LA Fitness International
Reviews and Complaints

A new LA Fitness opened November 9, 2009 at Settlers Ridge shopping complex in Pittsburgh. In July, there was a promotion to sign up members. The rate was good. I swim exclusively in a 25 yard pool. The representative signing me up said the new location would have a 25 yard pool also, have a 83 degree temperature. After I signed, the representative said I could check out the Bridgeville, Pa. location (also in Pittsburgh, where the shooting murders took place). The pool there was long. But, I don't think it was 25 yards. I swim backstroke exclusively because of a disability. I noted there were no warning flags for backstroke swimmers to warn of the lane ending. Since then, July 2009, I have been asking whether there would be flags at Settlers Ridge. I called the Los Angeles corporate office in August. The customer manager there said it was up to the local club as to whether to have flags. Since then, Ihave talked to Settlers Ridge representatives about the flags. They took my questions. Said they would get back. Never did. At least 6 times.
Yesterday (November 9, 2009), I talked to the general manager of the Settlers Ridge location. He said that warning flags would not be added because LA Fitness wanted a uniform appearance in all locations. When I mentioned I talked to thecorporate office, he took my name etc, said he would talk to someone higher up, but would not make it his priority. And if they installed them, it would take a month or two to install. At the same time, if I wanted to cancel my membership, I have until tommorrow, November 11, 2009 to do it.

I swim exclusively 2 mile a day because of my disability. I can't use the equipment etc. I also noted the Settlers Ridge pool is a lot smaller in length than the Bridgeville LA Fitness location, and the picture of the Irvine location that is on the LA Fitness website. I have been swimming in a 25 yard pool for over 20 years, and know how long that is. I think the Settlers Ridge pool is 18 to 20 yards at the most. But, the general manager insists it is A Junior Olympic Size pool, and that it is 25 yards. I need to know the accurate length for lap count.

The lack of warning flags is the main problem. The safety of swimmers should take priority over the decor of the pool. And LA Fitness should have them in every location. If they are concerned about decor, they could incorporate tasteful prints or something into the ceiling near both ends of the pool so backstroke swimmers don't ram their necks.

I am very satisfied with the Y where I am now swimming. The reason I was changing to LA Fitness was it is 6 miles from where I live, whereas the Y is 24 miles. But, given the back and forth from corporate to local (I feel like a ping-pong ball, not getting back to me as promised (3 months plus since started asking about the flags, the lack of interest of the general manager (not a top priority), I have decided to re-up with the Y, even though LA Fitness is less costly, and it would save me a great deal of gas and travelling.

LA Fitness has been a very disappointing experience, and I have not worked out once at the location I signed for.

I was sold a membership at the Eldridge Road & West Little York Gym and specifically requested a multi state all gym access. I tried to use the membership at what they call a signature club only to find out I had been sold a bill of goods & could not work out there unless I paid another $100 plus $20 per month.

Look on the internet before you buy. This organization has more bad, disreputable stuff written about it than any health club I have belonged to in the past 20 years.

I spoke with SHannon on the phone at coprpoate and she was the typical recording and refused to let me speak to a manager.

I will be cancelling my membership & if you are smart you will not join this lying bunch of theives!

My friend and I were members at the LA fitness center in Fort Lauderdale, FL. On one occasion the person swiping ID cards at the front desk began antagonizing my friend and called him a "###." We reported this to one of the managers (Mike) but he said that since he did not hear the derogatory remark, he was not inclined to do anything about it. My friend and I immediately terminated our memberships at the Fort Lauderdale LA Fitness center. I called the main customer service office in California to voice a formal complaint. I was later told that the employee that engaged in the verbal confrontation with my friend had been fired. My friend is in the process of speaking to an attorney about a sexual discrimination lawsuit regarding the matter.

When I first joined they wanted a canceled check so they could take their money out of my account. I gave this to them.

They withheld 2 months out of my account. Then they took the next 2 months out of my friends account. When I called them they said they never had any information on me. So I gave them a charge number. I asked them if they would reimburse my friend and charge my account. They said that would be a lot of work couldn't I just pay my friends. So I did.

They then started calling me non stop saying they had lost my charge number and wanted me to give it to them again over the phone. I informed them that I would go to my gym and fix it that I don't give this out over the phone.

I then contacted my gym Beavercreek, OH and spoke to BOB who said that when I came in he would take care of it, I told him it would be approx. a month because I was remodeling he said no problem.

A month later to my amazement 2 charges were on my charge card but one of them was more so I called them only to find out that these were the rudest and nastiest people on the planet earth. They could not tell me why the charge was more but then all of a sudden she said that my charge had been denied by the charge company so there was an extra fee.

