LA fitness Reviews

I put everything in writing, requested my membership and contract be cancelled and that any refunds due to me because of the gym closure on my prepaid membership be credited to my credit card used for the monthly payments. I also indicated they confirm with me in writing that all was done. Well weeks, then months went by with no word, so I sent them another letter. Then another one when a couple of weeks had gone by. When I called again, the lady told me that because I wasn't outside the 10-mile distance, I could not cancel my policy. But she would do me a favor and let me buy out the rest of my contract for half of what I still owed. When I said no, she said I'd have to pay it until the contract expired, so I said fine.

At this point, I was so annoyed with them that I just let it go. Well I have recently discovered that they never stopped the payments so I've been paying month to month! What the heck! I went online to stop this and get this, they told me that my membership was cancelled so I couldn't log in. So why is it that if my membership is cancelled, that they would continue to take my money? It's crappy enough that I felt like they hoodwinked me by signing me up for a contract one month before they closed the gym and then not letting me get out of it. Then when they used the whole 10 miles excuse, it rubbed me the wrong way. Then to continue taking my money even when my membership was cancelled? Really, is this good business practice?

In the spinning class, we have had broken speakers for music. And we have had weeks going without a microphone for the instructor to lead us in our spinning class. It is frustrating and I don't think the ownership cares. They just keep bringing more and more people in at the cheaper rates; but if they don't maintain what they have, they will end of just like Bally’s. In fact the Bally’s they took over in Bethel Park, they have not done anything to but slap their name on the front of it. It is as filthy as it was when Bally’s owned it.

My last complaint is the way LA Fitness will have vendors such as pizza parlors and sub shops giving food to people inside the gym next to the machines in the midst of dripping sweat and heat. It is disgusting and especially nauseating after you are working out to smell the odors of food. But hey workout and then pig out! Anything for a buck or a name.

Then today, the repair guy’s vehicle in the gym started beeping for no reason. It was sitting unattended, yet no one there though anything about letting the noise reverberate throughout the gym disturbing everyone's peace for an indefinite amount of time. I mentioned it to some people at the desk and they gave me a dumb excuse, yet there was no logical reason for everyone to suffer. So finally one of them turned it off. Then later on it started again, yet no one there bothered to address it again. I mentioned it as I was leaving and the guy just looked away, like it wasn't his problem. Those people are way too young to be running a gym. Where is the adult in charge? I am only asking for common sense to be used. This is not demanding.

Also, the music is way too loud, and I don't like what is playing. The girls' dressing room is the worst. No one likes it. I have to wear ear plugs and use my iPhone, which is hard to do when changing clothes and bathing. One more complaint, please get those covers over the vents on the ceiling near the Jacuzzi. Stink is coming out of them and it's stomach retching. The other people there thought it was coming out of the pool filters! But the problem is in the ceiling. Other than that, I like the gym but more logic in managing the facility is necessary.

I called last week and spoke to their Affairs Department. The lady I talk to at ** stated that they didn't charge me. I said, “Yes you did because I have over $400 from last month just on NSF fees, and now that it’s canceled.” I have an additional $300 of NSF due to their constant hit. I chose to cancel my bank account and submitted a fraud form on my behalf through my bank and have advised the Better Business Bureau and the District Attorney's Office for fraudulent charges. I should have stayed at 24 hour fitness. They offer so much better service, and I never had a problem with billing.

Unbeknownst to me, during my trip to the lockers to retrieve my card, this guy allowed someone else to sign the contract! I didn't know until I received an email with a one page contract attached with someone else's signature, and there were no initials next to where the term agreements are supposed to be listed. Of course it didn't list that I would be charged for 12 months. I’ve never seen a contract before the billing started, and the contract was emailed to me. I followed the steps to cancel the contract, but received an email stating that I'm committed for 12 months - over $200 a month. I'm confused and very, very, upset that a large and well known company would be allowed to stay in business while ripping people off this way. I filed a BBB complaint weeks ago. Now, they're up to over a thousand dollars in unused PT charges from my bank account. I'm trying to handle this in a professional way, but it seems I'll have to make some calls to a law firm and file a complaint with the courts. More money out of my pocket for a contract I never signed!

I picked up the front desk phone myself to call the police, as clearly, the manager couldn't be bothered. I checked this entire gym 6 times over. My items are gone. The police asked to see camera footage because all they had to see was a person walking out with my bag of belongings and a coat and easily looked them up since they have to scan in to get in. And right there, we would've had the person's full name, address and phone number. But guess what? LA Fitness has not a single camera in the entire facility, not even at the front door. Luckily, my car is still in the parking lot. The cops arrived and I happen to have the Find my iPhone app installed. The cop tracked the phone to be about a mile away. Long story short, we found that the GPS was faulty on this app and the phone was still in the building somewhere. (I was the one that figured this fault out).

We figure this out after three Suffolk County Police Officers are out in 12-degree weather searching through backyards and houses for my personal belongings. They came back with nothing. So I checked every single storage closet, kids' club, bathroom I could, still nothing. I went back into the locker room a final time with the front desk girl's phone while I'm logged onto the Find my iPhone app. There's an option where you can make the phone make a noise, so I click it and I hear ringing. The ringing takes me to a locker in another section with someone else's lock on it. I run to the front desk, they grabbed the bow cutters, and cut the lock open, and all of my stuff is in there. Now some of you may see this as a happy ending, which yes, it is. However, let’s look at it from another point of view: What if I never had this app loaded onto my phone and the police and I gave up on this search.

This person broke into my locker because of the poorly constructed LA Fitness locker was a piece of garbage, moved my stuff, put their own lock on it to come back to it at a later time. They do a drive by in the parking lot early this morning or late last night to find one car in the parking lot still there. Clearly, the Nissan keys in the belongings they stole match this car. They come back to the gym, open it up, take my entire life with them, and then take my car. Now they have my car, my ID with my address, and the keys to the front door of my house. I called a customer service rep and all they can extend is an apology and offer to freeze my account for free until I feel safe. How could I feel safe? I feel violated. You provide garbage lockers that can easily be broken into by a female who just waltzes in and takes my stuff. You don't have a single camera in the facility to catch a thief. Anyone could walk inside with a concealed weapon and get away with it.

And with all of these shootings lately, how could anyone feel safe? And for the manager not to give a crap about this and go home in the middle of this, are you kidding me? Please share this with every LA Fitness member you know. Theft has been a huge issue in all long Island LA Fitness and nothing is being done about it. LA Fitness has done nothing but apologize and their argument is since I found my stuff in the end, everything is okay. However, it was this amazing app that found it. And if it wasn't for the garbage lockers, this would've never happened in the first place. Absolutely acceptable!

I said politely, "I wasn't and please don't make assumptions." The man who was speaking to me told me he was the manager and that he was going to ask me to leave. My friend said that people even at his place of employment had big egos when they were in high positions such as manager, so not to pay him any attention because we were just supporting one another in our workouts. Well we decided to not talk, figuring he didn't want us counting out load or something. But this man insisted to push away. I tried to shake it off by sitting in the sauna and pool. But it really upsets me that it happened in the first place. I run into people all the time at the gym that have workout partners and I was told today that I am not allowed, and if I wanted to I need to purchase training.

I am currently writing a letter to my immediate supervisor and sending letters off to corporate to discuss this new policy that I am not aware of. But honestly, I was singled out because I am not a big fellow lifting big weights, I wear prayer beads and am of dark complexion. But basically, this guy didn't want me to talk at all and it's a shame because I come to the same gym with my mother. We talk, we work out and I always help her.

I explained my situation, and that I needed to downsize my current $180 monthly membership down to a more manageable membership until I found a new job and had steady income coming in again. The receptionist and account specialist said I didn’t have that option. I explained that when I joined, I was employed and could verify that my employer had closed their doors and filed for bankruptcy and I currently had no income. They told me I could buy-out the remaining portion of the contract for $900 and if not, it would be reported as a default.

Again, I explained I wasn’t requesting to cancel my contract, just that I needed to downgrade my membership services to the bare minimum to revise the current terms until I became employed again and could resume the previous membership level. Management said they could not do that. The cancellation or buy-out fees are ridiculous, especially when someone has lost his job. LA Fitness should be ashamed that they could not be flexible during such a difficult time for myself & my family.

Today, I had a horrible experience at LA Fitness in San Bernardino. I called in yesterday at 7:30, which is my scheduled time, and asked to postpone my appointment 30 minutes. The receptionist told me that the person I was scheduled to meet with already left, and she couldn't do anything for me. I told her I would like to activate my free pass today. She said that wouldn't be possible because she was just a receptionist and she didn't know what to tell me. Anyways, I showed up the next day, which is today. I met Catherin, she told me that it would take 10 minutes to activate the thing. After running me through a fitness test, and a describing me the amazing features LA Fitness gym has, which I asked her to skip, she told me, “Let’s discuss our options here,” and gave me rates that were way higher than the one I already found on the Internet. I told her, I have to have my week free pass first and then after that week, I will tell her my decisions.

She said, “How much are you willing to pay for a membership?” I told her 60 dollars with no initial fees - the deal that I found on the Internet. She gave me a down look, like my offer was very low compared to the amazing service that I am about to get. She told me she would ask her manager and get back to me. Then I found a lady - the manager - who didn't discuss any of my fitness plan, motivation, etc. Instead she went directly to negotiation about how much money she could generate out of me. I explained that I was not willing to be a member unless I try it first. Finally she asked me for my free pass, I told her I didn't have a document or a flyer written on it free pass, I just received the phone call. She told me she would check and get back to me. She sent me Catherin again - the person who called me. She told me that she couldn't find my name on the system, and that I didn't have a week free pass.

However, her manager gave me permission to work out now for free, like they were doing me a favor. I felt so humiliated and disgusted by the unprofessional handling of the customers. If this is how you treat your new customers and how you promote fitness services at LA Fitness, only God knows how you treat your customers - something I never want to deal with never again. I also felt so bad for wasting my time and stopping by to be humiliated. After that I went straight to 24 Fitness, where I found good hospitality, friendly attitude, professional customer service and 24 hours service. I settled down a year plan with them. Like I mentioned before, I am a Masters in Nutrition student, I am a certified personal trainer, I am a physical exercise counselor and advisor and I will never refer LA Fitness to anyone.

I have worked in the retail industry for years and have faced many challenges with customers and never in my life as a consumer experience the worst customer service experience. It was clear they knew I was not a regular member and instead of inviting me in or speaking to me about my options, they quickly blew me off and my nephew. It is for this reason that I will never set foot into an LA Fitness in my life, especially the Staten Island location. The front desk person is the first person and the last person you see when visiting your location and how dare you hire incompetent associates like Mike and Justin. It says a lot about your company.

