LA Fitness International
Reviews and Complaints

I have a legal binding contract that was agreed upon with me and their executives in the small claims court to pay only $155.00 a year for life.

I gave them my American express credit card to charge it once per year and last December of 2013, they charged it and I thought that everything was fine, however, they continued to charge it at least two more times which is considered fraud and illegal.

I did write to their company last night and I received a phone call this morning with just an excuse that there was supposedly a glitch in the system in which I do NOT believe.

The only thing that they did for me was Refund the overcharges, however, for my Inconvenience, I asked for one free year and they are so damn CHEAP and SELFISH because they REFUSED TO HONOR MY REQUEST!

This is NOT an honest company and the next time that this happens, I will Sue them again in the Small Claims Court in downtown Los Angeles, California like I did before.

Thank you La Fitness for your Dishonest and Lies and Excuses about what Really Happened with Your Overcharging My Credit Card!

As a member under the Holiday franchise, then the Bally's and now the LA Fitness franchise, I must say it was disheartening to discover that the contract now offered by LA Fitness has an EXCULPATORY CLAUSE to protect them from liability... BE AWARE that if you get injured for any reason, any cause, any failure on LA Fitness' behalf they will NOT be liable! You exercise at LA FITNESS totally AT YOUR OWN RISK!

I suffered a slip & fall in the women's locker room/shower area because the facility did not use no skid mats on the floor. The water soaked mats on the floor skidded right out from under me and I suffered a concussion, contusions, and other muscular injuries... court ruled that the EXCULPATORY CLAUSE was enforceable! That's right I got nothing for my pain & suffering, loss wages, and medical. BE AWARE!

I applied for a part-time job there. Everything was done online. The lady "hired" me but didn't give me a starting date. I filled out all the information as a new hire, and the website informed me that as a new hire I would be paid one hour for my time for filling out the form when I report to work. Weeks later, still no news as to when I start. So I call and the lady said they will be in touch. (She had my cell phone number.) A couple days later my husband to told me he had a strange call from LA fitness. I had put his number down as an emergency contact. The lady used his number to call and inform him when I should start. Apparently she must have "lost" my cell phone number because I didn't get a call. I was confused as to why she would call my emergency contact to let me know when to start. I ended up missing my start date. I went in person to talk to her about it and she was unforgiving. In fact she didn't even want to acknowledge my presence. This is the only "job" I've ever not had. Just yesterday I received a
W-2 form in the mail for the supposedly $8 dollars that I earned filling out the form. I never received a check from them. . .don't know why I have to file an income tax on a job that I never had and never got a check from? I will be reporting this to IRS.

I was only a member of LA Fitness for 2 months and I feel so strongly about their dishonest corporation that I feel the need to warn everyone about it. I was overcharged both months without being told. The first time I was told that I would be charged 34.99 and he was waiving the joining fee. After I left I saw that there was 70 dollars taken from my account. When I called to ask why he said he "failed to mention" I had to pay the previous month as well. Although this was aggrivating I continued my membership. The second time I was overcharged I was promised a reimburement by an employee on the phone from the Orange County site. After checking my account I saw that not only did I not receive my money back but they charged me even more than I was originally told. When I called the Orange County Headquarters ( [protected]) and spoke to the manager LISA, not only was she absolutely rude and unprofessional but she refused to give me the money back as promised and also refused to allow me to quit over the phone. I had to call the main headquarters in order to quit over the phone and was still never reimbursed. Higher authorities at LA Fitness should be ashamed of themselves for hiring such rude and dishonest people to run their business. Whether it is in contract or not if you are promised your money back by an employee you should get it back. I will continue to write reviews about this and take it to higher authorities to make sure this company stops overcharging or stops getting business. These managers come up with every reason in the book to overcharge you and every reason to not refund you. DO NOT JOIN.

I was detained after dark in a Lanier parking garage on Tuesday, 8/27/2013 and I am writing to inform current and potential LA Fitness members and Lanier Parking Solutions customers of this unconscionable experience.

I am a professional woman who just left the LA Fitness gym located on Spring St. in Atlanta and was attempting to exit the Lanier parking garage on 75 Fifth St., Atlanta at 8pm. It was after dark, I was alone and detained without just cause and against my will. The female attendant (see picture) admitted to losing my parking ticket after I handed it to her and would not open the electronic arm to enable me to exit the garage. Security called her boss (Mohammed Ismaell, Mgr.) who directed the attendant to get my drivers license and write me a $12 citation for "Failure to pay meter box". The attendant did not tell the truth when she told him that I did not have a ticket and would not pay. In reality, I had previously handed her my ticket prior to her confusion relating to another customer and so she lost it. There should not have been a fee involved since LAFitness pays for parking.

