Gold's Gym in downtown Silver Spring about a year ago, and moved to another nearby city about a few months later. I haven't spent lots of time in gyms, so I'm not an expert, but as a casual athlete who likes to get to the gym 2-3 times a week or so, I was pretty satisfied. When I moved, I hoped to be able to transfer to a Gold's with the same quality of facilities.

That's what turned out to be the problem, but not in the way I expected. There was another Gold's location near my new place, and they provided me with the necessary forms and clear instructions about how to go about filing the paperwork with the Silver Spring franchise. When I did that, I didn't hear anything from Silver Spring, so I assumed everything had gone as planned... until I got a bill from them a month later.

I took this up with the employees at my new Gold's, who got in touch with the right people and within a few days received confirmation from the Silver Spring manager, Scott, that the issue had been settled. Until I got ANOTHER a bill a few weeks later. Naturally, since I was paying my bills at my new gym, I assumed that there was an error on Silver Spring's end and attempted to get it worked out as quickly as possible.

What followed was another three months (five months total), of contacting Scott, having my calls and emails not get returned, getting surprise bills in the mail, and squabbling between the two Gold's locations. Once I got the Scott, on the phone, he told me that my new gym had given me the wrong paperwork and sent me on a wild-goose chase to get the right versions of this form and that form (as if I could possibly have known the difference!). The employees at my new gym told me that they HAD provided me with the right paperwork (I showed them the copies I had sent over), and when I left another voicemail with Scott asking for more clarification, my call wasn't returned.

In the end it didn't even matter; Scott contacted me a few days later and said that my membership had been cancelled--but that before that could happen, I had to pay late fees on bills that I shouldn't have received in the first place! Evidently, they were able to cancel my membership with the same paperwork I had sent months earlier, but because of their incompetence and shoddy record keeping, I had to pay.

When I contacted other people within the Gold's Gym organization to dispute this ridiculous proposal, Scott contacted me and had the audacity to accuse ME of dragging MY feet! At this point, I had sent over all of the paperwork or my membership to be transferred FIVE MONTHS EARLIER, and it took him and his people that long to realize they had screwed up. I can only guess that once news of this ordeal worked its way up the ladder, he got nervous and did what he could to get whatever money out of me he could get.

And he DID! I ended up paying these absurd late fees (which they should have paid out of pocket) just to end the situation, once the manager at my new gym offered me a couple of months free in order to offset the costs.

The gym itself is nice enough; it is very spacious and has row after row of machines; I never needed to wait for a treadmill or to use any of the weight machines. Their location in Downtown Silver Spring is pretty convenient, and though the gym itself doesn't provide any parking, the parking garages in the area are either cheap during the day or free in the evenings and on weekends. If you know that you will be able to go there for the foreseeable future and don't see cancellation policy as an issue, I suppose there are worse places to get a workout.

However, the harassment and terrible customer service that I had to endure regarding something as simple as moving my membership from one Gold's Gym location to another was completely inexcusable. Scott talked a big talk about wanting to help me out, but he repeatedly demonstrated that he was just looking out for himself. He all but lied about having fixed the problem once, became difficult to reach, and once it became clear that the problem was on his end, he became personally disagreeable and insulting.

The irony is that I have since moved back to Silver Spring, and am walking distance from this gym, but will never go back there after what I have been through. Luckily, my new gym is close to where I work, so I continue to work out there.

I would not recommend this gym to anyone who cares in the least about quality of customer service, especially if there is the slightest chance that you will be moving away from Silver Spring within the next decade. As long as you give them your money and work out they'll be happy, but the minute you need anything more than that, you're asking too much.

Posted 04/05/09 | Report Abuse

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This is an excellent location for the gym. This place is right near the Silver Spring Metro station. There isn't much parking space available. Maybe you can find street parking here and there. It is best for those that use the Metro or those that live nearby. They have a ladies-only section. They also have a Kids Club area where you can drop-off the kids while you workout.

PROS: excellent location, near Metro, kids area, ladies-only section
CONS: no parking

Posted 02/08/06 | Report Abuse

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