Fitness Centres in Taiwan

Have to agree with BrentGolf here. I’m always surprised to hear such horror stories. I too suspect it has something to do with the attitudes people have in situations like this.

The negotiating tactics of the sales people in those places are pathetic, one notch below used Taiwan’s used car salesmen even! They make the customer confused and pissed off and waste valuable time. The worst is that they bombard you with calls and emails years after leaving their gyms

I joined World Gym this April as my old one (The former “Alexander Gym” which then became “Action Life”) decided to seize operations all of a sudden…I simply walked into their Hsin Chuang branch…met with the salesgirl and in 10 minutes signed the 2 year contract…no problems whatsoever (She said they do not accept cash payments, only Credit Cards)…Been working out there since May and absolutely love it. I have the option to go to various other branches all over Taipei as well except the “Elite” branches which are in the Taipei 101 area & The Minsheng Branch.

Anyone know any decent gyms in Banqiao?

And you can’t easily handle situations like this? Never encountered a pushy salesman or telemarketer back home? Taiwan is different, no doubt about it. But if people just handle the situation with a little bit of maturity and patience, pretty much every situation in Taiwan can be handled quite easily. I quit True Fitness and Fitness Factory, and joined World gym with no issues at all and after a year I’m still really liking World Gym. Nice place to workout at.

Unfortunately there seems to be a pervasive attitude in the foreigner community here to make everything like it is “back home.” Oh we don’t do THAT back home. Well yeah maybe they don’t, but here in the country you CHOSE to live in, they do. People would have much more success speaking to Taiwanese people as Taiwanese people are accustomed to be spoken to. The people in these administrative positions have very likely never been to where you call “back home” because, they already are home. Just saying… :slight_smile:

Don’t know what ‘back home’ has got to do with it, all I want is a gym membership but feel like I’m negotiating the Soviet US arms reduction agreement back in 1985 with the evil empires representative :slight_smile:.

I can handle their crap sales tactics, but they waste my valuable time first.

I’ve also been a member if world gym, it’s ‘okay’ , the main problem I had was the overcrowding in the evenings.

Its not a matter if someone is “able to handle” their tactics, but why would I knowingly subject myself to that crap.

They start out really high, and get pushovers to pay. Only when you decide to walk out on them do they give you a better deal, and even then they are still holding out. They see a foreigner and sucker is written on our face.

My Taiwanese friend got a deal at World Gym for $700 a month but he signed a 2 year contract, they never offered anything close for me when I tried. I might try again in January but I’m going to walk in and demand the manager, I have no time for salesman games.

Why cant they offer a flat fee, no haggle price that is fair and skip the games.

If that’s not rhetorical then the simple answer is, because they can and it’s working just fine. World gym is very popular and they have a huge membership. For good reason too, it’s a nice place to workout at. I’m not sure why you would expect a successful business to change their sales practises for the few people who found them intrusive. That would only happen if they were struggling. Clearly the evidence shows that many people made it through the process and handed them money at the end of it. I didn’t find it uncomfortable and I wouldn’t imagine the average Taiwanese person did either. You personally might have gotten a bad salesman who went a bit too far with the hard sale, but every business has good and bad sales people, that’s down to the individual. For the most part though, how they do it is just how it’s done in the foreign country you chose to live in.

If you go to a small community type gym where business isn’t exactly booming, they are forced to be more customer oriented. Don’t think it’s because the owner is such a great guy, it’s just pure business survival, everybody needs to find their niche. If you can’t compete with World gym on convenience, equipment and facilities, its common sense to try to be more customer oriented.

Show me a successful full service gym in Taiwan that is 30 seconds from one of the most popular train stations in the city, where you can get a membership, rent a locker, and workout any time you want with modern and abundant equipment for a reasonable price that is still customer oriented during the sales pitch.

No problem.

They don’t need me, and I don’t need them. Voting with my wallet is how I deal with snobbish businesses.

Only those that are really into bodybuilding need to join. I can get my exercise quite easily climbing Monkey mountain, lose weight and stay in shape, and pay nothing, and don’t have to deal with that BS. I just have to deal with the annoyance when they try to step in front of me at the mall to sell me their overpriced gym.

