My Gold's Gym Adventure Continues

For the last day or so I've been wasting my time helping Gold's Gym deal with a security issue with their One Pass purchasing system. Simply put, this is the system that lets you buy overpriced energy drinks and ice cream bars with your membership pass, rather than having to carry cash into the gym. Well, immediately after I canceled my two memberships at Gold's (one for me, one for Lynn), I started to get unauthorized charges on my bill. After some weeks of this, I called to complain. This led to a series of emails, which culminated in my most recent email to Kristen, the customer service manager, below.

We'll see what happens.
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Hello Kristen,

You’re welcome for the help. I hope your investigation is fruitful and the problem is quickly resolved.

My cancellation is accurate. Unfortunately, my experience with Gold’s Gym has been disappointing.

Also, on further investigation, I discover that Gold’s has raised the monthly fee for my primary membership by $3.25 per month in the two months since I gave notice of my cancellation, specifically on 11/18/08 and 12/6/08. I paid a $300 sign-up fee for the privilege of keeping my rate constant, which Gold’s Gym has honored for several years until now. Notice of cancellation does not constitute an excuse to raise my monthly rate.

Therefore, by my accounting, Gold’s Gym needs to credit my account for unauthorized charges for a total amount of $47.00.

I have logged slightly more than three hours of time helping Gold’s Gym resolve this security breach, which is quite frankly not my problem or responsibility. Gold’s Gym has thus far made zero effort to compensate me for my time and inconvenience, nor made any kind of gesture to offset its incompetence in billing standards and security.

As a gesture of goodwill, I will consider my time pro bono. I hope that, in a reciprocating gesture, you will review your company’s unreasonable practice of billing for two additional months of membership after cancellation. It is avaricious, grasping customer service like this that has ruined Gold’s reputation. One month of additional fees already strains credulity, and two months is egregious. In my case, Gold’s has charged my account $114.70 since I cancelled my two memberships. If you would refund these charges, I will consider the matter resolved.

In any case, I am preparing a review of Gold’s Gym, which will include my frank opinion of the company’s business practices, as well as its willingness to resolve customer complaints such as mine. I will refrain from posting this review on the standard review sites until I our matter is concluded.

Sincerely,

Jonas Miller