Gold's Gym - Rockville (Town Square) — Local services in Rockville

I wanted to find a gym where I could work out near my children's activities. Knowing my 12-year-old wanted to go with me on occasion, I scanned Gold's website for age policies of guests with no luck. We visited Gold’s and asked a staff member if children were allowed and were told yes. We then asked if my child needed a separate membership and was given a contradictory answer.

Leaving unsure, I checked the website again and found the Silver membership, which allows one guest per visit. Since my child would go with me at most 2 days/week for the next month and maybe 1 day/week during school, the Silver membership seemed ideal. With no age policies online, I asked my husband to drop in to Gold’s the next time he was in the area. He spoke to a second staff member who assured him the Silver membership would allow children as guests. Feeling confident, I signed up online that night so I could go to the gym the next day. I searched the contract and, again, found no age restrictions.

When my child and I went back to Gold’s, a third staff member turned us away, as "guests had to be 16." After some back and forth, she allowed us in but flagged our account. A couple days later, I returned alone and found the staff waiting to tell me the gym guest policy was 18+ and that the policy was “everywhere.” Stunned, I spoke with the manager who said she would issue me a refund. At first I agreed but then felt something was off, so I asked her to direct me to the policy for assurance. Instead, she pulled out a card for a weeklong trial pass, which had the 18+ details in fine print. I asserted that was a different “guest” mechanism and asked where it was in the contract. She referred me to a section that didn’t exist, as our contracts were different, then excused it as a miss when membership options changed. The first staff member chimed in and asked who told my husband our children could be guests, as if to find a scapegoat (that wasn't him).

As a “middle ground” the manager offered to change my membership so my child would be policyholder and I the guest, which sounded wrong. I asked if I would be able to visit without my child and was told no. I told her that would not work, as I would want to attend alone the majority of the time. She then said I could purchase a summer student membership for my child—at double the cost of a normal membership. So, a supervised guest has to be 18, but now a 12-year-old can have their own exorbitant membership?

Shocked by the inconsistent and questionable messaging, I cited all of this as bad customer service and that the right thing to do would be to honor the contract. The manager got defensive and accusatory, repeating over and over that she would not make exceptions for me, claiming my family a liability. Disenchanted, I acknowledged that I would not change her mind, so the least she could do was to work with corporate to correct the policies/contracts for others. She fired back that she didn’t care about corporate and only cared about her location, "gave me options" that I just didn't like, and handed me the corporate e-mail address and told me to contact them, as I was not the only who recently complained about the same issues.

Aware of and indifferent to ongoing issues, misrepresenting policies, a lack of consistent messaging flowed to staff, severe lack of customer service. In some ways, I understood the manager's stance; however, how we got there left a lot to be desired. I’m glad the end result was that I was not locked into a contract with this gym. (Especially as each time I visited, there was no working A/C in the middle of summer.) I will be watching my financial statements closely for...

the worst customer service in my life! Jennifer and Manger Sol were completely unprofessional and lack serious customer service skills.I came in after not being there for 3weeks. I change my card and forgot to update it. Sol said well there is nothing we can do your card is declined. vI explained that i needed to updated it and asked if she could waived the fee. she said no fee as been waived 3 times. I said why? she didnt have the information on why , I asked is there a number I can call to ask questions? She tells me “no”. Is there a manager I can speak to? “no, he left will be in at 11 tomorrow to speak with him”. At this point she was so aggressive I had to tell her to claim down. She’s smirking and giggling the whole time telling me well you’re not getting that your card was declined. Now I am fully upset because she is purposely trying to be loud I guess to embarrass me while she scan members card. All the arguing was unnecessary and so very rude. I left so upset. To avoid any further conflict, I called the office and asked to be transfer to customer service so can pay my bill, ask questions and hopefully go to the gym that day. Jennifer picks up tell me she doesn't know the number but would ask her manager. She kept me on hold so long my coworker told me to just hang up and call back. I call again ask I Jennifer nicely please do not put me on hold. She’s say okay and put me on hold another 7 mins. Keep in mind, I can see everything I’m outside the gym. I try a 3rd time, call on the other line while I’m still on hold and the manager Sol picks up. I asked for the number or to be transfer to billing or customer service, now she tells me customer service is closed at 5:00pm. I asked her why she didn't mention this to me this earlier? instead of arguing for 30mins I could have been calling customer service for help and pay my bill, but she told there is no number you can call instead of offering me that option while I was in the Gym. This completely unacceptable, I almost assumed she was racist but form the reviews I see this gym just has HORRIBLE customer service. Email Golds Gym support a month ago still haven't heard anything. I really do not understand how They allow there employees...

I am an eight year veteran of the US navy and I have literally trained in Gold’s locations all over the world. I can say without hyperbole that this location is the worst one that I have visited. A few months ago my partner was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma so we moved to Rockville town square to be closer to her family and her care providers. Initially I was excited because there was a gym located about 100 yds from my front door. My excitement quickly turned into disappointment upon enrolling for a membership. Granted, I’m a fitness minded individual and I can make it happen wherever, but this location is so severely lacking in all of its features that I would rather pay $60mo and drive a mile to onelife. From the moment you walk in the door it’s clear that it’s not staffed by fitness professionals because it’s a staff of teenagers that don’t look up from their phones to acknowledge you when you walk in. The locker room facilities are filthy and not maintenance at all. I left a towel sitting on a curtain rod in the shower where it sat for a month before I brought it to the attention of a manager. There were dead insects ground into the carpets in the locker room that had been there for who knows how long indicating that it never gets vacuumed. The bathroom area smells like an open sewer because the motion activated urinal is broken and it never flushes. The facility itself is poorly maintained, dated, old, and none of the equipment is serviced properly. Barbells are rusty, there’s a sparse amount of weightlifting equipment and an obscene amount of treadmills and cardio equipment that never gets used indicating that this location is woefully out of touch with modern fitness trends. There’s two flat benches and two squat racks and not one (!) pull up bar in the entire gym. Gold’s is supposed to be known as the, “mecca” but this is such a poor representation of your brand. When I signed up I was told that there would be a $65 yearly maintenance fee for facilities upkeep but it looks like no one has put a dime into this place for a very long time. Sounds like it was an effort to recoup some money you lost during covid. This is a poor representation of your brand. You need...