Every morning we get to the gym at 5AM, and more than 50% of all the free weights are scattered. It makes it impossible to enjoy working out. We get the usual excuse that the night staff is tired. So if they owned a fast food chain, it would be acceptable to just leave the customers' food and messes everywhere? Back to the germs and problems. Now let's get into how many cases of pink eye we have heard about and personally seen there - with all the sweat and people rubbing their face and eyes that have it and training on a machine you are waiting to use. Firstly, it will make you contract it. Secondly, you'll want to tell them to get out from the lack of respect and health concern for others they display.

LA Fitness has displayed the longest delays on repairing simple seat and cushions on equipment that sometimes can take weeks for a simple re-cushioning. I have upholstery guys that redo car and house furniture, and it can be done within days. LA Fitness sucks. New members, beware!

One of the staff members said back in July that the guy comes on Mondays. I asked again, and the young guy at the desk told me that someone keeps throwing the notes away. The machine in question is the chest press. I really feel that a more responsible management team needs to replace the children that have been hired to do the job of professionals. Most of the time, I don't go this far to send a complaint; but I am a paying customer and don't feel that I should throw away my money and not say anything about my dissatisfaction with the gym I attend. Thanks for letting me get this off my chest without the machine being repaired.

As they take you through your workout, they will introduce you to a bunch of different trainers. Seemed very nice to have so much attention toward you. At the end of the session, back to the desk where you find out that in order to reach those goals, you need to hire a personal trainer. The price started at $45 per session and they recommend you do this 3 times a week. This goes on forever where they try to gauge the size of your wallet. Another 40 minutes later and at times, 4 trainers standing over you, the rock bottom price is $55 for 3 sessions = 3 routines. One trainer even had the nerve to say, "Don't you at least have enough of a balance left on any of your credit cards?" My girlfriend was so disgusted she just got up and left. So they all honed in on me.

It was so uncomfortable and I got out of there with the promise to think about it. "If you are serious, you know you need to do this. You have to decide within 72 hours or the prices go up." I feel totally violated. Here I sit in so much pain I can barely move. I am not exaggerating. So I will go there until my 2 months I had to pay for in advance are used up, but I can guarantee you after that I won't go back. Through research, I have now found out that they work on strictly commission, but I have dealt with used car salesmen that have more class than they show. The eye appeal of this place is not worth it.

Then I asked for the general manager and he said over and over as he turned his back walking away, “Don't be training in here.” Very disrespectful. I felt bullied and as though my daughter and myself were treated as criminals. His entire attitude was disrespectful, demeaning and unacceptable, to talk to anyone like that, much less to a father in front of his child trying to spend quality time and how to protect herself from men seeking to do harm to her and a long term customer. He attempted to degrade me in front of my child and now my child is upset that she did something wrong and do not want to go to that gym. This is not the introduction into a lifelong commitment to working out with a gym I believe in, such as LA Fitness.

I walked over to the General Manager’s desk and told him what happened and he said don't worry about it and it will never happen again and he was sorry. The general manager was very professional, courteous and sensitive to my child. I left the issue in his hands. However, later after the event, my daughter voiced her feelings of discomfort, embarrassment, hurtful senses and feeling bullied toward the incident and I'm feeling the same so I decided to contact corporate LA Fitness. I told them this: Please help me address the bully issue within your organization. I would hope you will not take this lightly so any other child, father or customer would not have to experience that insult. Thank you.

I finally cancelled my appointment and the guy at the front desk said, "Oh, okay," with no apology, no willingness to find Cole and no offer to reschedule. Apparently, this person has never been trained in the art of providing excellent service either. The next day, I called the Mill Creek, Washington club and left a message for the manager to call me. That was October. Today, it's 12/27/12, and to date, I've never gotten a call from anyone. Going forward, my charge card was hacked and cancelled, and now LA Fitness won't stop emailing me and calling me as they want my money. I was promised an email with the corporate URL so I could register a complaint; that never happened.

I just spoke with Nick at 949-255-7200. He was very nice and he's waived my charges, but explained that LA Fitness does not do orientations on equipment. They only do a fitness orientation to assess fitness level so they can sell personal training. Duh, I joined a club only to wonder how to use the equipment safely? Needless to say, I'm through with LA Fitness. They have strong competition and there must be other clubs who are more customer-focused. Don't join LA Fitness. It's a big waste of money.

Basically, she said my guest could work out today but that he couldn't get a VIP pass. She basically didn't care about supporting the current loyal member (me) by following the rules established by corporate and instead only cared that she wasn't going to be able to convert my guest to a paying customer membership. I didn't want to escalate the situation (although I did mention that there was no mention of local residency with either guest or VIP passes on the LA Fitness website where you claim them), so we just continued with our workout today. This is an opportunity for management there to improve their customer service and focus on customer loyalty.

Nevertheless, it was at that time I noted I was not receiving an additional discount promised by the sales manager. I placed a call 2 times to the club, only to be placed on hold an average of 17 minutes each time while waiting to speak with the sales manager. I was told on my third call by Haley that I could come into the club and cancel my membership. The operation manager would be more than happy to do so. The sales manager was too busy to speak with me. I truly appreciate her candor and will be following up to do just that.

If they wanted to change the way they handled renewals, they should have notified their consumers in writing of the changes they were making that we're different than Bally's. I would have gone up sooner to make the 90-day cut off if I had known. I paid thousands of dollars for this lifetime membership! Buyer beware when dealing with this organization. I told them I was going to report them to the Better Business Bureau and they laughed and said, "Go ahead, everyone else does!" I am going to pull my contract to see what other avenues I can take now.

Then they said that I could freeze the account, but they charged me $10! So they close and I have to pay, plus they don't give me back my money! I'm so angry! I feel they are stealing from me! I called a number they gave me and explained the same thing. They also say they will only give me back one month or I can go and look for a lawyer! It's not about $10. It's about that it's not correct that they charged me when they are the one that decided to close the facility and not even bother to let me know before charging me.

Of course after I was done, I went back to get my license and talk to the guy. He was trying to get me to join. He was like “Oh, you know earlier when I told you about the $25 fee and $29.99 to join? We couldn't do that anymore. But if you join today, my boss said we can give it to you.” I told him I was only interested in trying it out for 2 weeks, and he was like “What 2 weeks?” I was like “The VIP thing said for two weeks.“ He was like “No, we don't do that.” **! If you don't do that, then what the ** is this crap? Each VIP you designate will enjoy a complimentary 2-week pass to work out at your club whenever they like. No guest pass or $15 guest fee necessary! Their name will be on your VIP list. I got this from your LA fitness website, so don't give me that **.

I read all this stuff before I went in, and I don't like to be lied to. He was like “Why can't you join now?” Well, I'm not going to join now when I still have membership elsewhere. He was like “Who cares?” I care dude. That's money coming out of my pocket to pay you and pay the other gym. I guess he knew he was getting nowhere with me, so he was like “I'll send you a 1-week pass to try out the gym.” Forget your dumb pass. I will never ever go back to your gym ever. Of course the guy called me today, but I just hung up because I don't need him harassing me to join. I like to go to a gym where I can try it out, and if I don't want to join, I’m not harassed to join.

LA Fitness said if I could confirm with Urban Active that I have used these guest privileges these past two years, that they would renew this part of the contract with the same cost of $100. As LA Fitness now owns this company, I am unable to obtain contact information for the prior office of Urban Active in order to obtain proof from their sign in sheets that I used these guest privileges this past year, and indeed it was a two year guest privilege. I cannot prove my case without records from the previous owners. Seems unfair.

Adversely LA's level of compensation for its trainers is pathetic. The net result is trainers who are incredibly not knowledgeable, inexperienced, and unprofessional. The old adage comes to mind, when you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Personal training is quite expensive. Do LA members get lower priced PT contracts because of the poor quality of their trainers? It seems that the only thing LA is really concerned about is getting members pressured into signing incredibly expensive iron-clad contracts with no way out. Another important reason people were members of Lifestyles was because they offered Les Mills Group Fitness programs at all their facilities.

When comparing Group Fitness, industry insiders consider Les Mills programs the benchmark in quality. Les Mills is a company whose commitment to excellence is unparalleled, music and techniques are always cutting edge, challenging yet safe. Les Mills programs are fun, motivating and most importantly, get results! This quality does not happen without a price; however, Les Mills charges a pretty hefty fee in order for a fitness company to offer its programs. Companies who choose to pay the premium in order to offer Les Mills programs demonstrate a real commitment to provide quality training options for their members.

It's apparent that LA doesn't give a hoot about its members; the company has money coming out of its ears yet choose to offer their own goofy versions of step, kick boxing, spinning, floor aerobics, yoga, etc. LA's home grown fitness programs are incredibly weak, do not motivate, and are a complete bore. Comparing Les Mills Body Step class to LA's Step and Abs class is like comparing dining at one of those fancy Brazilian steak houses to eating a cheese sandwich at home by yourself!

LA Fitness is the largest fitness company in the US. Their buildings are some of the most beautiful facilities around. Fitness nuts along with everyday Joes would love to workout in these beautiful buildings but sadly the quality isn't inside. LA is the epitome of the phrase all show and no go. If you are considering joining LA Fitness, I encourage you to please do your homework. Try Googling complaints about LA Fitness - you will be surprised at what you see. If you have already joined, I don't recommend googling anything about LA. What you see will likely ruin your day. There are plenty of other options out there; please don't support a business that doesn't care about the quality of products and services they offer, or for the people who pay for them. Buyers beware.

As a result of this, we are unable to use the LA Fitness club closest to us and must travel quite a distance to access a non-signature club. I wonder how long it will be before LA Fitness upgrades (e.g., makes towels available to members) all of its clubs to "signature" status. This will allow them to change the game in midstream and make the transferred memberships valueless. Consumers can do nothing about it but complain unless a class action suit is in the making, and I will certainly join it. Don't buy any memberships at LA Fitness without considering the consequences.

I attempted to cancel my personal training in August, but no club member ever got back to me. Anytime they called me, it was for more selling. I then got frustrated and sent a letter. Once again, no cancellation went through & nobody contacted me for help. So I wrote another letter, this time sending both to my local gym and the main office in CA. I received a letter confirming my cancellation; however, I continue to see $160 being taken out of my account that I do not authorize for personal training I do not receive. I have tried talking to customer service over and over. They say they'll call me back and never do. They say I'm on a contract, but Tim from Springfield, MA said I was not on a contract, which is why I paid over $200 just for a start-up fee.

I am beyond frustrated and even broke down in tears on the phone. I don't have time due to medical appointments and job hunting nor money to pay such a selfish and horrible customer service company.

