[quote=“Belgian Pie”][quote=“biggyweiting”]Bruno, the owner, dropped his bodyweight down to 235, and still pulled 725
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And no problem with hemorrhoids?
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Ha ha. You’re bad. I just blew my piles out my nose when I read that.
My joining experience wasn’t too bad. Got a better deal signing up for 2 years.
If you try to freeze your membership, that is a total pain. They make you fill out a form each time and mail it in (yes, you have to pay for your own stamp and registered mail). You have to do this each time for each month you want frozen. You can’t use one letter to freeze 2 months at once. Here’s the best part… they still charge you on the month you’re frozen. They give you your money back after you quit your membership.
Hi, its so funny that I come across your post i want to share the same thing happened to me I had no idea what was going on I swear at some moment I felt like i was going to see the FBI coming from the roof, so many nonsense questions and kept telling me this is how Taiwan works, and Kept saying in USA I used to pay 30-35USD, and she kept going back to the office and the manager, which by now I think it must be some trick, at the end she came with a huge price and she asked me to pay 500usd to join and I said hold up wasn’t I just saying I pay 30-35 per months where did you get the 500USD, and omg it was painful my gf will never want to go check one of these gyms anymore, and I still don’t know why but they love the credit card rather than cash, by now I am thinking they will want to take some money out and then give me the biggest shittiest excuse ever… anyways, I want to request permission to re post your post in my Facebook…
Sure, pls spread the word. These Taiwan gyms are scams in my view. Never give them a credit card number or you’ll end up canceling your card.
No, not all gyms in Taiwan are like that (as described in the OP). And no, not all big gyms are run by World Gym. I’ve been going to Being Sport for years now and it’s fine. I have few complaints. The prices are up front, and there’s no bullshit tactics like described in the OP.
I had a very similar experience to the OP when checking out California Fitness years ago (I think it is now a World Gym, on Zhong-Xiao E. Rd). They basically wanted to know how much money I had so they could figure out how much to try and soak me for. I demanded finally to see a price listing of some sort and wasn’t satisfied with their response, and promptly walked out. No thanks.
I regret giving world gym my REAL number. I kept getting calls from them during work hours and sometimes two times a day.
I was contemplating joining because it’s so close to my house and I wasn’t too fond of the Songshan district fitness center, but after multiple calls from them, I don’t see myself joining unless they give me an amazing price, and not take my credit card number.
We all know that won’t ever happen. So we know the outcome.
I recently switched gyms, going from Being Sport on Min-Sheng E. Rd. to the new World Gym on Nan-Jing E. Rd. They had a pre-opening sale, three years @ $1188 a month. Can’t beat that price. If you go now to check into joining, you won’t get offered that deal anymore obviously. And no, you can’t pay cash. The monthly fee is automatically charged every month to your credit card. Makes sense, otherwise people might not honor their contracts. I don’t have a problem with it. Don’t know why anyone would really.
Just tell them foreigners can’t get a credit card in Taiwan (not true but they dont know ) They will take your cash.
I bet if I walked in to kk s gym now, offered them the price he got, cash deal, take it or leave it they would take it. Just pack up to walk out when they first say no and they will be all over you like a bad rash.
I had a bad run in with slimy sales tactics at local Taiwanese gyms many years ago, not interested in doing that again.
Id rather deal with a slimy car salesman than a gym. And yes, never give the salesperson your real number, i made that mistake too.
Yep. I had a story to tell aobut those shoddy tactics at California before WG took over. I would never trust them with a CC#ever again; nor would I sign up under any terms that were offered to me for anything, unless I saw the price PINNED TO THE BLOODY DOOR on the way in.
The whole CF24 crap was just BS. I did lose weight though, and so I guess it wasn’t a total loss. But when I found out how much my friends were paying compared to my account, I realized ‘sucker’ had been printed across my head in pulsating pink letters. It’s hard to continue an abusive relationship like that.
What surprises me is how the gyms continue to be around when their reputations for shoddy practices are well founded.
