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 (tm), is doing great!

Either people are 1. using their memberships or 2. canceling them. Either way, Bally isn't making money for people not coming into gyms.

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!

@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. :)

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.

@outphase: and that's the same problem we're having at the YMCA