Gold's Gym Downtown Los Angeles — Attraction in Los Angeles

Do not sign up for this gym. When LA county briefly dipped into a less restrictive tier last year (late-2020) the gym began to automatically charge without even notifying any of the members that they had reopened, they opened an outdoor area that was packed with people and few masks. Gold’s will claim they they called and emailed people but they did not (and the only way to check that they were open was to follow them on Facebook, which I do not have or use). When the first charge went through to my credit card I called the gym and asked them what my options were as I would not be returning to the gym since I don’t live in the area and am working from home and no longer in the Downtown LA area, and they had an automated to contact the retention team.

The retention team is a joke, you email them and they “provide you with a freeze” for 3 months. My first freeze only lasted a month because immediately after the gym reopened LA County reentered the “purple” phase and gyms shut back down (around late November/mid-December). While still in this more restrictive phase Gold’s again charged my credit card in January 2021 and I once again emailed the Retention Team and expressed my concern that they’re reopening the gym and charging people when the gym shouldn’t be open and that they’re not notifying people to make a decision on returning to the gym (like 24 Hour Fitness and LA Fitness).

When I emailed the retention team I was informed that they would provide me with a 3-month freeze while I made a decision on returning to the gym. Within a day of contacting the retention team I was charged for the membership on my credit card again, I had to dispute and block the transaction with the bank and provide a copy of the email where Gold’s provided the 3-month extension. Within 2 days of putting the block on my credit card I was inundated by Gold’s calling multiple times a day for weeks to update my payment information. When I called the gym I had informed them that I am currently on a freeze that was placed by their retention team and was told that no one would call again to update the credit card until after the freeze was over. (Little did I know that the reason the calls stopped is because the person I spoke to on the phone only removed my phone number from my account and not that they acknowledged the authorized and approved freeze.)

Now (as of April 7, 3 months after my freeze was initiated) I returned to the gym in-person to pay the $125 cancellation fee for the membership and was told that I needed to contact ABC Financial so they could take the payment. I arrived at the location at 11 AM in April 7th and after waiting for an hour because the gym could not “locate” my active membership they informed me that I would need to call a different company to have my account closed. After 2 hours on the phone with this horrible outsourced company they asked me to send them the emails from the Retention Team that acknowledged and approved the freeze, when the emails were received they told me that the freeze was a gym level “promotion” and that I would need to contact them to address the freeze because they were obligated to charge me for “past due” payments for 5 months plus the early termination fee (ETF).

When I informed ABC Financial that I would not be paying that and they could just charge me the $125 ETF they said they could not. So I contacted Gold’s again and they told me to contact Mark Lemons to have the issue addressed, it has not been a little over 72 hours and I have not received any response from Mr Lemons.

It is because of the horrible customer service at this gym that I cannot recommend anyone enroll in this gym. And I am currently still waiting for Mr. Lemons to return my email and fix this issue so that I can pay...

🌟 OPEN PHOTO TO READ EMAIL RESPONSE FROM GOLD’S

This location and Gold’s corporate is playing dirty. I provided the proper cancellation notice during the pandemic but it is not being accepted.

Now Gold’s is trying to charge me for 3 months of membership dues saying, “CANCELLATIONS DURING THE PANDEMIC DO NOT COUNT.”

As per the agreement, I fulfilled the year long contract and provided sufficient notice for cancellation.

The 3 months of “owed dues” is Gold’s trying to gouge me for dues between January - February 2021 despite my last visit being March 2020 and cancellation of membership provided April 2020.

Now Gold’s is threatening collections of which they will likely sell the debt to a third party and collect SOME money off of while impacting my credit.

These are VERY DIRTY tactics used by a desperate company who had MULTIPLE locations declare bankruptcy during the pandemic!

I will continue to fight Gold’s on this issue and let this be a warning to new customers that this place isn’t as welcoming as you may think in my personal opinion.

