I just got done filing a complaint to the mgmt of my Ballys Gym in St. Paul MN.

Over the past few months the gym has lost it's manager, has asked the personal trainers to clean the bathrooms (which are becoming increasingly filthy) and here is the killer: just announced new holiday hours that include CLOSING AT 3P on Saturday and Sunday for the rest of the year. I workout twice a day on weekends and now I won't be able to.

Ballys is cheap but now cheap is turning into poor.

I asked the local staff and they're crabby too because hours are being cut. I said it smells like "going out of business" and they mumbled that they've been hearing that rumor.

Anybody else at a Ballys and experiencing this?

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Anybody else at a Ballys and experiencing this?

Not where I am. On the other hand, there are a lot of people training there all the time so I think they are probably doing OK at that location.

i was under the impression the Ballys was a good gym until I joined their (about a year ago, for a month). I don't know about the bathrooms, but the customer service was really bad.

I don't go to Ballys as my regular gym but I keep up my membership for when I travel. I am visiting my friend in Houston for Thanksgiving. The hours are OK (They were even open until 4:00PM on Thankksgiving) but he equipment is so old that my hands are covered in rust by the time I finish weights. My gloves are so stained with rust I will toss them when I get back. (It was time for new ones anyway.) The place is dirty and the employees are surly. They don't have some basic machines that even someone who does free weights would use. The place is always crowded and so they have plenty of clients. The need to toos their entire equipment and get new stuff. How can barbells and weights etc. get so rusted out? Houston is a very humid place but the place is airconditioned.

They are also extremely short on equipment as well (one Z- bar and there are at least 20 people working out all the time and you have to wait for it... etc, etc.)

They sent me a survey to ask how I liked the gym...I told them it sucked basically

Of all my choices in Southern California for gyms, Bally's is definitely not even on the radar. Bally Corp owns Crunch Gym as well as operating Bally's and I believe that they tier the market at a corporate level such that Bally's Gyms suck systemically. Their system makes CRUNCH the 'Lexus' and Bally's a '79 Toyota Corona.' So Bally's will never improve unless Crunch gets sold; otherwise they'll canibilize themselves as a business. Here's a quote from a business article and a link to the whole article (it's from 2001):


Toback agrees. “The Bally market is really a mid-market consumer, and the Crunch customer is more upscale and more high-end,” he said. “So we do believe those clubs could exist in situations very close to one another.”

http://www.fitnessbusiness-pro.com/mag/fitness_bally_acquires_crunch/

Their system makes CRUNCH the 'Lexus' and Bally's a '79 Toyota Corona.'

Whats wrong with a 79 Corona? Maybe some of us drive one!? :mad:

...ok not really. :D