Extreme Fitness reviews and complaints

I tried to cancel my membership. The staff that signed me up were visibly mad. They wouldn't listen to what I got to say. All they care about is the monthly/annual membership fee with disregard to the customer service. And to also add to the fire, the front desk had me wait on the General Manager for about 2 hours, thinking that I'd just walk away!

I was tricked into signing up for training thinking that I would only pay for training based on the months used. In my case I was going to use my sessons in 2 months which made me think I was only going to pay $120~ for 2 months. Litttle did I know they were going to charge me 60.50 for twelve months straight at a cost of 80dollars PER hour training session:S How I caught there scam was when my nutrionist told me if I wanted to keep training I needed to sign up for more sessons. Which I did, but then that started another set of payments. So they where trying to take out 100.50 dollars for my membership. I was so mad when I discovered this and tried to withdrew my membership but they will not let me. Upon signing of contract NO TOTAL was told, now iam faced with 1000 dollars in dept, Im a university student and was lured into, i find it very unethical and something should be done about this, if you look at many fb groups and only blogs, you can see this is only 1 in a thousand scams that are going on, with business'like this operating, in a country likE canada, it brings down the trust consumers have in service providers and business, it shouldnt be tolerated, organizations should have ethical values not money fiending tactics like this, im very disapointed, if there is anyting you guys can do about it please take action soon, people are being scamed as you read this itself

Long story short,

my wife has 'Perpetual' membership with Extreme Fitness signed up on March 9, 2010 and as it states on contract, completion date is March 9, 2011.
On March 9, 2010 the initial payment was processed, and starting May 1, 2010 until January 1, 2011, the remaining 9 payments were processed.
Knowing these scammers would try to take money out, I stopped the payment on January 2, 2011 so that no further payment can be processed.

My wife went to the gym on February 8, 2011 and was rejected entry due to 'non-payment' and that when I spoke to the general manager today (Feb. 9, 2011) I owe them payment for the month of February 2011 and threaten that I will hear from their collection agency.

I am acknowledged with 14 days cancellation notice and I am willing to send them out a letter, 14 days before the contract completion date, which is MARCH 9, 2011, however according to their contract, (where I do not see a section), I was supposed to give them written notice 14 days before February 1, 2011, which in their record, is the next payment date. (I found out with the bank that I did try to take a payment out of my account on February 1, 2011 but was rejected as to my request)

My complain is,
1. Where in the contract says that 14 days before February 1, 2011 was the last day to give them the written notice of termination? Does anyone see it there?
2. They froze my wife's membership, probably as of February 1, 2011 when their payment withdrawal did not go through. Isn't the membership good through Mar-09-2011 anyway?
3. I never received a letter from Extreme Fitness, (30 to 90 days before the COMPLETION DATE) for renewal or how much my month-to-month membership would cost. In the contract is says that CAN increase the monthyl membership fee up to 10%. Was I supposed to agree to it without any written proposal?
It clearly states on the contract that my wife is obligated to make 1 initial payment and 9 monthly dues payments, not 10 or 11.

I do not really care about the membership anymore. I will probably stick up my third finger to them everytime I drive by any of their locations. The fact that the general manger threaten that I will hear from their collection agency in regards to the February's payment bothers me.

Attched is the copy of the contract with all names and addresses, info removed. I also submitted a complaint to BBB Canada. Will they help me?

Xtreme fitness in Redding, California used to be a nice clean place. When it first opened, the staff was nice and courteous, and they kept the place clean. I used to know them by name and they would greet anyone that came in. I also saw them cleaning the place all the time to make sure it was a good environment.

Not anymore.

The place is always a mess. It is such a mess that other members don't even try to re-stack the weights in the proper order anymore. In the free weight area, there are dumbbells, weights, and grips scattered everywhere, and they are a tripping hazard. Dumbbells are also stacked on top of other weights so that in order to get to some of them, you have to pull them out from underneath. Some of them are ready to fall on a foot or toe if they are jolted or if you try to get some other weights that are next to them. It is only a matter of time before someone gets hurt and sues.

The staff could keep it clean and in order to set a good example, and I am sure it would help to motivate other members to help and keep the place clean. But right now the mentality is "I am a member and I shouldn't have to clean this place up" so the place gets to be even more of a mess as other members leave stuff wherever they drop it.

When the gym first opened the staff used to greet me and I got in the habit of greeting the staff. But gradually the staff changed and there are all new people there. Some of them are still great, but most need social skills. One guy, thinks he is too cool. I used to try to nod, and greet him like the rest ofthe staff, just being friendly, but all I got back was a silent stare, each and every time. Needless to say, after a while I gave up.