There are far too many people in the place; you can never complete your workout routine as a result. The employees are pompous, rude, and pretentious; however, they get paid next to nothing, so I can't blame them. It was impossible to request a refund (I had prepaid a year at Bally) and cancel my unwanted LA Fitness membership. So I filed a complaint with my credit card, and they refunded the money I had paid to Bally.

Good riddance to a hellhole of a place. It's the worst of my life, and gyms are notorious, as it is. The two owners of LA Fitness, both billionaires, scoop into a town, force most other gyms out of business, and their greed is palpable. Forewarning you people, if you want to join up with such a place. Sad commentary on what's become of the corporate climate in this country.

Strangely, about a few weeks later in July, I get another call from LA Fitness. Apparently, Marlon, Director Counselor, called me and said he needed for me to come in and sign something. Needless to say, I was confused by his request since I had already signed something. When I got there, they quickly told me there was a change in price but that my monthly charge would actually decrease by about another $14 a month. In other words, I needed to sign a new contract to get the lower discounted rate. He quickly pulled out a contract and I signed it. But when I asked him to point out in the contract where it actually shows the rate as being lower than what I was currently paying, he could not seem to find it and looked a bit lost. He said, "Oh, maybe I did not print the right one." I then ripped it up and said, "Okay, when you find the right one, call me back so that I can re-sign under the lower rate."

August 2012 - by this time, I had about four sessions with Alex and he pretty much told me that he was now a master trainer and that his rate was increasing. I would only need to pay an extra $5 per session (which equates to an extra $50 per month). I politely told Alex I would talk to Shane. Obviously, I was confused about his story because when I initially signed up under Shaun, I was told that Alex was a master trainer and that I would be working with the best.

After speaking with Shane **, he pretty much said the same thing Alex had said. He explained that Alex was now a master trainer and that I would have to pay an extra $50 a month to stay with Alex. Shane also said that for my banked sessions, I would have to pay the difference. Bank sessions? What was that? Shane explained that I too would then have to pay for the past four sessions an extra $5 per session or another $20 for the past sessions.

Needless to say, I was infuriated with this request. I saw it nothing more than a bait and switch tactic and told him so. Shane feigned ignorance and said he didn't even understand what that meant. Really, Shane? Read this: Bait-and-switch is a form of fraud, most commonly used in retail sales but also applicable to other contexts. First, customers are "baited" by advertising for a product or service at a low price; second, the customers discover that the advertised good is not available and are "switched" to a costlier product.

LA fitness sells me on a lower discounted training session package of 10 (30 minute) sessions per month at $224.00 (regular price would have been around $400). And now, he tells me that if I wish to stay with my trainer, I would have to pay an extra $50 per month which would come to about $275 a month. I see LA Fitness and management as nothing more than street hustlers, bullying the customer.

After I declined, Shane's whole demeanor changed. He began to ask several insulting questions such as, "does your husband make all of the decisions for you, don't you have your own finances and you can't make your own decisions," in a very condescending voice and attitude. I thought he was going to say, "I'm joking" or "I'm playing," but he continued with several more insulting statements such as, "it's very obvious that you need to work out because you are completely out of shape." Again, I informed him that I was not in the market for personal training now, perhaps in the future. He then got out of his seat threw his pen down hard, and said, "You're obviously not serious about your health or your well-being so you can get out now!" in a very threatening tone.

I was very taken aback by the whole experience and said, "Are you seriously talking to me like that and being that rude?" He responded by saying, "You heard me. Bye, leave." My 6-year old daughter was beside me and witnessed the whole thing. I felt threatened and harassed and I was also very embarrassed for my daughter to have witnessed all of this. I grabbed my daughter and left. I notified my husband of the situation when I got home and he said several of his workout friends (who are also members of Bolingbrook LA Fitness) had already called him and informed him what they had witnessed, not aware that I was his wife.

I am still interested in this facility because of the location. However, I don't want to be associated with any company if this is a common practice and/or this is swept under the rug, as a one-time experience because I do understand that it's not from other members. I also don't want to feel harassed, degraded or insulted when I come to this facility nor should any other female or member.

I spoke with Pat, the office manager, and he offered me 2 guest passes. I informed him that I wasn't interested in the 2 passes and after 5 minutes of going back and forth with him, I had to ask him for an apology. I felt that the purpose of the returned call was to defend the associate. He was very unsympathetic and insensitive to my experience. I asked him for the owner's name or his boss' name and he would not relinquish any of that information, and said that he represents corporate.

After talking to many people on the phone, they called me a liar and Alicia called my husband a **. What kind of professionalism is this? So, we decided to stand out in front of their business locations, hand out fliers to what they do to disabled people. The trainer is too much in love with himself to give any type of training to help anyone. He actually tried to have me talk dirty to him - he’s a disgusting ex-wannabe pro basketball player, who didn't make it and holds that bitterness against others in the gym. No one cares about the scam, so I am figuring this is how they do business! No honesty here! Save your money and time. No one cares to help you out either!

Again, at no time did the representative indicate I would be billed a monthly charge. Also, the electronic screen they have you sign is very small and it only shows a signature line. This means you have to ask the rep signing you up for services what it is you are signing for. There is nothing on the little screen they have you sign that tells you it is a finance agreement (I never would have signed this). Also, the electronic copy of the Agreement itself does not even tell you that it is a finance agreement. Instead, the title states Personal Training Agreement and Release of Liability, and it is not until you look through it that you see it is a finance agreement. Again, you don't know you've signed a finance agreement until it is emailed to you. To add insult to injury, even though there's a note of a 10-day cancellation in the PDF sent to you (if you can find it in the small print), what good does this do you when you don't even realize you are signing a finance agreement in the first place?

Last, if you want to get out of the Agreement, you have to pay 50% of the value of the Agreement. So, a minimum of over $1,000 to get out of the agreement, and what do you get in return? Do you at least get the value of the remainder of the training sessions? One would think they could at least give you that. It's possible you may later find the sessions to be of value to you, and you might choose to continue them. However, as this system is currently rigged, you're upset at what one might consider to be deceptive practices, and unlikely to see it as a positive experience. In today's world, one can go almost anywhere to acquire services. As is the case for conveniences, gym membership for most may not be a necessity, but rather a convenience for which one may be willing to pay. Folks will pay this fee if the gym is convenient to get to, and if they have good feelings about the facility.

When so many people have the opportunity to share their experiences, it seems to me, if you are a business, even if you sign one or 10 people up using these practices, would you not be concerned at the 10, 20, or 100 potential customers lost? It seems to me that in today's world, customer service should be a strong "leg" of every business model. I, like most people, read online reviews to help me make decisions about how and where to spend my time and dollars. I am sad that I did not see these reviews prior to my experience, and even sadder to have to add my voice to the growing cacophony of unfavorable reviews. I will follow up with results of a resolution (if and) when obtained.

Last night, my fiance and I went to work out for the first time and we hated it. The equipment was old, the carpet a mess, and it had that "meat market" feeling. We told the front desk person it wasn't for us and would like our money back. She referred us to the guy who sold us the membership who referred us to a customer service number. Since it was more than three days (it was a week) since we'd signed our contract, it was "out of his hands." My fiance spoke with the customer service office today, and what he got was an arrogant, uncaring response. "The letter of the law says" we gave them $350, and they will not give us one dime back. Despite that, we are cancelling our membership. We don't want to be associated, in any way, with a company that does business like this. I'm truly surprised they're still in business. Despicable.

I asked if a doctor's note was needed as proof and he advised that it wasn't needed and that my account will no longer be charged. But while I was in the hospital recovering from surgery, my account got charged a little over $1,000 for services I never used. Now when I inquired about restarting my gym membership, they are saying that the sessions were never cancelled and that I still owe that money even though I never received one session. I just need to get this resolved and would like to get my gym membership back on track.

Every time I make observations, nothing is down. ** and ** do not have knowledge of customer service. In particular, ** is the worst person to talk about anything, bad person. I am disgusted with the lack of professionalism when it comes to how issues are dealt with by current management. My recommendation is to replace GM ** and ** from the Chula Vista, East Lake Branch. Many other members who complain and I were made to think our common concerns were going to be investigated and we would be updated. The lack of professionalism and seriousness from your business is astounding.

Today, 7/27, I was finally able to get a corporate number that did work. I spoke to a representative named "Paul," who flat out called me a liar even though I had names, dates, and what club each person worked at that I had spoken to and on top of that my cell phone records. After I informed Paul of this, he said he would connect me to his manager. I was then on hold and ultimately re-routed to a new representative, who was not a manager. I had to explain my frustration yet again. This new representative Jenna would not allow me to explain the situation but rather preferred to cut me off mid-sentence. After 15 minutes of going back and forth, Jenna agreed to refund 4 months of charges, but not one month more. I had moved to Northern California in January and was 7 months pregnant. I was a good 10 hours from a club, yet she claimed that there was activity. Impossible! I asked for proof, and she said that until I contact them directly, I would continue to be billed.

For the last 6 months, I have been trying to do this! I was sent an email confirmation that stated that my membership had been cancelled and that I would be billed again for the next 30 days (That is not what she had told me at all; she stated all billing was to end right then.) and if I need to cancel my membership, to contact my local gym!

The two months are up and on the 26th, I was hit with another withdrawal. I have tried working with them and all they say is that they are not in breach of contract and all they are obligated to do is try to fix the problem next time. There is only one more month of these withdrawals and all they say is "Sorry, better luck next time." I have notified my bank to stop all transactions from them. I should also say that they are billing me $240 each month. This is the worst business practice I have ever seen. Do not sign the personal training contract. The first few sessions are a waste of time. You will get better results hiring your own trainer.

Now they have charged me a total of $149 initiation fee plus 1st month’s session of $70. All I wanted was to get the Personal Trainer Program cancelled and a refund of the $219 they charged me. I am out of the $219 which I couldn't afford. I only work like 2 to 3 days a week and make minimum wage of $48 an hour. I really feel the PT staff who had attended me that day singled me out and somehow swindled me into getting into one of their personal trainers sessions. I've always had a good relationship with LA fitness even when they had bought out Bally's Fitness which I was originally with when they took over. Because of this deception on their part, they have put me in dire financial difficulties

Well, this was not the case tonight. ** was working the front desk and informed me that my key was not activated. I explained that I know it isn't but ** stated that I could visit without any issues. He said, "Well, you are not in the system and I can't let you in." He said he was only doing his job. However, the funny thing is he was there when I signed the contract but I'm sure he sees so many people that it's hard to recognize everyone at a later date.