[quote=“ilikecoffee”]Yep. I had a story to tell aobut those shoddy tactics at California before WG took over. I would never trust them with a CC#ever again; nor would I sign up under any terms that were offered to me for anything, unless I saw the price PINNED TO THE BLOODY DOOR on the way in.
The whole CF24 crap was just BS. I did lose weight though, and so I guess it wasn’t a total loss. But when I found out how much my friends were paying compared to my account, I realized ‘sucker’ had been printed across my head in pulsating pink letters. It’s hard to continue an abusive relationship like that.
What surprises me is how the gyms continue to be around when their reputations for shoddy practices are well founded.[/quote]
We get asked about discounts and my answer is the same every time: our prices are low for everyone. We don’t cut deals that make the guy next to you on the treadmill pay less. I always envision one guy asking another guy what he paid then getting pissed that he’s paying less. It’s just bad business and breeds resentment.
The big gyms here do it because they market to 10’s of thousands of people at a time. People that leave bad reviews are overwhelmed by the number of people the marketing reaches.
Having said that, the fancy pants gym down the street from us won’t let people take a look before they sign up and we’ve gotten more than a few people because of that and those people left a bad review of that place.
As bad as some of the experiences are with joining gyms in Taiwan, and how unacceptable those types of selling tactics are to foreigners, I think people have to remember two things. First, this isn’t a service country and it’s not a place where the customer is always right. This thread could just as easily be titled: Bad restaurant experience, or bad clothes buying experience, or bad trying to return such and such broken gadget experience, or bad renew my ARC experience, etc… Secondly, the foreigner population is tiny here and they aren’t catering to us. I’m a member at World gym and believe me, they have NO ISSUE with finding new members. That place is absolutely packed at after work hours. They now have two gyms within easy 15 minute walking distance of my house and both are full at that time of the day. I would imagine just given the sheer size of their membership, management probably thinks they are doing a fantastic job with sales and marketing.
As long as you don’t usually workout between 6-9 pm, I’d say just tough it out during the uncomfortable joining process, negotiate the lowest price you can get, and get it over with. Once you’re a member, It’s a nice place to workout.
[quote=“BrentGolf”]As bad as some of the experiences are with joining gyms in Taiwan, and how unacceptable those types of selling tactics are to foreigners, I think people have to remember two things. First, this isn’t a service country and it’s not a place where the customer is always right. This thread could just as easily be titled: Bad restaurant experience, or bad clothes buying experience, or bad trying to return such and such broken gadget experience, or bad renew my ARC experience, etc… Secondly, the foreigner population is tiny here and they aren’t catering to us. I’m a member at World gym and believe me, they have NO ISSUE with finding new members. That place is absolutely packed at after work hours. They now have two gyms within easy 15 minute walking distance of my house and both are full at that time of the day. I would imagine just given the sheer size of their membership, management probably thinks they are doing a fantastic job with sales and marketing.
As long as you don’t usually workout between 6-9 pm, I’d say just tough it out during the uncomfortable joining process, negotiate the lowest price you can get, and get it over with. Once you’re a member, It’s a nice place to workout.[/quote]
You are certainly right that it isn’t a service industry in Taiwan. If you threaten to cancel because you are unhappy with a service, in the west they will offer a “retention” plan to keep you. Gyms, phone companies, banks, credit card companies, etc will offer something to keep you as a customer. Here in Taiwan they could care less if you cancel 
I took a bunch of shirts to the dry cleaners, and when I went to pick it up, the guy showed me a ruined shirt (one that was obvious he ruined with chemicals) and said it was already like that. Instead of sucking up the small bit of money to admit his mistake, he has now lost all my business. But companies here dont think of the long run of treating customers shitty.
As far as World Gym goes, it might appear that they have no want for customers, but you need to remember that most who join the gym do it with the idea of becoming fit, then end up getting lazy and cancelling the membership the next year. So they need to always be on the lookout for new suckers to join at their high prices to keep it viable. Which is why when I am at the mall they wait at the bottom of the escalator to jump people to join. So they may have sheer size now, and management might think that their business practices are good now, but they always need to be on the lookout for new clients to replace the ones leaving, and if their reputation sinks to just the right level…
They know many/most don’t use the gym so it makes sense to sell as many memberships as possible for them.
