SUBMITTED: Friday, September 13, 2002
POSTED: Saturday, September 14, 2002
I think a lot of the members at the KOP Bally's are dissatisfied with the facility. You're right about the parking. It's an absolute disaster. The lot seems to be too small for the busy times which means they've oversold memberships. It works well for them if you sign up on a contract and then get frustrated and then don't attend.
Don't let these people get to you. Keep complaining to management, the sales folks, and anyone who works there. Keep a record of who you talked to, what you said, and how it was or wasn't resolved. In about 2 months, you'll have enough for a small claims court lawsuit and I'm guessing they will let you out of your contract instead of continuing to fail to deliver on what they promised.
Talk to other members too. Instead of just one person going to complain when a class is cancelled, get everybody to go. While they can say "We're busy" to one individual, it is harder for them to ignore a larger group.
If you're up for a real confrontation, then complain during the busy hours when they're trying to sign up new members. Also, when you see a saleperson dragging a prospective member around the club, just casually say, "You're not going to give them your credit card, are you?" And then launch into a diatribe about how dissatisfied you are with the club and how awfully you have been treated.
They can't prevent you from exercising your right of free speech, and until they cancel your membership, you have a right to speak your mind even within their facility. Once they wake up and find out that their membership sales are down and they've lost 15 sales because of your remarks, they'll ask you to leave.
But then, you can take the moral high ground and tell them that you're not leaving until they fix their overcrowded conditions and if you can just discourage one person a day from renewing their membership or signing up, that's a less crowded facility for you.
If they still insist on your leaving, insist that they fill out a document that states they are canceling your contract immediately and without further obligation or penalty to you. Be sure that you ad a phrase about "Bally's agree to pay the sum of $500 in liquidated damages if your credit card is ever charged again for any reason whatever".
These Bally's club people are snakes and are really in the credit card collection business, not in the health training/fitness business. You can also threaten to file a sexual harrassment suit saying that one of their trainers kept undressing you with his eyes which would be particularly damaging if the allegation occurred in a closed room. I know there is no law against visually assulting someone, but I wish they wouldn't do it anyways. I just came here to work out, not to get harrassed by their staff.