So, I am extremely disappointed that I was promised something that was not true. Workout for me is a lifetime commitment. I even cancelled my membership at my old gym of over 7 years because, again, I was told I could access this gym without any issues until my membership kicks in. The salesperson was very adamant that everything would be fine. My contract was written up and I gave him my credit card information to process everything. ** stated that nothing is noted on my account. I do not want to join a gym that does not uphold their end of the bargain. I feel it was a ploy to get me to sign the contract. At this point, I am looking forward to terminating the contract altogether and plan to join my old gym again. At least, there, I know they will uphold the established agreement.

All told, they took $1,980.00 from my account and I have received no services or have been in the gym to work out. When I was in the bank trying to get this all figured out, the gentleman told me that there was another man in the bank right before me complaining of the same thing. I would like them to be investigated, because I feel that this is a fraudulent practice. I know there are other people out there who need to be aware of their practices. I live paycheck to paycheck and cannot afford to be paying someone $2,000 for no reason. I have filed a complaint with the attorney-general and the BBB, and I have filed a civil suit. They are terrible to deal with. I will tell everyone I know not to join. They do not deserve to be in business.

Due to my busy schedule, I never attended the LA Fitness gym; and based on how I've seen how they construct business, I wasn't very impressed. So I decided to cancel my membership. I had to call the branch where I signed up at, and they told me that I had to come in and fill out paperwork to cancel. I recently moved and told them that I no longer live near that gym and it was not convenient for me to drive out there just to cancel the membership. I explained that I did not ask to be an LA Fitness member and I never signed any contract agreeing to any of LA Fitness' terms or conditions. I also told them that I believed they were making this difficult for me to cancel my membership, so that I would keep paying the fees.

In this day and age, it is not difficult to cancel memberships over the phone or via emails - there are several security questions in place that can make it legit. Not only that, I find it ridiculous that I have to drive over an hour to just cancel a membership with LA Fitness that I have never used. I am waiting to hear back from the manager on Monday. The facts that I never signed any contract with LA Fitness, I wasn't notified until several months later of the takeover, the fees went up, I was now limited to one gym, and I can't even cancel my membership in an easy manner mean bad business and an exploitation of their customers.

My son went back in to explain that my wife, who is on her death bed after fighting cancer for a year, that I have been her primary caregiver during that time. His comment, "We are not a charity." It was explained that no one was asking for charity, just a bit of compassion. It's not an everyday occurrence that someone gets overstressed and needs to be allowed to release a terrible amount of tension and emotion at your facility. The kid could have cared if any of us cancelled. If this is your business practices, I do want to cancel.

I am not a vindictive or malicious person, but in the case of your representative, I am going to talk to friends and family and try to spread the word about the most unprofessional staff members I have ever dealt with. It is also my intention to talk to my friends and family members in fire and law enforcement to withdraw from you organization. I will be a widower in less than 30 hours and I will certainly dedicate my pent up anger and passion of losing my mate of nearly 50 years to hurting La Fitness' business. Your company is a service-oriented organization, but it seems that you forget that. If you think you want to sue me, please be my guest.

I asked if I could please speak to someone else, but they said none of the other people at the gym could handle my problem. The other manager cut her lunch break short (briefly) to tell me that my doctor's note wasn't good enough and everything the training manager had told me the prior day about the MD note and freezing the account was false and I was forced into paying $1400 in a buy-out to avoid what would have been double that $2000 in damages if I didn't. I realize I signed the year-long contract, but no one ever told me verbally that I wouldn't be able to get out of it. It's confusing because the gym membership is month-to-month. If you're no longer a member, I don't understand how you can be expected to incur $312 fees per month in personal training costs.

As I headed back to her to hand the pass, she screamed again, "I don't understand why this has to be so ** difficult." I handed her the pass again and said, "I don't understand either." She decided to drop it again and said, "Oh, you'll see when your account gets revoked!" I ignored her and joined the class. Class was fine, instructor was great. I was leaving the gym and she was now at the front desk. As I walked by, she yelled out to me again, "What's with all the attitude?" Flustered, I responded, "My attitude?" She responded by telling me that she's suspending my account and to get out! I told her not to speak to me that way. I pay a monthly fee to use the facility. She said, "Not anymore, get out or I'll call the cops."

Stunned, I said, "go ahead." The police came and questioned both of us. I told the police the following, "I pay money to use the facility, not to be spoken to in a harassing, obnoxious, rude manner." The police agreed and told me to follow up with the executive leadership of the company. They have received numerous complaints about the staff members in this particular location. I have no doubt that they are frustrated with the management team in this particular location.

I have spoken to LA Fitness Headquarters, who informed me today that my membership has been revoked. They did not ask me what happened. They claimed they had a witness, which was an LA Fitness staff member sitting next to the lady at the front desk. This is true, but really, the witness is an LA Fitness staff member? Headquarters said that I cursed at the staff member. I did not curse. Also, I have witnesses in the class when she yelled at me in front of everyone. I know a few have even called to complain to Headquarters.

I realize every story has two sides. LA Fitness doesn't care for my side. Do you, as private owners of the company care about customer service? I don't mind giving my money to another gym. NYSC is right up the block, but the way I was treated was unfair and downright wrong. At the very least, LA Fitness should ensure that staff are kind and courteous at all times with members. Everyone is entitled to a bad day, but this is embarrassing. I've never been spoken to like this in my entire life. Please let me know what I need to do to get this in front of the right people.

I would not recommend that anyone join this club as its ownership/management is not trustworthy. Canceling your membership is nearly impossible. Businesses like LA Fitness will eventually not survive. Most of the people at my club in Fort Lauderdale are unhappy and looking elsewhere. Any business that has pages and pages of unhappy customers commenting on the internet is doomed to fail. Before joining a gym, look on the internet for common complaints and ask to have extra terms to the contract that you sign.

I met with the personal training manager ** and I explained my level of commitment and my excitement that I was finally going to do this for myself. He told me that there are 2 specific trainers that he felt would be a good match for me. When I asked why there would be 2 as I have never worked with more than 1 trainer at a time, he told me that there is no commitment to a single trainer. I expressed my concern about this because I didn't think that trading off people would be the best course for my lofty goals and I was assured that they would 'work it out'.

I had my initial session with ** because he wanted to get me started right away. Then he set me up with a guy named **. I like ** very much. He had great energy and definitely had the knowledge to train me properly. However, after a few sporadic sessions with **, it became clear that his schedule was completely incompatible with mine. I expressed my concern about my lack of progress with ** due to his unavailability, so he sent me off to **.

** was a nice enough guy, seemed like he was qualified but he was very mellow, not at all the energy that I needed to feel motivated. Often, when I was doing some load bearing exercises, he would be staring off into the club, speaking to someone or looking at his phone. Thankfully, I know about good form, but there were certainly quite a few times where I felt shaky and nervous that my body was going to give out. ** expressed no concern for my safety and when I placed the weights back on the floor, he said 'great job'. What? I thought I was going to drop a weight on my face! Needless to say, ** did not work out for me and add on that, he was late for several of our sessions, I was done.

I went online to book a session with ** having to accept that I may only be able to train with him once a week and realizing that my lifetime goal would never be filled with this type of schedule. I had been instructed to book an appointment when the trainer has open time via his online daily sheet. He had a time open that worked for me so I booked it. I showed up at the gym and ** is training another person who he told me he has been training in that time slot for the last 3 years! Needless to say, I was really angry.

So, I went back to try to figured something out with **. As it turned out, ** no longer works for LA Fitness, shocking. So I sat with **. I explained to ** that I have already wasted 6 weeks of my goal reaching trying to find someone that I can work consistently with. He asked me who ** set me up with and when I told him that it was ** and **, I could not believe his reaction. He said, 'Well, he set you up with his friends'. I was beside myself. I had spent the better part of an hour and several hundred dollars explaining and pouring my heart out to ** and he never had my best interest at heart. Let me repeat that. I explained to him that this was a lifelong goal and he set me up with his friends! I was furious!

** told me that he wanted to work with me and that in fact, he was going to try to get me a partial refund for the time that I had wasted. He told me to pick a day and time and that he would train me personally. I booked and confirmed with him. I showed up for my session and there's no **. I waited for 20 minutes and I asked people at the gym if they had heard from him. No show! I left the gym in tears now knowing that my dream would once again have to be put on hold. ** sent me a text hours later apologizing that he had a family emergency and didn't have his phone with him. He asked that I give him another chance but I was more than done.

When I saw him in the club a few days later, I told him that I just wanted to cancel my contract and that they had enough chances. I did not want to waste another moment of my time and emotion on these people who truly cared nothing about my actual goals. He said verbatim, "I understand, I'll take care of it." I asked if he could still get me a partial refund for the time I hadn't used and he said that he would 'try his best'.

Needless to say, a few weeks go by and I am checking my bank statement, I had been charged $850! Two months more of training that their representative told me they were going to address. I spoke to the club manager, a true moron, named **, who simply stood behind the contract that I signed stating that I knew that I wouldn't work with the same people. I told him that was not what your representative of your organization told me. I was told that they would work around my schedule. Even the person that I was going to give another chance to failed miserably. I wasn't asking out of the contract for any other reason than I showed up. I was ready to work out, I was committed. But your staff failed to uphold their part of the contract by actually providing the service that I paid for. I explained that I was an advanced exerciser and that there was never a time that I wasn't ready to fulfill my end. He just kept repeating that you signed, therefore you owe. There's no early cancellation for training sessions and they did in fact provide the sessions for me.

I called my credit card company and disputed the charges. When I got the letter from Citibank, it had LA Fitness' response simply was to put arrows pointing to my initials where I 'okay-ed' all of these conditions. So, they just told me that I had to pay because I signed. I wasn't going to let this go for $850! I let Citibank know that I was going to pursue having the charges reversed. I called their customer service line and proceeded to explain to their rep about my utter disappointment with the service that I hadn't received, in addition to being lied to by their employee. After listening to my story, the rep said, "I'm sorry. I understand that you're frustrated but there's nothing I can do, you signed the contract."

I explained that I was deceived by their employee before I even signed the contract. And that I was fully prepared to uphold my end and their company did not fulfill theirs. He stated that the sessions are still available to me, therefore, they did indeed fulfill their end. I realized that I was getting nowhere so I asked who the manager was. He told me a woman with the last name of ** would call me. After almost 1 hour on the phone with this guy, I was no closer to solving this problem. I also never received a call from Ms. **.

I called the service line a few days later and the person on the phone asked me to explain my story as there was no additional information in my account. I was amazed how the person that spent an hour talking to did not leave any notes in the computer. I said to this person that all I want is the email or fax # for Ms. **. He told me that he cannot give me that information and kept insisting that he wanted to know the reason for my call. In a tirade, I explained to him what was happening and that my $850 was at stake, and all I wanted from him was the contact info for the next highest manager. He also told me that Ms. ** would be reaching out to me, that was almost 3 weeks ago.