Since I was trapped in the garage, detained against my will, I called LA Fitness for help. LA Fitness pays for customer parking in the Lanier garage, but the LA Fitness clerk would not let me speak with a manager and would not try to resolve my issue. LA Fitness would NOT investigate the problem in the garage and did not attempt to resolve it. They made it worse by mistreating me.

The attendant would not release me unless I provided her my drivers license. Since I had been detained for 1-hour and I saw no other way of exiting the garage, I gave her my license. These people who wrongfully detained me now have my personal information. I have never felt as unsafe, bullied, and violated as a woman as I do now. The male attendant was laughing and upon my eventual exit, said "Have a nice day!". I feel that my human rights were violoted and the Lanier supervisor joined in on their game. The security guard let me speak with the manager who was off site. I explained the incident that occured. As a result, he gave me a citation with a fee attached. He did not offer to further investigate the issue. They have the full event on video since there are cameras in the garage. It is clear in the video that I handed the attendant my ticket and that Lanier Parking Solutions was at fault for this illegal action of detaining me without just cause and against my will. I felt extremely unsafe and scared in this situation in which they held me against my will.

Recommendation: Do NOT join LA Fitness; they have no concern for the customer. Do NOT park in a Lanier parking garage. They may detain you against your will and without just cause. You are in their hands and they control the lock on the security gate. They will let you out when and if they want to. I hope to enlighten others and potentially help prevent future incidents of breach of human rights and bullying by Lanier and LA Fitness.

Watch out if you go work for LA Fitness and do a great job
selling! You will suckered into joining a sales management team of employees
with a corporate culture from planet Mars.

I see why LA Fitness does not usually hire guys like me
"clean background, series 24 license, undergrad and
masters degree with an accomplished career of sales in
the past" because it is much easier for them to hire young
kids and ex-cons so they can apply a " bully management
style" since ex-cons are limited in their job opportunities
since there is a 40% unemployment rate among ex-cons
and younger people without college degrees are limited in
their job choices therefore when LA Fitness gives them a
job with career advancement opportunities, they are
delighted and management can abuse their authority and
"SWITCH AND BAIT" their promises without any recourse
as their ideal type of employee is a "YES BOSS" employee
without any concern for their emotions or feelings.

I was offered the opportunity to be promoted to General manager
and I was recently promoted to sales manager from membership
sales councilor and had only been with the company less than 60 days,
but since I came from strong successful sales background and was
successful in applying my sales skills to selling the heck out membership
sales, I was promoted fast, however I had no idea what was in stall for
me with this corporate culture from planet "Hell".

I was told I would be promoted if I took the job: that did not
happen!
I was told I would run the entire club: that did not happen!
I was told/promised that a brand new club was approved
and coming: that was another lie!
I was promised that the bonus goal was going to be
lowered: that did not happen!
I was making much less money with three times more
stress. I was made promises that took me out of a
lucrative sales position in a brand new club in a hot market
and now I was in a old rundown short of staff, disgruntled
employees and members with huge disappointments and
complaints .
I was told I need to clean bathrooms and toilets when
there is no cleaning staff and this club did not have full
time janitorial help.
I was told I still need to push the numbers when I notified
my leaders that a family member (my mother) was
admitted to hospital for malignant cancer on the lung. The
compassion was very insensitive and more focused on me
pushing the numbers.
it got to the point that I was under so much pressure to sell
in a slow seasonal market, old club with high cancellation
of memberships daily, that I was not doing enough selling
even though I had done some aggressive marketing outside
the club with local businesses and significant new business
was direct result of my 7 day week, 75 hours a week and
this had pushed the numbers up by 25% and more,
however I started selling memberships to myself on my
own credit card to family members just to keep my
confidence level up and to deal with the constant
negative motivational threats by my leadership..

THERE IS NO TRAINING IN LEADERSHIPS, NO TRAINING
IN COMPLIANCE, NO TRAINING IN EMPLOYEE
MANAGEMENT, NO TRAINING IN ANY COMMUNICATION
AMONG CO-WORKERS..NO INVESTMENT IN TRAINING
MANAGEMENT

Only communication: local VP making promises,
switch and bait, say anything to get you to believe it which
appears to trickle up and down the corporate ladder but I
guess only if one comes from working at another normal
company would recognize these major flaws, but if you
unemployed, without much education or just got out of
prison, this place is "AWESOME" in their eyes! Guess what is the alternative
for these disgruntled and abused employees.
Every employee I spoke to complains in a big way about
there job, their bosses, constant disenchantment, disappointment
and dealing with harsh criticism from their management!

