LA fitness Reviews

Contrary to what LA Fitness has said, it does not honor all Bally memberships, including my premier membership. Earlier this fall, Bally had persuaded me to renew for three years one year ahead of the expiration date,15 December 2012, of my membership, so that I renewed until 2015. I was never told of a possible sale of my home club in Long Beach, CA. When Bally finally did notify me of the sale in an email on 30 November 2011, one day before the clubs changed hands, it assured me LA Fitness would assume my membership.

LA Fitness states in writing that Bally members "with an expiration date greater than 12/1/2014 were not acquired, so we don't accept them." I assumed the fault was Bally's, but according to the article in the Los Angeles Times, LA Fitness is at fault here. Indeed, both corporations are lying.

When I went to the LA Fitness in Edina, MN, they were very pleasant but would not give me a membership in their club without a new contract, despite the fact that I am in possession of an email issued by Bally's on November 30. It states that LA Fitness "will take over the clubs it is acquiring and assume your membership agreement effective December 1, 2011". I've talked to other Bally's members who have been "processed" in the same way. Currently, I am in the process of collecting all of my contracts and bills and filing a complaint with the Minnesota Attorney General's office. I'll update this site if I get any good news.

That club has been closed for years, so they want me to use another club that is over 35 miles from my house. They said I could use any former Bally club, however they are closing most of them, and taking the name off, and putting LA Fitness on? When I inquired as to how I was supposed discern one from the other, and the lady actually said "I don't know". Great! Thank you! I paid quite a bit of money for my lifetime membership, just to argue with her about whether or not I was a month to month. I mean hello, I pay dues monthly, yes, but I own my membership. The club I visited in an upscale suburb smelled, and was laid out badly. The pool was very small, and faced outside where everyone could watch you. That is very insensitive, and what a blow to people with lifetime memberships. If you want, you can convert to a month to month with LA? I said, "why would I want to take something I own, and blow it out of my hand like dust, for a month to month?" I also have a lifetime fitness membership, and wish that was all I had now besides a headache!

To all prospective members: please demand and read all "contracts." They will tell you it isn't a "contract" but it is-- both personal training and membership contracts. Beware. Personal training contracts are renewable month to month, even beyond the original contract length so be aware! Make sure you get a copy of everything that allegedly has your signature on it. There have been allegations where members' signatures appear on documents that they had no idea they were signing. The only reason LA Fitness exists is to make money. They care very little about you or you fitness goals. To all former Bally members, you may have thought you had it bad before but you have no idea what you have in store!

I also still had a personal training session at Bally’s that is paid for, but no mention of how that would be handled. LA Fitness has a strange way on how to welcome new members. They have no corporate customer service info on their website, only local phone numbers for the local clubs. The only explanation that I received from the staff was that "they are only the messengers". I am very disappointed and disillusioned. I don't understand why LA Fitness can't let the Bally members finish their original contract with the same multi-club use and amenities.

I was upset, but I continued with the paperwork. The guy was unable to answer any of my questions because he told me he was only a trainer. I stayed and worked out. And throughout my time there, I observed how my sales guy interacted with his other customer. He got them on the machine he went through and explained the different equipments, so I ask myself why I didn’t receive the same treatment. I watch him do this with several customers. I went to the front desk to cancel the same day, but they told me the manager was on break. I later called the manager and told him what happened. I told him I was canceling. I wrote a letter and I canceled. Now, they are saying I never canceled.

Meanwhile, at the nearby LA Fitness facility, they said we could transfer to and they imposed a one week time limit to sign a new contract. If I didn't sign a contract then I could only work out at one of their facilities until my existing contract was over. I was paid through June of 2012 but I could work out at any one of five different clubs, and now I have to pay more money in order to continue having a membership.

This is very bad business practice and I know a lot of people in MN that are very upset about how this is being handled.

I called Bally and they confirmed their records showed national access but they could not send me any confirmation. Since LA Fitness won't convert my membership to national without something more than my Bally card to prove it, I am stuck with one club access. Bally and LA Fitness just point the finger at each other and let the customer suffer because of their poor handling of the transaction.

I am out two months worth of membership, which is $29.99 each, which they say they will not refund. At this time, they say they have credited my credit card back for two months, but I have not seen that show up.

Go to this link and sign the petition **. Since those Washington Bally Fitness centers, that were supposedly bought outright location premises, equipment, property, utilities and legal obligations, why are lifetime members, a legal entity of those particular Federal Way Regional HQ, East Bellevue and Kent centers discriminated, and ineligible to transfer in the same equitable financial manner, as the former contracted or monthly payment Bally members?

I talked to some fellow B members, who were annual and monthly members. Witnessed, and told that they were advised and automatically eligible for LA Fitness LAF membership transfers under their current terms, and identical Bally contract terms, and by just showing their current Bally card i.e. varying from annual $100 monthly to no annual monthly $15 to $29.

Whereas, Bally Lifetime contract members were no longer considered, and ineligible to transfer to LAF membership. On December 4, 2011, I was advised by the LAF attendant that all Bally members were eligible to transfer to LAF under the same current conditions and fees, therefore I presumed that since I was a Lifetime member, that I would be eligible under the same terms. Upon this particular inquiry, she stated explicitly that Lifetime members were not eligible to transfer, and to be denied any LAF membership.

Can LA Fitness be legally obligated to honor current Bally Lifetime members and will WA AG investigate the supposedly fraudulent statement by LA Fitness principal Paul **, to service all Bally members, affected by their buy out of Bally? LA Fitness is honoring other prior Bally members IAW their current contract as of November 2011, but discriminately denying transferring their Bally Lifetime members IAW their contract.

Employees were given no notice but let go on 12/1/11 with the option of re-applying at LA for openings if available. Employees not only lost their jobs, but their health insurance and friends as well. They were not even given the opportunity to say good bye to long time patrons or co-workers.

Members were given no notice of classes and childcare being cancelled and hours being changed. They were given 8 days notice of their clubs being closed and left to find new ones. They have no idea what will happen to their prepaid or monthly memberships or how to cancel.

In my opinion, LA have lost many potential clients because of they way they handled this deal when all it would have taken was a bit of communication and caring for many potential new clients. I think this shows just how much LA Fitness Corporate cares about their customers.

I have waited 4 days, and received no call, so I called them again. They said they will refund only 2 months worth of payment, not a year, because they didn't receive my first letter. Also in 2010, I told an LA Fitness employee that i will no longer use the gym because I'm leaving the country for 6-12 months. He said no problem, just send letter, and go. Not true. I don't want to give any stars, but they do not let you post, so I had to rate them 1 star.

Rather than replace the TVs with new flat screens, they get only 2 flat screen TVs that just run advertisements all day. Rather than replace the carpeted floor in the locker area with tile (like all the new LA Fitness facilities), which is causing the locker room to smell like, well, a locker room, they put down new carpet and a sign telling people to dry off in the shower so the carpet doesn't get wet. Half the locker doors are falling off. All the while, the front desk people just text all day long. They like to come off like an upscale, elite gym, but they don't run it that way.

The towel service has gone from bad to worse since I signed up. They must have recently laid-off the employees who launder, fold, and stack the towels, because now they have the receptionist doing it. This happens at most once a night and the fresh towels disappear as soon as they're laid out. As a result, there are very rarely towels available at all anymore.

The juice bar is not like it's free. In fact, it's quite expensive and it's not really a benefit of paying more for a signature membership.

The lockers, apparently, almost never charge the internal batteries in the locks so often, even though there are many empty lockers, they can' be locked. Break-ins are frequent. This week they've posted notices to members warning them that there have been a recent rash of break-ins and suggesting that we leave all valuables at home. Additionally, when someone forgets which locker was theirs, an employee comes in and opens all the lockers until the locker belonging to the forgetful member is located. They leave these lockers unlocked, with all the other members' belongings free for the taking. It's totally unacceptable.

I'll be putting my membership on hold for a couple of months while I try other nearby gyms and to send LA Fitness Ballard a message. Of course, I doubt anything at all will change; they obviously care more about their bottom line than providing any of the services they claim to provide.

At times, there maybe be 25 members waiting to play, and no staff, no incident/accident forms ever given to players or their staff to fill out. It is very unprofessionally run. The YMCA is better organized and maintained. Your male staff also refers to black members not by their names, instead it's "hey bro". Very unprofessional. Have the floor repaired, otherwise, more people will get hurt.

So I'm sending in the cancellation form by mail but my son will still get charged for the additional time. They have a high-tech website and clearly their complicated cancellation policy is merely a way to prolong memberships needlessly.

If something doesn't give, either the price of my membership or the number of days volleyball is played, I will surely be canceling my membership. This along with the other 20 or so people who walked in to play last night and were turned away.

I never used anything there, and I lost my money, all of my money!

The manager, Mr. Gary, from London Wall LA Fitness (no surname as he deny to give it to me with an irreverent attitude and impolite manners) couldn't be more unhelpful and arrogant to deny any help in making the cancellation. This is very frustrating when you see everyday their sales people smiling to possible clients and selling how wonderful the facilities and team are. Be careful when you look for your way out. That includes several hours of waiting game over the phone, and a couple of emails and filling forms. Finally, when I felt that I'm getting there, and I would get my membership cancellation, someone from the head office would say very politely: "Sorry madam, but now you need to pay for an extra month cancellation fee." That's great!

I reluctantly agreed to the personal training after he made me a "deal". I had my first session on a Friday at 5:00PM with the head trainer. I showed up 5 and ended up waiting an hour before he even got to me because he kept answering phone calls and other people's concerns. Finally at 6PM, he got to me. However, after we started walking towards the equipment. He told me to hold on again because he had to make another phone call. I proceeded to wait another half hour. Finally at 6:30PM, we began our session. During this session, we worked my legs. I then followed him to what I thought was the computer to schedule my next appointment and then he turned to me and said, "Oh... Uh we're done. Call to make your next appointment" without barely even making eye contact. After all that, I decided the personal training wasn't for me. I've been wanting to cancel it and was told I needed to do a buyout. Now after approximately 6 months of being a member, I'm relocating to another city that doesn't even have an LA Fitness and still was told I'd need to make a buyout.

I called the facility on August 12. I was told that someone would call me back within the hour. I received no call. I went into the club on August 30 and was told that someone would talk to me "in just a minute". I waited 30 minutes and nothing happened. I told them I could come in any time the next day to talk and left my phone number. Again, nothing happened. I wrote a detailed letter and hand delivered it to the club. Again, I got no response. I would never recommend anyone to give them a try.

LA Fitness is refusing to refund her for the training sessions that she was physically unable to use during the time of her surgery and recovery. If we have a letter from her surgeon explicitly stating she cannot use the gym under any circumstances and that's viable to use to cancel her regular membership, why can't that letter be used to refund the training? She also has no copy of the said contract for herself. So even if those were the rules, how could we have known that?

I called corporate and Rosemary at the front desk, and they basically told me that they told this jerk not to talk to me and they did not cancel his membership. I am tired of being bullied around by jerks in this gym so I cancelled my membership. I feel really uncomfortable working out in a gym where guys can attack you, and harass you at a moment's notice. I go to the gym to work out not to get harassed. Shame on the staff! I am an older woman in her 50s and to get harassed by these young guys is disgusting. You need to do something about it but you won't. Remember that angry guy that came back to the LA Fitness and shot and killed several women because he had issues with women? Well you have been warned about this gym also.

My last straw was when I canceled my membership. The girl I spoke with said I was supposed to cancel within 10 days, but because I did mine in 7-8, it should still be okay and to come back and talk with a manager if they tried to charge me. They charged me for that last month for Sept.10th-Oct.10th when I moved out of state on September 18th and not near an LA Fitness, and where I can have an on-base gym membership for free. Not only did they charge me for a month's service that I cannot use, they already charged me for my last month at signing. So essentially, they are charging me twice for a service I cannot use!

So I introduced myself, still did not get a response just a mean look. I explained to him about my friend and before I even finished talking, he interrupted me and said "$15 for him to pass today or you can add him on your account". With a stunned look on my face, I replied "well, why do you advertise that you can bring someone with you and give them a 5-day pass to try out the gym?". With the same disgusted look he replied, "We are different. We are new". I had to laugh. So for that I couldn't workout that day. I already have my girlfriend on my account so I'm not going to add another person. Just for that, I am going to cancel my membership which will cancel me and my girlfriend and just go to Planet Fitness where I would rather deal with attitudes for 75% less a month. Good luck.

She didn't tell me that I need to send a letter to their cancellation department. So, when I see my bank statement this month September 2011, I realize that they still charge me for this month, but they didn't charge me for August. Well, since August is supposedly to be the last month of my membership and I already paid for it in the beginning when I sign the contract.

Then I made a call to the fitness center where I went to open and close my account. The front desk girl give the phone to one of her manager, I supposed.

Once the manager answered the phone, he just started to put the blame on me instead of thinking first why a customer doesn't know about it. He started telling me that their workers are well trained, so they will never made that mistake. So basically, it is my fault that is what he is trying to tell me.

He seems very annoyed and not interested to talk about the problem. He then told me that if I want some help, then I can come to the center and close my account. But I went there before and it cost 1 month of membership.

At the end of the conversation, the manager told me that he is tired of talking to me on the phone and talking about it. He advised that I come to the center and close my account there. I have to say that he sounded like he was angry at me. Well. I'm angry at the club too.

