Bally Total Fitness On November 30, 2011 Bally Total Fitness sold 153 million dollars worth of thier gyms to LA Fitness. I was told that my Premier Plus Membership -"We did not purchase these, we don't accept them, they Washington, District of Columbia
On 12/1/11 I went to Bally's Total Fitness in Voorhees, NJ to exercise. On the door was a sign that stated Closing 12/8/11, You do not have to sign in. Closing tonight at 6PM. Gathered around the front desk with many others we were informed that on 11/30/11 Bally's sold a large amount of their health clubs to LA Fitness. The LA fitness staff gave vague information on what was to become of Bally's member. They recommended visiting an LA Fitness club and they would be able to find names in the data base, and how the memberships would be converted. I drove to the Mt. Laurel, NJ location. When the staff member tried to find my name it could not be located. The reason is I purchased a Lifetime Gold Membership with no renewal fees for $2,800. For these memberships LA Fittness did not purchase these - they don't accept them, they are not in our data base. What LA Fitness could offer me was to use the gym for December at no cost and then purchase a membership. $680 for the first three years and then $210 a year renewal, or $99 registration and $30 per month. Bally's made $153 million from this deal. Bally's sold anyone with this type of membership a one way ticket to nowhere. This is not acceptable.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
voiceofreason
North Carolina,United States of America
Read the terms of agreement carefully
#2Consumer Comment
Fri, December 02, 2011
Go through your membership documents carefully to see what kind of outs Bally left themselves.
If Bally is still a going concern with no locations you can use anymore, I should think you'd have some kind of legal recourse against them. Depending on how the sale was structured, it's possible LA Fitness indeed took on the obligation to honor your membership too.
The $2800 is obviously not worth hiring a lawyer for, but depending on your TOA, small claims against one or both of them might be workable if the sale effectively robs you of reasonable use of what you bought.