Got Bangkok

I visited California WOW Esplanade today May 5th, and they are now closed for good.

Last week I was urged to pay my yearly renewal fee of 2888 baht. This is totally unfair since they closed only a week later. Does anyone know where and when they are giving our refunds?

Their paper reads:

I will be calling them soon asking for details about refunds, and will post any information that I find here.

Fitness 7 Ratchada
“Get your body fit, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week!”
Open everyday 24 hours per day!
Website: http://www.fitness7.co.th
Call: 026923991, 0896859977
Address: 63 Ratchadapisek Rd Soi 7 Nathong Road – Din Daeng, Bangkok 10400. The nearest MRT station is Huay Kwang station. (In Thai language: 63 ถ.รัชดาภิเษก 7 ซอยนาทอง แขวง-เขต ดินแดง กทม. 10400)

Fitness 7 Ratchada is a really nice and clean new gym in the Huay Kwang, Ratchada area.

Price: 1200 per month or 200 baht per day. No contract needed.

A list of equipment they have is: chest press, leg press, shoulder press, lat pulldown, seated row, bicept curl, peck fly, ab machine, flat incline, decline bench, leg curl, back extension, leg extension, multi hip machine, inner / outer thigh, rotary torso, smith machine. They also have free weights, eliptical machine, 6 treadmills and a lot of bicycle machines too.

There are drinks and food available too, you can order at the counter.

The fitness 7 area gym is located on level 2, and on level 3 is the locker rooms with 1 shower, 1 changing room per male, and 1 of each per female.

I was told by my Esplanade customer service rep that Sukhumvit 23 and Siam Paragon California Wow’s will stay open. So yesterday, Sunday July 22nd I went to Suk23 location and it’s closed with a sign that says:

“Dear Members, please be inform that building electrician found that our instigated circuit has a problem and it will be fixed by Monday, The club is closure on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd July 2012 and will operate as normal on Monday 23rd July 2012. Sorry for your inconvenience.”

So today, Monday July 23rd I go there expecting a great long workout, and it’s STILL not open 🙁

Sign this weekend, about closing for the weekend

Sign Caliwow Suk23 power problems

Today, Monday, still not open as the sign says they would be 🙁

Sukhumvit23 Caliwow closed today

This is really horrible, I seen so many other disappointed California Wow members going up and reading the sign, frustrated and disappointed. I really wish Caliwow can at least inform it’s members properly, open some kind of solid line of communication. Even their own employees were there reporting to work to see that it’s not open today!

EDIT: California Wow at Esplanade (Ratchada branch) is now open 🙂

Anymore info about California Wow and it’s problems, opinions, or anything please let me know by contacting me

California Wow Fitness Center Thailand
“The World’s No. 1 Fitness Centers”
Open Monday-Friday 06:00am – 22:00pm and Weekends from 06:00am – 22:00pm
Website: http://www.californiawowx.com
Call: N/A
Address: I frequently visit the Ratchada Esplanade branch, but there are 8 locations in Bangkok. There are: Chaeng Wattana, Ekkamai, Esplanade, Pinklao, Ratchayothin, Siam Paragon, Silom, and Sukhumvit 23. There are also fitness centers outside of BKK at Chiang Mai and Pattaya. (EDIT: Many of the California WOW fitness centers are closed due to some bankruptcy situation, only ones open now are Sukhumvit 23, Siam Paragon, and Chiang Mai)

California Wow is a well known fitness center in Thailand, possibly the most popular. I joined in March 2011 and so far my “California Wow Experience” is good, but not great. I’m not sure about all their branches, but the Esplanade branch is usually very busy. The locker rooms are big, but the space when dealing with lockers is very small. The benches are the worst ever, you can’t even set things on them. But as for fitness equipment and services, they are plentiful. Their services include XXX Pole dance, personal training, pilates, kickfit, Wow yoga, group biking, kick boxing, and many more.

I did experience some problems when joining California Wow. The people I spoke with were really a bit pushy, trying to push me to spend a lot of money that day. For example, trying to push on a 60,000 baht fee for long period of time, I was only asking them to join for 1 week (to test their services to see if I like it or not), yet they were pushing for 60k, though I did end up joining at some 24,000 baht for 2 years, for 2 branches (Ratchayothin and Esplanade). And if you forget your towel, you’ll be fine because they let you borrow towels for 50 baht per day (a bit expensive for towel renting, but oh well). If you have joined California Wow please post your join day experience, and your overall experience with CaliWow please, comment here.

Some good things, I like there are so many machines, so many to choose from, whether you are going for cardio, strength, abs, arms, legs, they do have it all! Also, if you are a True Home Wifi internet user, you can login to the True Wifi using your user/pass (you should have it from your True Home Wifi information). Also, a little extra perk, I sometimes see the most famous actress/model in Thailand, Chompoo Araya A. Hargate working out there.