Gold’s Gym still dealing with membership headaches

Like hundreds of other people in the valley, Gold’s Gym member Kari Thomas felt the weight of a costly computer glitch that happened in July.

“Over $4000 was put on hold from my bank account,” Kari Thomas said.

For her, it was much needed money.

“I’m a cancer patient, that next morning I was going to order my vitamins that I needed for therapy but I was unable to do that,” she said.

The glitch got fixed, but she still sent an email to cancel her membership, but, now, more than a month later, the gym called asking for her payment.

“If people want to cancel after this mistake, I think we should be entitled to cancel. They should take ownership of this,” Thomas said.

We went to Gold’s Gym in Palm Springs to get some answers. Gold’s regional manager told us the gym charges customers when they don’t give a 30 day cancellation notice.

“No one was willing to talk to me about this. No one is willing to talk about making a deal. I don’t understand why I should have to keep my end of the bargain and pay cancellation fees,” Thomas said.

We put Kari in touch with the regional manager for Gold’s Gym, who took care of the situation – he waived Kari’s fees. He told us a simpler way to cancel a membership, as hundreds of people did after July’s computer glitch, is to call Gold’s and cancel. Kari didn’t do that. She sent an email and closed her bank account instead.

When she cancelled her membership, Kari had some personal trainer sessions left. Normally, she would need to be a member to use them, but after we got involved, Gold’s plans to let let her use them for free.