Gold's Gym Austin Anderson Arbor — Attraction in Austin

What an awful, no good, very bad gym experience.

Yes, I signed up at the beginning of 2020. Yes the pandemic hit. No I did not feel okay working out in an enclosed space with questionable ventilation and poor mask wearing skills among customers. I have been freezing my account since March 2020 (hoping that this pandemic would be over), but finally needed to cancel when BOTH OF MY PARENTS CAUGHT COVID AND ALMOST DIED.

I have communicated with a team at "North Customer Care" in Austin, which told me that under my circumstances, I could cancel for the $100 Early Termination fee. Yet, I keep getting called and emailed DAILY to pay a shady $53 Retail fee, so I called to ask them to stop, as I was on track to cancel my membership when I was available to do so in person, like they ask you to.

I call the closest Gold's to me to ask for these harassing calls and emails to stop, only to be told by the manager at the Anderson Mill location in Austin that not only do I not have the privilege of paying the Early Term fee, but that I am indebted to them to pay the shady Retail fee and will keep getting harassing calls and emails until I do so. Apparently that $100 only applied to people within their one-year contract signing date, and mine was a few days past? But I had correspondence from North Customer Care just seven days ago telling me this was the quickest and easiest way I could close my account so I can focus on taking care of my family.

Not only that, but because my membership was apparently "renewed," I would owe them a month's Membership fees in addition to the Retail fee and the Early Termination fee. Um....why?

The manager at Anderson Mill was so cold. She was so rude to me when I asked for help, human to human. It was confusing being told conflicting info, especially when I am taking time to try to make things right on my end.

At the end of the day, this is a GYM and they are going to try to squeeze every last dime out of you, whether you step foot in it or not.

Gold's - I know you don't care but I will never go back to your facilities again. You chose short-term profits over long-term viability, and I can't wait to see you go out of business.

*Edit: Now reported to the Better Business Bureau. I encourage you all to...

This particular Gold’s Gym, Anderson Arbor in Austin, is still relatively new, with a lot of good equipment, but the club needs a new general manager who has strong interpersonal skills, or in the alternative, the club’s current general manager, Nahum Brown, should receive some training on how to effectively communicate in a positive way with members.

On a recent occasion, I knocked on Brown’s door and entered. I asked him if Gold’s would add more TV channels to the screens on the treadmills and noted that 24 Hour Fitness, a major competitor, offers many more channels to its members. Brown said the company did not want to add more channels. He told me I should go to some other gym if I didn’t like Gold’s. He did not make eye contact with me during my visit and continued to stare at his computer and papers on his desk, so I asked him to please look at me while talking. Brown responded that I was interrupting him and twice yelled at me to get out of his office. He said that if I needed to see him again, I should first knock on his door. I told him I did knock; he just wasn’t listening.

I recognize that a manager’s job is never easy, but Brown's behavior was unprofessional, disrespectful, shocking and outright insulting. I'm amazed that the company thinks he is qualified for his position as general manager of the gym.

Further, a manager should never encourage a member to go elsewhere, and a manager should never yell at a member, especially with an inappropriate message, as was the case in my brief 2-3 minute conversation with Brown.

Gold’s is a business that should make members feel welcome, and its managers should always be receptive to members’ suggestions.

In contrast to Brown, during a visit to the Gold’s Gym on Crossroad Blvd. in San Antonio, I talked with that club’s general manager, Daniel Baca, who was open, friendly and courteous. He said he welcomed in-person member suggestions and said he makes the rounds on the gym floor to touch base with members. Baca’s approach is what we need at the Anderson Arbor gym in Austin.

The Anderson Arbor gym has some good people, despite my experience with Brown. Among them is Alfredo Perez, who always has a pleasant smile and friendly demeanor. Perez should...

Poor!!!!Poor!!! costumer service...I was late last night with my son with a corporate pass that needed to be changed for a week pass until they got us on their system.......(They told me it will take a week)...The girl in front desk did not find me on her computer and did not know how to help me and my son to work out for the night...At this moment a personal trainer came in(with no name tag) and help the girl at the front desk telling me that If I was not in the system I had to live my son at the lobby and talk to a manager the next day to try to fix the problem..I was very upset thru all the situation because they stop my wife twice during the week for 20 min because they did not got a 7 day pass and were going in with the corporate pass...After all this they did not stop to think how to help me fix the situation to let me and my son work out for the night;then a sales person with the name of anthony ryan came in to pretty much kick me out of the gym for been loud at the front desk....I was not patient and got upset really fast because in a week ,they stop my family 3 times and made them miss yoga class and other class..I was following information from my company and the gym what to do and was just causing my family trouble..I only wanted people to listen and care to do their job as a costumer service personal...I work doing costumer service for 20 years and I do everything I can to live the costumers with the best impression of our service and I saw no interest for this employes to go out of their way to do so ..I am going to take this to the regional manager for the Austin area because people need to be train to help costumers the best possible and I did not see it at all..Hated to do this in front of my son!!! Poor...