LA Fitness International
Reviews and Complaints

We were given two free week passes to LA Fitness, so my boyfriend and I went in there to try it out. We were told by their head sales representative Brett W. of the fourth plain Vancouver, WA location that we could obtain the two free weeks or he could waive our membership fees and let us have memberships for both of us at the rate of $32.45 per month. He also said if we werent happy that we could cancel within 7 days and get our money back in full. He seemed genuine so we believed him and agreed. I should have never given him my card information. They charged us $60 for the first charge. We went in and asked why and they said that is the rate there. We immediately said we wanted to cancel and get our full refund back. He said we cancelled one day too late and that we couldnt get it back but we could use the gym for the rest of the month and then our membership would end. We were very angry but agreed. He gave us two slips of paper to send in to the main office by mail, which didnt even require signatures, why they couldnt do it over the phone is beyond me, but we sent them in immediately. One month later we get a call from Brett saying we have an additional fee of $32.45 to pay. We are baffled, we call corporate. They assure us this will not be taken out of our account and give us a complimentary month of membership. A week later my bank account says there is a fee pending to come out in two days out of my account. We are baffled, we call corporate. They tell me the money wont be taken from my account but they have no record of us cancelling. What they hell? We ask to speak to the manager, the girl says their phones are broken and they can't transfer calls, after a half hour of begging she finally transfers us to her supervisor. He tells us we are pretty much S.O.L. we asked to speak to his manager, he says he can't do that and then disconnects the call. We are still in turmoil. I go to my bank and cancel my debit card, my bank tells me they still have to authorize the $32.45. I can't believe this company. If anyone knows of a local class action lawsuit please contact me. [protected]@gmail.com

I arrived this morning 12/11/2011 at 8:10 AM, went to the locker and saw that all the trash cans were overflowing and that there was debris all throughout the locker room. More then obvious that there hasn't been any janitorial service for a few days. Now, I have trained at 5 other LA locations during the past 7 years. All of them have been as clean as can be expected for high usage entities. Can someone please tell me, why a million dollar facility, barely 6 months old has been allowed to deteriorate to such substandard condition ?

The locker room, bathrooms, sinks, showers, pool & hot tub all need to be attended to several times a day. If not, every person who goes in there is at risk to come in contact with any number diseases.

Numerous members took cell phone pics and stated they were going to send them to corporate. Hope that helps.

To me, The club manager or operations manager is to blame for this problem, in that it is his/her responsibility to ensure that there
are no health or safety issues. We as members have an expectation of same.

Time will tell.

I a member of both Bally's & LA, only due to work travel. When this club first opened I went in and acted like I knew nothing. The zombie at the front desk called 'El Dopeo' over to 'assist' me. I was really impressed that they were able to have it look like the seven other LA's that I have been to. Actually LA's that I have been to all have a lot of equipment. So, after the walk thru, back to dopey's desk for the sales pitch. He asked for my driver's license, I said no, I only have to show that to the police. The first lie; there is a sign up fee, there may may be, but don't fall for that. Next lie, electronic fund transfer only, because this is a new club. Not true. Many membership options, without the 'etf'. Next lie, We only have highly skilled & certified trainers. I said, oh, you mean the guy over there eating a kit kat bar, while counting reps for a client. I said thanks, but no thanks. BTW, the phone number I gave him was dial a prayer.
The management team has been changed three times since my first visit. Which was only about six months ago.

In that LA bought Bally's and closed a few of Bally's clubs (mine), the LA staff thought that this would be a huge financial windfall for them and the lies once again started. What they neglected to realize was that most of the former Bally's members had done their homework and were ready to file class action lawsuits. This forced LA corporate to come out with a press release. All life memberships will be recognized. All Bally's memberships will be recognized to term. If any LA sales weenie says anything different, guess what, they are lying. There may be a few exceptions to this, depending on the type of Bally's membership.

One thing must be understood. Excepting sales, most of LA's employee's are minimum wage employee's, with little hope of anything else. The trainers only receive 5 or 6 bucks out of the 35 or 40 that you spend for the half hour. LA corporate only cares about the money, nothing else, not their employee's, not you, not me. It's called corporate indifference. That indifference emanates it's way downward to the lowest rung employee that we deal with every visit. None of which is any excuse for anyone to be treated as I have read in a lot of these posts
Sadly, since they closed Bally's, I have to go to this place. I cannot wait to be approached by a trainer.