Today, in my mail, I received the notice from my bank that they have to reverse the credit that they gave me because I 'signed the contract'. I was fuming! I haven't even stepped foot in that gym since February and as you can imagine, my goals are nowhere near coming to fruition. I feel completely and emotionally drained and feeling so sad that I spent 2 months not doing anything to fulfill my dream than chase after trainers. I know that I signed a contract, but that contract doesn't just include the number of training sessions. It included LA Fitness' obligation to give me the proper sessions that I requested. I am now $850 out of pocket, not in the body I hoped to have by this time and completely sickened by the lack of effort, compassion, and sense of 'customer service' that I have had to endure.

LA fitness should be ashamed of themselves for leaving people out to dry with such an emotional and psychological toll. This is not what a fitness lifestyle company should do to people who are entrusting their bodies and minds to them!

On Saturday, I again talked to the people in enrollment and the acting manager said he could not issue the pass due to the fact that my wife only has Florida ID. We have used my California ID in all the other states as well as my wife's Florida ID. He said his computer only accepts California ID and that we had to live within 20 miles of our ID to be able to use the club services. I have decided to cancel my membership and I want a full refund on the money we gave as first and last membership fees. I am sincerely looking into the idea of talking to an attorney about discrimination, lack of service and possible breach of contract in a nationwide company.

He left me in the lobby of LA Fitness to speak with the general manager and I could hear him telling the general manager about how he told me all of this and how he was right and I was wrong. I walked over to their desk thinking they were going to take care of things or move forward with the issue but no, we basically argued over what he told me and what I heard from him on Saturday. The conversation then moved over to cancellation and I was handed a form and told they weren't going to assist me further and calling the police. Point is, they called the police, cancelled my membership and told me that I wouldn't be receiving a refund of any amounts paid on my account which consisted of first and last month's membership fees of approximately $60-65.00 because they claim that I breached my contract by arguing with JB in front of other patrons.

Ideally, the situation would have gone down like this: "Hey Melissa, sorry for this misunderstanding. Let's get you signed up real quick so you can hit that workout tonight. I can take care of the information for you while you hustle in the gym." To be honest, that's all I was looking for. Someone to take care of the problem and let me go workout. Instead, I was called a liar by JB, store manager (male) and the receptionist (male).

I complained to the Personal Training Director and he said he was short staffed and did not have a trainer for me and he agreed with me to cancel the contract. I contacted corporate and after many unturned calls, they eventually stated they would calculate how many sessions I had and would charge me accordingly. I thought this was bad business since the ink had barely dried on the contract. As I was waiting to hear back, they charged me for another month of training, which of course I never received. I called corporate and was told that a trainer was now available. I stated it had been three weeks and not only was it unacceptable to expect me to wait three weeks, but that no one had called me. I was told that I should have called the club, but I asked why should I since the last conversation I had with the director was that there were no sessions available.

After numerous requests that the regional manager call me, he eventually called. However, he over spoke and was by far the rudest representative of club I had dealt with. I asked for a face to face as he had mistakenly calculated the number of sessions I had received. I insisted he pick the date and time, but he also failed to show up for our meeting. He didn't have the personal responsibility or professionalism to even call to say he was late. Two days later, he called and I was so frustrated with this matter that I just hung up on him. He called back and I told him not to call me again after he stated my account was going to collection.

I had informed him, in writing, that I had disputed the charges on my credit card. In addition to the letter I sent to him, I also sent copies to the top three executives in LA Fitness, Office of Consumer Affairs - Virginia, ABC 7 News, and my credit card. I consulted with an attorney and was advised the club breached the contract, not me, and that they don't get to wait indefinitely to provide a trainer. I have decided to pursue a small claims action against them. I'm preparing for my second deployment to Afghanistan and wanted to be in top shape and had hoped using a personal trainer would facilitate my training. LA Fitness is extremely unprofessional and their lack of timely communication to resolve this issue is deplorable.

As I was running on the treadmill, I noticed him waving four different members in without checking them in the system. Does anyone have a corporate number to LA Fitness so I can contact someone in the head office? I really want resolution, it is hard not to feel discriminated against.

Last Saturday, when I handed my gym key card to the clerk, she was yelling out in such rude manner, "You have to pay $5 or pay the upgrade if you want to use the facilities." She was so nasty and clearly shouted out in front of all the people and staff that it was not her fault if I don't have the money to pay. This is unacceptable. Instead of pulling me to the side and explaining the situation, she completely embarrassed me in front of everybody. She never apologized to me not even once. Next Monday, I called the manager to complain about it. Basically, the same nasty and mean attitude. They should be fired for the lack of customer service and respect for a client. They get paid because of us, and they should work in a DMV. I felt very discriminated by these people.

So when I finally decided to bring my kiddies with me, the OM (as she calls herself) by the name of ** completely humiliated me and my kids. It all came about when my kids and I walked in to the gym and I handed my gym key card to **. ** then asked for the Kids Klub (without eye contact) key card. I handed over my card the sales team gave me for the Kids Klub and she (**) went insane. She yelled out in such rude manner, "Who would give out 6 months of free Kids Klub? Whoever did this is in major trouble. I don’t believe this. This is unbelievable. This is unacceptable." Instead of ** pulling me to the side and explaining the situation, she completely embarrassed me. As of right now, I am looking into cancelling my membership and taking my business elsewhere. Never in my life have I ever felt so degraded.

Are you kidding me, LA Fitness? What in the ** kind of selling is that? It was derogatory and rude. After she told him, "No, I will not give you my credit card and now I really don't want to join," he insisted she go try out the gym. But as she was trying to work with the equipment, he kept on coming by and harassing us, telling her to join and to give up the credit card and mentioned again that she is going to get fat. I went to the manager and he was completely ignoring me as I was trying to tell him my complaint. I left furious. I cancelled my membership (which is another song and dance and from what I hear there is a class action suit because of the policies) and will never recommend this gym to anyone ever again. They are abusive, rude and sleazy.

Continuing on where Mr. ** finally walked away today - I had had enough of him, so I decided that I would take out my camera and act like I was taking his photo, solely to make him feel uncomfortable because he apparently just can’t stop. In the anxiousness of the moment, I told two trainers who I sometimes speak with that I had taken his photo. I said this because the grapevine in there is so small I was hoping that word would circulate and Mr. ** would finally leave me alone. He only does things like this when he sees that Herbert has gone home. He keeps his eyes open for things like that. I spoke with him the day he got back to work about being harassed by Mr. ** and several incidents have been reported.

The woman walked behind me saying my name and when I turned, she asked if I took her photo. I started to say no, but her voice began escalating as she was being rude. So I said very calmly, “Listen, this is really none of your business and has nothing to do with you.” I continued walking to the locker room and she started shouting at me, "You don't go in there, you don't go in there." It was embarrassing, really. Then the managers came in and asked what was going on and she jumped in and said, "She's taking pictures of me. I want her to get rid of them." I let them know that I didn't take any photos and Ryan told me to go ahead to the locker room. I don't trust him too well either. He was too lackadaisical about the whole thing the last time I had made a complaint about Mr. **.

There were women in there asking about what just happened and I didn't have a minute to change when a young female trainer walked in and said that Ryan (one of the acting managers) wanted to speak with me. I got my things together and sat down with both Ryan and the other manager. I asked him for information about the dates, times and complaint list that were made about Mr. ** and he said, "We can’t give you information on another member." I said I didn't ask for his information, but I do know that it’s my right to have documentation on the list of complaints that were made about Mr. **. He looked at me a bit surprised and continued to half way lie and distract from my question. He acted like he didn't know how to spell **, but when he got to his name, he said, "There's nothing here on him." I said, "What? You were supposed to document that the last time I complained! What's going on? Now, I really don't feel safe here!” He said, "Well, I've heard from two trainers that you took pictures of Mr. ** and that’s against club policy."

I let him know that photos weren't actually taken and that I was acting out so that Mr. ** might actually stop his nonsense. I offered to show him my photos and he rejected several times to look! He asked me to leave. I told him I didn't think it was right that he would do that and I feel like I may need a lawyer. And I saw that Mr. ** was talking to them after I had left to get the rest of my things from the locker room. He had a satisfied look on his face as he went back to exercise/woman watch. I said to Ryan, "Why is he still here and you're asking me to go home?" He said something that sounded like because he's not bothering anybody. It was muffled and said under his breath so I couldn't hear.

I was so angry I had to leave at that point. As I got home, I called a fellow trainer who's a friend of mine and asked her if she knew Herbert's number (meaning his cell phone number) so that I can tall him what happened. She didn't have it. But not knowing the complete story of what happened, she asked Ryan for Herb's number and Ryan - knowing Herb wouldn't want to be disturbed at home - gave her Herbert's home number. I called and understandably Herbert was upset that I had called his home number and I explained how sorry I was and that I thought it was his cell phone. I felt so stupid and completely out of luck. I know now that I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands and take this to the police. This is ridiculous and disgusting behavior both by Mr. **, that woman, and Ryan. I feel disrespected and at a loss. Mr. ** should be the one to have his membership revoked, not me.

After much debate, the individual literally told us in plain English to get out, threatened to call the cops on us and revoke our membership for life. Sorry to say, but LA Fitness has caused me deep distress especially after being a long term patron of this club and my family who loves going there. I am sure it is only this one individual that is tarnishing its reputation and demand a personal apology from the individual. If not, I will cancel my membership and hopefully everyone else who reads this will do so too. Also if I'm not allowed to play in that location, how come they charged me for having court reserve facility? The credit card payment info is attached at the bottom.

Upon further discussion, the individual threatened to cancel/revoke our membership. As my friend and I stormed out of there, we swore to cancel our membership anyway. It is sad because both my friend and I are long time patrons of the health club and this one individual has ruined it all. We got home and called LA Fitness’ headquarters and the club location where I actually obtained membership and they have promised to resolve the situation, but nothing as of yet. Honestly, I don't have any hope of resolution. Never ever become a member of LA Fitness. Trust me, you will regret it! By the way, the location where this incident took place is in Carmel West on Michigan 10574 Workout Way, Carmel, IN.

Philadelphia cops, however, appeared at the scene and advised the young man, a 6-foot 8-inch professional basketball player, how he could file a private criminal complaint against the manager. I gave a statement and called the corporate headquarters, asking for immediate action against the woman. Not once during the episode did she identify her self as a manager. She repeatedly refused to show me any identification when threatening to revoke my membership at the LA Fitness Center in the Andorra section of Philadelphia.