Another time I was up front and another lady came up to the front desk. This same guy was talking to another staff member and he looked at her then continued his conversation with the other staff member. He saw her there, but he ignored her for about 5 minutes so he could continue his conversation that wasn't even work related. The lady finally had to interrupt them to get any type of help, even though they both saw her, and could have assisted her at any time.

We also pay a maintenance fee every year as part of membership that is supposed to take care of equipment. But some of the pads have worn out and are "fixed" with silver electrical tape. There are tread mills that have not worked for months, and still do not show signs of being fixed. And they have been that way for over a year.

The management needs to get it together and treat their members better.

I am looking for another gym in the mean time...

I think I see a pattern here.

DO NOT fill out those stupid ballots - there IS no prize. EVERYBODY wins '2nd prize', and when you invariably discover you've been scammed, they will very conveniently tell you that the representative who signed you up and lied to your face 'no longer works there'.

I 'collected my prize' at the Yonge & Dundas location from a rep named Brooks, and gave them my credit card info ONLY after I made Brooks take me through the ENTIRE contract and made him guarantee MULTIPLE times that I could cancel the contract at any time with 2 weeks written notice.
As it turned out, my new residence and the company where I started working both had on-site fitness centres, so after about a month (I hadn't had time to use the gym even once at that point), I went in with my written notice to cancel my membership - note that this was ONE month into my 4 free months.
I was directed to the manager, Alex Kumar, who told me that I was actually locked into paying $125/month after my 4 months was up, for the remaining 8 months of the year. He was extremely rude, and clearly trying to intimidate me, and kept saying, "You SIGNED a contract, it's legally binding". I asked to speak to Brooks, and was informed, surprise surprise, that HE NO LONGER WORKED THERE.
At that point, I asked them to pull up my contract to look at, and they said their computer system didn't run on weekends (?!) . I went back three days later, and Alex, once again, said that their system was down. At that point, I lost my temper a bit and told them I would instruct my credit card company not to authorize any payments to Extreme Fitness. I also said that I thought their whole 'contest' was a scam and a rip-off. At that point, Alex magically snapped into action (maybe it was due to the fact that the office was busy with a bunch of other 'contest winners' who were there to collect their prizes). Within seconds, he pulled up a scanned copy of my contract on the computer. And wouldn't you know it - my signature was nowhere on it. It was a completely different piece of paper than the one I'd signed. It then took all of ten minutes for them to cancel my membership. Just to be on the safe side, I had my credit card cancelled and replaced, so that they would not be able to sneak in any charges after terminating my account.

Well, I didn't think it would happen to me, but alas, I've been hoodwinked by Extreme Fitness!

I was working with a personal trainer, which was costing me 180$ a month (steep, but somewhat manageable). Anyways, my personal trainer told me my sessions would be coming to an end, and I should renew to ensure a smooth transition. I sit down with a manager, scrutinize the contract, it looked fine, so I decide to continue.

15 days later when I get billed, direct deposit style, my account it virtually raped. Checking my account statements, I see Extreme Fitness has charged me a bunch of times, over 600$ worth of fees!

So I rush into the Extreme office thinking they've made a mistake... nope, apparently when I signed, they are still charging me 180$ a month for the first 5 months a session, and now an additional 300$ for the next sessions, essentially shouldering 600$ a month with gym fees tossed in there. I had combed over the contract while at home, and it's 'legit', it's what's not in the contract and what they DIDN'T tell me that's screwing me over.

I'm flabbergasted, told them they didn't tell me I'd be double-billed if I renew services, thought I'd be billed in the same manner as before. The manager had assured me they could break up the costs into smaller installments before I has signed, so I ask him to do that. He tells me no, tough ###, go to your bank, get a credit card and start paying off your dues ASAP.

SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS a month? I barely make 400$ a week as a fledgling freelance designer, who can support costs like that?

I spent 4 hours of my time trying to quit Extreme Fitness yesterday, (as well as most of the weekend playing phone tag with managers, or dealing with people who didn't have any authority to cancel my account) Spent the Monday chasing runaway managers and trying to jump through hoops.

While waiting for an hour for a manager to emerge from his office, I poke my head in to realize he'd slipped out! Pissed, I sat in his office, and on his desk there was a giant stack of letters, all dated from June, essentially saying, 'I canceled my account and you're still billing me; You're double billing me, cease and desist!', etc...

I finally managed to corner the manager while roaming the building and we went to see the head honcho together. My paperwork to 'move' looked fine, and I could quit, IF, I pay them 171$ to cover my 'free' three months that were on gym membership. They also told me, there was no guarantee my account will actually be canceled, it was the discretion of head office to approve or deny, they were simply sending my request to them...

