Gold's Gym

I just moved to Richmond Va. And was traveling from Fredericksburg, Va. To see which gym I wanted to use. This gym is not friendly at all. I would not recommend anyone go to this gym based off of what I am about to say. I was stopped by a Paul Wiggin the General Manager. This guy followed me into the step class and told me that I didnt sign in. Harrasment. These are choice words harrasment but I choose to use them because I was followed into my stepclass after signing properly into the kiosk. I was instructed by the manager under the General Manager Paul Wiggins to sign in on the tablet ( customer kiosk ) everytime I come in. The manager was initially going to charge me a 20 membership knowing I could use a travel pass. When instructed to call my home gym the manager under the General Manager refused to call and instructed me to use the kiosk from now on. No fee necessary. After all I am a member of Golds Gym, just another location. I was doing the right thing and he still stopped me. It was embarrassing to be followed into the step class ultimately being asked to leave without an adequate level of understanding. It was inappropriate. This private gym needs training in customer service. Even the people at the front counter are taught to be rude.Again I was doing the right thing but this happened today. Inappropriate and unfortunately has to be reported.I would never pay this gym a membership fee. In fact would rather pay more somewhere else. They don't deserve it. The General Manager extended my travel.pass out until June 30 22. I assume this was because of his behavior. Sometimes losing the customer is the best response. I don't want your pass. There's nothing you can do or say to reverse what happened. SHAME ON YOU.There is also mold on the water fountain by the cardio machine. The overall cleanliness of this gym is substandard.

I signed up for the Willow Lawn Golds Gym in July 2021 to participate in some personal training.I noticed how unclean the facility was and always expressed how I felt about it. When the gym sent out a survey I also expressed how I wish they would clean and wipe down more due to the pandemic.I stopped going because I saw first hand how they deal with employees that have Covid-19 and didn’t agree with that either. (Coming back to work before 14 days after a positive test)When I called in August to cancel I was offered extended months in my free trail. What they neglected to tell me is 1. You have to come in to cancel and 2) I would be charged $50 for the annual fee.Of course I can’t get a refund and now I have to pay an annual fee for being at the gym for 2 months.If you don’t care about cleanliness or your health in pandemic. Have at it!

People setting up tripods to film in workout areas isn’t ok and it’s especially annoying when you bring it to the attention of the front desk and nothing happens. What’s the point of having rules on the wall like ‘no gym bags in workout areas’ or ‘no cell phone use while exercising’ if the staff is unable or unwilling to enforce them? As a member it shouldn’t be my job to enforce basic gym safety guidelines.

This gym has ONE water fountain. ONE. and the water has been HOT. BATH WATER HOT for roughly 8 months. The fountain alone has been “under construction” multiple times and nothing has gotten better. The rates have gone up for NO REASON with NO CONTRACT. After they upped the prices they also cancelled free guests for anyone with the gold pass. The reason most people get the gold pass in the first place. In January we were told that new equipment was going to be added, one machine every month for the first 6 months. NOTHING HAS BEEN ADDED. The General Manager told me today that it’s out of his control and it is the OWNERS fault! He also told me the plumbing has been installed wrong and that’s why it’s not cold consistently. Keep in mind this has been going on for roughly 8 months. The GM said that they can’t get ANYBODY to fix the plumbing. The gym is going downhill fast and it’s not looking like it’s getting any better. Only one star because I can’t put zero!

I give this a 2 star only due to front desk service. Came into town for business. Woke up for a early workout at this Golds Gym. Walked in the front door and literally there was no sort of friendly greeting. This young girl looked me and my fiancé up and down and was just overall stuck up, standoffish, no help as if she was a intern not fully trained to manage a front desk obviously. I was emailed a guess pass and showed it to her. She looked at it and said basically they don't accept passes here without management. I told her it was on there golds gym website. She had no clue was I talking about. Again poor management at the front desk. To much confusion for something so simple. Me being new here.. I accidentally half way walked into the guys locker room because I didn’t see the sign. It was a common mistake. Immediately I turned around and she walked up to me and said I wasn’t suppose to be in the mens locker room. Smh.. I’m like lol umm.. I know that it was a mistake.. Not “ Hi Miss do you need help with finding the ladies restroom” she was just off the gate said YOUR NOT SUPPOSE TO BE IN THE MENS RESTROOM. I felt like I was being stalked! Her attitude was just rude, standoffish and just gave me bad vibes. I will not be coming back for sure. Front desk needs to work on professionalism and perhaps getting someone more friendly that greets people at the front desk! That has some kind of customer service skills. Overall the gym was a nice well equipped gym.

I wanted to cancel my membership as I joined a gym with class hours that better fit my schedule. I went in at the end of August, as you have to do so in person, knowing that I would be going back into the office and unable to come in between 10-6 on weekdays. Their system was down but the manager gave me his card and said to send him an email and he would get it done. After emailing twice, he told me it was cancelled in Sept. I expected to be charged in October, due to the 30 day notice requirement, but I was charged again in Nov. I emailed the manager twice and then emailed the general mailbox when I did not hear from him. I last emailed them almost a month ago and still have not gotten an answer. It should not be this difficult to end a gym membership and this experience has definitely made me not trust Gold's Gym.

There’s no more pool but they finished the renovation this month and it’s great. There’s also new TVs and a much more organized layout to help when it’s crowded. Paul has done a great job as manager.

Decent gym, would rate it higher but feel scammed by their premium membership. At the time of buying it, it had advertised a perk of the premium membership that I could bring a guest for free with me. But then they took that perk away, requiring the guest to pay. And within six months increased the price of all memberships including the premium. I would understand one or the other, but both within the same year does not feel fair. I can't imagine removing the free guest pass perk was due to inflation.Main reason I ended up getting a membership was because someone used their free guest pass to bring me along a few times and I liked the place. Guess I won't be bringing anyone I know from this point forward.Gold's is nice overall but I would not recommend it to people specifically because of this, I'd be willing to bet they will continue this pattern in the future.

Do not give these people your banking information. Any issue that arises you will not be able to speak to management, the lady caitlyn who does the financial stuff is always at a meeting and lunch. Been weeks and between emails and calls etc the only people I have spoke to are 17 year olds kids who work the front desk. Also be mindful when you join that they will try trick you into thinking you are meeting with a golds gym nutrition and Excercise specialist when in reality it’s a third party who has no affiliation with golds who will try to pressure and manipulate you to give your debit card for biweekly training payments of minimum 120 every other week. Golds actually gives your personal information to these people And they lie and pretend they work there. I worked out for 8 minutes for a *free session* with this person and hurt my back badly. Missed work and had to go to urgent care. Here we are now not even a month later after cancelling and golds still is trying to steal money from my account (about 5 times differing in amounts) and won’t return my calls.Do yourself a favor and join any other gym so you don’t have to deal with these vile people. Also no Covid restrictions are enforced.

Unfortunately no one from management or membership came to speak to me upon my first visit. Very dirty, equipment disorganized, locker room had broken sinks and showers with water everywhere, and trash all over the gym floor. There were ZERO precautions in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, maybe 1% of people wearing masks. The only redeeming factor is the weight lifting equipment was superb for serious weight lifting; Hammer Strength, Iron Grip, etc – very nice. Apart from that, there is nothing this gym offers that a similarly priced and located gym could offer.