Based on my experience, they’re VERY money-desperate and are willing to tarnish their relationships with members to collect pennies.

Marco cannot be trusted. He says one thing and does another. Jamie Burgos’ aggressive collection tactics should be a warning that you MAY end up in my situation if Marco just HAPPENS to lose your cancellation notice or IGNORE it during the pandemic.

They figure since you’re out the door anyway that they could GOUGE you for every penny they can.

In my personal opinion based on personal experience: GOLD’S IS THE WORST GYM I HAVE EVER HAD A MEMBERSHIP WITH.

The Gold’s location in Venice is a separate company. Don’t mix that lovable location with the rest of the corporate ones like this downtown one! All of my friends have decided to quit this gym since including my personal trainer.

PS; Read all the other recent 1-star reviews concurring the same experience as I.

PS2; Gold’s NEVER once requested a copy of my cancellation letter and the email correspondence has ONLY focused on the details of delivery of the letter to try find fault whether or not it’s valid.

PS3; Staff still serviced this downtown Gold’s location and accepted mail accordingly through the pandemic. You can see them working through the glass. They were 10,000% able to sift through the mail and accept my cancellation notice. They lied and said staff never worked during the pandemic and I posted a YouTube video showing otherwise.

Beware the great lengths of lies this company will go through to try gouge you.

UPDATE DEC 2021: The employee in this email revoked my membership out of spite after being exposed rather than processing it as a cancelation as requested.

Heated employees, ignored emails, action out of spite = my Gold's experience ❤

These dumb collection tactics ENSURE guests don't return or re-consider this gym.

Accepting my cancellation letter and allowing me to resume my membership with grace a year later would've been the best way for Gold's to re-gain access to my monthly payments.

Instead their aggressive collection tactics cost them a...

Extremely disappointed in the staff I encountered today. With the exception of the Caucasian gentleman in the front with the glasses.

It is labor day weekend and I walk into the same place I've been walking into everyday for the past 6 months. I walk in, buy my preworkout, proceed to check in at entrance. Go through, and I'm stopped by an employee saying my payment is overdue by one day. I live approximately 22 miles from where I work but this gym is right across the street which is why I use it. I let them know I don't have my credit card on me, can I pay it tomorrow with another card.

I say this because I'm guess the bank is still processing my deposit since it's a holiday weekend. To be honest, I'm not really sure what had happened because I've had issues with them processing my payment because I switched from a previous club. I was not let in.

I talk with Sandra which who I guess is the supervisor at the time and she says the same thing. Then says we can try running it again. She does that, yells out from the front desk while I'm near the door,"It went through! You're good to go!!". I stand up and start walking over and then she yells,"Wait nevermind. It only approved $16." I'm not sure where this is appropriate so now I'm embarrassed twice for a day late payment, but they took a partial payment and was still not let in for the day.

I go to my car to get my parking ticket, I come back to return the unopened preworkout to be told I'm not going to be given a refund and that all sales are final but there is no sign saying that.

This is disgusting, highly inappropriate, and some of the most lack luster customer service I've ever received. Where is Marcus? When I had an issue previously in regards to my card, his customer service was great and it made me stay at that club for the past 6 months. If I wanted to pay for me monthly bill I'm just golds gym points I could at this very moment. However, nothing about this experience today has made me feel like I'm valued as a customer here at this facility.

I would love to tell you about some of the great things I've experienced there previously but I can't stomach today's unpleasant encounter. I've never experienced someone in a leadership role discuss financial matters across 30-40 feet and yelling it out. Not ok at all. You don't put someone in a leadership role who doesn't use good judgement on common sense matters or lacks compassion for the possible error on the clubs transactions.

Once again ladies and gentlemen, One day overdue, took a partial payment, yelled financial matters across the room, and wouldn't refund a drink I no longer had use for but is the same card that was charged on file for what they said they haven't received a payment for. I guess it goes through when it wants to.

One day...