Anyways, I was frustrated, yelled at them, called their scam, told them I was closing my bank account, and dared them to bring their collection agency after me...

DON'T SIGN WITH THEM! UNTIL I WAS RIPPED OFF, I WAS MORE OR LESS SATISFIED WITH THE GYM ITSELF! DON'T BE FOOLED!

Sign up in April 2009 for $8/month for 2 months no contract. Told the sales person that i wanted to try this location because it's close to work and want to see how it will go. Was instructed that to cancel need to send a letter 14 days before my 2 months special expired. So i did (and they have it on file, i saw it with my 2 eyes) After couple of weeks realized that they still charging me on my card (give them the card in the first place since it's their policy and they need to have it on file so i could have my 2 month special)

So i went to interchange location, talked with the manager (he was playing a game on his computer and had a grin on his face. Completely ignored me, kept repeating that there is nothing can be done. and i shouldn't sign up in the first place now it's my problem. The girl that(sales rep.) that sign me up in the first place no longer works there, so he smiled about it. Told me leave, nothing he can do, but to add all of the downtown clubs for free. I am moving soon to Barrie, Ontario, there is no extreme there, why do i need all these downtown Toronto clubs.

Yesterday I received a call - message from an Extreme Fitness representative Alessandra Panno stating that I had won the second prize (free month membership, free consultation and 240$ towards the purchase of anything relating to the center) to a contest I had entered (I had filled out a ballot at a local restaurant). My friend, Michelle, called Allessandra back and got all the information necessary to claim our 'prize' and finally we were scheduled for an appointment to consult with her about how to get my free month and other prizes. And now that I think of it, I know why they gave Michelle a free month as well.

Like so many others have stated, they sweet talk you and get you to think that you actually won something. we were a little skeptical about signing up on a contract but for monthly fees, its 129$/month. So we asked Alessandra if we could cancel anytime during the contract as we might be moving away. She said and I quote 'Oh yes, for sure, no problem there. Here hold on, it's written here on the contract...' She paused because she couldn't find it then said 'Hold on, I'll go see the manager'.

We waited a minute or so and when she came back she said 'Yes, there's no problem there, all we need i proof that you moved at least 25 km's away.' So we signed without actually reading through the whole contract and they now also have our credit card information. Alessandra clearly stated 'We need your credit card information on file to process all the information. We weren't quite done yet.

A dude came along and booked us for an assessment evaluation as to where we were physically. Both Michelle and I didn't really want this physical assessment as we just wanted to hop on a treadmill and do our own thing... But they pressured us into one. And then we shook hands and left.

When we got home, I really didn't like the way they pressured us into getting an assessment done so Michelle called and asked if we could skip that and just get access to do our own thing in the gym... They didn't want to. Michelle spoke with a manager and he told us and i quote again 'It's the first time in my life that I've heard people say they don't want a free assessment done'. Oh really? well there's always a first and I'm not proud of my body and don't need anyone telling me how bad it is, that's why I don't want... I can assess myself thank you.

So michelle got really upset with the way they handled the situation and I told her to nevermind my so called 'prize' and call back to cancel everything. What do you know... nobody was available. We have 10 days to cancel and this is day 2... I will be going there tomorrow, in person to cancel everything and I will show them that they are committing FALSE PRETENCES. I've read many cases of individuals who fell victim to their scam... and it's not right!

I am sure I won't be able to get out of it unless drastic measures are taken. Whatever it takes, whatever I have to do, whoever wants to help... I've got a few teachers and old co-workers who have worked all their lives in the law enforcement field and I have personally attended college and have basic knowledge regarding the Canadian Law. We have rights and Extreme Fitness is taking them away from us. We put our trust in to this company and they put our money in their account.

FALSE PRETENCE is a representation of fact, either past or present, by words or otherwise known to be false, made with fraudulent intent or to induce a person to act on it.

The personal trainers at Extreme Fitness at Yonge and Dundas are immature and ruthless.
I saw them in the act of vandalizing a goodlife ballot box, more than once. There were drawings of penis' and comments about how extreme fitness "rocks" all over the box. How old are they? They're being paid well, (20$+/hr per training session) and charging clients more than double. I don't even know how management hires these ###s.