Below you will find a copy of the cancellation confirmation I received from LA Fitness after I went in and told the financial officer, Robert, that I wasn't leaving until he made arrangements to cancel my membership and refund the two months of extra billing they had racked up on my bank account. After he "acted" like he was looking up all my history, stated he didn't remember anything about my previous discussions with him, and said there was no paper trail in their computer system, he agreed to go ahead and refund my money. I also brought the manager into the discussion who said that there was nothing he could do because it was the financial officer's call. Robert finally agreed to refund my money for the 2 months they had charged me after my memberships was cancelled. The CATCH is, the effective date - as you will notice at the bottom of the cancellation. The membership ended August 31. The effective date on the notice below is the end of September; which takes in the final charge they applied to my account. Therefore, there will be no reimbursement for the extra 2 months of dues. I have these falsified effective dates for my trainer charges and my membership charges. I have eliminated my personal information.

Personal Training Membership Cancellation Confirmation

Today’s date: 10/4/2011
Customer #: 13...
Membership Barcode #: f40...
Member Name: C
Dues: $92.00
Final Billing Date: 9/21/2011

This confirms cancellation of your personal training agreement.

If you have any questions regarding this notice, please call your local club during normal business hours.

Thank you for choosing LA Fitness.

Health hazard! Locker room smells soooo bad it makes me want to vamit. Sauna, showers, pool, sauna probably has more diseases in them then a garbage dump. Stay away!
Equipment is old and broken. Nasty front desk & management

On August 15, 2011 I went into LA Fitness to discuss starting a membership for my husband and I. We have a new baby and I was told by the general manager Rod that the kids club wouldn't take any children younger than 3 months. I am a stay at home mom, who doesn't have anyone who can babysit, so the kids club was the MAIN reason I looked into using LA Fitness to work out. Our baby wasn't going to be 3 months until the beginning of September so I expressed to Rod that I didn't want to start my membership until the 1st of September.

He told me that it was okay, and that my membership wouldn't start until the first of September. I paid over $100 for the first and last months of membership, and he told me I could cancel anytime.

Fast forward to today. I receive a call from billing stating my account was deliquent. They said that my membership started August 15 and that I was being billed every 15th.

This is not the agreement I had with Rod and I feel like I was conned. I feel like the woman at billing was a bit rude to me and I am very unhappy with LA Fitness customer service as a whole.

I spoke with an Alicia when I called the number on the website and she told me she could cancel my membership over the phone and I wouldn't need to fill out any paper work. I am seriously doubting this and will be digging deeper today to find out if what she said was true.

Over all, I say avoid this gym if you can.

So after having my 2nd child I decided it was time to re-activate my gym account. No problem except that this week I was already late for the 7pm class (my ONLY available time slot M-F) and with my 22 pound kid in tow, I got stopped at the front desk by "Scotty" who promises to give me the "best workout of your entire life." Well, I'm already late but fine, sign me up...when? He insists I come in earlier. Ain't gonna happen. He manages to get me in on Thursday at 7pm. Fine, just let my people go! So I come in at 7pm but where's Scotty? Sitting his butt in a chair while I wait at the front counter. I know he saw me. Whatever, I get hooked up w/ a nice kid who spends the next 45 mins trying to get me to sign up for a year long commitment to training sessions. Nah, let me think about it. Oh no, must be done now. I'm leaning toward "yes" but then I get online & read a gazillion complaints about LA Fitness! OMG, people..do your homework! I highly recommend you don't get involved w/ such a scandalous company. It's pretty convenient for me and I got grandfathered in w/ a great deal but I'm just here to warn you. Check out other local options. Turns out "Scotty" is the manager. Go figure.

Club does not monitor whether members take showers before entering Hot Tub and Pool Area. As a result, the majority of members do not shower. There is a sign in small print that has to be read up close to decipher. The Club also states that the Tub is cleaned and drained on a weekly basis. The Cleaning people are unaware of any such process.