How did this all come about? The hot tub had been closed and barricaded for use the past four weeks as repairmen worked diligently to fix whatever problems they discovered. Today, the yellow tape surrounding the tub had been removed, and persons entered the tub for a good soaking. There was nary a sign anywhere cautioning bathers to keep out.

I had worked out on the treadmill 25 minutes and swam a half-mile over another 25-minute spree, when I slunk my body into the bubbling water with jet air shooting streams of pulsating pleasure onto my back, hip, and other sore spots. I had been soaking, paying no mind to the African-American male at the other side of the pool who was in deep conversation on what I took to be a business call.

No more than five to seven minutes had passed when a person I had never seen before approached the side of the tub and told me I had to leave. I had just begun to meditate and had yet to calm down from the nearly hour-long stress I had subjected my body to. It was an Asian woman who spoke to me. I didn't understand what she said. I thought she was one of the cleaning staff. This gym retains a lot of Hispanics for housekeeping, and I stupidly stereotyped her as a member of the gyms housekeeping staff.

She said there was no chlorine in the hot tub. So what, I thought. She said we could introduce germs into the water. Again, I thought, so what. I even played lawyer with her, telling her that I'd waive the right to bring any charges against the gym should I get a contagious disease from my fellow bather, who had to lift up the side of his headphones to make out what she was saying.

The tub is situated in a closed section of the gym next to two shower stalls. An Olympic-size swimming pool occupies the great bulk of the room, and it is difficult to hear because of the constant running of water and the echo sound each word creates when someone speaks. Then she threatened to call the police if I didn't get out of the pool. I heard that loud and clear and told her Id get out once she got my fellow bather out. Off she stormed, ordering him out, and grabbed the headphones when she claimed he ignored her, when in reality, he was still speaking to someone else. She yanked at the headset.

Now, there are certain things you simply don't do in the United States. Jim Croce, a Philadelphia-area singer who has since passed away, put it this way: You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit in the wind. You don't pull ... the mask ... of the ole Lone Ranger. And, you don't mess around with Jim. Well, here, you could put the name of most men wearing headphones and trying to relax after a hard workout at the gym. You don't mess around by yanking at an object that is an extension of the work-outer.

He yelled at her but never cursed. She told him to get the hell out of the tub, and at least one of the swimmers in the pool overheard this and reported it to the police. I'm sure she gave a different story to the authorities. I kind of felt sorry for her, because she handled the incident so badly and probably saw nothing wrong with using force, no matter how slight, to demand someone else's attention. You can't do that and expect cooperation with your management style.

The young man, who plays for an international team out of Venezuela, exchanged e-mails with me; and I agreed to assist in any action against the gym manager. He might file a private criminal complaint if he couldn't get restitution for the expensive headphones. I'd settle for a corporate manager to investigate this and ensure that nothing like this ever happened again. Hot tubs were made for relaxation, not consternation.

I explained to her I have paid 6 months since August to December and then started to pay in January under my new plan. So I have paid 2 months extra. She told me she would request the headquarters to give me the refund. She told me in person that "it will be taken care of”. 2 weeks later, when I check with her, she told me it is pending for approval. Another week passed, I asked her again and she told me it won't happen. She gave me the same reason she gave me 3 weeks ago. I really don't think she ever tried to get my refund for me at all. So I told her I would cancel my new membership, too. Overall, I have paid $150 for the first membership and $100 for the 2nd membership for a total usage of 6 months. And between December 14 to January 2, I couldn't use the gym because the old membership key was taken away and the new membership hasn't been activated. I really don't know if the franchise owner has any idea what is going on in the gym. With this kind of bad business ethic, I don't think the gym will last long. This is sad because we do want to have a nice gym in our area.

I am a member at the Brandon, Florida location of LA Fitness and have been stalked numerous amounts of times by two specific men. I have complained (depending on the situation) numerous times about both men but nothing has been done. Just tonight, I had a run in with one man, last name was **. He's acting in a passive aggressive nature by walking close by me, watching what I do--in an inappropriate way and just being creepy!

For example, as I was working on back strengthening exercises, he'd watch me as I bend forward (disgusted). I walked away and watched to see if he was gone. There was a trainer helping me out that day and I pointed Mr. ** out to him. When I thought Mr. ** was gone, I turned to my right and there he was, staring at me, sitting to my right side, now behind the trainer. I pointed this out to the trainer too.

Another instance is that since he watches me so closely, he knows my routine. I was on the Stairmaster (which is a new thing for him) and I left to get alcohol to clean the machine. I saw a bottle and didn't know whose it was. I moved it politely and began cleaning. Just then, I see him standing too close right behind me after I've already complained about him. Many other women have complained about this same man making them feel uncomfortable. And quite frankly, I may end up cancelling my membership as they have because I'm in fear of my safety. So much that I told one of the police officers who works out there the story. And before going to the women's locker room, I asked to be escorted there.

He approached me today because he heard me--as he was passing by deliberately too close--that he is my stalker. He said, "Young lady, I need to speak with you." I said (in a loud voice), "I'm not talking to you because you're a stalker. You know, I'm not comfortable with you and now, you're invading my space to talk to me? Go away!" He then proceeded to follow me. I turned and said, "You're following me again? And still talking to me? I have a problem with you."

I proceeded to the front desk and began telling the management what was happening, making sure to mention that he has harassed me in front of a trainer before and that this is the third time I've reported him. I feel unsafe to go through my daily routine because If he has gal enough to invade my personal space in such a disrespectful way, what's next? I have to bring my cell phone with me and take pictures of him if he gets too close!

Why should I be made to feel uncomfortable? What he's doing is against the law and is causing me great discomfort. I heard he was saying, "She better stop talking about it." I'd better? So now he's threatening me through another source? Please make this stop. He also told the management that he owns his own business (just so he could add value to his case). I just looked Mr. ** up in my Google search engine and couldn't find any businesses he owns. Please revoke his membership or I will need to leave the gym as other women have for the same reason. Thank you.

What Mastercard didn't know was that my contract was actually cancelled. Now, I have over $300 that they've taken out of my account in random charges none of which amount to what my training charge had been or even my gym membership has been. They even took out $5 for who knows what. I am beyond angry with LA Fitness at this point and I'm now in the process of closing down my bank account, which stinks because I actually liked my bank and they had absolutely nothing to do with LA Fitness' wrongdoing. They're crooks, plain and simple.

I had no tour of the facility, or review of the various machines. When I asked for a demo of equipment, he said read the description on the machine. I went back couple of weeks later, and talked to the desk, and asked for an "orientation" and tour, and they said what I had gotten was it. They don't demonstrate the equipment, unless I buy the trainer. I told them Healthtrax and other gyms do, but LA doesn't. I said I wanted to cancel my membership and go back to Healthtrax, and they said okay. Apparently, LA doesn't need my business. I should have listened to others who dropped them (including PTs)! Healthtrax is much better!

The lady manager threatened me if we workout again, I would be let go. I don't understand how she makes money trying to manipulate people into using their personal trainers. You pay money to workout and socialize with one another and this club takes it to a new level. They even questioned me about keeping a personal log for myself. I was told trainers use those, but as an adult that always changes up his exercises wants to keep track of his weight he last used, number of reps and sets. I am a physical education teacher so I know what I'm doing. My partner and I have not traded any money with one another. The LA Fitness location is: Spring 20127 Interstate 45 North Spring, TX 77388.

My main concern is that there is a health hazard as they always have a jacuzzi that is filthy, there is scum floating and a thick film of ** around the edge, the water is usually 4" - 6" low and instead of draining the jacuzzi scrubbing and filling with clean water twice a week, they just over chlorinate to the point that your eyes water just from standing 2 - 4 feet from the jacuzzi. Many of the shower drains don't flush and the dirty drain water pools and one has to stand in filthy water, the sauna light bulb has been out for weeks and the room is dirty, the lockers haven't been cleaned inside for many months, etc. Management doesn't care about any of this and is always dismissive, rude and derogatory to customers for bringing any of this to their attention. The manager just sits all day and is more interested in talking to girls and selling supplements out of the trunk of his car. This is a service based membership and the only thing not offered is good customer service. What kind of business?

By all means, I was with the club for 4 years, I know what I had before, and my friend is the witness. We went to this club together more than 20 times! So I asked if I can get this deal again, but he didn't give me direct answers. He's just saying that was not what I had. Then my friend said "well then, we'll go to 24-Hour Fitness". He said, "if you can't afford LA Fitness, then go to 24-Hour Fitness". We couldn't believe that was coming from your "friendly, professional, trained" staff! I replied, "it's not about I can afford it or not, I just want to know if I can get the same deal that I used to have". Jonny wasn't apologizing for what he just said, and said, "I can't give you the deal that you imagine you had". So we left the club feeling very insulted. I can't believe that how can LA fitness has someone like Alex, treat your previous member, and possibly new members in such a way! What kind of staff do you guys hire for such a nice location?

I'm sincerely asking your attention to do something about this matter. I feel like me and my friend will never go with LA Fitness again, and we'll tell all my friends how we were treated at your Arcadia club. This makes your business looks very bad. Fitness clubs require high quality trained professional staff, who are in contact with clients. We are just two young girls, with a simple request, and the result doesn't even matter at this point. If this is the kind of staff your club hires, you'll lose more business in the future. This is the worst experience I have ever had at any kind of business. Not even a small restaurant will treat their customers like this.

The next guy made all these big promises of how he was going to work with me to meet my goals but after he did not show up for three sessions, I was told that he was moved to another gym. Then guy number 4. I enjoyed this one, oh, but not for long. They fired him and never told me, put me back on schedule, returned my phone calls, but one thing for sure that $133 came out of my account without skipping a beat. I was angry because really from December 7 through the first week of February. I wrote a complaint letter to their corporate office and sent it certified another $7 or so. They received the letter on 2/23 signed by a G. ** at 11:02 am. No one ever called me at all. I called today 2/28/2012 because I was tired of playing with these clowns. A man answered the phone and asked for my phone number and pulled up my account and said, "What was your complaint?" and they never acknowledged the letter being received. I told him that I had sent in a letter and and told him who signed for it and he just pretended like that didn't matter. He listened to my complaints and he did apologize but that was it.

Canceling my contract was not an option. He said that he would contact the local manager in the Conyers facility to discuss it with him and he would personally call me back. I did get a call back in about 2 minutes. He may have still been on the other line. The call came from the local office. Now, I had been calling all month with no returned call. I spoke with the manager and he said, "Hey there, this is Daryl and I am called to put you back on the schedule for your personal training class," just as if I wasn't upset or as if there was no prior discussion of this matter. I rescheduled with him, after being assured that I was clearly in a contract that I was obligated to honor but clearly they can do what ever they want to and it's okay. I am going to sadly have to ride this one out, but **" on me once, but never again.