Now I understand why the company will not even print
business cards for their management or put anything in
writing..because such a high turnover of disillusioned staff.
Also the culture encourages negativity, bad nothing co-
workers, especially bad mouthing ex-employees, every previous
General manager and there has been a significant turnover
of employees and management and never heard one good
story about an ex-manager or ex employee from the current
leadership, there is always some nastyy gossip or rumor or highly
exaggerated story negating the performance or employment
history of previous staff and especially managers
surprisingly the VP even bad mouths previous managers that
leave and they love to say "he was fired' but the truth is
most leave/resign on their own accord! There is always some nasty rumor or drama
why he/she left, usually they failed or did some unethical activity
rather than management accepting that due to their
poor management skills they lost a good employee
with awesome leadership and sales skills, it is better
for them to trash you!
Their leadership style is to push the integrity and ethics barrier to do
"whatever it takes to get the sale done" just don't get
caught appears to be the mentality..

I knew that once I was selling myself memberships on my
own credit cards, no body's else's, how screwed up did this
company push me that even though my regular
membership sales were double from previous managers, I
was still not doing enough, and they were pushing me hard

HAVE YOUR HEAD EXAMINED OR SELF ESTEEM RE-
EVALUATED BEFORE WORKING FOR THESE GUYS..

Thank G-d I am back working for a company that takes
pride on how it treats it's employees.
Their mission statement emphasizes "integrity and
well being of it's employees".

I was now working with a team in a older club as the GM or acting GM
that I was told I can't tell them what to do because every division
within the club is compartmentalised and divided for example
trainers and selling training sessions does not fall under
the GM responsibilities or input.
I was working with a club staff shortage
and was told I need to be also "cleaning bathrooms" since
we could not afford a full time janitor and members do
create used bathroom unpleasant scenarios. I now was paid minimum
wage without much commission in a older club with
significant expenses without any reimbursement for my own gas
travelling 40 minutes to work and back and had to go market to
outside businesses. Bonus possibility were way out there and was told
another lie to entice me to stay with this job which was that the "new
bonus goal " was going to be lowered when I took over the
club making it attainable however that never happened.

I was a customer of LA Fitness and was paying them through an automatic withdrawal from my account. After I cancelled the card, LA Fitness called me 48 times in 24 hours to get their month PRE PAYMENT. I was furious that they called me this much and called corporate. I spoke to Jill Grueling she assured me that I would not be getting calls anymore. She put me on hold but forgot to hit the mute button. I could hear her making remarks to a co worker. She said "Our guys called him 48 times, and this idiot thinks it's going to stop." She said this laughing. Next time hit mute Jill. After reading the thousands of complaints for the same thing on the BBB, I know that LA Fitness is running a scam of harassment and bullying people into paying them. Even though they are month to month. Maybe leave the hard pushing tactics to your trainers Jill, us consumers are fed up.

Hot tub service men came to work on hot tub and said it hadn't had any chlorine in the spa for weeks. They told me to get out that the water could be diseased and that they were going to "Shock" the water.
I asked for a week to have sauna cleaned out because there was food or fecal matter in sauna. Finally someone wiped up the mess. I don't think it has ever been actually cleaned. This place should be inspected by the CENTER for DISEASE CONTROL.

This is the shadiest business I have ever dealt with. I tried to cancel my membership 3 times and the kept charging my credit card. I went down to see them to straighten it out and they we so rude to me. I screamed at them but it didn't make any difference. I went online and found literally thousands of complaints about them taking money out of peoples accounts after they had cancelled agreements.

I would love to see this business go under or the BBB investigate and shut them down. I have never been so angry and frustrated with a business I had entrusted my credit card with. Its on the same level as the famous Acai berry scam where once they have your credit card details your basically screwed...

If you are reading this please, please if you are not signed up with them don't, you will regret. if you already are a member make sure that the day that you wish to quit your membership or especially ( as I have read hundreds of others complain) if
you have signed for personal trainers and wish to cancel, take my advice and even though its a real drag, cancel your credit card straight away and have new one issued. You will save yourself a great deal of grief and prevent them stealing from your account.

Today I filed a complaint with my bank to have 3 months worth of stolen money from my account returned to me. I gave them all the details. I am getting the money back into my account next week & I am hoping that it wont be reversed after investigation. All they have to do is look up the list of all the other people that have complained about the same business I am sure who also bank with Chase. Gathered on how many complaints listed online about the same behavior to hundreds of others I am hoping i had a win with all of this.

Be warned. By the way Planet Fitness is so much cheaper and just as good of a gym. I have been with them for over 2 years and the people are really nice and it only costs $10 a month. I live in a poor neighborhood and the gym is a little crowded, there are small things that have come up that are complaint worthy in the past, but really $10 a month, how can you go wrong with that?