A friend of mine got called up by extreme fitness telling her that she won 2nd prize in the Extreme Fitness ballot @ Yonge and Dundas. 2nd Prize consisted of a 1 year free membership. As excited as she was, she went downtown for her appointment with the trainer. It was not a free one year membership. They definitely terrible people to deal with. They asked for her credit card and bank card and photocopied all of that stuff and then started talking about how it was NOT FREE. It was 80$/month with 2 "free" months. Jesus thats even worse than Goodlife Fitness (50$/month) which I have also having a loathing for. Next day my friend told them she wanted to cancel the contract with Extreme Fitness, the trainer asked "How much are you paying at Goodlife?". How is that any of their business? They even said they would lower the contract to the same amount Goodlife was asking for. This sort of tactic pisses me off to no end. If they really cared to give my friend a cheaper contract they would give her the free 1 year membership that she was told she'd won to begin with.

These gym centres are no longer about the clients/customers. Is all about them making money and making more of it. It sickens me to death.

I decided to get a gym membership at Extreme fitness in February. Several people told me not to go there because they rip you off and continue to charge your account after you cancel it. I decided to go there anyways because I figured it would not happen to me and that I would take care of it when the time came. When setting up my account I was told that I would be the primary on my account if I decided to add someone to it. I was also told that they do not do paper bills and that I would have to give them my credit card number so they may bill me every month. I paid the outrageous membership fee and agreed on forty dollars coming out of my account every month.

I went to the gym for a couple months and kept checking my account to see that they had not pulled any money out of my account. I called the gym and they could not locate my account and said they do not deal with billing. They instructed me to call the company that does the billing, ABC financial. After waiting several minutes I was transfered to someone who had no idea what was going on. She tried to locate my account and decided that I did not exist and that I was simply not being billed. Well that didn't make any sense so I once again called the gym and they told me not to worry about it. I asked them to have a manager call me back and of course no one did. April came around and I still hadn't been billed. Again I called giving them the other girl on my account, and they said again that I didn't exist. I gave them my agreement number that the gym had given me and she still couldn't find me. I called the gym again and of course they gave me the run around. Every time I called the gym they simply stated that someone would call me back and that it would be pointless for me to come in.

So, I went in, they looked up my account by the second person on my account. I asked him if he was sure that was the correct account because I was suppose to be the primary and that didn't make any sense. He said 'yea this is you, here is the right agreement number.' So I left and called ABC financial yet again. The person on the phone was again incompetent. I gave her the agreement number and explained to her what had happened. She claimed she had found my account and asked me if I lived off of college view. I said no that must be the wrong account. (The other person on my account has a very common name, so it was very plausible that there would two people with her name going to this gym). She insisted that was me and began to enter my current information in place of hers! She told me that I had been going to the gym since October. I tried explaining again to her that that was not my account and that she had just replaced someone elses information with mine because that was not my address nor the second person on the account. She also gave me the other persons credit card! Which I told her I don't have a credit card with those numbers and that this was again not my account. She basically just talked to me like I was a crazy person and created more problems for the company she works for.

By doing this she made it more difficult for me to located my account. I kept calling and began to feel very helpless. The gym would send me to ABC and ABC would send me back to the gym. They made it impossible for me to pay my bill. All I wanted to do was pay them. After going through this mess I decided that it would be best to cancel my account because it was causing so much stress that I didn't need, and ruining my perfect credit. Again I called in June and tried to find my account and cancel it. They kept taking me to the wrong account that wasn't mine. I finally talked to someone who found my account through another name and the wrong address and she told me that I had been sent to collections! I was furious! Here I was trying to pay them thinking my account didn't even exist and maybe I didn't owe them anything and I had been sent to collections. I was never billed and the agreement they made with me was false. She continued to tell me that she couldn't and wouldn't help me because now it had been sent to collections. She told me to call the gym and they would deal with it. Well I have been calling the gym for two weeks twice a day and still have not received an email or a phone call. They won't even talk to me there! So now I have decided to take them to Better business because of their lack of interest in one of their paying customers. I'd also like to add that when I called the collections company they had no problem finding me and I paid my bill in full that was suppose to be over several months.

I found extreme fitness's staff to be rude and not helpful. They were not knowledgeable of their job and could not even tell me the number to their corporate. ABC financial employees incompetent employees and I will never go through any company that uses them.

They are all nice when they want you to sign but when you want to cancel - they will not return your calls nor will the service you in person. Do not join this gym. They use aggressive tactics - this deal is only a special for this weekend and don't worry you cancel - is a lie. Do believe the marketing sheets that $8 no contract - this is not true.

Do NOT give them your credit card even though they say you cancel. This goes for all extreme locations.

Very disappointed and have the same complaints from others who have tried the trial 30 days - it is a hoax. They need your money to compensate for all the renovations they are doing to the gym.