I used to attend the YMCA and I wish I would have stayed with them. I was never under any contract. It was month to month and the machines in that facility kept track of your process and told you what you needed to work on to meet your goals. You went in and filled out a profile stating your goals and weight. You were guided through this procedure with a personal trainer. Each time you came into the gym, you went to a central log in machine and it would give you your work out schedule for that day. I wish I would have stayed with that. The machine was a better personal trainer than the humans.

When I wouldn't budge, he told me that he would waive the $100 fee and I could still pay $30 a month. Again, I said no thank you because I wanted the price I saw online, so then he threw in a free once a month Kids Klub pass. He said that he didn't want to argue with me and he was trying not to be rude. I thought his attitude was extremely cocky and he acted like he didn't want to be there. My whole experience was very unprofessional. That might work on a 19 year old who doesn't know any better but that doesn't work on me. I came home and went online to make sure I wasn't seeing things when I saw that deal and I found the same offer, $0 initiation fee and $19.90 a month with it being deducted out of my account bi-weekly for $9.95. I was starting to sign up online to get the offer I had originally asked for but I was so turned off by my experience there that I decided not to join.

I've been going to this gym for the past 2 years. However, on this day, I went in at 6:00PM for an evening workout. I went to the women's locker room, placed my purse, sweater and jacket in one of their lockers and locked it with my personal lock. An hour and a half later, I walked in and my belongings were gone. I started looking in every locker in panic and realized that I was robbed! I immediately ran to the front desk and alerted the staff of the crime. I was astounded by their nonchalant reaction. The two young female employees had a very apathetic attitude, but accompanied me back to the locker room minutes later. There, we checked all the lockers, bathroom, sauna, pool area, everywhere and there was no sign of my items. I was left stranded with no purse, cell phone, car keys, everything was gone!

I immediately contacted my family to come pick me up and contacted my banks to cancel all my credit cards from the gym phones. By the time we went back to check the areas for my stolen items, it was closing time. I think any real good gym that strives on customer service and care would have remained behind with me until the police or family showed up. But no, 10 minutes after closing time, I was asked to leave. Are you serious? After these circumstances, you are asking me to leave? Are you freaking kidding me? Leave after I did everything right to prevent a crime like this from happening? I left a note behind with the gym to call me at home. I waited outside for my family to show up and called the sheriff's department after. The deputy did inform me that this location was in high alert for the massive amounts of car and gym burglaries they've experienced.

The following morning at 8:30AM, I received a phone call from the gym. They found my purse. I rushed over there and spoke to their sales manager. She gave me the purse, but all my valuable belongings were gone. The only thing that was in there were my car keys. I was told that the purse was found in the women's bathroom after I checked there thoroughly the night before. I'm starting to suspect this is an inside job. I have kept the officers apprised on this matter since. I am very disappointed and angry on how poorly the gym faculty has handled my case. They didn't even report it to their headquarters until 5 days later. The mere fact that they don't have any surveillance in their facility speaks volumes on how minimal they view their customers. Unlike LA Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness does have surveillance in their facilities and outside their parking lots. This in itself says a lot about their customer care.

I have been an LA Fitness member for over 8 years but as of today, I will be cancelling my membership. I advise the public to be aware, come together and demand security surveillance in the gyms operating hours to ensure that the safety and property of their loyal customers remains unscathed.

I was told that I had to double the price of my membership, or pay an additional fee with each visit, and pay an upgrade fee of $130. I believe that these are sales tactics to gain more premiums from people. This location is 5 minutes from my home, but I'm forced to drive 30 minutes to another location. There isn't a number to call, as each location seems to govern itself.

After I finished a cycling class, and returned to pick up my ID, Mike asked me if I intended to become a member that day. When I mentioned I wanted to try a Yoga class using my 3-day pass the next day, he informed me I shouldn't be using a 3-day pass as they are for people who have never been members. (That is not stated anywhere on the pass nor is it stated on your website). I told Mike this and he begin to argue with me. I told him I was not going to argue that I would just skip it. He then lectured me that the club is a private club, that it is not free and that I should sign up today as there is a special offer. I told him I did not want to be pressured, that I intended to make certain I would be happy with the club and that I wasn't concerned about missing out on the special offer as I had an email offer for the same price. This seemed to put Mike right over the edge. He yelled at me that he wasn't pressuring me and told me LA Fitness doesn't need my business. Clearly, if he wasn't going to sign me up right then, he didn't want me as member at all.

I guess I must have been messing up his sign-up percentage. Mike was officious, defensive, argumentative, disrespectful and high pressure. Too bad. The facility is near my home and is beautiful. The cycling equipment is great as was the group leader. I conduct customer sales and service workshops for corporations across the country and I recognize organizations who hire, train and incent sales and service staff to treat customers and prospects with respect. This club fails the test. In a city with many, many fitness facilities, service is the only differentiation. I am disappointed with LA Fitness... yet again.

Their gym sucks, the staff are arrogant and rude. The personal trainers are a joke. These people have been trained for one simple purpose: to extort money out of people. Their house of cards will tumble one day - it always happens when you are dishonest!

The freeze never went through. I spoke to about 8 different people all telling me that I owed them money for the sessions. I explained over and over again that I was pregnant and on bed rest and that I froze the membership. They were completely rude, obnoxious and just plain stupid. I finally spoke to someone who seemed to know what he was doing. He told me my freeze was taken care of. However, a few days ago I noticed a $400 charge on my CC for training sessions.

I had to go in person to my local gym where the manager proceeded to tell me that I was creating more work for him and that I did not freeze anything and that I did not speak to 8 different people but rather just two. I spent over an hour at the gym, when I should have been on bed rest, disputing these charges with him. I have never had a more frustrating experience at a gym ever. He agreed to refund me the money charged; however, it has been a few days and I have not seen the credit on my CC. I am in the process of trying to cancel my training sessions, which is apparently another headache. I will never again get personal training sessions from this gym and I am debating whether or not to just cancel my entire membership. They have the most horrible customer service and rude staff members.

Today, they really made me mad. The front desk told her I was waiting. For 30 minutes, I waited. Even one of the young men working with membership told her as well. I saw her looking over at me. Twice, she took calls on the phone. I hope that she will not be manager at their new office. Maybe because we are seniors. At the office in Century City, they are very nice and they never kept us waiting. My sister was a member for at least 30 years. My sister came in to renew, and it was past the renew date. I think Tiffney remembered her. So when I was in Minnesota, I knew she was upset so I purchased a membership for her and my cousin. Now Silver slippers will pay for the membership to 24 Hour Fitness through AARP so she and my cousin will join there with their friends. I come here in the winter, and get away for the winter weather. So I belong to LA Fitness in Minnesota. I needed to cancel the membership by the 23rd. I tried to cancel, and couldn’t online.

We contacted Bally's Office, and they are "washing their hands" saying they have nothing to do and we should contact LA Fitness. We exhausted our energy trying to contact LA Fitness. Apparently, it would be easier if we use the resources as members if we logged into their website. But they are taking our money to cover the membership. Neither our account number nor members' card numbers are recognized by their system. We have a copy of the certified letter we sent, and we have proof that the letter was received/delivered on December 12, 2011, at 3:20 PM.

After I sent in the paperwork to cancel, I was still be charged for the sessions. Left a message with the manager. Then some random person called me and said I owed money. Explained to the girl I wanted to cancel my membership and did it back in November. Then the manager got on the phone, explained that I signed a contract, and my sig was in the paperwork that it was for a year. I explained that the trainer that signed me up said I can cancel anytime.

The manager gave me 3 options: I can buy out my sessions for about $1000; I can continue the year out and pay $240.00 a month; or I can buy out my sessions at a later time but will have to pay 50%, which means three months from now I can continue to pay 240.00 a month and then pay another 500.00 to buy out. Well, I guess I made someone some money. I also asked the manager does this happen a lot. He said time to time. Hmmm. Maybe someone should do some better training.

LA Fitness makes it so impossible to cancel, no matter what you do. Here are the typical answers: we didn't get the information, it is not register you cancelled, your account is still open, I am not sure what happened.

I heard horror stories so I decided to spend the extra money and certified my mail in March 2011 since this was the second notice. I thought I was safe, I got the return receipt from Irvin, CA (does anybody work there)--sorry I need to stay on course here. Anyway, it is February 2012 and I get a collection notice stating I owe them money. Really because I am no longer a member, I no longer belong to you LA Fitness. I sent the required paperwork certified.

Based on these complaints, I decided to call and verified my status. You won't believe it, it was open! Shocker--not! So there was an option if I want to be contacted by an attorney--yes to the 100th power yes.

There was an overall experience choice on this blog and I wanted to add, strongly disgusted and dissatisfied.

First of all, a call giving me a heads up that my wallet had been turned in would have been nice, so I would have had the chance to pick it up before it was thrown into a safe with no key onsite. After explaining to the gentleman at the desk that I now had no way to buy food or gas for the whole weekend (and that I had a few carrots and some eggs in my refrigerator), he reluctantly called the manager, who reaffirmed the policy and refused to come in to open the safe.

So, I returned at about 9:15 on Monday morning only to be told that the manager went to the bank but "should be back in 30 minutes." I was not happy. Upon his return, I explained to the manager why this is such a terrible policy. He thought I should be grateful that it was returned. I tried to explain that, while I was appreciative of that, it made no sense to hold it hostage for an entire weekend and that they need to have a key onsite. He didn't understand my point and was outright rude, so I cancelled my membership on the spot.

scanning. I called the Ft lauderdale location to get a number and according to Stephan, Ft lauderdale GM, the deerfield beach GM already called to inform him of the incident and of course Stephan and his staff, Carl, were rude and hung up on me several times. Unbelievable. As an employee, I have witnessed their unprofessional behaviors towards clients. Now as a client, I have experienced their outrages attitudes and immoral behaviors. It's call false power and there are no consequences from Corporate for their bad behaviors and mistreatment of clients.

"Our time is valuable, so let them do this for us! " I sent the required form on December 2011, 3 months after, they were still charging me for my membership. It was pointless to cancel my debit card and then the miracle occurred! Thank God for the customer service. Jennifer ** solved my problem better than I thought. All she did was simply be a rude person who didn't let me finish my sentence plus she was not able to professionally explain why the problem happened in the first place. To confirm that she does not meet the requirements to be a customer service assistant, she puts me on hold without any notice and transfers me to the supervisor because she couldn't handle the conversation? Anyway, that was exactly what I wanted, my card was cancelled within 2 minutes, plus I was refunded for the last two months. That's what you call fast service, if you know what I mean.