LA fitness is the worst club I have ever joined. Their customer service was way below from the worst of the worst. How could a manager of the club be saying that their workers is perfect when they are not. It seems like the manager doesn't want to lose from the customers. The manger has no patience at all.

If the manager himself is like that what about the workers? That is a big question mark to the work training.

Then, I spoke to the manager who assured me that the check had been destroyed; however, the routing number was used to withdraw $30.00 from my account! From talking to other members, it is the general idea that the people that work there, on the majority, have criminal records. It makes sense that only one crook will ask me to write him a check to his name while the other employee is screaming at me.

What a horrible experience, I am in my late forties and those two punks (made bosses) used the front desk to humiliate me in the worst way. After talking to the manager, Mike, he said that they would be internally dealt with. They are both working there, still waiting to see who they can intimidate into a scam! Too bad that a company that deals with customers is so poorly managed that this is allowed to happen and it is permitted to go on. By keeping the aforementioned individuals as staff, they fail to forget that we have choices in a competitive market and that their business is not recruiting but maintaining members as well. I relayed the whole incident to corporate offices and they did nothing about it!

I had left my iPod there and called the day afterwards to see if they had it, and they did, confirming everything down to the name that appeared when they turned it on. They said they would keep it in the safe such that no one would take it and I could come get it anytime.

When I went to get it a few days afterwards, they said I had to come between 9-5 (I go after work at around 7) because the person with the key always leaves by 6. I said I can't get off work early like that, and they said I could call to have the person with the key to take it out and have it out for me when i come later on.

When i tried to call the next time, the person who answered said that they weren't allowed to check for missing items and that I had to be in person for any checking to occur. She also said that nobody puts things in the safe other than money as that was the policy. Finally, she said he actually looked in the safe early that day for other reasons and didn't see anything in there. I told her what I was told before, and she said she'd talk to someone and call me back. She never did

On another occasion, a few days later, I talked to the GM, Ed, who said that the Operational Manager is the one who handles this and that person would get back to me. He never did. I called again and asked for the OM and was told that there was no OM, that they were trying to hire one, and that I could leave my name and number and someone would get back to me. They never did, and the person who would be supervising was currently at another gym, and I couldn't have her contact number.

I called Ed again, and was told he would call back in 10 minutes. He never did, so I called him again. I got him on the phone and then he told me to hold and promptly hung up. When I called back again, he picked up, but then he said he had to call me back because he was with another customers. He never called back. I called several times again, but I went to voice mail. Maybe they can track who is calling and is purposely avoiding me.

Overall, I called more than 8 times about this issue over the course of a month and tried to talk to someone in person 3-4 times. In essence, they lost my iPod, and there is no one who would actually talk to me to resolve the issue.

They have horrible service. I'm still trying to see if it can be resolved in any way but will definitely be cancelling my account once I get to the bottom of this.

LA Fitness was notified by me in May and paper work went out to them, stating that they had until July 5th to dispute for that was the day of the hearing. No one showed. They took out the personal training fee from my account for July. I disputed it through my bank, and LA fitness claims that they did not receive paper work until the 13th of July, when I know they were notified by Federal Court well before July 5th. I spoke with the manager, a female, of the Tucker branch who refused to give me the number to the corporate offices so I could speak to someone, and she kept saying that she was authorized to take calls for corporate. She was very rude and nasty.

I have not attended the gym in over five months and am still being charged for a membership despite the ridiculous letter I sent that they require explaining your reasons for leaving, as if you needed any more. My advise is, do not join LA Fitness. You will regret it.

I turned to Matt and he assured me it would be taken care of. The following month, August, my bank statement showed the deducted money from my account. I called LA Fitness and Matt was not there. I called another day and spoke to the Personal Training manager and he said he didn't know what was going on and he would have to speak to Matt, and they would call me later on that day. I never received a phone call. I called again a few days later, finally I was able to speak to Matt. He stated that the corporate did not accept my note because it did not state it was permanent. I told him that I did everything he asked of me to cancel the membership and I needed to cancel my membership. He told me he would give the corporate a call and see what they said and he would return my call. Of course, that has not happened.

After I signed up for my multi-club deal, my kid's club deal was canceled along my old membership. Since I already prepaid for both a month and half ahead of time, I didn't find out it was canceled for a month. I called Brent many times, left him several messages and he never returned my calls. I had to go to the gym and speak to him. I saw him twice since then, both times I spoke with him he told me he was working on it. Since then, every time I call, they tell me I have to speak to him and he is the only one who can fix it. This was over a month ago. I left him over 20 messages and he never returned my calls. Finally, they told me he was transferred to the Oakdale location and I should call there and not the one in Blaine. I have tried to get a hold of him there multiple times. They asked for my name and they will come back to tell me he is busy and he will call me back. I have tried to get his manager's number or email and they wouldn't give it to me.

About a month ago, they did transfer me to a customer service and I was told they will either speak to him and call me back or they will let him call me back and he never did. I spoke with a manager in Brooklyn Park and he said I have to go back to Blaine and speak to the manager there. Today, I finally got a hold of the manager in Blaine. He acted like he was sad and was going to fix it. At the end, he said well, the $1 is gone and told me clearly Brent should have never promised that and nothing can be done about it. He transferred me to a customer service very much to just complain and move on. When I spoke with customer service, they won't give me his manager's information but they made it clear to me that I can't get that deal, he shouldn't be promised, it is still a good deal to pay $10/month for the day care.

I told him that this was not just about money and it is about principle. I used to pay over $50/month at Lifetime Fitness and I was fine with it. But I felt I was deceived and totally betrayed. They lied to me and made me cancel the membership I already prepaid for. They can't fix what their employee broke. They all pick up the phone and say they are managers until they find out you aren't buying a new membership. Once they do, they can't help you. It is extremely frustrating and they were all very unprofessional. I emailed the main email address over 2 weeks ago to either fix that or reimburse me all the extra money I paid to get myself into this mess and no response. I don't want them to do to anyone else what they did to me and I didn't want to move on without doing something about it.

I had been paying for personal training sessions; however, each trainer, one by one, either quit or was fired, making it almost impossible to schedule an appointment with the same trainer more than twice in a row. When it was Pure Fitness, the trainers were plentiful, accommodating and helpful and we were promised LA Fitness would provide more of the same -- it most certainly did not.

If a trainer or time slot was unavailable, that was just too bad. I filed a complaint with the BBB, spoke to the corporate office and explained that I continued to pay for personal training but was not able to schedule personal training. After many calls to corporate in California explaining my plight and asking for a refund of my previously paid personal training sessions and a cancellation of my membership, I was advised by Danielle that, although she completely understood my frustration, it was not their policy to do either but she'd see what she could do.

After we went round and round, she finally moved a trainer from another facility to the Chandler facility where I had my membership. I was not offered anything else, no free training sessions, nothing. I began training with Ashley and, after a couple of training sessions, she was no longer available on my preferred days. As I was attempting to reschedule, I received a call from Ashley stating that the LA Fitness I belonged to was closing and that I'd have to attend the other Chandler LA Fitness (the one that is packed all the time, even before the other three Pure Fitnesses in the area closed and sent their members there); however, she was still not available during most times that were convenient for me.

I, again, called Danielle (and her manager, Shawnee **, who had previously advised me that if I ever needed anything further, I should contact her. I left four messages and never received a return phone call), again, explained my frustration and again asked that I please be refunded the $800 or so I had paid for training that I had been unable to use, and that I be released from my contract that was ending in two months. No dice. I explained that this was a very poor business practice and that although it kept money in the pockets of LA Fitness in order for them to stay afloat, it was creating a very bad name for them as I, and most certainly others, have and will continue to spread the word about their terrible customer service.

I finally got a letter from LA Fitness stating that I would not be receiving a refund or my payments, I would not be permitted to cancel my membership and that nothing further would be done to assist me.

Today, I went to LA fitness with two of my friends and they decided to freeze the account with paying $10 each month. I suggested them that they would rather to cancel it than freeze it. During my conversation with my friends, all sales representatives were laughing. I tried not to pay attention to what they said, but I knew that they laughed at us. Before I left LA fitness, I went to the restroom. When I came out from the restroom, I did not see my friends around. Then I went to ask the male sales (who was sitting in the first desk on the left side close to the swimming pool) "Where are they?". He answered me "I do not know". Then I walked in the entrance, he followed me at the back. I asked him again "are they inside or outside?". He started to say something that I did not understand and around the front desk, other three females and one male were laughing at me. I said, "I did not understand what you meant" but they did not explain it to me in a simple way. At that moment, I felt extremely ashamed and angry. I left LA fitness and tried to look for my friends but they were not in the parking. Then the male sales came out and said, "they are inside and hope you have a great day". Then he went out with another male sales.

I admit that my English is not good, but does that mean that the sales can laugh at me when I do not understand what they said? They did not show me the patience and friendly look when they talk with me. I am so dissatisfied with their attitude. I so regret that I joined the LA fitness. In the beginning, I told all of my friends that LA fitness is so prefect and there are many facilities. My friends would love to become members. However, I changed my mind now and I will not suggest my friends to go to LA fitness anymore. After I saw my friends, I got mad and explained what happened to them. I talked to them to cancel the membership right away because the staff laughed at me. I think that they did not deal with this situation with me very well. I do not feel happy with that.

I visited the club in Laguna Niguel while my wife was fatally ill one day to determine if I would consider joining. The salesman said he had to hold my credit card and license for liability purposes. After several strong-arm attempts to sell me a membership, I declined and chose to join 24 Hour Fitness.

I recently discovered that I had been charged $49.99 for the past 24 months and spoke to both corporate and the local facility. I went to that facility that one time in my life explaining I did not join nor ever visit their facility again. They offered to refund 12 of the 24 months they charged me, and I asked why not the entire amount ($1199.76). The local manager then told me that he was holding a membership agreement signed by me, which is why they would only refund 12 months and suggested I take that offer and go away.

I went to their office, only to find a membership agreement forged (and bear no resemblance to my signature) by their representative who no longer works there. After this discovery, I asked corporate one more time to re-consider a full refund for obvious reasons beyond doubt, or this would be escalated to maximum level of the law and made public by any means possible.

The Laguna Niguel sheriff reported the matter. The sheriff spoke to and visited their manager Byron in Laguna Niguel and suggested they refund my money as the police department will pursue this matter as a full crime investigation, including arresting the LA Fitness representative for forgery while addressing the theft and ongoing false charges with LA Fitness. Their decision after speaking with two supervisors was to stand firm and decline me a full refund.

Pretty amazing, wouldn't say? In closing, how do they stay in business, and why would they want me to tell hundreds to thousands of people about such a distasteful experience? Doesn't customer satisfaction matter to a company of this size? It does with Mercedes-Benz, my employer. We also strive to earn repeat and referral business. I can only suggest that everyone avoid this organization like the plague after my two days and six hours of time trying to resolve what should have been an open and closed case.

Maybe you should turn them all off and let people bring their personal headphones. I am going to write the paper too.

Lynda **

I feel that LA Fitness has horrible customer service. I work in a customer service industry and know that there is always something that you can do to help out a customer who is having a problem. I explained to the national manager that I am sure, as a multi-million dollar company, they have some type of customer courtesy button to fix customer's problems. All she kept saying is that there was a contract. I explained that due to financial hardships I am not able to continue my account with them. It was like that did not even matter. I also thought Bally's was worse than LA Fitness when it comes to customer service but even Bally's was willing to work with me a few years back.

I will never join LA Fitness again, and I will ensure that I inform anyone else I know who wants to join a gym to never join LA Fitness.

That gym needs to be closed down!

I called a few weeks later just to inquire about the situation and they told me I can end my membership only at the end of my term, although this was not stated online before I filled out the information online and also did not on the cancellation. He said he understood and will call corporate. No one ever called back and when I called, they just kept giving me the runaround!

The manager told me he would call corporate quite a few times and told me he would call me back and never did. I called back and finally spoke to A***** in Hamden, CT. He said he was the manager and refused to give me the corporation's telephone number and told me he was the only manager I could speak to due to him having the highest position.

LA Fitness is a poor company with poor customer service skills. Management does nothing to solve the problems of their customers and I am sorry to have even started a membership with them.

I called the Alhambra Branch located at 412 East Main Street, Alhambra and spoke to a person named Tony. He offer me the membership at $799 for two years and then 99 for renew plan. I told him I will think about it. I called another branch in Pasadena at 201 S. Lake Avenue Pasadena, CA 91101 and the person who I contacted with was named Edward **. He gave me the same deal, except I only have to pay 600.

So naturally, I took my time off work, drive to Pasadena (traffic was hell; took me over an hour drive, then I have to pay for the street parking as well) and signed up with Edward. Later that day, Tony called me and found out that I signed up with another branch. He then proceed to sabotage my deal on purpose (which I didn't give him any permission to look into my membership plan). He called his superior and then later I got a phone call from some guy from the Alhambra branch telling me the deal I have was canceled. He told me the deal I got was illegal. I asked him how was that not legal? I called your gym's phone number, spoke to your employee, got the quote from him. I drove down there to sign up for membership. At what point the action I did was illegal? He didn't answer. Then I asked for his name and his employee number and told him how I can know if he's legal and what he told me was legal. He gave me his name as Edward with no last name and did not give me his employee number. He then hung up the phone while I was yet to finish talking with him. I called back on the number he used to call me. They said there was no one named Edward working there. He basically lied on face. I now hold in my hand a legit contract of my membership, which I obtained through the normal legal process while I took time off my work. With just one phone call from them few hours later, it is now a worthless piece of paper.

DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS GYM. They deliberately sabotage their own customers and fight among themselves. They do not keep their word and they are not honest to themselves. They are by far NOT honest to their own customers. What you are dealing with is the worst of the worst of corporate America. Avoid LA Fitness at all cost. Never join them if you can. And feel free to copy this message into other forums or message board if you want. My email is **. I can provide you with all evidence. If you need a copy of the contract or my phone record, just email me. I want to expose to the world the true nature of LA Fitness.

I went to talk to "Bill" and he said that she could delay or even I could use the "sessions" - I am 63 and waiting for knee surgery.

In May my wife had female problems and took a doctors letter to gym to cancel the memeberships however was told the Dr.'s letter was not enough evidence of her problem.

I have canceled LA Fitness ability to charge to my original credit card that has been billed over$$1500 since April.

On the personal fitness contract LA Fitness has stated that we must send in a letter from the Dr. to an address; LA Fitness PO Box 44170, Irving Cal 92619 to stop that contract.

I went into LA Fitness to speak with the supervisor to inquire what had happened with my bill. She informed me that she did not understand what had occurred the first time I went in and that what she was reading in the computer was that not only did I have the package deal with the cheaper payment but now I was also paying the original package deal. After further inquiry, she stated that the original package deal was frozen which was why I did not have a bill for those months. Further, she stated that the associate who did this no longer worked at LA Fitness and that there was nothing she could do. Now, I am stuck with a ridiculous bill that I cannot afford! What can I do? She is stating that it is in the computer system and she cannot do anything.

Nancy, the manager was very irate. She must of had a bad day, so finally I told her I'll just have my lawyer look into this manner and either I'll take it as a lost or they will have a law suit because if I'm paying to get my membership froze, why do I still need to pay the bill and I'm not on a contract. Well she got snarly and said I was going to refund it but go get your lawyer and hung up. Now this is the manager of LA fitness in Broadview, a new location, only been open less than 6 months. So, I called back and Amanda answered, asked to speak to Nancy again and she put me on hold, then hung up. I called again and Amanda answered again. I asked to speak to Nancy and told her she just hung up on me, she said, "I hung up because Nancy left" so, I say you couldn't tell me before hanging up and she cut me off and said, "She is gone okay," then she thought she hung up but I clearly heard her and Nancy talking using the word ** talking bout black people and complaints with their bills and basically disrespecting my race trying to call us broke **. I was so happy, my old 78 year old grandmother was around to hear it and also my pastor.

No gym in the world that I’ve been to have I ever had any problems with. All they care about is money and taking advantage of people's lives and money. They call me every day asking for money when I always paid them. And all I wanted to do was cancel and they won’t let me because they just want to keep taking money. The gym I’m in now, I only pay $25 a month and have no problems at all. I’m tired of companies like them trying to make people poor and take their money.

I have been bounced around so many times. Now since I am "outside the recession period", I can't get my money back. I have stopped by there 3 times and left numerous messages for various people. I even went to another location for help! Again, I "have to speak with ** and he/she is the only one who can handle this.” When I was actually able to speak to "a manager", I was told to speak with the manager at the other gym. Surprisingly, he was not "available". The one woman I kept calling, T**, must have been answering the phones because when I identified myself, she asked if I could hold for "a minute". Then M** comes on the line telling me T** could not speak with me now!

I know this situation has been bounced around to all these people. Even the supposed "Customer Service line" is a bunch of **! I felt like I would finally get some help! Then I get a message that nothing can be done. I feel this is a total scam! Duck & dodge is the game these people play! Yes, stupid of me to pre-pay, but had no idea this company would treat me this way. I strongly suggest people stay away from this place!

Our accounts continued to be charged each week at the rate of $9.95. When they finally canceled our account, it was not the correct cancellation date. They kept $39.95 that we should not have had to pay. I emailed the online contact over and over that they needed to credit our account with the $39.95. I never received a reply so I called the Camelback fitness and spoke with someone there. He said he could only credit our account with $19.95. At that point I took it as I felt I would never get anything back if I didn't take it at that time.

So they got $19.95 from us that they weren't entitled to. It seems they do that as a regular practice so they are greedy and ripping people off. I know the guys that work there in sales are very familiar with this practice as they mentioned in passing that some people who sign up online can't get canceled so they told us how to do it. His advice was incorrect and I know this is common practice to rip people off. I would never do business with LA Fitness again, ever!

From there, the trainers continued their provocation and began to berate and intimidate the club members. At one point, one of the trainers told the members involved that "those members who have voiced their dissatisfaction should be shot". This same member even went as far as to insult us racially by calling us, "Mexicans". Now, the unprofessionalism demonstrated here shows a lack of leadership and customer service that should not be allowed. This employee is representing a national chain and should be more concerned with the safety of the paying members than his ego. My purpose in writing this letter is to inform and hopefully prevent any future such instances that creates not only a dissatisfactory experience for the members but also puts the members and any surrounding individuals in harm's way.

After my first month, I decided to cancel the personal training because I didn't think the 30 minutes I was getting each session was worth the money. When I called the gym, this was when the whole thing unraveled. First, he told me that the only way to get out of the contract is if I had a medical note saying I couldn't work out anymore, or if I pay 50% of what was left of my contract. This would set me back roughly $300! Those snakes! So I asked to freeze it, and then he informed me that I would be charged $15 for every month it is frozen. Keep in mind that none of this information was mentioned to me at the time of signing the contract.

It amazes me how a company that supports and encourages this kind of dishonest behavior can still stay in business for this long. There has got to be a law against misrepresentation of a contract and scamming people out of their money. I would love to be around to see this entire company crumble to the ground and all their employees end up on the streets, because they are all acting like scum already.

This entire experience has been a nightmare that they continue to make more difficult. It does not cost them $300 to go into their computer and cancel my membership, but they are so relentless on dragging this out. I want to get the word out about this company to where, eventually, everyone will know the LA Fitness name to be a scam gym.

They also talked me into a trainer $78 per month 3 sessions for 30 minutes each. I was told I would never wait for a machine, Lie #1. I was told if I ever needed assistance I could grab a trainer at random for help, lie #2. I was told if someone was monopolizing a machine I wanted I could grab a front desk person to get them to move on lie #3 (front desk staff cannot leave the front desk). The ladies locker room was always filthy. The dry sauna and steam often broken for days.

When with my trainer we had to wait for equipment thus wasting my time. After 3 months, I let Jack know I was unhappy and canceling. He said I could not and stated I had signed for year. The contract that I signed does say at bottom it's a year contract and you can do a buy out of 6 months but only get to use 3 months if you do that (pay double another words).

I tried to make it work for a couple more months but by June 2010 had had enough of their dirty gym, lousy customer service and lies. I canceled by website (their preferred method) July 2010. Now they are still charging my credit card $78 a month for training services I am not using and do not want.

They fast talked me into joining, all along distracting me so that I would not read the entire contract and just got roped in by their verbal contractual promises. I have a witness to this effect who was there sitting with me when this all happened and will go to court with me if need be (Nicholas **). They used bate and switch tactics with their coupon and used every sales lie/trick in the book.

Even it says for a quicker refund go to one of LA Fitness location and I did that and they told me they can not do anything. They agree to cancel and extend the time, so use the last month tuition so they don't have to refund anything to consumer and I said that is right for the people that doesn't have an emergency or medical condition but someone that had involved, they should not apply that policy of them. Especially, when the consumer has a medical records and proof to show that is not able to use their services.

Following up to ensure the request was processed as I did not receive confirmation as requested. I learned that only one of the "membership agreements" were cancelled. The staff from their Plainfield location stated that three individual cancellations had to be sent in and that a form would need to be picked up from their location. When asked which account was cancelled, she stated it was for one of my children's access. However, she was not the individual who signed the cancellation request and she is not the holder of the account where the monthly fee is pulled from.

She stated that I could contact her manager on Monday as the supervisor there on the weekend "doesn't handle stuff like this". When given the corporate number 949-255-7200, six attempts were made to reach a "customer service manager". Each time I pressed the appropriate option to discuss membership account, the call would transfer stating the call may be recorded for quality assurance and then the line would disconnect.

They are charging my account with fees and will not explain what those fees are for. I will not let them continue to draft money from my account. This is damaging my finances and is illegal. I was told that I could cancel at any time and I should be able to do so. If there is money drafted from my account in December, I will be suing for stealing.

Their contract states that I can be let out for medical reasons. They kept charging me month after month of training and membership fees even after I kept going in there and giving them 3 doctor notes (of course one has disappeared). They refunded some of my money, but owe me about $600 more. This situation has had me so completely stressed out, as I am trying to recover from major surgery. I have to worry about what LA fitness will charge me. I ended up seeing my doctor over major chest pains, and had a chest x ray to make sure nothing was wrong. I have lost so much sleep over this situation, and feel this is a very easy case for me to present to a judge. I just don't know where to start. I have all medical documentation as well as notes from my doctor. Can someone help me?

I talked to the manager and he became agitated and very defensive. He would not even sit down with me and practically walked away rudely. I wonder why a company that takes in a fortune and has thousands of membership holders, risks its reputation and the health of customers for the price of a few cleaning personnel. Besides the obvious visible neglect, one wonders how often is the swimming pool and spa water changed under the circumstances.

hey canceled that contract, but never reimbursed me for any of the unused sessions. In February 2010, my husband got laid off from his job and I had to cut my expenses, including canceling my membership with this Gym. I sent the first letter with my bar code, requesting cancellation of membership in February. Nothing! They were still charging me $54+ on my credit card. I sent in a second letter requesting cancellation in April. Nothing. I tried calling many times at the Corp office, but no answer. They were still charging my credit card. Third letter was sent in July. Although it says that my membership is canceled online, I am still being charged.

It is now October, and I am still being charged! I am very disappointed with this Gym and warn everyone who wants to join a gym to think twice about joining LA Fitness, after reading everyone's complaints and from my experience. I am having to cancel my credit card so the charges will stop. My next move...calling BBB.

After the year I agreed, the gym "automatically" changed my account to month to month and continued to charge me $120 a month. The salesman looked me in the eye and guaranteed that this could and would not happen as it was against New York’s states law. I called to ask for a refund for the months beyond the first year. I was not even seeking a refund from the first year of training that was not used because of the young unprofessional staff they hired. They said that while the salesman was correct in stating the contract was good for a year, what he did not mention was that after that, it would go right to month to month. I was lied to right to my face. Now I have 90 session and out over $2,000. Again, I really was only seeking a refund from the second year that I was promise would never occur.

So, instead of easily cancelling my membership, they are accruing monthly charges to my name and there's no way I can stop it. I finally had to have my credit card stop allowing charges, but now their collections people are calling. Seriously? I've looked online and this has happened to a bunch of other people, so why cant this be stopped? All the other clubs that I've been a member to in the past, you simply call them and they cancel. That simple. Any thoughts for how to get these jerks to stop charging?

How about totally disrespecting the American public and its members' requests? How about the hypocrisy of the left, they always want tolerance but will not tolerate anything but their own viewpoint.

He was condescending and kept repeating his programmed talking points at me the entire conversation, telling me I needed to go online to do the cancellation. When I kept explaining what happened, he just repeated the same thing he said, “Go online and put in a cancellation.” When I said I did not want to be stuck with this extra $35 after I already tried to cancel 2 months ago, he suggested I talk to the corporate office. The only problem was he could not provide me with a contact number for corporate. When I continued to ask for a number of someone I could talk to, he just kept repeating that I needed to go online.

I continued to insist that I have the opportunity to speak to his manager, and he kept refusing.

After much back and forth, he offered up the fact that he was a new manager, only on the job for two months and he did not wish to lose his job over giving me a refund for a month's charge. He even suggested he mail me a check out of his own pocket to pay the $35, because he could not authorize the transaction in store, and that it is corporate policy not to issue refunds in this type of case. We continued to rehash the situation, during which time he pretended we hadn't been through the whole scenario and changed his tone of voice and told me I needed to go on the website to "contact us" (which only provides numbers to the stores). I told him I either wanted this taken care of today, or I wanted to speak to his manager.

He said there was nothing he could do. I said, "You just said you could send me $35. I don't want your money, but I want a refund on this charge." He told me he wasn't going to pay my bills for me. He tried to get rid of me again and in fact basically hung up on me. I called back and he gave me a quick answer and hung up before I could get much out. I called back a second time and told him I was going to keep calling until I had this situation resolved. He then told me he would have someone at corporate contact me directly to see what could be done. This is where I am left.

The whole situation has left a very bad taste in my mouth about the company. This is after I went through a very similar situation a few years ago when I canceled my LA Fitness membership at a different location after moving. I had canceled the training a while back, but after I canceled my store membership, they continued to bill me for training that I was not only not using, but had in fact completed the short-term contract agreement on. I ended up leaving with about $200 they claimed I owed on my membership for miscellaneous training fees and other fees, after I was forced to cancel the credit card they were billing me on because they would not stop charging my credit card.

A couple of years later, I got an email inviting me to rejoin LA Fitness at my old rate and all outstanding fees would be waived. I needed a new gym, so I joined. And now I'm back full circle with the same type of scenario again, because I've moved again to a location where there is no LA Fitness nearby. This really makes me angry. It's only $35, but $35 is $35. I'm even angrier about the fact that I have wasted an hour of my time on this between the phone call with the manager and taking the time to write this post.

