If only being given the runaround countless times could burn calories and build muscle, then maybe Iram wouldn’t be so mad at Bally Total Fitness and L.A. Fitness for keeping her out of the gym. She writes that she’s at her wit’s end with Bally since her location was taken over by L.A. Fitness. And as a Premier member who paid out big bucks, Iram is beyond frustrated.

Irams says of her Premier membership, “Yeah, I was dumb enough to pay $800 to guarantee $4.00 per month in membership dues,” but by now she’s paid up until 2014 and would like to be working out.

Unfortunately, when she went into her old Bally location, now an L.A. Fitness, she was met with shrugs as employees couldn’t find her in the system.

After waiting in line for 38 minutes, (I counted) the guy at the counter asks me to call customer service because he can’t find me in the system. He also gives me the name and number for a manager who works at L.A. Fitness and could possibly help. I went into the gym on Dec 14. Dec 15 I get hold of the manager. She couldn’t find me in the system and carried on like I was lying about being a member. I pulled up credit card statements and my membership number. No luck. Finally she was nice enough to call someone at Bally corporate named G.

He said that he would “code the system” to get my membership transferred over. He said that it should be completed in two weeks. In the meantime, I still have no place to work out at. The nearest (not bought out Bally’s) is in Wisconsin. If you think getting to the gym is hard, try having to go across state lines!

I called another rep again around Dec. 20. She told me that the transfer is still pending and there’s no movement in the system (by the way, each time I call in, I’m on hold for no less than 40 minutes). On 12/29 I call A. at Ballys who provides me with a reference number and again, no luck in figuring out what’s the deal with my membership. A. said to try after the new year.

I call again on Jan. 4, and the rep said there was movement on the account on 12/18. God knows what that means since they still can’t find me and I still don’ t have a place to work out at. Finally I get transferred back to G. who remembered my case but still cannot help figure out what the problem is.

After all this runaround I resort to Twitter. All I get are the same generic responses. I have filed a dispute with my credit card company but since I paid them in February last year it’s slow going getting them to reverse the charge. Not to mention the $800 I’m out for the stupid Premier membership. I would love Consumerist to help me figure out what the heck is going on here. It’s not right that I pay for services and get jerked around. It’s a waste of time and energy!

That is what we call an unproductive workout.

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