Life Time Fitness

This is a complaint on behalf of myself, but mostly my mom. I am visiting her for the weekend and she had the idea that we could go work out at the local lifetime fitness club, a club she has been a member of for over five years. Upon entering, I had to fill out some paper work and show my license, which was understandable. After this we were told to wait for a guest services representative. After several minutes, another group of members that had guests got to walk in and use the facilities after filling out the paper work. When we asked why, the woman at the front desk told us it was because they were from out of town.

Apparently, since I still have a Minnesota driver's license, it is company policy to try and sell me a membership, even though I only want to use a treadmill for an hour while my mom does yoga. She has run into similar problems when she has brought guests and she had had enough. So she asked to cancel her membership. The membership services representative who was supposed to meet us "right away" came to disparage her to no avail. Finally, while trying to cancel her membership on his computer and telling her she was "wrong" and that I might be interested in a student membership, "Philip" told her that his computer had frozen and he could not cancel the membership.

For being a membership services representative, 'Philip' was able to provide absolutely NO services. But this is only part of the problem. Customers should be treated with respect and graciousness at all times...members should be treated that way ten-fold. My mom has been a member of lifetime fitness for the better part of the decade. This means that she has made a commitment to this company and it is guaranteed payment once a month. Yet she gets treated like dirt when she tries to bring a guest every once and awhile, and when she goes to the salon, the staff constantly up-sells her, often without her knowledge. I understand the company need to try to generate more business, but in doing so they lost a once faithful member, one who will tell every friend and family-member that there are better health clubs out there and a "membership" at life time means little to nothing else then being preyed upon every time you walk through the door.