The person who answered the phone at the corporate office was combative and not at all helpful. Don't join! They will bilk you as long as they can. Join the YMCA---it's cheaper and when I needed to cancel that due to an injury, I was able to walk in and cancel with a short, cordial conversation with the part-time employee at the front desk. No hassle, no argument, no automatic charges to my account to try to get reversed.

I called them, talked to the manager, and told him I've asked a man working at the front counter once already. Please do not call or text me. I told them, that I'm a freelancer, and that I need my cell phone to be free, stop this. A week later they called me and left me a voice message and a text message about family membership deal. I was furious. I called them back after work hours, asked them to let me talk to their supervisor. I asked the supervisor for his name and his last name. He would not provide me with his last name nor transfer me to a higher supervisor. I told him that the last two time I didn't ask for a name, this time, I'm making sure that if he fail to stop LA fitness from calling me, at least I got a name to report it to as proof. He told me he didn't understand my logic for his last name and hanged up on me. I was furious and called back and started cussing at him. I asked him why the ** did he hang up on me? He said I was cussing. I told him I didn't cuss until now.

I got proof because I gave them my Google voice/phone number. The text message and their automated voice messages are on there. Anyway, I missed a very important work related call but thankfully I've salvaged it. But I end up canceling the membership and my credit card, reported to the BBB. Another reason why LA Fitness is bad for you guys is: They do not have padding on barbell to do squat. They don't have a designated place to do deadlift. I do 255 lbs deadlift for a 5'5'' size okay. I drop that sometime and it bangs pretty loud. Any decent gym would have a deadlift and squat equipments and places. Their 45's are crack around the holes and their dumbbells are old. The rubber covers are coming off. There are certain exercise you cannot do because the bench is bolt down or they just don't have the equipment for it. So if you strength exercise or just body build they are very lacking in it.

There was no weighing machine either! Their equipment was broken so they bought some Costco one in front desk. You have to ask for it and they'll look at you and ask, "Are you a member?" Really? You really think I'm going to steal your bad Costco weight machine? Their gym trainers are ** too. The free assessment check is b***p. They tried to ask you what you want. If you don't know what you want, they'll do as very little as possible unless it seems like they can get you to pay for a trainer. I've seen people got jipped by this. I asked him for an overall fitness test and he took my pulse and gave me a BMP measurement and said I'm done. Pointed to a chart and said you're in 15% percentile, above average good job, later. Some of the gym trainers don't even know what they're doing.

They don't offer many physical programs just sport. Judo and such isn't in there. Oh, I tried their pool once, got the stomach flu right afterward. Sick for a week cause of that. Why am I blaming it on the pool? Because I've never gotten the stomach flu before, not even when I worked out. The pool was the only out of the ordinary thing I've done, habitual person. This is the gym in Alhambra. I don't know about the other branches. But those bean counters working in LA Fitness headquarter doesn't care about the condition of their free weights.

Oh here's the text message: "Join us! This weekend, member appreciation. 0 enrollment for family at LA FITNESS. Bring a friend and get a 1 week trial membership free. David ***." Probably the same that hanged up on me. I'm not sure but he's afraid of losing his job so he's not going to tell me his last name over the phone nor in person. I'm just so frustrated and *** right now. Go over to eopinions, BBB, or Yelp, they have hundred plus complaints. They managed to get an A rating for some reason. Over at Yelp with less than 30 reviews, there are people that got sick from that place too! Bottom line, they want your money. They will spam you with calls and text messages, during work hours, asking for your family members to join. To cancel membership, you have to go online, register, print out a cancellation letter and mail it.

We will be pursuing the corporate route but can only say that this has been an emotional struggle just to get our son's business in order so we may concentrate on his rehab, only to have an organization like this treat us without any respect for our son's situation.

I was told manager would call me next day, but a week later none called. Yes, I was allowed to use the phone to call wife to pick me up. When asked to replace my admission bar code card, stolen at their facility, I was charged $5 and when asked to void that charge, I was offered to cancel my membership, if I did not want to pay. This is a thank you I got for being more than 10 years member of that club. The result of the occurrence was identity theft, some charges on my credit cards before canceling them out that day for $450, cost of replacement car keys and home locks for $500. In addition that day, the thieves tried to enter my home to steal more, but luckily I called police in time. The suspects did run away.

I did ask to speak to someone else that may be better able to help me, but Becky just talked right over me in an authoritarian voice. At my request for clarification regarding when prices may go down, Becky became verbally rude/offensive to me, stating that I "keep interrupting her" when I was merely trying to seek clarification. Becky also had difficulty relaying to me current monthly payment rules/regulations. I felt she spoke to me in a very inferior manner. And I feel this should be known so that it may not happen to another LA Fitness member.

When I got to North Carolina, I sent the letter and the signed forms to Corporate and requested a return verification that this was done. I was in North Carolina until August 8, 2010, but never received a letter. Then I noticed that LA Fitness took another payment out of my checking account for August. I called the club and was told that my account was not canceled and that I would have to call back the next day and speak to someone else. I cannot find an 800 # to call LA Fitness. I called my bank and told them that I wanted the withdrawals to stop because I had canceled my membership in June. They are filing a complaint and will send me the paperwork I need to stop the payments in the future.

Now I just have to figure out how to get in touch with someone at LA Fitness to get this stopped. My daughters account was canceled per her request but don't know why they can't seem to cancel mine and I even sent in all the forms they needed. I hope this does not continue but I can see from other members that it might be a difficult thing to deal with. I wish I had never signed up with them if this is what they are going to do.

After the 2 months of training was up, and a couple hundred dollars later, I cancelled my LA Fitness account using the online website without any complication, assuming that my training account was linked to my membership account and that too, will also be cancelled. I was then charged another $45 the following two months after my account was already cancelled. I called LA Fitness and the woman who helped me credited my account one time, only for $45, when it should have been $90. I explained I only wanted to be a member for 2 months and I already paid up front the first and last month's fees and should not be charged for 2 additional months. I tried contacting the manager numerous times, leaving my name and number to correct this situation. I was told each time that he will call me back. When I called back a couple days later, the manager, Tom, was finally available. He told me that I had to speak with another member of the team to get the other $45 credited back to my account, which that person is not there at the moment. I told him my frustration about this situation, but he just reiterated that I needed to speak with this person to get that credited back to my account.

I soon found out from LA Fitness that I was responsible to pay 50% of the remaining balance after I cancelled my training account. One important step Dan never mentioned to me while I was signing up. The terms of the contract were not explained properly and I had been misled from a supposed "trained" employee. After I found this information out, I went back to speak with this employee, only to find out he does not work at LA Fitness anymore! I called the training manager and general manager of LA Fitness numerous times, again, without any call backs. Finally, when I did get a hold of them, the only thing they were able to tell me was to call Corporate and explain my situation. This is the reason I was charged for another 2 months at $45 each time was due to the fact that my training account was not cancelled, even though my LA Fitness account was cancelled. I spoke with 2 or 3 different people from Corporate who claimed they were managers and were not understanding about my situation.

They were all very cold and accused me of not reading my contract thoroughly and asking questions to the LA Fitness employee. They were disrespectful and just mentioned over and over again that they were able to suspend my account for a month, then, I was to pay the 50% of the remaining balance the following month-- almost $1000! That is the only thing they were able to do for me. Never did any of them say "I'm sorry this happened to you," instead they pretty much verbally attacked me! On top of the $300 I had to pay for becoming a member of LA Fitness--a gym I never actually used to work-out, unless I had a training session and was working with the trainer-- I had to pay another $150 for trainer registration fees. With the cash I spent, all I got was a training log booklet! $40 for a half-hour session for training, on top of the $150 trainer registration fee, $45 a month to continue to be a member of a gym that I rarely went to, along with the other misunderstood fees is outrageous. I really feel like I wasted my time and money!

Why can't a person sign up with a trainer instead of becoming a member of the gym, if they do not plan to utilize the gym any other time? Their employee made a significant error while opening up a new account and they have the responsibility as a large, well known company to fix the situation and see that a reasonable solution can be provided. Both the gym and training managers at the LA Fitness I went to are incompetent and lazy and "pass the buck" to other employees when they are unaware of what to say or do. I was under the impression the LA Fitness employee who signed me up was trained and competent in his position and would offer the full facts before signing a potential customer. I would also assume the managers would help a customer and not have them call back on numerous occasions to get an answer to their question.

On top of this, I called Corporate one morning, only to be on hold for 10 minutes, when a voice message comes on and says the office is closed until 9am Pacific time. Why was I on hold for that long just to be told by an answering machine that the offices are closed? So, later on I called my local club to get the name and number of the district manager--thinking they would definitely have it. They had no email address or name they could give me! This time, I called corporate back later (business hours, now), to get the district manager's name and email address-- only to find that NO ONE had it! This is Corporate that I'm calling and NO ONE has the district manager's email address? After being transferred from person to person--someone was able to give me the email address and name--only when I emailed my complaint letter, did it bounce back.

Again, I called Corporate up again, and some gentleman heard my frustration and gave me the correct email address. 2 weeks went by and I have not heard anything yet from the district manager. I sent another email, again without a response. This is the district manager we're talking about here--shouldn't he be checking his emails frequently? So, while I was on vacation I had to call Corporate yet again because I have been back and forth with a billion people for over a month about this situation, to complain to that "manager" about the situation and mentioned the district manager has not contacted me back. Surprisingly, after I brought up the word "lawyer" and "writing to magazines and newspapers" about my ordeal, the very next day I got a call and email from the district manager. He said he never got my 2 other emails (yeah right). He too was very cold and not understanding. The whole 45 minute long phone call, I was pretty much defending myself. Overall, things went my way after I mentioned writing to local newspapers and magazines. Worst place ever! Do not sign up with LA Fitness!

Due to circumstances beyond control, the pool has remained closed. On or about July 20, 2010, I called to ask that my membership fee of $264.98 (paid on May 17, 2010) be returned and that my monthly fees of $19.99 be stopped as I wanted to cancel my membership due to failure on LA Fitness' part to honor (or comply) with the use of the pool. I was told that my account would be put on "freeze" and I could come in and try other classes to see if any other classes would help me heal from my back surgery.

I tried one step class on or about Saturday, August 7, 2010. The instructor was late and I had a hard time with the choreography. On Tuesday, August 10, 2010, I arrived at 5:35 to attend the 5:45 step class. At approximately 5:55, an individual came into the step room and announced that there was no instructor for the class. When attempting to lodge complaint at the front desk of this most recent incident, they tried to sell me one-on-one training.

As it is, LA Fitness has not held up their contractual obligation

Either the bearings for the peddle axle is wobbling and dangerous, or the resistance bands are over tightened or loose, and or the seats are broken. It's always Russian Roulette choosing a bike as a large percentage of the time, you end up on a broken bike, making the experience miserable. Upon complaining to the instructors, they all know and agree that the bikes are junk and point to the Richardson LA Fitness that has wonderfully equipped bikes that are always well-maintained. They simply tell us to complain to management as the 'more complaints they receive' the more likely we are to get new bikes.

After 2 years of numerous complaints by numerous patrons, it's obvious that it's never going to happen. Management has been informed numerous times and has done nothing to rectify the situation other than send in the one repair guy who handles several other clubs twice a week to tinker for a few minutes and leave. He simply spins the wheel with his hand once, pushes on the pedals for a second, and moves on. Nobody ever verifies that the bikes actually operate properly with a person on them. The Nautilus elliptical machines are constantly in a state of brokenness, with either the bearings squealing, the buttons broken, the foot platforms coming loose (dangerous), and or the unit being completely out of commission (a third have broken signs on them year round). The other ellipticals are similar in that many of them have bearings that are shot and wobble incessantly during use.

Of serious concern is the third of the lights around the building and in the parking lot that are burned out and have been for 12 weeks. After complaining to the front desk and management on six separate occasions, nothing has been done. At night, there are huge gaping black holes around the building, making some places in the parking lot down right dangerous just to walk to find your car. Much more concerning is just the lack of security walking in pitch black with nobody around, and plenty of shadows for people to lurk in. After talking to management at a separate LA Fitness location, they blamed property management and said it wasn't LA Fitness’ responsibility to make sure the lights on the outside of the building made it safe for gym patrons at night.

They literally said it wasn't their problem if something bad happens because they refuse to get the lights on the outside of the building fixed. In essence, it appears they care more about the bottom line than the safety of their patrons. After multiple vehicles were stolen from the parking lot at the gym in Rowlett, they refused to install cameras in the parking lot. Finally, the thieves got caught by the local Target’s camera. (You'd think a gym would care more about their patrons than this?) If you're going to be open to midnight, get some cameras and fix the lights!

In an effort to 'freshen up' the place, they recently threw paint on some walls, and removed broken water fountains (instead of actually repairing or replacing them). They even put new stands on the monitors at the front desk so they wouldn't have to man it anymore. So half the time, there isn't anyone at the front desk anymore to help with anything at all. After being informed that their $130 dollar medical grade scale (the same one you see at a doctor's office) isn't working right, they send in the repair guy to shoot more screws in it. Regardless of the fact that it has been dragged across the floor by the janitors for six months straight, and the parallel bar won't even balance out properly when measuring anymore.

