Help! ? for Bally's total fitness customers
 

I've been doing the free 8 week challenge for Bally's Total Fitness gym, which is supposed to end on March 10th. They keep pushing me to sign up for a special that ends on January 31st. It's zero money down and 3rd year free. I don't much care about the 3rd year free because I may move by then, but I'm wondering if it would be possible to get zero money down in March, too.

Has anyone had experience with signing up for Bally's? Do they waive the sign up fee sometimes? They're now saying it will be at least $150...is this absolutely true? I have to decide soon, so any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

uhh, i don't like their promotions. I tried to cancel after a reduced $30/mo college student fee few years back and they just kept on charging me afterwards. There was no "sign up" fee for mine so as long as I paid one month in advance, i remember. I'm just not a fan of them and I feel like spending so much on a gym, i couldve easily exercised with equipment I bought at home.

My advice is you can always bargain with them and don't make them push you. If you think you may move, tell them to make it a national membership rather than a local one. I purchased one of their gym memberships in 2001 and I bargained with them quite heavily on a nationwide membership which I still have.

I used to be a member and every 3 months they send me a come back for $99 for an ENTIRE year (no other fees) for a 1 gym membership.

Often it depends on what kind of competition there is in your area

This happened to me with Bally's. Their college special wasn't really a special at all. It was a bunch of hidden fees and fine print mumbo jumbo. The equipment and workout facilities were great. But the prices and the "fine print" was too much for me.
And then there are those times you don't go and that just wastes money.

I say read the fine print....
Buyer Beware!:rollpin:

Any place that pressures you to sign agreements for "special" offers is one to be suspicious of, IMHO. Definitely a buyer beware situation.

As was said, do remember that *you* hold the power here. THEY want YOUR money, and it's YOUR choice whether to give it to them or not. So they'll generally be relatively willing to bargain with you on it.

I'm sure you can bargain with them on this. I didn't have to pay a sign-up fee but I did make a three-year commitment. I wasn't trying to bargain, that's just the deal they had at the time and I knew I wanted the membership. Based on what others in Bally's discussion forum have said, I think I could have bargained with them about the length of the membership. In fact, some people even bargained with them over the cost of personal training. Before I was a member of Ballys, I was a member of 24-Hour Fitness and also bargained them out of the membership fee. I did it by accident; I really just wasn't sure I wanted to join and they kept coming back with better offers until they convinced me. All of these clubs are offering special deals all the time, so I'm sure there'll be another chance if you decide to wait on this one. Now that I have my three-year commitment, they've twice offered to reduce the remaining cost by 50% if I pay it all off up front.

I have to say that I am really happy with my Bally's membership. I am in there 5-6 days a week, at least an hour at a time, and I use lots of different equipment, from four different types of cardio machines, to weight machines, to free weights. I never have to wait for a cardio machine even if I am there during peak hours (once in a while, rarely, I do have to use a different machine than what I was planning on using, but something is always available.) This may not be the case for all Bally's, I'm sure it's a function of how busy the gym is, but I've found it to be true at the two I've been to. When I belonged to 24-Hour Fitness, there was always a wait for the cardio machines (it was so bad, they actually had a sign-up sheet).

Because I use so many different pieces of equipment, I think the gym membership is far cheaper than trying to outfit a home gym (and I'd have to buy a new house to store it all). Plus there are the classes and the personal training. I suppose if you only use one or two pieces of equipment, it would be cheaper to buy it and use it a home (assuming you have space for it, which I definitely don't). But if you want to use a variety of equipment and do other things, like take classes or personal training, then I think a gym membership is the way to go. I credit my personal trainer at Bally's as being the number factor in my success at weight loss--I swear, I could be a commercial for them.