Bally Total Fitness

Pros: Across the street from my office. Spacious. Lots of equipment.
Cons: Indifferent discourteous staff. Untidy to dirty premises. Equipment towels usually unavailable or dirty.

I belong to Bally Total Fitness in Brighton/Boston only because it is near my office and we have a company membership. Having been a member of fitness clubs in New Mexico, Perth/Melbourne/Sydney, Australia, and in Tokyo, Japan, as well as the YMCA here in Boston, I can affirm that Bally's is the worst by a huge margin. As an example of the utter lack of training in customer service (or perhaps it is simple intellectual deficiency), questioning a staff member on duty why, 3 hours after opening, they don't refill the paper towel dispenser that emptied the night before, particularly since they seem never to have cloth towels available to wipe sweat off the equipment, is met with the response, "why can't you just walk to the paper towel dispenser at the other end of the room?". People like this do not merit anyone's membership fees.

Pros: Warm pool but difficult to enjoy with the loud music.
Cons: Loud music everywhere but most inappropriate in the pool area. Dirty floors. Uncaring staff.

Unhelpful and even less than honest staff. The pool area has loud music which is more appropriate for dancing than relaxing. The staff claims that they have no control of the sound equipment; therefore they are unable lower the volume. The staff was nice until they the customer to join; after that, there is no way out and they act like they know it. They do not eve seem to care or even acknowledge any problems, such as the loud music, the dirty floor in the weights' room which includes thick dust balls.
I am so sorry I joined. After the three I will out unless they change which I doubt because they do not seem to want to resolve any issues nor take into account any suggestions. I do not recommend Bally to anybody.

Pros: Good facility size, plenty of parking.
Cons: Dirty locker room facilities.

Unfortunately, Ballys has not invested in the San Diego market. The facility in Mission Valley is an old Holiday Health Spa (remember the 80's?) Though situated in a decent location with plenty of space, the facility shows it's age. The showers are dirty and show years of harsh treatment. Most times at least one nozzle isn't working. The gym floor is small for the free weights. Stuffed with so much equipment, it is difficult to find a place to stand when lifting free weights. Finally, the running track has seen many, many miles. It would really be nice to see Ballys put as much money and effort into building new facilities and embracing San Diego as 24 hour fitness (which is on every corner). If I had to start over, I'd avoid Ballys.

Pros: location, and Paulina at front desk is sooooo damn cute!
Cons: equipment and locker room

Bally Fitness in Wayne, NJ usually not too crowded, but machines and locker room need updating. I go there mainly because it's conveniently located.

Pros: They are nice as long as you are quite
Cons: They lie, scam, and anything else to get money out of you

I had my Bally membership for over two years. I signed up for three year contract after my husband and i had our third child we decided to move. It states in my contract if you move 30 miles away you can cancel. Well we moved 250 miles away I sent in what they asked for. Which is proof that you moved and fifty dollars. Two months later here comes the bill that I'm two months late. Then the calls start everyday. After speaking with one of BALLY's reps in customer service she said well we just need to charge you the amount to get you caught up then you will have your money refunded. Two weeks after that call they start calling again because my balance was due. At that time they told me you will not get your money back and you need to pay another 70.00 dollars to have it cancelled. Needless to say I am still fighting this four months later. Best advice never sign a contract with them because they always have a loop hole that wasn't in the orginal contract.

Pros: If you like Athletes foot, bad equipment and disrespectful employees, the ALL PRO
Cons: EVERYTHING

If you are someone who likes changing in dirty locker rooms, bafoons who call themselves trainers, terrible equipment and, lying sales reps, this is the place for you.

Trust me, I do have one reason to thank Ballys. After their scamming ways and my experience with Athletes Foot from their gross floors ( even with flip flops somehow),
I now attend private gym for Martial Arts and am in better shape then ever.

In the beginning, I bought 20 personal training. 3 times, they were late, and I felt I could of done everything that this clown was doing with me ALONE. When I did not use them for 1 year, I called and they said oh well let me see if I can activate your "PRE-PAID PERSONAL TRAINING". Then, I said I want to give them to someone and they said NO. Are you kidding me? Who cares who gets the personal training, it is already paid for in full.

I GET SICK WHEN I EVEN WALK BY THE BALLYS TOTAL FITNESS IN MY CITY.

THEY HAVE MADE ME NEVER TO JOIN A SOCIAL CLUB LIKE GYM AGAIN.

Pros: It will be nice when they go bankrupt
Cons: Everything

Do not join this awful company's chain of gyms.