I called my bank and they never ran a charge through in August, (the month they lost my info.) so they ran two charges through in September. I can't help that they ran 2 charges in 1 month since they lost my info.

I then told her that I would be canceling my membership and she told me they were going to charge me for another month I told her to take it as my last month which I have already paid. She said no I asked why not she said "Because that's just the way we do things".

I then called the California office and after telling the girl everything I have been through she informed me that nothing was noted on my account. She then said, "And what do you want me to do about it". What a *&@@%!

I have since tried to call California and when I ask for a manager I just get put back to main menu.

Customer beware. When you are done with them it will be expensive to get out of your contract!

BUYER BEWARE

They will put charges on you and there is nothing you can do about it and they don't care.

Its nice to know that with economy so bad they have so much business they can afford to loose more.

Whats really bad is I enjoyed working out there I even drove 30 minutes to get there.

I have tried to find a good e-mail or corporate number to call LA Fitness to report their employees gross negligence in their "Kids Club" day care facility. I am currently seeking legal action as I am extremely upset with the handling of an incident involving my niece who is in my legal custody. My niece was in the Kids club and my wife went to pick her up after working out. To her horror she sees our 4 year old niece with her pants at her ankles and her shirt over her head baring her chest. There is no one providing supervision and have allowed a little boy to begin removing her clothes and pulling her underwear up in a wedgie fashion. The ONE lone person in the day care comes out the bathroom area with no idea what is going on with the kids. This is unacceptable on all levels. When my wife questioned and asked for a manager she was told there was not one there. She called me and I, knowing there is a manager on station at all times of operation, went up and spoke to the night manager. He was not even told of the incident and was thrown back when I explained what had happened. He apologized however, in my mind that is not good enough as my child was basically naked in the middle of a public day care and no one was there to watch over the children and their actions. That is the point of having adult supervision to prevent acts like this and worse. Since I cannot find a good e-mail or number I will let a lawyer research the issue and possibly sue if there is a basis. This is unacceptable on all levels and someone has to be accountable for the children. God forbid my wife had taken longer and the little boy had gotten her completely naked because there was no adult supervision in a day care that LA Fitness charges for. Shame on them.!

I have been a club member for several years and have been generally satisfied. During the course of my membership I've been approached by a number of club fitness trainers, each offering me a free session.

I've had gym memberships for years so I did not need a trainer, but since it was free I accepted the first offer. We made an appointment to meet at the gym several days later. After showing up at the time we agreed upon, I waited for over an hour before giving up and leaving. I never saw that trainer again.

A few weeks afterward another trainer approached me and made the same offer. I declined, telling him of my experience with the previous trainer. Each time I saw him at the gym he would ask me again. Finally his pestering wore me down and I accepted, thinking that he would be punctual since he knew about my last experience. Again I was there at the agreed upon time, and again the trainer never showed up! Unbelievable!

The "trainers" at LA Fitness are a bunch of unprofessional clowns. It would be laughable if it wasn't so hazardous. I have seen trainers teaching their clients poor and even dangerous weight lifting form.

Avoid these idiots. If you need a trainer, hire a professional.

This is yet another complaint against LA Fitness and their ridiculous strategy to milk customer till their last penny.

I became a member of this club from Sept 1, 2009. They also lured me into enrolling Personal Training Program(PTP).
While signing the PTP, the trainer officer (Joe W) assured me that I can cancel the same at any point of time and I dont have to pay a peeny if I contact him instead of corporate...

And I got tricked into this which I regret now.

Now, I am not able to continue the membership so trying to cancel the same and the response is too obvious.. ignorance..

This guy who sat with me after his work hours while enrolling, now doesnt even take my call or talk to me saying he has other appointments on his schedule and cant talk to me for a minute also...

The GM of the local club (another Joe) is acting unaware and not willing to take any responsibility of this...

I really pissed as they are asking me pay over $600 to cancel the membership...

I am going to stay here as I am from INDIA and have to go back...
They just refuse to listen to this and almost humiliated me out of the club today...

Can someone take a note of these complaints and take some action on this company?

they are looting people every day, every second... and still nothing has been done...

Please take some action...

The Gym itself is an impressive facility and the hours are better than most gyms that I have experienced in my 13+ years of weight training. They have 2 trainers, Demetrius and James, that really know what they are doing. Most of the other trainers can be seen text messaging
and relaxing WHILE training clients. There is even a European female trainer that hordes weights for herself while she is training and she will confront you if you tell her that she doesn't need to take 7 dumbbells off the weight rack for her client.

Matts are left on the stairwell which is a fire-code violation, 6-12 plates can be found on abandoned leg press machines from 7:00am-1030am every week day, dumbbells are left in all areas of the gym for days on end, 20-36 dumbbells are consistently absent from the racks...

