Bally Total Fitness has filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy… again. [MarketWatch]
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So, Bally got too thin again, eh?
does this provide an opporunity to escape a contract without penalty?
Even after locking loads of people into contracts they can’t break even? I think they need to shed all that extra weight…….
right, but do they want a bailout?
Their leading competitor, Running Outside for Free ™, is doing great!
@HRHKingFridayXX: I was going to join that, but the membership contract involved fresh air and shoes. So I played video games.
@m4ximusprim3: Sooooo at Bally’s they provide the shoes? Hmmm that’s tempting!
@HRHKingFridayXX: No word, however, on how said competitor can handle the winter months, most notably the intrusion of competitors Blizzard’s and Precipitation-Free, But Still Too Fucking Cold Outside.
Either people are 1. using their memberships or 2. canceling them. Either way, Bally isn’t making money for people not coming into gyms.
@outphase: and that’s the same problem we’re having at the YMCA
Good! It seems their whole business model required tricking people into expensive and long contracts. No bailout for you, Bally’s.
@elaineous:
Good! It seems their whole business model required tricking people into expensive and long contracts. No bailout for you, Bally’s.
I think I’d rather take Bally’s 30-month @ $49.99/mo contract then Countrywide’s 30-year @ $2999/mo plan
Either way I’m paying too much for too long, at least I can check out girls’ butts at the gym.
Ballyout!
I hate these cocksuckers! I hope they rot in hell. I’ve never seen a scummier business in my life. Their business is the epidemy of what’s wrong with business in our country.
@elloGov: They’ve certainly opened a bunch of places quickly, almost to the point of being the epitome of franchises!
@elloGov: Ouch…. it sounds like you have been burned bad by them. Care to share?
@dohtem: Well, I had one club membership and a promise from the branch manager to cancel if I moved more than 20 miles away. I’ve moved but they still won’t cancel the membership. I’ve spent past year trying to cancel. Lastly, the branch manager, I and a dumb useless tool of a representative were on 3 way after I insisted for 20 minutes that he get the manager on the phone. Manager told them what he told me and that I have the legitimate claim to cancel the membership. All the poor tool could tell us is I’ve noted that down, but I can’t do anything, it’s the cancellation department. Well what is their number? They don’t have one. So the saga continues. I’m getting charged 26/month for the past year without even stepping foot into a Bally shit hole. No gym should have contracts, everyone is contract happy in business these days. It’s used as a trap which is not the intention of a contract to begin with.
The irony is that with their second bankruptcy in less than a year, they’re yet again bailing out their vendor’s contracts. Something their members try to pull off, mostly with no success.
How is it that this place can’t survive on $50 a month over a 2 year+ contract when the gym near me does great at $10 per month with no contract… and its cleanner, bigger, and has newer equipment than Bally’s… Oh, and the roof doesnt leak either.