They insist that they've had someone look at it. People complain that it never reads right, and they are correct as it is barely plus or minus 5 pounds accurate as damaged as it is. Upon asking a manager at another LA Fitness about the issue, they simply retort that we'll 'never get another scale' as Texas was a test market and they're not replacing scales with new ones. In essence, they should yank the scale as it's not even remotely accurate, yet they continue to feign ignorance of the fact that they'll never replace it. Either that or the other manager was blowing smoke about it and had no idea what she was talking about. In either case, it's wrong for them to continue to feign ignorance about issues and lead customers on that things will ever change when they know for a fact they won't.

It's very obvious that LA Fitness must have a 30/70 rule where if 70 percent of the gym is functional, it's 'good enough'. What's somewhat humorous is that the manager at this particular gym is never behind the front desk and is never doing anything other than sales. It stands to reason that he has no time to actually manage the gym if all he ever does is try to bring in new clients. Of course, it does no good if they're losing customers faster than they're gaining. Long story short, the gym used to be in good repair, used to not smell like a week old dirty sock, and used to have management that actually fixed things (the first year they were open). After that, everything went to trash. Buyer beware, there are other options out there!

I just think it's very unfair the way the are taking customers money. The reason why they had to refund was because the person who messed up on our account pretty much took the blame, but this time everyone is just ignoring us. We have been going thru financial difficulties and we need help to get our money refunded.

So now I'm looking at paying 500.00 to buy out, and all together, I would have paid 700.00 for 3 weeks of gym use and 2 training sessions all because they refuse to call it a wash and cancel the payment plan (they've already got me for about 100.00 per training session). I thought I was being very generous paying that much. I can't believe this is legal, they prey on overweight people who are so ashamed of themselves as they look at a buff trainer, that they don't realize they're (I'm) being scammed until it's too late. By end, I will be $700.00+ dollars out, plus what I'll lose when I cancel my LA Fitness membership. There's a significant financial strain, as my car died one week after signing up with LA Pro Results training, and I was forced to enter into a car payment (This, I also explained to "corporate" with no resolve; they didn't care).

Since my account is automatically withdrawn from the account, additional payments have been charged. Since an additional premium of $1440 was taken out of the account, this has resulted to over drafting the account.

Prior to all this while I was walking from the main counter to the restroom, they had their announcements (recording) playing overhead, thanking their customers, guests, and staff. They were indicating that if you had any problem, please approach any of their staff and they would be happy to help. Well, after I finished my business, I walked to the first person I saw and that was a young man in a black shirt sitting at sales desk with a lady. I walked up to him and politely let him know the men’s restroom was a mess and needed some service. It was at this point he took attitude and said I should wait a minute and he would be with me. And he did this with a finger up!

I let him know I did not appreciate the attitude. He told me he was with a client and wait. I told him all I was doing was giving him information regarding the quality of his restroom. And I asked for manager. He said he was the manager. I said that he was poor excuse for a manager. He proceeded to engage me and got up as I was walking away. He followed me to a dividing wall and said “come here, get over here” like I was a child. I told him at that point he was a punk kid and I continued to walk up the stairs towards the class. He followed me half way up the stairs yelling that my membership was revoked and I could leave then as he met me on the stairs. He almost engaged me like he wanted to fight. He walked up to me and said I’m not afraid of you.

This was getting really out of control. So finally, he said he was calling security, for what? I’m not sure. Maybe I hurt his feelings for pointing out the obvious. So as he walked down the stairs, I realized class had started and was full. So I told my son, “Let’s just leave.” Freddie was already on PA calling security and nobody came. So, I went to front counter area. I waited for security. It was at that point the manager came up to me again and was running his mouth like he was talking to kids. I think he may have taken care of children before. I’m not sure. In any case, he was walking towards us like he wanted to actually fight. So, I told, “Come on. Let’s go outside.” He came towards me fast and then went towards the safety of his front counter. He slammed the door and continued to tell me my membership was revoked and acted very smugly!

Yes, I did use some expletives at this point because he was way out of line. And I called him a punk because the word fits! On Monday, I called the corporate office. I filed a complaint and was told they would have the main manager from that location (Francisco) call me. I figured I would get some call with apology for the incident. But I was wrong. I got no call back. So, I called and spoke with the manager. He told me that Freddie’s story and mine were different and there were always two sides to every situation. I agreed. Then, he said Freddie and us could have a meeting to resolve the issue. I said okay later today but I would call back at like 12:30 pm to verify.

I called back and he said Freddie would not be attending or apologizing for his actions, which was no surprise to me because he also advised me that he felt intimated and uncomfortable with me. This was amazing to me because he seemed so aggressive the day before and said he was not scared of me. Mind you, I am 5’5” and 170 lbs. and he was a bit taller and about 155 lbs. So, I’m not sure where that was coming from. In any case, I told him to review tapes and that would tell the story. He said he did not think that was necessary.

I went in that night and spoke to Francisco. He was diplomatic and arrogant in his approach towards the situation. He was almost like I hear what you’re saying but it was not that serious. And he even told me if it was me, I would not let it get to me! So, I told Freddie’s actions were way out of line. He said he had no proof and he had no prior complaints. Freddie added more to his story to cover his butt. So basically, I told him I was leaving his gym. He said, “Oh well, sorry but you have to do what you have to do.” Basically, I got no support from their core management at all. And they condone the activities of arrogant 20 something assistant managers! They do not care about service. They look at members as money. Once you join, they see $34.99 a month and that is it. They don’t make any money from you as far as a sale standpoint, so that is why they could care less.

The main manager seemed very unsympathetic and he was texting while having a conversation. And he was rude towards my son at one point. It was weird to see the lack of customer service from these clowns! They don’t realize that word of mouth gets around and causes memberships to fall. They are getting paid next to nothing. And I really like those managers that say “I have been in this business for 17 years etc”. Wow, 17 years were wasted as a gym employee. It's not rocket science. You’re a jock that never stopped wanting to be a jock. And a monkey can do the job and has more customer service skills.

In closing, don't join. If you do, you get what you pay for as far as service. And maybe we even pay too much at that! After that meeting, I went to UFC Gym and joined that. But I have no expectations, just to work out and that is it. And if they don’t treat me with some respect as member, I will leave and just work out on my own! So far, I have wasted three days on this, but I don’t see it so much as that I see it as making a point. I knew there was a reason I was not a gym member for some years and now I remember why! I had to pay for another gym membership elsewhere and still be charged for another month at LA Fitness.

On 1/15/2010, I was charged $100. It was then that I figure out he didn't cancel my account, but "freeze" it temporarily without my consent (while I asked him to "cancel" it). At this time, LaMarr ** told me the "30 days grace period" already passed and I must continue with the program for the rest of the year (ya right! because he chose to not cancel within the 30 days when I called). I was not happy about this and particularly the $100 dollar charged on 1/15/2010 when I was not aware I was even enrolled in a program and had rights to the services provided. Consequently, LaMarr offered me a one "free" month with him to compensate his lies before I will have the right to decide on 3/15/2010 (the date when the account will be activated) to continue with the existing/any other program or not. He wrote the agreement on his name card that I can decide on 3/15/2010.

Couple days before 3/15/2010, I did not wish to continue the 1 year program because of my planned relocation out of Evanston, IL. LaMarr, along with another female sales person, provided the information from "the headquarter" that I could pay the same rate ($100/month) for a 6 month program (instead of the 12 month) beginning 3/15/2010, terminating on 9/15/2010 (Aug 15 last bill). I agreed to the terms and condition described in the above sentence. However, every time I asked for any formal written document, he always had an excuse why I didn't need to worry, why it was all set and why I didn't need it, at least 3 different times. After awhile (months), you just give up on the paper work request part. He even laughed at me how much I care about my money. If he were to find a financial planner, that would be me. How rude was that?

Today 7/15/2010, I found out from another salesperson that LaMarr didn't cancel my previous account (12 month program) and the "6 month program" did not even freaking exist in my account. They now require me to finish the one year program that I initially signed up for disregarding all the false promises since the beginning, including the two fake actions that LaMarr was supposed to take. Without a formal written document he "refused" to give, I am not able to show the crap to La Fitness headquarter. He was like "oh no worries. I took care of that already. Let's work out now! " and "it was necessary for you to resign a new contract since I only have to change it and not establish a new account. " LaMarr now denied everything he has said and done, and told me and other salespeople and managers entirely different stories (as if he has very serious amnesia), omitting the promises he made (private and public) and emphasizing the existing paper works that is advantageous to him. Hereby I am submitting this complain to reveal the false promises and unethical business practices of La Fitness, particularly Mr. LaMarr **.

On 7/15/2010, when I complained to another manager, she told me and semi-laughed at me something like: "If I were you, I would have requested a written document and have all the paper works ready in case there is one day like this. " Are you kidding me? Right! He had millions excuses why I can't have my paper and his signature. Is it the clients' fault to trust the non-stop [lie[ you have been giving? I will fight this to the end and post another update later. PS. Needless to say, once you signed, they still charge you when LaMarr didn't show up for his appointment and the "attentive" service gradually faded away. For the sake of your mental health and bank account, stay away from La fitness.

I finally called another location across town and explained my story, which prompted the manager from the original location to finally call me back. He was quick to tell me that cancellation with a full-refund is only granted within 3-days of signing the contract. I responded that this doesn't apply to my situation, as the problems started after this grace period. He then tried another tactic, saying the trainer I had signed up with was technically the training manager, and was not supposed to be offering individual training sessions.

According to him, the last session was free as an apology for the no-shows. He then tried to get me to sign up with another trainer so I'd get all my sessions (that Id paid for) for the month. I responded with I don't care what it says on his job statement form. He signed me up with training sessions with him. He was a no-show on them, and there was no mention that these were free sessions, so I want my money back. Also, I told him if they hired a guy who would be a no-show for 3 sessions, what does that say about their hiring practices, and why would I want someone else who works there?

Finally, the manager said he would send this complaint to corporate. Not trusting his word, I immediately called my credit card company, disputed the LA fitness charges, and canceled my credit card. Additionally, I reported LA Fitness to the BBB. I just received an email from LA Fitness detailing my full refunds without penalty, and I also called corporate to confirm the refunds, which they did.

He was all "cancel anytime" and "go as often or as few times as you want." I told him I wasn't going to sign up unless I knew they were able to deal with knee injuries and come up with appropriate exercises. He assured me he had someone that specialized in knee injuries.

The first session, I did a bunch of random things like jumping jacks (not good for a knee injury I found out later). The second session was canceled because my personal trainer had "personal issues" he needed to attend to. The third session, the trainer again had me do a weight bearing exercise that I later found out was not appropriate for someone who had recent knee surgery.

Then I lost my job. So I called to cancel the personal training, which I was told that I could do any time. Sure, I can do it anytime –but then I have to pay a penalty of $1800 to buy out of a contract I never entered into!

They say they have my signature on a contract stating something about 11 payments of $360 a month. But the only thing I signed was the authorization for my credit card to be billed for the first month! But they then used that electronic signature to copy onto a contract that says I'm legally bound yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.

So then the trainer (Mario) tells me he will suspend my personal training for a month and give me time to "figure things out.” He doesn't tell me there is an additional charge to suspend my account, but tells me to call back next month if I am still not working.

So I called the next month and "Mario" doesn't work at the Saugus location anymore and this new kid Justin has taken over. Justin tells me he can suspend my account for another month, but it will be $15 per month. I tell him Mario didn't charge me last month, so why am I being charged now? He says I "probably” was charged for last month and that there is nothing he can do about the fee. "It's policy."

Now, I don't know what the hell to do. I want to cancel my account and walk away like everyone said I could do. I just wish I didn't get taken by these glorified third party sales reps they call "personal trainers."

Now it seems that I am liable for $1800 even though I have no foreseeable way of paying this much money. I only wanted to sign up for two months and I got railroaded for 12.

Physically, it’s another story. I went to my orthopedic doctor who told me I shouldn't be doing the exercises the trainer has me doing because it was causing more damage and not building muscle. Now, both my knees are giving me problems.

Fees were charged to my account at $199.98 plus monthly fees of $24.99 (the monthly fees are okay). I just don't want to pay for the enrollment fees of $199.98. Under the city program, the enrollment fee was $0 at the time with a monthly fee of $29.99, which I preferred. Antonio, the manager of the place, continued giving me the run-around. One time he said he was too busy to help me resolve the issue. He kept saying he needed to speak to the area manager to get my refund.

They would not let me cancel in person. There was one person there and she told me to look it up on the internet and send in a cancellation form. This is a frequent issue with LA Fitness. They are very accommodating when you want to sign up but make it almost impossible to cancel memberships. This is a consumer abuse that needs to end!

Today, 6/26/2010, I received another monthly charge. I head over to LA Fitness and they said they never received anything from me about cancelling. I was told I had to fill out a form and mail it to corporate.

I asked about the web site cancel-membership feature and they informed me. 'oh no, that doesn't work. you need to mail it in'. So, for basically the entire month of June, I was under the impression my membership was cancelled. Forgive me for thinking that it actually worked.

This is so frustrating. I'm basically being robbed and "there's nothing you can do about it". The website alone is a hoax. It leads you into thinking the cancellation was final (why else would it tell you your end date) and all the while, they charge you another month of fees.

I did so, and after a huge sales job by this person, I told him I did not want to get any training as I have been working out for years. He kept on and on and I finally agreed to once a month, someone would write up all of my work out routines and he said he would throw in some extra workouts due to the sign up fee, he forgot to mention! At that point, I unfortunately signed something, an agreement that he did not go over with me at all. Several cancelled appointments later (without even calling me), they put me with a trainer (not the guy who signed me up as stated). This twenty something year old proceeded to train me like a boy his age (I am a 48 year old female) and over trained me. Two months later, I am still being seen by a doctor for back problems. Both of my arms inside the elbow blew up the size of a softball and I could not straighten my arms for almost two weeks.

