Albuquerque Gold's coasting on name to make money
Written: Apr 17 '09 (Updated Jun 07 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Suitable for travelers who are already Gold's members elsewhere.
Cons: Dirty. Facilities and equipment in poor repair. Peculiar contracts.
The Bottom Line: A blemish on the Gold's name, I'm surprised corporate lets them continue.
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| scramcat's Full Review: Gold's Gym |
Albuquerque, New Mexico - There's a lot more wrong with this Gold's Gym than there is right. Here's a list of the things that have ticked me off during the 8 months I've been a member:
Fluctuates between open 24 hours and open daily hours. When I signed up they were always open. Shortly later they changed to morning-to-night hours. Then they added "summer hours", "holiday hours", etc. No one at the desk was positive what the hours were, or would be, or when if ever they'd be 24 hours again.
Unclear exactly who the top-most manager is, if anyone. There are a few guys at the desk in dress shirts, but when I ask one if he's the manager, I get the reply, "Well, I'm one of them." But that's only in terms of selling memberships. There's no one to give complaints to or find out what the pland are to make repairs.
Your contract with Gold's may not be a contract with Gold's. They bring in marketing companies that sell memberships at discount rates in order to boost membership. But your membership can take a couple months to be received and confirmed by Gold's, and you may not get your bar code tag in that time. And no one from the gym nor the marketing company can tell you for sure what you're committed to and what you need to do to cancel your membership.
It's dirty. The carpeting desperately needs a steam cleaning. The rubber flooring has grit, footprints, and lint. Staff doesn't touch up the locker rooms so toilets need flushing, the sink counter is flooded, and the wastebaskets are overflowing.
The facilities are in poor repair. The only water fountain had a plumbing problem that caused the water to squirt 3 feet onto the wall then soak the carpet. It took 2 months to fix it. One of the locker room urinals was out of order for 3 months and was covered with a trash bag the whole while. In the winter the evaporative coolers weren't covered so cold air blew in to the weight area.
The equipment is in poor repair. There are weight pins for only half the selectorized machines. There are 2 cable cross-over systems, but only 3 stirrup grips. And one of the cables has 4 feet of plastic coating peeled free and getting caught in the pulleys. One of the leg presses was out of commission for 6 weeks. The foot rollers on the decline chest press bench are not fastened so they fall off when you get off the bench. Various benches have cracked or split Naugahyde. Some benches are missing screws that hold the seats in place so they shift if you're not careful.
There's no enforcement of "gym etiquette". Members will leave lots of plates on bars and move on, and staff never tells then to unload. Members will hog benches for cell phone conversations, and staff never tells them to take it elsewhere. Members will train in groups and hog all the set-ups of a particular type (like ALL the chest press benches or ALL the leg presses) and keep them unavailable for hours, and staff never tells them to stop hogging. No one on staff ever keeps the weight plates evenly distributed around the gym or sorted by weight.
The music is horrible. Gold's contracts with the ClubCom music service that pumps music and videos to all the TV sets. There's no variation and almost no variety. You'll hear the same Top 40 crap over and over and over, day after day after day, badly distorted through tiny TV speakers.
Maybe if the owner didn't drive a Hummer covered with Gold's Gym decals there would be money to make repairs. His priorities are clear.
I'm actively shopping for another gym and I'm willing to lose the money I spent for the remaining months on my membership. And Gold's is happy with that, they already have my money, that's all that matters.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
scramcat
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Location: Albuquerque, NM
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
I hate everything. But I always have very good reasons for it.
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