Complaint Review: Bally Total Fitness Beth Sopel

I was hired by Bally Total Fitness in White Marsh, Maryland in February 2006. I worked at the front desk and eventually made my way into the ProShop, working at the Juice Bar for Beth Sopel.

Beth Sopel is a rude, nasty, and disgusting individual. She often made outrageous comments to customers as well as other employees. Many customers would agree that she behaves this way and eventually she lost some loyal customers. She would tell people things they needed to work on for their health and fitness, but she is noticeably overweight.

She is the manager of the ProShop and Juice Bar in the White Marsh Bally's. As an employee, I know there are certain rules to abide by and expectations that need to be met. Every month we had a quota and we were expected to hit, if not exceed the amount (anywhere from $26,000 to $40,000). Beth would tell us everyday what the daily goal was and how much more we needed to reach it. She was very concerned with this because she only received her monthly bonus when this number was hit. However, she was the only one that benefited from this. We had a total of 5 employees in the Juice Bar, including Beth. The shop is open 72 hours a week and Beth works 40 hours a week. So she is only in there about half the time, yet she makes 100% of the commission. We brought this up to her one time and she said we would be rewarded. We never were and it is now 6 months after she originally told us we would be receiving about $100 each for helping her make the quota.

One day, Beth told me the goal was $1200. By the end of the night with only an hour to go, we had hit $1250. I texted Beth with the number. I did not receive a good job or that's great, but instead I received a message that said, Can you do $50 more? I was outraged. She is completely unappreciative of the hard work put in by her employees.

Beth is also not considerate with her customers. If we ran out of an ingredient, she would mix it with another item. A few times, we were running low on creatine and she combined it with a vanilla cream. People that ask for creatine are paying $1 extra to have 5 grams added to their shakes. Creatine is a muscle growth stimulant. Vanilla cream is simply a sweet sugared flavoring. Customers that ask for creatine do not want a flavor added to their shake because they want muscle growth. Customers are getting cheated out of their money.

Most shakes come with 8 ounces of either milk or fruit puree, a half a banana, and cup of some kind of berries. I have had a customer tell me that he watched Beth make his shake three times after he realized it did not taste the same. All three times, he saw Beth bend down to the fridge and reach into the blueberry bucket with the 1/4 scoop and come up with nothing and tap the scoop into the blender, as if she was placing the correct amount of fruit in. Just because she is trying to save a few cents here and there, she ended up losing a loyal customer because he does not even buy shakes from her anymore and never even comes into the ProShop if he sees her in there.

These are just a few examples, but she also does more. Instead of 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, she will only use 1. Instead of a whole banana for the "Mo Mass" shake, she only uses half. Any shake that is supposed to have half a banana, she will only put in a third. For all shakes, she uses less liquid than required and places more ice in the shake, causing it to be thick, lumpy, and less tasty. When people are paying $6 - $10 for a single shake, they should be getting their money's worth.

This summer, I had an internship, so I had to cut back my hours at Bally's and so I was only available one weeknight and on Saturdays. When I worked, I had many customers tell me how much they missed me during the week because their shakes did not taste good if Beth had made them or that they did not get a shake because they saw her working. My internship was ending and I told Beth that I would be able to work more and she was happy.

However, this past weekend, I worked a shift from 9 am to 1 pm and 15 minutes before I got off, Beth came in and took me into an office for a talk. She started out with "Do you know what this is about?" I told her I did not have a clue and she said, "Because of your availability, I am going to have to let you go. Today is your last day."

Even though I told her only one week before that I would be able to work more, she laid me off. She did not begin by asking if I was willing to open my availability, she did not say anything about how I was a good employee or how she appreciated having me work for her or anything. She simply just got rid of me.

She is nasty and rude and I hope more people realize that she makes a hefty bonus off of all the money people spend in that shop. Some people have already stopped going in there because of her attitude and the way she treats her customers, but I hope more people decide not to put up with such a person.

Anonymous
White Marsh, Maryland
U.S.A.

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