After all this, do you think I want anyone in that place to "train me"? no. But do you think you can get out of this "agreement" with them... also no. It was made clear to me that I will basically have to submit a complete write up, doctors notes and documentation and then they will send to the VP to review. This place is a scam and the number one goal is to get your money. I should have gone with my first instinct, to run. Medical injuries and an ongoing cost of $480.

The member told me he knew my schedule of when I came to swim, asked where I lived, what I did for a living, if I had sisters etc. I felt uncomfortable and did not want to return to the club. You would think that LA Fitness would allow me to cancel under such circumstances. They will not. My personal trainer (I told corporate it was not an employee, I made that clear) emailed me tonight telling me he's removing me from his schedule!

After a Google search, I learned this is textbook protocol for their trainers to protect themselves! Unbelievable that the club would deny me the cancellation, pay the fee and require me to file with the police. Google this, many victims don't, due to the psychological effects it has on one's personal safety, and etc.

I am going to be billed until Dec. 2010 for $219 a month without any support. LA Fitness does not take these reports seriously or into consideration. It does not matter if you are harassed, raped etc. in their clubs. They will still collect the money they need to continue to be a profitable business.

First off, they ask for your driver's license when you ask for rates, and put you in their database. Instead of giving you rates, they then call over a salesperson to give you a tour. At the conclusion of the tour, they sit you down at a desk and pull out a scrap piece of paper and tell you to sign up, you pay an initiation fee, plus first and last. I asked for rates again. They say, "If the price is right, are you willing to sign up now". I ask them again, "What is the rate?" They give me the same rehearsed line, "if the price is right." I had to look around to double check where at was at because I felt like I was working with a used car salesman. I finally replied, "I asked you guys 2 times what the rates where and you still haven't given me an answer.

At this point another salesperson, (maybe he was a manager), rudely interrupts and says, "You look like a straight forward guy, just tell us if you're ready to sign up if we give you a good rate. I couldn't believe that they wouldn't give me a rate unless I cooperated with their used salesman tactics. I actually told them I felt like I was at a used car lot and told them to never mind- they were wasting my time. Needless to say, they lost 2 memberships that day with their sales tactics.

While in the pool area, you cannot hear anything that goes on in the workout room. If there is a loud speaker in the pool area, I have never heard it. I decided to go ahead and shower since it was late in the afternoon before going home. I took off my suit in the shower and wrapped a towel around myself to go get my clothes. When I walked into the women's locker room, there was a man cleaning the sinks. I look surprised and asked him what he was doing. He kept on working and staring and said they announced it. I was rude and told him to get out until I was dressed. We heard nothing about men in the locker rooms while in the pool area. After dressing and as I walked out, I noticed that signs had been posted at the doorway stating that men would be working in the locker rooms. Those were not there when I entered and there was no sign at the entry from the pool area.

I know that these jobs do not pay a great deal, but that just means that managers need to train staff. I complained to the two men on duty as I left, but they were not the managers and I don't expect anything will be done. I told them they should have a woman clear the locker rooms before any man goes in to work. I reminded them that with the hot tub going and while you are swimming, you cannot hear anything. No one came into the pool area and blew a whistle to let us all know. There were two other women in the pool area after I left. It is the management’s responsibility to see that these things are carried out. During the week, women clean the locker room.

I believe what the other people who wrote complaints about LA Fitness is true. They are only interested in your money. The trainers are only kids with good bodies and they have no physical therapy degrees and should be avoided most of the time. Some are good, but you have to watch to see which ones they are. I was angry and wanted to post my feelings for the rest of you to see.

I did not join their gym and I have no desire too, but they won't stop charging me. Don't you think that we should have had a choice to join a gym before they started billing me? My blood pressure has went up and I feel like I have been taken advantage of and that I don't know how to deal with crooks like LA Fitness. I run a company with over 2700 employees and you can bet I will get the word out. I'm also out the fee they just charged me.

The worst part is the general manager, Rick **. He has been informed by several members, and rather than addressing the issue, he works out and then goes home. It is a shame when the GM and corporate offices are informed, they still do nothing to show care or respect for existing members. I also tried on several occasions to discuss with the corporate office in California. They never pick up the phone. They leave you on hold. When you finally get them, they do nothing. Today (June 4, 2010), I spoke to Ryan in the corporate office. He assured me that executive vice president Lisa ** would be informed of the problems since the regional manager, and the actual gym manager do not care at all about the broken equipment, dirtiness of the gym, and the lack of care by staff to ensure that the weights are picked up off the floor and put back where they belong.

Luckily, a brand new 24 Hour Fitness opened down the street. I know personally hundreds of people are already leaving for the new gym. I am also about to leave because after 2 more calls to corporate, 2 chats with onsite managers, and a talk with the GM, Rick **, there's not a single improvement. Again, if you are a member and want to also complain, here is the direct number. If things improve I will write back and let you all know. I tripped on the weights, and have torn my miniscus in the left knee.

The owners of this company truly don't give a crap about the public and integrity. They count on more and more people being duped into signing up and then basically taking their money every month and making it really hard to stop. I would tell anyone ever thinking about joining this club to not do it. The health club business is really sleazy. They start out when you want to join showing you really high prices and then try to show you their special promotions which will only last a day or two at most. Of course, they always are having special promos. I've heard people very high up in this company laugh about how they get people's money and make it so hard to quit. It's actually the company strategy. It's not an accident. This was a very well thought out method of maintaining the flow of EFT money.

A few months later I noticed that I was being double billed at my original rate plus the same rate plus $5. I think to myself, oh, I see what happened here, they made a mistake. I talked to the guys at the front desk since the manager wasn't there and they of course couldn't do anything so they said they would have a manager call me back. Josh the manager (who sounds and acts like he is 12) calls me back and I explain what happened. He responds that he would rebate me a month. I said Josh, you don't understand, did you talk to Michael and did he tell you the deal he gave us? He said, I looked at the contract and it says something different. Eventually I explained that I must have been deceived because why on earth would I pay an extra $35/month when I was only paying $29 when I'm adding a person who will only come once a month? He says he doesn't know but they don't have a membership for $5 month. I asked him to make this right and he kept going back to the one month.

Again, I said you have an employee problem here in that both my friend and I believed that we were signing for an extra $5/month and your answer is to rebate me one month for one person when I've been double billed for 3 months. I warned him that I would quit if that was his answer and asked if it was worth losing a customer over $90 and he is said that was ok with him. So I go to cancel and see that cancelling is a colossal pain in the rear and that there is no customer service number at corporate to call on the website. There is no blog. There is no way to email anyone at the company. I then go to this website and see all of the nightmares folks have dealt with. My question is how does this company stay in business with service like this? They practice deceit and appear to only care about the next person they sign up.

I've been residing in Tokyo, Japan for almost 10 years now as a working actor. I also keep a residence in Manhattan, NY, as well as, Venice, CA. I've lived and traveled in over 50 countries over the past 25 years. I came into LA Fitness with my most polite demeanor and Japanese-like manners. I was treated horrendously and disrespected worse than I have been anywhere in my entire adult life. The fact of the matter is that I was indeed coming in with full intention to join! I plan on residing in Seattle on and off for the next few years to take care of my aging mother. How foolish of that degenerate staff member and general manager! If anyone from LA Fitness reads this beware! You have a beautiful club. But, the staff needs some serious shaking up!

**, how did our information go on a contract and how did a last name only signature go on that piece of paper, how come we did not sign any contract at that time when Chris withdrew $150.00 from our account! How did this happen, even if there was a contract or agreement, how come we did not get a copy of it at that time? What a scam, ripping people off electronically! Now, they told me to talk to the corporate office and after a long time of waiting. Finally, I spoke with supposedly a customer relations manager and all she said we signed a contract and I explained to her that we did not, and she said there is signature.

Of course, with today’s technology, businesses and corporations are doing anything they desire to rip off innocent people like ourselves and now we have a contract we were unaware of and did not sign! Are you kidding me? It took the guy along time to finally convince us to pay him a onetime payment of $150.00. Do you think if we had known there was a contract, then we would've still sat there and singed it? It is bad enough one of us is not working and we are having a hard time surviving on a very tight budget.

Within the last couple of months, I was calling repetitively the Mary Brickell Village location in Miami, to inquire about the opening date since this location was going to be the most convenient for me with distance and to avoid traffic after work each day. In the beginning, I advised that I had been a member since 2001 and inquired whether my membership was going to be valid at this location because it was going to be a so-called signature location. The representatives always told me that my membership was okay to attend this location because of the amount of years I had been with LA Fitness. Of course, I was happy about this because I wasn't going to be paying more money for the convenience.

Then within the past month, my boyfriend and I decided to start working out together. I then suggested to him, to add him to my account as a user so that he can also attend LA Fitness with me and also because the new location was literally five minutes from his house. My boyfriend thought that it was a great idea so I contacted one of the local locations and inquired about adding him to my account.

I contacted the Cutler Bay location and spoke with one of the representatives there and advised of the situation. I advised my membership status, all the locations I had attended throughout my membership, and I even advised of the location I was currently going to, until the opening of the Mary Brickell Village location. I then asked him to add my boyfriend to my account. The representative advised that they are no longer adding individuals to already existing accounts and that a new account would have to be established for him. I complained about it, when in the past I had always heard of people having one account with multiple users. To cut me a break because I was complaining, they waived the initiation fee and just charged me $39.99 a month for my boyfriend's membership, not to mention that they charged two months up front to payment choice. So, I didn't think it was too bad of a deal and was happy that my boyfriend was going to be able to start working out with me and then starting the new location with me.

We arrived at the gym and I gave my key tag; everything went fine, then my boyfriend gives his. To my surprise, he was advised that he cannot attend that location because he has a regular membership and for him to attend that location, he needs to upgrade his membership. I was surprised and advised the front desk representative that the representative who established his membership for me, did not advise me of this and failed to disclose that to me, not to mention that I had been a member for nine years.

The representative advised that I contact the representative who established the account and see what they can work out for me. My boyfriend was upset and figured that there was something fishy about the whole thing and didn't think it was that easy. So I contacted the representative who assisted me and I explained my concern and discomfort for the situation and advised that yes, my boyfriend can go to any LA Fitness location with his membership, except, Mary Brickell Village, because it is a signature location. I explained to him that he never told me I needed to pay additional fees for his membership to attend this location, even after I advised that I was waiting for the opening of the Mary Brickell Village location and he insisted that I advised that I was attending the South Miami location, which I know is inaccurate.

Well, after the conversation going back and forth and me requesting some of kind of deal or compensation for this inconvenience of misrepresentation, there was nothing else he could do and my boyfriend would have to upgrade his membership by paying $117 for the initiation fee and an additional $10.70 a month for the membership to use that location as well.

I was bothered by that because first, they can't add a member to my account, then they misrepresent or fail to mention the issue with the signature location and upgrading fees, then causing me an inconvenience at the location to find out about the membership issue, to then not assisting me with the inconvenience in some form, to now advising me that they cannot assist me with an upgrade over the phone. I just honestly could not believe the situation I was under, when I never had issues with this gym membership before in the last nine years with them.

So, since the gym was recently opened and the entrance was crowded, we just basically went inside and started to workout. While my boyfriend worked out, I took upon myself to talking to one of the representative at the location to see if maybe after explaining the situation, they can assist me. I was wrong! Even though the representative was very nice to me, he simply couldn't do anything for me with the fees/upgrade, etc. no matter how much I was inconvenienced. So I ended up having to pay the $117 upgrade fee and bump the membership now to $49.99 a month for my boyfriend. I was upset, but did it anyway.

So after I upgraded the membership, I took upon myself to walk around the location and see what the hype was about and why they are charging so much more and why they are considering it a signature location. Well, what a disappointment and a shame to be honest with them. The Mary Brickell Village does not have full amenities as in the other so-called regular locations. The location is smaller, there is no pool, no steam room, no jacuzzi and not that many aerobic rooms. This location has just focused mainly on cardio machines, free weights and weight machines, not to mention the gym isn't even called LA Fitness, it is called Esporta.

After doing a tour, I was even more upset because how can they call it a signature location and charge more money, when that gym doesn't even compare to the other regular locations in amenities? I am completely and totally bothered and upset about this whole situation because I feel that they are riding on the location of the new gym because of the convenience of the working people in the area. True, I am lucky with my membership because they aren't charging me more money for the inconvenience, but they are completely taking advantage of the rest of the people who have either recently become new members, so they can't "grandfather" over to that location, or simply new walk-in members, when their location isn't as big or as full in amenities as the rest.

I want to be able to talk to someone in corporate about this whole situation and see what can be resolved to relieve some of the inconvenience I have come across with this whole thing. After reading several postings, it doesn't seem as if that may be easy at all. I tried and see contact information on their website, but they always want to direct you to their local gym for assistance. Those facilities have a goal and that is to sell as many memberships as possible, so that they aren't going to cut too much of a deal for you, if at all. I just want some assistance and suggestions.

