Gold’s Gym

I called to inquire about membership and spoke to someone who said a membership person would call me back. I received a call shortly after from Josh who could not answer those questions and said I would have to talk to a membership director and make an appt. When I asked basic questions about the range of prices and if I could speak to membership director over phone he HUNG UP ON ME.
I will not be giving my business to this gym.

The other negative reviewers are correct – it is NOT a good idea to give credit card information to this gym. If you do, make sure it’s American Express or some other company that will withhold payment if you file a dispute… which you will likely need to do if you ever want to cancel your membership and get ABC to stop billing you.
Here’s our story: Hubby joined for a year at $ 39.99 a month when they were running a special. Agreed to a one-​year membership. I wanted to TRY it out (no contract) and asked if I could, for the same price. Was told yes. Thought we’d be charged $ 79.98. Instead we were charged $ 99.00 which is the family rate. Only way I found out is that I went to add my daughter for another $ 20 (quoted by manager) for a TRIAL and was told we are already paying the rate that would include her. What?
Coincidentally, my daughter happened to take a job working for a group home in town whose staff and residents have a Gold’s membership. She was hired and told about this benefit in October. I have been asking the gym to take her off and revert our charge to $ 79.98 for FOUR months, since November. Recently I asked a staff member to print me out our contract. Guess what? The contract was not the original one my husband signed. It was an updated one dated a few months ago and his signature was forged on it. All three of us had been added for an entire year when my daughter «joined.»
I was also promised guess passes I never got, but at this point that is not my concern.
American Express will dispute this for us, so we’ll get our money back. But it’s a hassle.
The only time the management at this gym are responsive to members is when people join and fork over payment information. ABC can’t do anything the gym doesn’t tell them to do and the gym staff will not fix things. BEWARE.

I agree with the other reviewers as I was told the same thing about the $ 99 fee. However, that’s probably not the worst part of this gym. The worst part is it’s disgusting. The floors are dirty, the women’s locker room smells like a farm and the equipment is rarely cleaned. And the front desk folks basically ignore you if you have a question.

SHADY CHEATS: Let me tell you, you cannot trust this Gym. Before I even joined because of its location, I mentioned to the «management» that I would be leaving in 9months because I was moving cross country. He said «Don’t worry I will make a note on the application right here that you are moving early, and I will not charge you the $ 99 cancelation fees.» 9months later I put in my notice and call multiple times to confirm this and LO and BEHOLD they have gone ahead and still charged me the $ 99 cancellation fees. Seems to me like a scam!
Also OLD gym terrible facilities stay away.

Know that joining means you are signing a confusing and misleading contract (I was also mislead by the sales representative) and that you will lose money if you ever try to leave the gym. Gold’s itself does not handle any cancellation requests, or take responsibility for them, and instead redirects you to ABC Financial in California. I had a problem and Gold’s told me to call ABC, and ABC told me to call Gold’s.
Also, with my membership I got a free personal training session. After phone tag with the personal trainer, I scheduled an appointment online. When I showed up at the gym for my session, the trainer wasn’t there.

WARNING WARNING WARNING. this place is A RIP OFF and is engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices. ALL THEY WANT IS YOUR MONEY
NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER give them your credit card or any bank acount info.
Golds Gym contracts all their billing to a shady entity called ABC Financial in California.
ABC uses a sham «collection agency» called SEAS LLC.
Even after you cancel your credit card (which I had to do a year ago to stop the unauthorized charges), they continue to send you threatening letters.
Golds will not help you sort it out — they say «talk to ABC». Good luck with that.
It is just a question of time before someone sues this franchise and the greedy, theiving owners who hide behind this scam set up.

I’ve been a member for several years. In some years, I would be a daily visitor. I like the convenience and some of the people (staff and members) so it’s a comfortable place. I’ve been a member of BSC and the Thoreau Club in the past and enjoy it more than the others — even as I recognize the equipment at the other sites is better.
On the plus side, the hours are convenient and parking is usually easy. There is little wait to use the equipment at off-​hours. I have taken both yoga and pilates classes and enjoyed them.
On the down side, they need to keep up the equipment better. Torn pads, broken machines have been a problem. The more serious problem is the cleaning of machines and showers. They really need to attend to that.
It’s not a high-​end gym but it certainly has worked for me as I lost 50 pounds when I was committed to working out.

I don’t know why I didn’t check these reviews first. I, too, was led to believe it was a month to month contract, but when I cancelled they said, no way! I contacted my bank to stop the automatic payments and they did so on 3 separate occasions. Golds kept putting thru different amounts and different names to circumvent the block.
I also agree they should receive negative stars! These guys are as crooked as they come!

I was driving and I saw sign for gold gym in Concord, so I decided come in and see the place I met with the guy called Steve, we came to agreement on$$ down and monthly payments and also that he would give me a seven day cancellation if I wanted to give up I had 7 days to do that. So I decided to try it out, I told him that I wanted a personal trainer and he told me that the personal will get in touch with me, I waited for 6 days personal trainer never got in touch with me.
I came into a Zumba class and the instructor was late. I went to use a few of the equipment alot of it was broken or it had a sign to run on them.
So I decided to not continue with this gym so I came back on the 6^th day and steve was there, and I told him the reasons I wanted to cancel he said that I’ll get my money back in 4 to 6 weeks, today has been the 6 week I haven’t got my money back and I also got charged for a last month. I called Steve today and he didn’t even ask who it was and told me that I was going to get my money back thats it. So I’m still waiting for my money… So everybody be careful on the fake promises of this gym.

Received a coupon in the mail for «30 days free membership no kidding no catches»
Well that was a bunch of nonsense you have to join for a year and when I asked the guy he said it wasn’t a catch it was a stipulation.
He gave me a 2 week trial and I was there today and the were putting flyers all over the place about $ 2 membership till the rest of the month. I tried to get that but all I had to do was join for a year.
*do not trust this place!

Do not sign a contract– it will not be honored. I signed up already paying 1^st and last month for a 12 month agreement– I’ve ended up with 14 months of charges. I went through the whole certified letter to cancel and they are all happy to cancel but somehow cannot comprehend a 12 month agreement means I should only have 12 months of a $ 40 charge– not 14! ABC financial handles their billing, you don’t even talk to anyone from the gym ever– they don’t want to deal with it at all. Also– the gym always had broken machines, and don’t look up while you’re working out because the duct work is NASTY with years of dust. This is not how to run a business.

For some reason, other negative reviews have been «filtered.» To keep it simple, check any objective source on these guys. They have an «F» rating with BBB and probably deserve lower.
And the equipment is awful. I was mostly just looking for a serviceable stairmaster and the ones there hadn’t been serviced in years, so were creaky and rusty.