They will lock you in to a contract that you cannot get out of. They will negatively impact your credit rating. They will try to keep charging you even when your contract has expired.

Essentially, this is an awful company that absolutely deserves the worst.

If you are an employee, you are simply a loser, an awful person. Get a life.

Pros: STAY AWAY
Cons: Too many to list, unbelievably awful

Notice the reviews of BTF. Current or new members rate it high, others hate it. See a pattern? This company rips off everyone eventually so don't be fooled into thinking they won't do it to you my five-star-giving friends. They trick people with fast talk and lies, they won't let you out of a contract for (in some cases) the rest of your life. Check out complaintsboard.com for an explanation of the "death clause" in the contract whereby you can't get out of paying dues even after dying! If you are not a member yet, SAVE YOURSELF and don't join this horrible organization!

Pros: Lots of stuff to do! Got free stuff!
Cons: Gets too crowded

I joined this Bally's after gaining a few too many pounds over the last few months.  The fact that there is an indoor track is great!  I like running in a place where i don't have to be worried about cars, unsavory people lurking in the shadows, or that Dunkin Donuts that's on my way home from work.  In fact, recently I was given a free bottle of chocolate soymilk from Silk so that helped me be good and not eat crap after my workout.  I also love how this place is HUGE and there is lots of stuff to do so i won't get bored and stop working out, however, when I go right after work, sometimes it's too crowded and I have to wait to use stuff (another reason why the indoor track is great).

Pros: They do actually have fitness equipment. That's not a lie.
Cons: Exceptionally poor customer service.

They will lie shamelessly to get you to sign a contract, then immediately peel off the friendly and helpful mask once you're in, and lie shamelessly again and again to keep you from terminating the contract under the guidelines they spelled out. This is not an isolated customer service problem, it is their business model. If you suspect that I might be exaggerating, poke around online for reviews elsewhere and try to find some articles about the owners. Business models like theirs can operate legally for years under the radar of legislators, who eventually sniff them out and pass regulations. But they are still scams.

Pros: They're fairly cheap.
Cons: When they get your money, they're pretty much done with you.

The gyms are generally old and less than well kept.  They pay their staff minimum wage and they get what they pay for.  I didn't mind it because it was fairly cheap, I know what I'm doing in the gym ,and I don't really need much in the way of help or aesthetics.  I renewed my membership at Bally's.  3 days after I submitted my renewal I was informed that the closest gym would close in 30 days.  I contacted them and they refused to refund the renewal saying that the Vista location was close enough.

Pros: NONE
Cons: They hire anyone off the streets. 

My best friend joined the Bally Total Fitness in Alexandria, VA on October 2008. She needed help with her fitness and assumed she bought the second best package they had. Along with the 3 year contract she was suckered into came a free personal training session. The FREE personal training session was with Eyaya Fetene Zeleke. It went great and he was a very knowledgeable trainer according to her. She didn't buy the personal training package that day but was considering it. A few weeks after joining this animal contacted my friend and told her he had a cancellation from one of his clients and asked if she wanted to take advantage of another personal training session. My friend agreed. That day she was brutally raped and sodomize by this monster. He was recently convicted and sentenced to 30 years on March 5, 2009. Since than my best friends life has been in ruins. Doesn't anyone conduct background checks anymore?

Here is the weblink to this monsters sex offender page: http://sex-offender.vsp.virginia.gov/sor/offenderDetails.html?regId=26277 

Pros: you get the results you want, but you can get that anywhere
Cons: expensive
horrible rude dealers

Horrible service. They pressure you and corner you to enroll without giving you much details or reason. The price is negotiable yet way more expensive for what they are offering.

Pros: Low cost.
Cons: Unethical.

Bally is closing clubs with little warning. They have announced closings of some clubs in California and Washington this month with only a few weeks notice. They even took new member signups at these clubs only days befoe the announcements.

While they do have other locations in the same metro areas, those clubs certainly aren't as convenient for me or many of the other members.

Pros: cheap
Cons: old equipment, bad customer service

If you want to just have a mediocre gym to work out at and don't mind that the equipment is old and that not all of it works, then here is the gym for you. BUT DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING PERSONAL TRAINING SESSIONS. This place rips you off and then tells you that you are ungrateful. The manager has hung up on me, the regional manager is a little more polite but still doesn't help, I've even spoken the the Assistant to the VP who is very  nice but has never called me back. NOBODY HAS ANY CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS. I have paid for additional months hoping to have my situation resolved and I basically threw my money down the drain. I don't recommend this place to ANYONE!

Oh by the way, it is ridiculously HARD to cancel your membership...