However, with that kind of service, I was reluctant to join and still wanted to check out other fitness centers and see if I like them better. This mothers' day, after about three months, my husband surprised me by giving me a membership of LA Fitness as mothers' day gift, which was $50 without child care. I went there with my husband and two kids to sign up and to request if they can give me the same price as they have previously. Unfortunately, this time, I was dealing with the same sales manager Deodra and she told us that she couldn't. When I reminded her about our conversation a few months ago, she said that at the time, they were running a promotion.

I tried to remind her a few times that it wasn't any promotion they were running, they had lowered the price arbitrarily. She was stuck with the same misrepresentation that they had lowered the price three months ago because of a promotion. Then, I asked, if that was a promotion, why did I have to spend 40 minutes of my time and get her coworker's approval to have child care ($10) included in my membership fee? She couldn't answer that and kept to her original point of LA's having a special promotion three months ago and got very offended when I pointed to her how she was misrepresenting the fact. She was more eager to have us cancel than to try to accommodate in any way. So that's what we did--canceled the membership. That sales manager ruined my mothers' day gift and my respect for LA fitness.

Later, when she and her maid attempted to use the gym, they were turned away because the maid did not have a membership. I called and left several voicemails for the manager. I left messages in person but I never received any response. As a physically disabled person, it wasn't very accessible nor did I feel welcomed at all. I spent $200 with nothing to show for it but mostly I am angry that we were never acknowledged and that LA Fitness isn't accessible to disabled people.

I was given the form to send in and did, but I have not been given verification of cancellation or a return of my money. I am very dissatisfied. I paid about $150 initiation and am paying $30 per month for something that is not even available for me to use the way I was told I could use it.

Two days after I signed up, I went back with my mom and dad to work out and also to cancel my personal training membership. My father and I went back to talk to Pete. I informed him I wanted to cancel my personal training membership. He kept on insisting I stay on for a few more days. He wants to work personally with me. I told him I did not have time as I am a full-time student and work almost full time. Pete excused himself and brought in Danny **, Personal Training General Manager. Danny asked why I wanted to cancel. I told him the same thing as I really did not think I would have the time. Danny insisted I stay in for at least a few more days to work out with Pete before I cancel. He refused to let me cancel and kept on insisting one after another. My dad also told him to cancel, but Danny thought if I gave it a few more days, I can make a better decision. I left the facility. Pete called and left a message for me the next Tuesday to go in for personal training. I was still working and in school so I could not make it. My dad went in to talk to Danny to cancel my account, but Danny brushed him aside saying he cannot talk to my dad as it is not his contract. I went in with my dad two weeks after to cancel again. Danny said he would have to contact corporate to get an okay to cancel since it’s been close to a month. I left my phone number with him and left.

Three weeks went by and no phone calls from Danny. I sent Danny a certified letter with return receipt asking him to contact me about the matter. The return receipt came back and signed by LA Fitness. Two weeks went by with no response from Danny. My dad went to the gym and spoke to the Sales Manager to have Danny act on the issue and to ask for who the area or district manager was. The sales manager said he was the guy who takes care of everything in the club and refused to give my dad other key contacts. However, Danny called my dad the next morning and informed my dad he has been busy and forgot to call. Danny said since it’s been a long time now, I cannot cancel. There are options such as early cancellation fee. My dad asked him to send a letter to me listing all the options. It’s been almost four (4) weeks now and no answer from Danny. I was frustrated and upset, but it seems my dad is even more upset than I am as Danny ** lied time after time about this issue with excuses after excuses. It’s clear now about LA Fitness. Once you sign any contract at all with them, there is no way to cancel. They will not let you cancel. They will stall and use tactics to ensure you cannot cancel. There are five (5) of us with membership to LA Fitness, me, my dad, my mom, my aunt, and my uncle. My church is about one mile away from LA Fitness and we have about twenty-three (23) other members at the same LA Fitness in Roseville, MN. My dad has spoken to our pastor about LA Fitness and our experience there. My pastor said he will inform all the other members. In addition, we have a church of about 600 members. It will be just a matter of time before my dad talks to all the other ushers and elders in the church.

LA Fitness is your worst nightmare. Do not sign up with them. As you can see, there are hundreds and hundreds of other complaints nationwide. I am currently paying $160/month which is withdrawn from my account on 4th of every month. In addition, I also paid them $140 initiation fee. It’s been five (5) months now and I have paid a total of $800 for my monthly's. Add $140 initiation fee and I have paid a total of $940 in five months. A total rip-off. Do yourself a favor and go to other health clubs. See Lifetime Fitness, Bally's, and Snap Fitness!

I am 49-year old woman about 50 lbs. overweight. She pushed me and thought she knew what she was talking about. Of course, she is qualified to work with me. She is a personal trainer or so I thought. I asked her 30 minutes into the training where she went to school she advised me she took a six-month course and became certified. In the meanwhile, my back was in great pain as well as the incision site. I went home and felt the burn, so to speak. Well, the burn did not go away. Two weeks later and two prescriptions for Vicodin and a shot of Cortizone in my lower back, I am still in pain. I submitted a note from my doctor to discontinue the personal trainer portion but I could continue cardio at a later date. My back is still in pain. I can't sit too long or stand in one place too long but this is the letter I received back from LA Fitness Corporate Office as to why they will not cancel my membership.

"This confirms that your personal training membership will be cancelled once the initial term you agreed upon is completed. If at any time between today and your final billing date you opt to freeze your membership, the initial term of your personal training service agreement will be extended by the length of the freeze period. Following the end of the freeze period, your regular monthly dues will be charged to your account on file with us, pursuant to the authorization you previously provided, until completion of your initial term.

"If you are still within the term of your personal training membership and sent a letter to cancel your contract early with payments still due and owing, your contract allows you to cancel early only if you provide specific supporting and verifiable documents which we have not received (please review page 2 of your contract). However, your contract does allow you the option to voluntarily cancel for any reason by paying a fee equal to 50% of the remaining contract balance. Your local club can give you the exact amount and collect the fee from you in person; otherwise, the monthly installments will continue to be billed. We hope this helps you make a decision. "

I can use any help you can provide.

May 3, 2010: Called LA Fitness spoke with rep James Fox inquiring why it is still June 8, I was trying to cancel in March? Besides, they already charged me last month payment when I joined the LA Fitness. James F suggested last month charge is not refundable and everything is in accordance to policies.

I requested supervisor. James F said he is the supervisor. Requested a manager; again that is James F. To whom I can contact and complain? James F says to me, but there will be no refunds. LA Fitness cancellation policies designed to be overcomplicated to rob the customers and make them pay for services they no longer need and that are no longer provided. I was overcharged 3 months for services that I did not need requested, was trying to cancel and could not.

I don't need towel and use any court. So he changed something in his computer and then told me I am set for a price of $24.99 in the next month's bill. On the next day, I asked the same employee to give me a copy of contract. He told me that he checked my record again, and my existing account is not a super member, so I do not have access to towel and court. Therefore, my price is confirmed with $34.99. I was so disappointed. Two employees in this place that I deal with, are both telling me a lie. You cannot trust these people. I want everyone to know about this place. Think twice before joining this club if you do not want to be ripped off.

When I tried to cancel, Jeff lied to me and told me that I could put this training on hold and not pay anything until I could afford it. It was only later that I found out I would have to pay $15.00 a month to keep it on hold and by that time it was too late to cancel something that I never agreed to in the first place. I called the corporate office on Michelson Dr. to cancel my training. I told them the whole story. They said I had a binding "contract" and it could not be cancelled. I told them I never signed a contract for personal training and therefore, had no contract.

When I asked them to produce this "contract", they referred me to the operations manager at my branch. She gave me a "contract" that I had never seen before, with a signature that had been transposed from an electronic pad which I used for my membership only. This is misrepresentation at the point of sale. I've been advised by a Judge who is a friend, that this is fraudulent and not my signature. When I spoke to LA Fitness about this, they said they would put my membership on hold for 6 months and not charge me. After 6 months, they began charging my credit card again. The only way I could get them to stop was by cancelling my card. Now, it's on my credit record that I'm not paying them money that I "owe" them.

Now, I need LA Fitness to recognize that I have no contract for personal training, to make this null and void and to contact the major credit reporting agencies to erase this negative record. I've spoken with them numerous times but to no avail. I want them to refund the money they charged me since I did not use the training.

In January, I became engaged and knew I would be moving to Palos Verdes. I went into the gym and cancelled my gym membership and was assured that if I called the corporate office, I could cancel the personal trainer contract as they has promised at the time I signed up. My gym membership was cancelled immediately, and I was told by Jason ** at the corporate office that if I showed him proof of my new address, he would cancel my trainer membership and suspended my payments.

I just received my new car insurance, faxed it to the corporate office and was contacted by Alicia who told me if I lived within 25 miles of LA Fitness, no matter where it was, they would not cancel my contract. This was contrary to everything I had been told from the very beginning. They just withdrew money from my checking account for the month of April. I no longer have my gym membership, was assured that the personal trainer membership would be terminated by two people and they are deducting money and have changed everything they told me.

I have been deceived and lied to by LA Fitness. Their attitude is, "we understand, but too bad." Why would I cancel my gym membership if I had to keep the training contract? I was told at the time that both contracts would be cancelled. When I tried to call the corporate office, I was given to a bank of telephone people who couldn't have cared less about my situation. This is an unfair practice. Each person you speak with promises and assures you something different. As I read through all of the complaints, I am very aware that this seems to be a typical mode of operation and completely unacceptable.

I have only started the process but I can tell that they are out 3 memberships because my friends, including me, are going to another gym where rules do matter. They'll be out $6300.00 in the next five years because of their bad business.

I also sent a cancellation request for both on their website where you can access your account. They actually cancelled my membership but didn't cancel the childcare when I called the corporate location to ask what part of my letter and online correspondence was unclear, the rep asked if I sent in 2 letters, one for each request.

Of course not, I replied, why would I waste 2 pieces of paper when it fit easily on one? He said, well, that's the problem, you have to send in a separate request for each one. He also informed me that he cannot go look at my letter to verify my request because they don't keep them. I finally got him to cancel the childcare while I had him on the phone and to send me an email, so I had something in writing but he refused to credit back the final payment for the childcare. What good does the childcare do me for another month when my membership is cancelled? What a scam!

John calls the next to apologize and asked if we would give him another chance to make it up. So we did, and we set the appointment for the Thursday, which I had to call and cancel as I had an unexpected issue that I had to take care of. At which he said he would schedule for the following Friday which we did. He even called us on that day to remind us of the appointment. We showed up on time only to find out that he had already left for the day. At that point I really did not care who took care of us. I am not used to doing business that way. Your company seems to hire personnel that only care about their pay check and not about the customer. You obviously do not have your prospective client’s interest at heart. Maybe corporate should make a visit down here and see what it rally is like. Or maybe that is how you do business.

I called the center in CA and they told me they never received the form. They make things difficult for people to cancel, not allowing cancellations in the center we registered in first place. Then, they say they never received the cancellation form. The manager even told me it was okay and my membership had been cancelled. What should I do? I also called my credit card company and told them to dispute the charges and stop any future payments. When I talked to LA Fitness yesterday by phone, Ryan said he was cancelling the membership to make sure no more charges would happen. Please help me to get rid of these people. I haven't been to this place for a year! $34.99 times 12 months = approx $419.88 charged after cancellation. Thanks.

I was asked to press 1 for the location I wanted. The phone rang forever, then someone unprofessional and with a monotone voice answers. My question was, "Could you tell me how much is the membership?" He said just a moment and left me on hold forever. I hung up. I called to another location and the same thing happened. I then was intrigued by the process and decided to research this outfit on the net. Thank God I did. I want to have fun and be fit not to aggravate myself needlessly. Good luck in the future!

When you sign up, you may be double charged at first and that can lead to a lot of money. When you sign up, you have to pay a fee. First and last month dues but if the computer froze or if the sales rep hits the send button twice, you can be charged twice. It takes a week to reverse this charge. Also, got kids? Kids Klub is sometimes filled (in my location) over the number of kids allowed by state.

Worse yet, many of the girls have said that they were the only one for 20+ kids (Oregon law is one care person = 10 kids). Also, I was told since I was a female, I would have to sub in because the males do not do Kids Klub. Corporate took away the copier and fax machine so now, the software to scan people a copy of their contracts cannot be printed. Unless you have an email address, you will not get a copy.

So I left and cancelled my membership (I was a member beforehand). It took 15 days. I wrote comments about how unethical the company was and when I went to get my last paycheck, the manager questioned me about it. She denied that she ever told me that the cancellation forms get lost in the mail. I could not believe her flat-out lie because while working there, she told me at least on 2 occasions. It hurts people's credit and their trust.

I quickly left out of the locker room as fast as I could and went in the pool area, and that was also a sight for sore eyes as well. The stains on the inside of the pool looked like something at a public park. It was awful. I couldn't believe people were paying money to use this facility. On my way back through the locker room, I came across a team member showing another female the ''amenities'' of the club. I couldn't believe they were showing people that and they were still choosing to workout here!

As I exited the locker room area, I ran into another employee; and I asked him what he did for LA Fitness. He said, ''I'm the lead janitor.'' And I felt that maybe he wasn't aware of the mess in the locker room, so I described to him what I saw. I was shocked at his reply; he replied, ''Ma'am, I'm sorry about that, but our female janitor doesn't get here for a few more hours or so.'' Needless to say, after talking with him, I decided that to finish the rest of my pass, I should attend only at night when they had adequate staff to clean up behind such people.

