Bally Health Club where I work out in Orlando, Florida has already shut down two of their 4 gyms. Without forewarning the Bally Health Clubs in Pine Hills and Casselberry were closed.
Now I’m told the only remaining Bally Health Club in the Orlando metro (as someone said the Altamonte Springs Bally Health Club was also closed) is the one nearest the airport at Semoran Blvd. where I workout and the Bally’s near International Drive on Kirkman Rd. near Valencia Community College.
Beyond the bankruptcy, as if that wasn’t bad enough as I have a premier lifetime membership with Bally Health Club (for which I can use any gym anywhere in North America, as Bally’s is also operating in Canada where my wife is from), Bally even more surprisingly has stopped properly cleaning its equipment.
Nobody is required to bring a towel into the club where I workout. This means pools of sweat are often left behind on the equipment. Paper towels are nearly nonexistent at the gym without requesting some from the staff, who often reply they are “out” and “don’t have” them. The equipment often appears to be greasy, oily, and holds bodily fluids of other gym members who previously used (without a towel) and didn’t bother to clean up after themselves.
Even worse (and another lawsuit waiting to happen) is damaged equipment that has not been repaired. For example the lower back extension has been broken for nearly a month. When I sat down to use the lower back extension and noticed the foot bar had been broken off (which provides stability to the lower back to prevent injury), to my surprise a Bally’s personal trainer (or should I say salesman) approached me to pitch PT (personal training) to earn himself some money, but never bothered to put an “out of order” sign on the damaged equipment.
I am a former personal trainer myself and know a lot about gym equipment and proper management of health clubs. I worked for 24 Fitness in California and at a local private gym in Orlando years ago, which I pretty much managed in the absence of the owner.
When I recently saw what looked like pink eye appear in my right eye and what looked like herpes on the right side of my mouth, I started freaking out and wondering what was going on. I’m a married man and definitely am not playing around sexually. Yet I have been working out at Bally Health Club regularly.
When the optomotrist put a liquid solution (which burned profusely) in my right eye to test me for herpes, thankfully it was negative and I don’t have herpes. What the doctor did say I have however is a bacterial viral infection. I immediately told the doc about Bally’s going bankrupt and being too cheap to clean their gyms as of late. He was a bit surprised to hear this.
Incidentally, the optomotrist visit cost me hours out of my schedule (as I was made to wait for an hour in the doctor’s waiting room until I could be seen and had to drive two hours to and fro) and $125. The eye drops cost another $97 from the pharmacist. Bally Health Club should at least pay me $1,000 for my pain and suffering, their negligence, and time stolen from my schedule.
If there is anybody facing a similar situation at their Bally Health Club, please put your name, address, and state your situation and email on a comment after this post to be added to the forthcoming class action lawsuit and let your voice be heard.
Bacteria and viral infections (with the recent outbreak of the swine flu) need to be prevented and every precaution taken. Health Clubs such as Bally’s who fail to take proper hygiene and sanitation procedures required by law need to be punished and shut down if they fail to comply. Refusal to clean your health club is gross negligence and should be punishable to the full extent of the law.
The carpet in the aerobics room at Bally’s Health Club is filthy and needs to be replaced. Their are cigarettes all over the ground at the entrance to Bally’s. A lifetime member (an elderly man who has been attending the Semoran health club for years) told me some years back a manager at the health club was involved in a homosexual relationship with an underage young man who he was having sex with in the men’s locker room after hours.
Health Clubs such as Bally’s and other private clubs need far more scrutiny from sanitation and law enforcement to ensure the general public is protected.
If you are an attorney reading this and would like to represent me and the members of Bally Health Club, please kindly reply to:
www.PaulFDavis.com – consumer advocate, worldwide speaker & life-changing author