Life went on and so did my classes. At the end of the semester, based on my slipping GPA, I decided that school had to come first and because my job schedule interfered with my night classes, I gave my notice at work during the holiday break.

On the night of Tue., Jan. 10, I went to work out with my friend Stephanie. I checked in at the desk at LA Fitness and explained to the guy running the desk that I could no longer afford the luxury of a personal trainer because I was unemployed and needed to see what could be done to cancel my personal trainer membership. This person told me (and Stephanie can attest to this) that all he would have to do was unfreeze my account in order to submit the cancellation, which he (supposedly) did while we were standing there. Then he handed me a single sheet of paper and told me that all I had to do was sign at the bottom and mail it in to LA Fitness corporate headquarters in Irvine, CA. Happy that everything was working out, we went to the treadmills and had a good workout.

Everything was working out? Not really. Little did I know that the Evil Empire of LA Fitness would soon invade my peace-loving world!

I mailed the one sheet document on Fri., Jan. 13. As far as I was concerned, I had fulfilled my end of the cancellation process as laid out by the LA Fitness employee. On Tue., Jan. 24, I checked the balance in my bank account and saw that $160 had been withdrawn by LA Fitness precisely the amount of the monthly personal training fee. I called the gym located at 109 Quarry Road, Downingtown, PA 19335 (the very same gym that I attended regularly and had spoken to the front desk attendant about canceling my personal training contract) and was transferred from the assistant manager to the general manager.

The general manager identified himself as Brian **. In fact, there is no way to know what his whole name is because even the website identifies him as simply Brian **. This soon became a common theme among LA Fitness employees, as you shall soon see.

When I told Brian ** of my situation and requested that the billing snafu be rectified, he proceeded to tell me point blank that he had no idea who told me that it was otherwise, but once you are in a personal training contract with LA Fitness there is no way to get out of it with the sole exception of buying out. The way he explained it to me, buying out entailed paying 50% of what was left on the contract 50% of a service that I would never receive which would come out to $640 for me. I let Brian ** know the description of the person that gave me the cancellation information and he told me that I was wrong because all of his employees know what the process is. I then informed Brian ** that maybe he had a training issue with his employees because it seemed to me that his employee, in fact, did not know what the process was and that one hand didn’t know what the other was doing over there at the Downingtown LA Fitness.

Brian** took this opportunity to tell me that he has fantastic training for his employees and seemed surprised when I did not agree with him. To get us out of this conversational rut, I reminded Brian ** that his employee gave me a specific set of instructions to cancel my personal training membership, which I followed explicitly, and when they did not follow through on what I was told was going to happen, I saw that as an egregious error on their behalf and I wanted to know what could be done to fix things. Brian ** once again told me that company policy was that no one gets out of LA Fitness contracts before the end of the term.

Admittedly, I was getting pretty heated at this point. First, I asked Brian ** if he could print out a copy of this policy, but then I amended my request to emailing it to me. This made more sense to me because (1) I was too mad to go down there at that moment; I was sure I was going to cause a scene if I did go down there, and (2) LA Fitness emailed me for appointments and specials, so this would be an easy request. Wrong again, stupid little customer! Brian ** cut me off midsentence and told me he had no access to my email address. This didn’t make much sense to me. They obviously had it from previous correspondence, and I reminded him so. To me, this was just another example of Brian’s total commitment to doing absolutely nothing to help me, his customer.

At this point, (no kidding) Brian ** took a tone that is most commonly found among tenth grade athletes inviting me to meet them at the bike rack after school for a fight and he said, “So come on down here and I’ll show you this in writing.” Got something to prove, do ya, Brian T? It really came across as challenging and threatening! I responded by telling Brian ** that I did not appreciate his tone and I felt like he was challenging me. I think he must have realized his misstep because he backed off slightly, yet still told me that he couldn’t do anything about my personal training membership but could cancel my gym membership.

Really?! Ok, if you are going to suggest it, then yes, please cancel my gym membership. Brian ** canceled it during our conversation. Do you know how I know? I got an immediate email saying that my gym membership had been canceled.

So, convinced that Brian’s lack of customer service abilities could not possibly suck any more than what he had already demonstrated, I asked for his manager’s name. Brian ** retorted with a snarky, “I am the manager,” to which I responded, “No, everyone answers to someone. I want to know your boss’s name.” After about five more minutes of refusing to give me any information regarding his boss, Brian ** finally told me that, “Her name is Brooke **, but she travels a lot and I’m not giving you her cell phone number.” Do you mean to tell me that this person who is in charge, supposedly, of several LA Fitness gyms in a market area doesn’t even have a desk phone? Apparently, that is exactly what he was inferring because he never gave me Brooke’s number and finally hung up on me.

At this point, I was incensed. Livid. ** off.

I did a search on the LA Fitness website to try to find information about the Downingtown gym chain of management and a phone number for the next rung on the ladder (think district manager). Of course, I didn’t find anything. So I conducted a Google search and finally had to settle for the corporate call center number.

I called the toll free number and Craig ** answered. I gave Craig ** all of the pertinent information, including the horrendous way I was treated by Brian ** and then I listened as Craig ** toed the company line and told me that there was no way to get out of a personal training contract with LA Fitness without buying out. Seriously?! I told Craig ** that even car loan companies work with people in times of financial change. Home mortgage companies work with people who find themselves in a change of financial circumstances. Do you really expect me to believe that LA ** Fitness couldn’t do the same? We really couldn’t come to some workable solution at all? Apparently that is exactly what he expected me to believe.

Now, at this point in my story, the absolute worst thing that could happen to me when caught in this kind of frustrating position happened: the tears of frustration started. It’s not something I can control all of the time and this was one of those unfortunate moments when the tear ducts were activated while I was in a state of complete and utter dissatisfaction. I’ll hand it to Craig **. He hung in there with me while I went on a short diatribe about how my house was being foreclosed on and now I was stuck with this gym membership that I could no longer afford and they had taken $160 out of my account that I was counting on being there when I needed it, as the guy at the front desk had assured me it would. Good ole Craig **, listened like a champ yet kept repeating the same spiel that I had now heard over and over again.

Recomposed, I asked Craig ** to give me the number for Brooke ** (Brian’s manager). He refused. Completely appalled that I was getting absolutely nowhere, I asked for the CEO’s name. And ** if Craig C. didn’t snigger at me. This set my frustration/outrage rocket into the stratosphere and I called him on it. He, of course, denied it and told me that all of their conversations were taped and anyone could listen to it and know he didn’t laugh.

Kid, don’t tell me about taped conversations. I was an air traffic controller. You don’t know anything about tape transcriptions. And even if there ever were one done, do you honestly think I would trust anything truthful about our conversation to be in there? Your company has lied about everything else. Your company has treated me like a flaming bag of dog crap on your front door. At this point, I insisted on having the CEO’s name (hey, its public information anyway) and he finally responded with Louis Welch and asked if there was anything else he could do for me. I asked for his manager’s name Mike **, who never intervened in this conversation and I asked for Brooke ** to receive my information and contact me regarding this nights events. Craig ** then informed me that he could see in my file a note from Brian ** to Brooke ** about tonight’s calls and I asked him again to indicate in his notes that I wanted to hear from Miss Brooke ** myself.

Well, here we are, February 7, 2012, and I have yet to hear from Brooke ** at all. Nice customer service skills, Brooke **! My gym membership has been canceled, which never was my intention until Brian ** acted like such an ** hat to me. LA Fitness could have been collecting $30 from me every month if they just would have treated me like a human being. But now they will never see another cent from me and I have started my social media campaign warning every single person I know not to be caught in the scam that is the Evil Empire of LA Fitness.

Do you know what else I came across in my Google search to find contact information for LA Fitness? Hundreds no, thousands of comments from other dissatisfied, disgruntled customers and former customers of LA Fitness. Many have experience similar circumstances as mine and all have experienced horrific customer service. Even their employees have a complaint website! In the first 24 hours after my dispute erupted with LA Fitness, a campaign on Twitter was in full effect regarding a protest on all LA Fitness gyms in the UK. Why? It’s very interesting, actually. After a 7-month pregnant woman whose husband had lost his job asked LA Fitness to terminate their personal training contract, LA Fitness refused, citing they had no such clause in their contracts for changes in life and income circumstances. Only after the story appeared in The Guardian and someone tweeted the link did LA Fitness give in to their PR nightmare and the UK government officials are looking into gym contract practices at other LA Fitness locations (see here: **).

If you have an issue with LA Fitness, you can call 949-255-7200 and speak to someone in a call center in Irvine, CA who doesn’t give a crap about you. The number listed for their corporate headquarters is 949-502-2043. If you would like to write to CEO Louis Welch, well, the only address Craig ** would give me (which I am sure goes to some other person who doesn’t give a rat’s ** about you) is LA Fitness, P.O. Box 54170, Irvine, CA 92169. However, the corporate address is listed at 6400 Irvine Blvd, Irvine, CA 92620. The (unverified) contact information that I found for Mr. Welch is 7 Emerald Bay, Laguna Beach, CA 92651-1206. My correspondence will be going directly to him as well as the National Director of Business Development, Scot Mackay, and Christopher Perry of LA Fitness International (among others) until I get a resolution.

If no one from LA Fitness seems to think I am worthy of receiving a resolution, well, I suppose it will be time to exercise my media training. If you are thinking about joining an LA Fitness, I urge you to please take a look at some of the comments on these websites prior to signing anything with them. For the reasons listed above and oh so many more, I nominate you, LA Fitness, for the Silver Sucky Award. There is no way that you could possibly suck more hind teat that you already do.

I called several times to hear they were busy. I called Saturday and was told they were busy, and I left my number and didn't get a return phone call. I called again and again, and I got nothing. I continued to call Monday, and I was told they were busy. In the meantime, I have been charged $248.00 in two months in which I only should have been charged $82.00. All they did was call my two friends to get their banking info but could care less that I'm out money.

I called this morning and tried to find a number for someone above them, but nobody there will give me a name or number. I called the Trumbull Ct office and spoke to a Kirk who is a manager. He told me to "get the money from my two friends", though that wouldn't stop them from charging my account for the future months!

I tried calling a corporate number in California, but all you get is a recording. I'm going to my bank today to file a complaint and not allow them to take anymore. Problem is I want to cancel my membership and need to speak to someone, but nobody will pick up after my complaint. I'm at a loss, and in this economy, I wouldn't want anyone to be fired. But these guys need serious training on how to deal with mistakes they made with the clients.