The next night, I got there at around 7pm, and true enough, it was a little cleaner and in the process of being cleaned by the female janitor who he obviously was referring to. As the night progressed, the more I witnessed that young woman (as she looked only 20 years old) cleaned and cleaned. 5 minutes after she was out the door, no doubt onto her next duties, the women would continue making a mess and deliberately tossing things everywhere.

Later that night, I even observed another guest yelling at the young woman demanding that she stopped cleaning the showers and let her get in the shower. I felt bad when the young woman just looked at me and shrugged her shoulders as if to say "Okay, have it your way." It seems outrageous, but it is true. The women were actually stopping her from cleaning those filthy showers!

When I thought of going back to L.A. Fitness at any one of their locations, I thought of how nasty it was, and I decided to join another club somewhere else. I couldn't belong to a club that would allow its members to stop a employee from cleaning and would have a period in the day where there was no one to clean at all.

''LA Fitness is dedicated to making your workout experience an exceptional one.'' Mine was very exceptional and unique, so much until I never wanted to return there again and never have. So all you who are thinking about joining, then think twice because it very nasty and might even be unsafe. Who knows?

I went straight to the front desk and asked Jennifer S. to call the police for me. Officer C. of the 3rd Precinct, arrived shortly after. He took my information for case number 210CR0027910. He told me that he has been coming to this particular L.A. Fitness very often for the past few weeks for the same kind of incidents. High value watches and jewelry regularly being reported stolen. So regularly that while I was completing my report with office C., another gym member was waiting to file his report for a missing Rolex and cash.

After completing my police report, I filed an incident report with Jennifer S. at the front desk. Report attached. I was told that the gym is not liable for missing belongings. She also admitted that the gym knew about the problem but she did not state any action being taken to correct it.

Later that evening, I received a call from a detective with the 3rd Precinct to review my report. I was advised that the police have been dealing with a lot of reports filled at this L.A.Fitness and that the gym is claiming complete deniability and will not take any responsibility. This gym does not even have any cameras. They know about the problem and honestly don't care. I have already placed an official complaint with the Better Business Bureau, Fox News, and NBC News.

I cancelled my membership because I do not feel safe at this gym. I lost approx $6,000.00 worth of jewelry. I am terribly hurt that my wedding band is gone. that can never be replace.

If you have to cancel with LA Fitness you can do it online, can do it by phone and you can mail it but if you don't mail the cancellation Certified, well then you're still a member! Now, I have to go get my cancellation form, fill it out again, and then go to the post office to have my mail certified! Oh and I have to do this now because if I don't do it within their given time frame, they will charge me again! They shouldn't be able to do this. They're ripping me off, right in front of my face! It needs to be stopped now.

He told me there is a 12 month commitment, but if I could not afford it or was not happy, he could cancel it at any time. He would just say "I moved out of the area". We negotiated 7 sessions for one month. He had me sign what I thought was to bill my credit card. It was a small screen like at most stores that you would pay using your ATM or credit card. On the screen was just an area to sign my name, but it was actually a contract. He did not disclose to me the details of the contract.

I asked if my credit card would be billed automatically every month or do I have the option to negotiate the number of sessions per month. He said no, the card is not billed every month and yes, if I want to negotiate the number of sessions for next month I could. I was given some diet info & a booklet for keeping track of my training. Behind the diet info was a contract that I had no idea I signed. He told me to look at the diet info. Nothing was said about a contract. I had no reason to question him. I felt I could trust him. It turns out he lied on all of these issues.

Within one month, he forgot 2 appointments we had, & doubled booked himself with 2 of us one time. Then he told me he was going to become sales manager & could not train me any more. I told him that we might as well forget the contract. He got agitated & wanted me to give this other trainer a try. I felt pressured and said yes. I asked how I could get rid of the 12 month agreement if I was not happy. He said I would have to show a return address out of town. Just mail a friend a letter to their address with my name on it & he will honor that. So I tried the other trainer & was okay with working out with him but still unsure if I wanted to continue this service. My husband lost his job & we are just relying on my income and his unemployment.

Now I get a bill from American Express. $161 was charged to my account from La Fitness. I brought the statement into Brian. He said it was not for personal training, but then looked it up on his computer and told me it was for personal training. I asked if I could negotiate the number of visits for the next month due to less income. He said that would be okay & he also would freeze my contract for one month. He was in a hurry & could not talk. I thought okay, I will use the sessions I paid for & the free sessions he promised me.

About 2 weeks later I had 2 sessions left that I paid for ,so I asked Brian how do I go about using my free sessions he promised me. He looked aggravated but looked on the computer at my contract ( which I still had no idea I signed). He said he did not write down any free sessions so he must not have promised me. He told me he gave me a great deal to begin with. I questioned him again. He started becoming very defensive & sarcastic, asking what would make me happy. I told him I did not appreciate his tone. He then stepped away from the computer, pointed his finger in my face and yelled, "I don't appreciate you calling me a liar!" He was yelling at me.

I was scared & embarrassed. I said, "I am done," and went into to changing room. I was shaking and was crying really upset & scared. I realized at that time I have been scammed and felt very betrayed. I went to go talk with him to resolve this issue. He would not talk to me, waved his hand & said, "I am done with you." I have 2 witnesses who saw him scream at me the first time. They were shocked at his reaction and agreed he was out of line. I called American Express. They said if I signed a contract that they could not waive the auto bill charge. I was going to cancel my card, that is when they put the payment on freeze.

On 2/9 I called general manager, Billy. He said he would look into it. He called me back and stated Brian denies losing his temper and to call corporate. I spoke with a Tyler. He told me he could not void the contract. He told me that I could get out of the contract but had to pay 50 % of number of sessions that I agreed to for a year. I was unaware that I agreed to a certain amount of sessions. He told me that I sound upset & suggested I freeze my membership for 6 months until my emotions settle. I did not agree with this and just wanted to be done with the club & the contract. He said that it looks like I like the work outs because I was so consistent. He said he would look into this matter but probably could not discontinue the contract, because it was basically Brian's word against mine.

On 2/12, I sent in a written request to stop all services, membership & personal training. La Fitness agreed to cancel my membership. I received a letter in the mail stating personal training membership will be cancelled once the initial term that I agreed upon is up. If I am still within my term & want to cancel & it is not for a reason stated in the contract, I will then be responsible for 50 % of the contract. I have not agreed to this. My card is still freezing this payment. I had to request this again because LA Fitness is saying that I need to honor the contract. My card states my credit will not be affected. And even if I cancelled American Express, the contract would still have to be honored if I lost. Please help. I feel stuck & scammed!

I know 2 more people who are unhappy with the personal training service and are looking into cancelling. One girl states she was told by Brian that she can cancel at any time, just to show her letter of change of address or work. I do not know if she has done this yet. If she cannot cancel, she may be interested in a class action suit.

They lost my business. I'll go down the road to Bowie Sport Fit, better customer services and refreshing, polite staff.

The maximum start up fee is $150 for regular membership. I would end up paying $174 for utilizing the membership (more than I would if there was no specials at that time). Marge, the so-called manager, confirmed that Jason made a mistake, and said that she will call me next day to see if her manager can do something. Guess what, she never called. When I called her she said she’s busy and can’t speak with me. I called the next day. Someone picked up and told me that he is Marge’s manager and he can’t do anything, and I can complain all I want. I cancelled my membership. I want to file a law suit on LA Fitness and fight back the injustice done.

I did sign up for 6 months' training, one time a week, under the impression that Tim would be the one to train me. Not only that, when I signed the contract I was not informed by him verbally that there would be a penalty if I chose to end the contract early. When I saw the small print in the contract I noted that there was a penalty for early cancellation of personal training up to 60% of what is owed for the remaining time left. I worked out with Tim a few times over about 4 weeks under the impression he would train me. Then on 3/5/10 I was informed by Gerald K. that Tim would not be my trainer and I was assigned to another trainer that I had not established a rapport. I felt confused, jerked around and felt that the way this was handled (money money money), was completely unprofessional and unbusiness-like.

Additionally, don't buy into the sales technique they use to buy personal training for one year. I was told that if I signed up for one year, that after I would just need maintenance. Also my body fat was measured using a contraption that had no scientific validity for using this to calculate body fat. Each statement lacks any scientific validity to support said statements. I called Zenoni at Corporate on 3/12/10 and complained about the lack of professionalism. She was not impressed and I had the feeling she could care less. Finally to get me off the phone, she told me she would contact the local VP by the name of Charles A. To date I have not heard anything from either of these individuals.

The moral of the story is watch out for LA Fitness, do not join and just find some local gym that is interested in your well-being, not just your wallet. I am left with no choice but to continue with the personal training as there was no compensation for my stress and frustration.

So, after a few sessions with different personal "trainers", I went back to the manager and told him that I wanted to keep my regular membership but I wanted to cancel the training sessions because those did not have any value and I was really dissatisfied with the service. Basically, to make the long story short, after countless efforts, this guy treated me like a rag even when he talked to me like I was so much inferior to him. Basically, he said I would have to pay the whole year in training session premiums before cancelling and of course I didn't. Extremely, bad customer satisfaction with the training services which do not provide the value they should, with the money you are paying.

Last year, I needed to renew my membership for the first time. I went to LA Fitness Diamond Bar and dealt with a manager, Larry. He pretended to listened to my grievance and feigned sympathy, but ultimately refused to even address my issue. Basically, if you have ever talked to a customer service representative who would continually tell you, "I understand how you feel, but..." without really answering your argument, you'd know how frustrated I felt.

Though Larry "showed" respect by being patient in the way he talked to me, his true lack of respect for customers shone through in the way that he refused to directly answer my questions--choosing instead to hide behind words like, "company policy" and "legally you can't do anything." (He said that LA Fitness was not obligated to honor promises made verbally, and in writing, by their sales representatives because such promises were not printed out by their computer, but were instead merely "scribbled" on my contract).

I finally went to the LA Fitness in La Verne, where I was allowed me to get my 2 free months without any hassle, and I thought my problem was solved. "I'll just go straight to La Verne next year". Well, this is next year, and I found out that, not only was I not given one of my free months, but also that I would no longer be given my free month next year (even though corporate office had promised it to me if I renewed before my membership expired). I called Mark, and I felt like I was talking to a clone of Larry. However, Mark was somewhat ruder (if that's really possible), because he would cut me off as I was speaking.

I'm extremely frustrated now, because I feel swindled. LA Fitness representatives promised me a "pay more now, pay a lot less later" plan, but they're now only going to fulfill the "pay more now" part of the plan. However, more than anything, I'm extremely irritated by how unreasonable their managers are. Mark kept telling me that it's not fair to make an exception for me by giving me an extra month--without ever bothering to stop and consider how unfair it is for me to be promised something, and then have this promise be revoked (three years later) without reason. I would, in all likelihood, not have signed this exact deal if I knew that they would consider honoring their promise to be a goodwill gesture, as opposed to something they should do because, really, a promise is a promise.

I seem to have no choice but to cut my losses and just accept this hand that was dealt to me but I just hope that someone successfully sues LA Fitness in the near future. Someone needs to teach this company about honoring their promises and claims.

At this point I became upset. I told Steve that I was told that my membership included a personal trainer. Steve laughed and said if that was true then everyone would have a trainer. I was quite sure he knew that I was frustrated at this point. My husband also became frustrated because he was sitting there when Bret told us that my membership would include a personal trainer. I told Steve that I really needed a trainer and that I could not pay all of this extra money because I thought that it was included in the membership. I also told him that I would have never joined if I knew that the fee did not include a trainer.

After sitting there getting nowhere, Steve said that I could come in the next day for a free training session. Only this was not a training session, we sat for an hour trying to figure out what deals they had that I could afford. I really felt that Steve was trying to help me. Steve told me that he could give me 3 free training sessions in order to compensate for the $149 trainer enrollment fee and then I could pay $90 for 3 sessions. The total I was to pay was $239. This was for a total of 6 sessions. I was so excited. I thought he was really hooking me up because he felt my pain. He also stated that I could pay $40 if I needed any additional sessions later.

I told Steve that that sounded good, and I came back and gave him my credit card. I asked him just to be sure if this would be the only charge, no surprises, and to charge it to this particular credit card, because my husband made it very clear to Steve and I that I could not charge the 239 to his card. I asked him again if this would be the only thing I would have to pay for because I just needed someone to show me how to use the machines in the gym and give me a workout routine. He said this would be a onetime fee and I would not have to pay anything else. Needless to say Steve lied. I am being charged money every month and I am in the process of trying to get the situation resolved. It has led me to a dead end. I was so excited to join a gym, but I hate that I joined LA Fitness.

While I do not use the nursery, I feel sorry for the kids that are in there and their parents could be considered unfit for leaving their children in such conditions. The ratio of kids to staff seems so out of whack that it strikes me as unsafe. It is painfully obvious that the management only cares about volume at all cost and not one bit about your future experience once you walk away from the sales desk where they promise you the world and then provide four walls, a roof, and some gym equipment to share with literally thousands of other members that all happened to get the "Special Limited Time Only Promotional Pricing."

Furthermore, they will tell you anything to get you sign up--flat out lies! I would urge anyone considering joining this place in the strongest of terms possible. Before you join, visit it several times specifically the evenings and weekends. I switched from another local club because it was $20 a month cheaper and now I realize that I'm not saving $20 a month--I'm wasting $29.95. The membership is unusable. I'll be returning to my old gym and eating the monthly dues at LA Fitness because I'm locked in for two years.