Other people can pay though the nose to keep them in business.

Gyms like world gym follow an over subscription model, they know many if not most members will not use the facilities over time. Maybe that is why they try to get you to sign the 2 year deal but it still doesn’t explain the complicated negotiation tactics, I think that’s pretty Taiwanese or maybe a standard for World gym
in the region.

2 year membership isn’t that bad of a commitment. Time goes by fast as we get older!

In the US one time, 24 Hour Fitness was having a membership sale. Prepaid for 3 years up front ($1500 total) and each following year is $39/annually. That was about 10 years ago so the last 7 years I’ve been paying $39 per year. Not too bad for a large chain.

Has anyone been to Hosa Fitness on Zhonghua East st. Sec. 2 in Tainan? I live right next door to it and I think I’m going to get a membership there. I haven’t seen any reviews about it, though, and they don’t have a trial membership option to let me try it out and see if I like it. Is it possible to convince a gym to let you do a one-off trial workout to see how you like it before you make a decision? It’s not the nicest gym ever, but it has a well-stocked free weights section and it’s literally a 2-minute walk from my house, and it also does short-term memberships with no joining fee, so it’s got pretty much everything I need. There are a couple of significant things I noticed there that I didn’t like (the assisted pullup machine sucks, and it’s in an airless basement with a bit of a moldy smell, so it’s not a particularly pleasant environment), which is why I’m a little hesitant about choosing to sign a contract with Hosa. I’m having some difficulty deciding because I’ve been working out at Fitness Factory on a trial membership and I really, really like it, but it’s not as close to home and involves more fees and longer commitments (I’m only planning to stay in Tainan for 3-4 months, so I’d likely be selling my membership or canceling it at an 80% refund rate). So while the workouts at Fitness Factory will be more enjoyable, the membership process will be much more painful. So I guess I have several questions:

  1. anyone have reviews of Hosa Fitness? Is it pretty much “what you see is what you get”, or are there surprises that I should know about?

  2. how hard is it to cancel or sell an unfinished membership? Are there all kinds of hidden strings attached, or is it relatively simple?

  3. Anything else I might need a heads-up about for gyms in Tainan?

If you want to just lift weights in a laid-back environment, I can recommend Coach Huang’s gym next to Taipower station. Everything is up front and the coach is a bodybuilding expert who will push you really hard. Its bare bones, bodybuilding gym, so dont expect spinning classes or saunas.

There are three basic things we must all do in order to accomplish our goals to have a nice body. We will need a workout program, a healthy and nutritious diet and a supplementation program to help us along the way. So a Fitness Center is really important. If I have chance to visit Taiwan, the info from this forum is really useful.


http://gc180xtgarcinias.com/

I’m going to stay in da’an district… can you give me some informations about the gym nearby along with the price? and also i’m looking for gym partner if anyone interested… :slight_smile: thank you very much!

How much is the monthly fee in O3 fitness? and how long is the contract? is it like world gym/true fitness wherein you just workout on your own? or the trainers will give you programs regularly? Thanks!

It might be better to just call and ask about the membership, last time I went was over a year ago. I don’t recall any contract, you just pay by the month and I think they might have offered multiple months membership. I only went for the classes like circuit training, totally kicked my ass. But they do have an area where you can work out on your own. If you’re looking to purely work out on your own with free weights and machine, then you might want to stick with something like world gym. But if you like the class setting, then 03 is pretty cool.

you can go to the community gym in Da’An. Nt50 for 30mins, but trick is you stay overtime and they charge you an extra NT30 for penalty. but paying upfront for an hour actual cost you NT100. so you do that math.

they’ve got pretty everything you need there and showers are available for free.

here’s the link dasc.cyc.org.tw/IISystem/Portal/dasc/

Hi! my name is Brian and I am a Sales Representative for O3 Fitness in Taipei Da an district. I would gladly assist you in any questions you have regarding joining our gym :slight_smile:

Hi;

Im a newby here in taichung.trying to find a decent and nice gym with no membership.
maybe a per entry/pay!

Ive been checking few gyms around here in taichung,but mostly they will require you to get the membership and have to pay a monthly bill. which is i find really not a good idea. any suggestion or help wil be really appreciated.
Thanks in advance.