For almost 6 months (or since Pure Fitness was bought out by LA Fitness), the members have been sold a bill of goods. From promises that the air conditioning would be fixed to promises that the mildewed, smelly, worn carpet would be replaced and everything in between. I had been paying for personal training sessions; however, each trainer, one by one, either quit or was fired, making it almost impossible to schedule an appointment with the same trainer more than twice in a row. When it was Pure Fitness, the trainers were plentiful, accommodating and helpful and we were promised LA Fitness would provide more of the same - it most certainly did not. If a trainer or time slot was unavailable, that was just too bad. I filed a complaint with the BBB, spoke to the corporate office and explained that I continued to pay for personal training but was not able to schedule personal training. After many calls to corporate in California explaining my plight and asking for a refund of my previously paid personal training sessions and a cancellation of my membership, I was advised by Danielle that, although she completely understood my frustration, it was not their policy to do either but she'd see what she could do. After we went round and round, she finally moved a trainer from another facility to the Chandler facility where I had my membership. I was not offered anything else, no free training sessions, nothing. I began training with Ashley and, after a couple of training sessions, she was no longer available on my preferred days. As I was attempting to reschedule, I received a call from Ashley stating that the LA Fitness I belonged to was closing and that I'd have to attend the other Chandler LA Fitness (the one that is packed all the time, even before the other 3 Pure Fitnesses in the area closed and sent their members there); however, she was still not available during most times that were convenient for me. I, again, called Danielle (and her manager, Shawnee Haysum, who had previously advised me that if I ever needed anything further, I should contact her - I left 4 messages and never received a return phone call), again, explained my frustration and again asked that I please be refunded the $800 or so I had paid for training that I had been unable to use, and that I be released from my contract that was ending in 2 months. No dice. I explained that this was a very poor business practice and that, although it kept money in the pockets of LA Fitness in order for them to stay afloat, it was creating a very bad name for them as I, and most certainly others, have and will continue to spread the word about their terrible customer service. I finally got a letter from LA Fitness stating that I would not be receiving a refund or my payments, I would not be permitted to cancel my membership and that nothing further would be done to assist me.

I am a single mother of a two years old baby and also a stay at home mom. Going to the gym is our getaway, therefore I take it very seriously. Tbere has been several times that my baby has been hurt by other kids and even though I have requested for explanations and also talked to management nothing has been done to repair the damage; however, when this happen we take a few days off from going to the gym but nothing gets resolve.

Not disciplinary acctions are taken for those whom suppose to watch our children and care for them.
We as customer pay for La Fitness employees to have their job, so we should too have a appreciation and respect in return.
Also I have seen parents changing their children in the middle of the playing room. GROSS... and diseases waiting to happen (such as hepatitis A) etc.
When all of this negligence will stop? isn't there any other ways to hire qualify personnel?
and impose that hygiene is important too.

Stay away from this gyms training program. The trainers are under paid, even though you pay a heck of alot for training.
The Training Manager will lie to you, train you for the first 3 days to keep you from cancelling your training package.
The TM is not a certified trainer he will tell you he is but he is NOT! He will hurt you due to his lack of training as a trainer then tell you this is why you need a trainer.
He is rude, sexually harrasses women clients and will not deal with any customer service issues.
Sad really because the gym itself is a nice clean gym with up todate equipment.

Enrolled in their Personal Training Program and had problems from day 1. Their on-line documentation showed me having more training sessions than I actually had. I attempted to get it corrected 3 times with no success. And 1 session I did have was done by a person who wasn't even a Certified Trainer but I assumed he was as he was the Manager of the department. He paid little attention to me during that session as well. I showed up for another session and my assigned Trainer wasn't there and no one else took me but it still showed on sessions used. Funny that if I didn't show up when scheduled, I would be billed anyway. They would not terminate my contract and continued to bill my credit card. Still paying too even though I sent a 2 page detailed description to the main office of each and every falsified event. DON'T TRUST THEM AND DON'T JOIN.

I have filed a complaint with the BBB regarding LA Fitness taking money from my acount after I cancelled the personal trainer membership. LA Fitness has violated my rights to cancel the membership within a reasonable, allowable, and allocable timeframe. It violates my right to cancel services I feel are not adequate, reasonable and professional. LA Fitness wants to bind a person to the contract and still collect money; they state that you either have to be sick or dead to get out of the contract, you just cannot cancel the contract because you do not want their service. This is a violation of contract law. I am seeking a lawyer to start a class action lawsuit. Any information regarding LA Fitness contract(s) will greatly help me in my pursuit to sue LA Fitness.