12/04/08

Bally Total Fitness Clayton - Not totally safe...

by fleep

I purchased a 1yr pass for the Clayton Bally and I regret it. It is not a safe place to work out.

My car was vandalized in the parking lot. Someone stuck a screwdriver or knife through my door, popped out the door handle and tried to break into my car. It cost me $500 to repair the handle. The manager said he would file a report but then he said he "couldn't find the form." I had the police come out and they fingerprinted my handle to no avail. The police told me that they have this problem occasionally and that it usually happens in waves. Bally corporate headquarters told me it was not their responsibility since the lot is open to the public (even though there is a manned gate and you must pay to park unless you are a member).

I dropped the battery cover of my cell phone in the locker room one morning. I checked my phone when I was setting down my bag in the pool area and realized the cover was missing less then two minutes after exiting the locker room. I went right back to the locker room and it was gone. Nobody had turned it in to the lost and found and I can only surmise that someone threw it out for laughs.

I have had people lurking over my bag while I swim many times and have had to cut my workout short in order to grab it and leave before it was stolen.

It is a fact that my property is not safe at Clayton Bally. Equally I do not feel physically safe there. The metrolink has a stop right in the Bally Parking Lot and Clayton Residents are in the extreme minority. The topics and tenor of conversations that I hear from the locker room or the hot tub are usually angry and menacing. More than once people have made denegrating remarks as I pass by. I always have just kept my eyes on the floor and ignored them but I often felt threatened. I grew up in the city and have good street sense about whether or not my I am in a safe environment, and unless one arrives before 8am I cannot say that Bally in Clayton is at all safe.

• Pros: It has a pool
• Cons: You and your property are not safe.

03/04/08

new equipment

by palanker

Nice gym- it has a lap pool, hot tub, and recently got a bunch of new equipment = elliptical trainers, Gazelle, resistance weight machines, etc. The clientele is diverse (young, old, overweight, ripped) and everyone seems nice- I have never seen anyone talking smak or hitting on girls (common at some gyms). My only complaint is that it can be warm on the second floor in the summer.