There’s probably a lack of competition (people accepting very crowded gyms) in the market or else Taiwanese are used to these kind of tactics and take it in stride.
Then they probably worked out there’s always a cohort of new punters to target.
What are the public gyms like here?
I was told by a female that the one she goes to is around 60NT an hour. She said they had free weights and machines. But I am not sure she knows much about weight training.
I am half tempted to check it out sometime. It is in Ximending round the corner from the bridge to San Chung.
Although, I have my own weights and bench at home and have never been to any gym in Taiwan.
I would never join one the the fancy ones here.
I think it would be a waste of cash. And I can imagine it has its share of staring muppets.
The gyms I went to back home were like Rocky gyms and one at a university.
But, give me free weights, a bench and a straight bar, and a block of wood and I can do almost everything.
[quote]What are the public gyms like here?
I was told by a female that the one she goes to is around 60NT an hour.[/quote]
Yeah those community centre gyms tend to be around 50 nt and I think they give you 70 minutes for that. They have some decent stuff in there so it’s a reasonable alternative to a full gym membership, but to me, not worth it.
Just my humble opinion, but people need to understand that working out is a life long venture. You will need to be doing this 3 times a week, FOREVER ! If you cut corners, go to cheaper places without the cool atmosphere and abundance of equipment to keep you busy, you’ll likely not succeed in building up the life long habit of working out and actually enjoying it. It’ll always be a chore, and you’ll be one of those on again off again types.
I say there’s nothing more important than your health. So go ahead, spend a little money on a full scale gym membership, and spend some extra money on a good tasting healthy diet plan.
You can ditch the expensive clothes, you don’t need a watch or jewellery, you can drive a cheap 2nd hand car, you can skip the expensive gifts at holidays, but one thing you should not be doing is being cheap with your health. Health should be your primary expense in your life. To me, a gym membership and healthy eating is just a mandatory life expense 
I agree. Those community gyms are more-or-less functional, but they’re usually deficient in some way. If you’re doing 15 days a week at the gym thats NT$900/mo. For $500 more you can get a membership to a much better-equipped gym. It becomes more enjoyable and less of a chore - and as BG implies, your main expense is (or should be) your diet, not the gym membership. No point in pennypinching if you’re taking it seriously.
I keep seeing how supposedly cheap the community centers are as a reason to go there. But what isn’t being mentioned is that if you take anything more than an Ipod and a towel in with you, they ask you to get a locker to put it in. Not backpacks are allowed in. The lockers are NT30, raising the price to NT80 per visit. That does not include the use of the pool and they limit your time to 60:00. So if you went 3x a week, you’re getting pretty close to NT1000 a month, what we charge per month if you commit for a longer term. Plus at our place, the equipment is way better, we don’t limit your workout time, and our lockers are free.
All things considering, I think the community centers are lousy places to work out and they aren’t that cheap but obviously I’m biased. 
The community fitness centers are NT$ 50/hour. If you exceed that time, you pay a portion of the cost of an hour. I usually end up paying NT$ 65 to NT$ 80 for 1.25 or 1.75 hours.
Maybe different locations have different rules, but, at the one I go to, people take bags and stuff in with them. My wife is one of those people.
The lockers cost NT$ 10. But, each time you open and close the locker, you need to pay another NT$ 10.
I’ve considered going to FF’s gym, and I’m sure its an excellent gym. But, I don’t have a lot of time, and the community fitness center is a 5 minute walk from my place. I go in the mornings before work at 6am, and it is near empty.
Ah where did Clark Hatch ever go? That was a nice gym. Or the former Mr. Taiwan’s gym on ShiDa: That was a pit, but a cool and cheeep pit.
The first gym I ever went to regularly was across from Tai-Da Univ on Xin-Sheng S. Rd. It was more or less directly across from the track at Tai-Da. I can’t remember the name, but it might have been as simple as Taipei Gym. I wonder if it’s still there. It was pretty decent. When I had a membership for a few years, it was probably already 15 years ago. 