I have begged the staff for over 10 months to require that the members and trainers to rack their weights. All to no avail. There is not 1 sign in the facility asking clients to return/rack weights. 2 weeks ago, I posted 4-5 signs throughout the gym asking members to rack the weights. I was confronted by an employee because of this. Instead of him being upset with the staff for it being necessary for a customer to post signs and repeatedly beg for them to follow proper gym etiquette, he decided to give me attitude.

Yesterday I asked Lauren (front desk girl) for his name because I am considering writing an article regarding the lack of gym etiquette. She responded with "I am going to revoke your membership".

I told her that was fine as long as she refunded my $200+ initiation fee. She said she wouldn't because I have been a very uncooperative member...

Subject: Theft from your corporation

Dear Sirs,

I am a member at your location in Phoenix; I use the facility at zip code 85016. I came into your facility on the 7th for my complementary session with a personal trainer. Daniel C. I was very impressed with the session and talked to him about getting into the trainer program with him as my trainer. We talked for a bit and he gave me a price, a Labor Day special. I told him that I could not do it till the following Friday, he told me that I would not be able to get it at the special rate. I filled out the paperwork under duress as he told me that he would try and get me the special rate on Friday. I was told that he would call me on Friday and let me know what they would be able to offer me. That nothing would be taken out of my account until he got my authorization. That Friday he withdrew the entire amount at full price from my bank account without my authorization and caused my account to be overdrawn. I called and was assured that they would fix the problem. I was told by my bank that the charges went through this morning along with the overdraft charges that it caused me a total of 55 dollars plus the 309 that they took out) I went into the facility this morning and asked to speak to the manger. The young man behind the desk told me that he was the manager (I have since found out that he was not the manger and he lied to me) he told me that it would take several days to return my money. I asked about the overdraft charges and was told that you would not do anything about it.

Your trainer took money out of my account with my authorization! They refused to do anything about the money that your establishment cost me and your employee lied to me about his position there

Your employees there have shown me no empathy or willingness to do anything to resolve this manner at all. I am amazed at the lack of customer service. I did not ask for anything more than what your company cost me and don’t want to cancel my membership but I am considering taking legal action against you at this point.

Darrin Brown
Darrin Brown
UPA, Executive Director

I joined the gym back in 2005 from out of town, well first of all the gut who signed me up gave me a discount thru a home depot employee? but the problem was I wasn't a home depot employee. So I got my discount and then they signed me up for a fitness training which they said I could cancel within 30 days? I found out later after 10/days that that wasn't so.

I had met someone who use to work for L.A. Fintess and was told to call and ask for the president of the company which works ou tof the Perimeter mall gym and complain to the state attorney general of georgia when yo cal the gym . here is the page below. I called and got all my money back. they havent bugged me since... don't get mad get even find out your rights!

To whom it may concern,
I obtained a membership with you guys earlier this year and was pressured into the contract. I do however know regardless of the pressure that I received for obtaining a membership and personal trainer that I am obligated to make a final payment if I cancel the contract. I purchased a member ship for myself, Vicki Reagan and two children. It turned out that Vicki or the children never came to the club so I canceled. I also only went to the club about 8 times, and twice with a personal trainer. After I paid for a personal trainer the customer service I received from the club was beyond poor. The personal trainers were never able to schedule me, and I switched to 3 different trainers in a matter of 1 week. Nevertheless I felt like the service and experience I had with the LA Fitness in Rowlett Tx was unsatisfactory. I then went to the club to cancel my contract and they said I could not cancel, but I would have to send a cancelation request in the mail. First of all that is unheard of. What type of customer service is that when you send a cancelation request through the mail and hope that it is received on time so you are not obligated to make another months full payment? So nevertheless my contract finally was cancelled and I was awaiting the final bill. So on 7/20 I was charge an amount of $240 and $490, which I thought was my final payment due to the buyout of personal trainer contract of 50%. I then realized another $240 was withdrawn from my account on 08/15. I imeditatley contacted customer service and they explained to me that my personal trainer contract was never canceled. This made me beyond angry to realize that a corporation can operate like this. I mean it does not make anysense for me to continue to pay for a personal trainer each month if I do not have a membership. The customer service agent then told me that it is 2 seperate contracts which of course no one cared to tell me. So in order to cancel my request I would need to pay an additional $500. So this means I have not been a member of the club for over 4 months, and if I was to pay a cancelation fee, you guys would charge me a total of $1470 for the past 4 months. This is more then my 12 month contract! In no way is this 50% of my contract. I assure you guys have made your money off me, but I want you to see how unfair your policy is and there is nothing I can do about it but write a letter, that will probably be tossed in the trash. As a customer, I made a commitment to you that If I cancel I will make my payments. Well guess what, you guys received all your payments on time, and continued to take excessive amounts from my account. The customer service agent refused to go back to the date that I canceled the membership and credit me back with the overpayment amount I made on my contract. So basically I have 2 options. 1 is to cancel the personal trainer membership that common sense should tell you to cancel on the date I canceled my membership. I then will have a $500 fee that For early termination of contract which I feel I have already paid over the last 4 months. Option 2 is to close my checking account so you guys do not have access to withdrawl funds. If I do this, then more then likely I will get a bill in the mail that I probably will refuse to pay. Then it will show up on my credit report as a collection and we would be fighting this out for months. What I am asking you guys to do is look again at the date I canceled, realize the money you guys took from me over the past 4 months is more then 50% of early termination fee for personal training. Cancel my account with no further billing. As I said before you guys more than just made money off me, You have encouraged me to let everyone I know who is interested in a Gym membership never to go to your club. I know being a huge corporation, it really does not matter if you have an unhappy customer as long as you made your money. I am just asking you to think of the equality in this, is this fair, is this moral? I unlike most people canceled my contract the way I was told, and I allowed you guys to withdrawl funds from my checking account. I put my full trust in LA fitness, and made payments when I could have walked away. Knoq through my honesty and the commitment I made to LA Fitness, I expect you guys to do the same, and refund to me what is rightfully mine. I would like a phone call, or further explanation, but like I said the customer service I received from you guys, It is very doubtful, I will have a response. Thanks again for your time, and Hope whoever is reading this, can put themselves in a customers shoes and do what is right. Please contact Micah Semmler at [protected]