LA Fitness opened a new club in Kirkland. They call it a "Signature" club. The "Signature" designation is made for only one purpose, to avoid having to honor contracts they took over from Bally's. This is a scam. LA Fitness has another club in Bellevue. With the exception of providing towels that most clients do not use, the clubs are identical. The club charges an extra $5 per visit to members that bought contracts through Bally's where rates were guaranteed to remain constant just because management calls the new club a "Signature" club. Clients are getting ripped off. Now there is talk of the company going public, and for major owners selling out their stake. Before you sign any contract with these people, get the facts. Lawsuits are already being filed against LA Fitness.

The membership agreement I signed with LA Fitness states the following:

"You (the member) have seven business days to cancel this contract. If you so cancel, any payments made will be refunded and any evidence of indebtedness executed by you will be canceled."

Later it states

"To be effective, your cancellation must be postmarked by midnight, or hand delivered by midnight on 7/03/12"

Following these instructions, I sent my notice of cancellation via USPS Certified Mail on 7/3/12, thus meeting the deadline for the cancellation. Later, on 7/9/12, I received a notice of membership cancellation from LA Fitness via email. However the wording of the email concerned me, because, unlike the contract, the email stated that the membership would expire on 8/21/2012. Assuming my money would be refunded in full, the membership should have expired effective immediately.

In light of this, I called an LA Fitness representative that same day. She assured me that, if I submitted my notice of cancellation on time, I would certainly receive a refund. I informed her that I had not received the refund, and asked when I would receive it. She told me that she couldn't say.

After a month of waiting, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and with my credit card company. The credit card company temporarily refunded my money, but later reversed the refund due to a request from LA Fitness! So then I had to submit documentation proving that I filed the cancellation on time. Finally after two months of waiting, I received my refund.

This is clearly unreasonable, and violates the terms of the membership agreement. LA Fitness forced me to file all of these complaints before finally refunding the money they owed me. Had I not filed all of these complaints, I am certain they would have kept the money, even though I filed the cancellation procedures TO THE LETTER.

For a year, the word was out that this club was being built, and the word on the street was that any member with an all club membership would be able to go there. Then, within 30 days of opening, a last-minute decision was made by the owners to "brand" this a signature club - meaning that existing members either need to go in and pay a huge upgrade, or pay a drop fee on every visit. I went there last night to take a look at the place, and it is nothing special, compared to their other locations in the area. In fact, it is a smaller facility, more or less on a par with their regular clubs. Their only real competition in Kirkland is a 24-Hour Fitness location that is a complete dump, that the owners have let fall into dis-repair. This is a classic example of price gouging, and a disservice to their existing customers. It seems like a prime target for a class action lawsuit.

I recently joined LA Fitness that is only opened 2 months. After working out i noticed 3 paper towel machines were empty and many of the treadmills had stains on it. I went to the front desk to advise them. After about 15 minutes nothing had changed and i saw members go to put soap on their hands and had nothing to wipe them with. i went back to the front desk and was told they were all out and would not have any for the next 4 days . this is totally unacceptable.The germs and sweat are all over the machines.and it is discusting.i was also told the other facilities would not lend them any as they were running out too. how do you run a gym like this. when 3 more are opening up in the area.I also paid an enrollment fee of $69.00 only to find out if you sign up on line it is free. what a scam i am discusted already after only 2 days. Be careful

Stay away from LA Fitness. The whole corporation is a bunch of ###.
I just joined an LA Fitness in Schaumburg IL in May of 2012. It was a Ballys acquisition. I joined because it was near my new job. I specifically asked the sales guy about the future of the facility. He said they were remodeling it and it would stay open during construction. I said great and gave him $200 initiation fee. Now 2 months later they tell me the place is closing at the end of July! I ask for my $200 back and they say shove it. The contract reads that they can close any facility at any time and can transfer me to any LA fitness within 25 miles! They expect me to drive 30 minutes out of my way to go to an LA Fitness. The other locations are inconvenient. Alicia the customer care rep actually told me that they are within the bounds of the contract and that I should not get a refund because of an inconvenience. What? I thought they were in the business of attracting and retaining customers!
Do not under any circumstances sign a contract with these cheaters. They lied to me to get my money and are now treating me like dirt. These guys will lie to you to lure you in and leave you hanging the first chance they get. Lifetime and Xsport will bury these scammers soon. Don't get caught paying for a membership at a dying company..

This is the worse la fitness in existence horrible equipment trainers are wanna be and dont really know what they're doing and they have horrible customer service if you want to spend your money at an la fitnesss dont spend it at the one in winter park fl they are racist and incompetent and will only hurt you more than they will help you