My daughter came in from out of town. I took her in and told them she was my guest. I was asked if I had a guest pass? I didn't have one. They told me it was going to be a $50 fee. Outrageous! They wouldn't budge! So I cancelled my membership right there. They didn't blink an eye. You can print a 3-7 day pass from online at home, but with out it, it's $50. The lack of customer service was amazing. The manager on duty came up and started his conversation off by telling me how this was nothing to be mad about, how he is from california and people there would never get mad at something like this. He spoke down to me, like I was an idiot. I never raised my voice, just stood firm on how I thought this was absolutely rediculous. Then, when he found out my daughter was a personal trainer and was going to help me, the issue transferred to that. I understand because of liability reasons why they don't want her training me in their gym. But the way this kid talked down to me was uncalled for. At this point, I was pissed! I had 2 other friends there that were members, who had issues with them before. When he found out they would quit, too, he offered to let her work out for free, but we would have to work out separately. I was fine with that, but wanted his name for when I talked to the corporate office. He would only give me his first name, not his last. When I asked for a business card he said they didn't have personal business cards. I asked him to write his name down on a blank one but he wouldn't. I asked him then to write his name down on a message pad. He started to, then leaned over the counter, his arms resting on it, and said to me "lady, I have been through 8 years of college, I don't need this crap!" I told him I raised 5 kids and 6 grand children, I was old enough to be his mother and I didn't appreciate him speaking to me like he was. He wadded up the paper, threw it down, and said "i'm outta here!" I then asked the receptionist for his name, she said she only knew his first name. I said what ever, and she said it was against policy for her to give out that kind of information.

I signed on with Pro Results at L.A. Fitness. I've been pleased with L.A. Fitness, however, the training program within that center...Pro Results has been a great dissapointment. In three months, I have gone through three trainers. The first trainer, just didn't show at various scheduled appointments, and gave me lame lies to cover up for it. The second trainer was great, but left to work elsewhere. Obviously, Pro Results was not making him happy. My third trainer showed up wired, "high as a kite", talk about how fabulous he was, and how the female clients were all over him. I was gone for one week, and when I came back. they told me he just stopped showing up.

Obviously, Pro Results does not do a thorough job of calling references.

17 year old boy was bitten by an adult, in a basketball court on 08-18-08. When child complained to staff, his complained was totally ignored - two bumps on back of his head - and HE, not the thugh that hit him - was asked to leave.

Met with the General Manager and his assistant, and was suggested "MY SON" cancel his membership, not the thug! Want to warn all parents not to trust LA Fitness personnel because they just don't care what happens to minors in their facilities.

A Police report was filed to make sure there is evidence of the abuse, totally ignored by LA Fitness Staff.

to whom it may concern my daughter cancelled her membership back in november of last year, or he told me they froze her acc an d they keep on charging me every month even after we told them it was cancelled, im so sick and tired of them i want my money back

If I have to discontinue with them I need to inform 20 days before and I can't do it at there service center. I need to mail a letter to there main office in CA and even after doing this they are charging for a month.

Why it is like that when I joined I join at there service center not in the main office in CA and why do I need to inform 20 days before. Why it takes too long to discontinue membership.