LA Fitness International

I've been a member with LA Fitness shortly after the doors opened in their Mill Creek, WA (approximately 3 years) location and started attending the Everett, WA location the same day the doors opened. My wife decided she wanted to join under my account, so she went in to inquire about it. There was a promotion going on that wasn't supposed to end for a few days, so she decided to join based on that promo. Well, after all her info was input into their system, the rep tells her that the system was allowing the code to go through, so she wouldn't be able to benefit from that promo. She decided to put it on hold and discuss it with me. I called the gym to inquire about it and they said that no one was available at the time and Harald would call me back. Well, Harald never called back (even after multiple calls to the gym for him), so I called again and asked for the manager. Surprising, Harald now became available since I was escalating to a manager. So after the phone conversation not going anywhere, we decided to go in and speak with Harald. He said basically the same thing the other rep said, so we finally decided on a membership that sort of worked. I really do felt that they were just trying to lure customers in with the promo and not honor it. If the system wasn't honoring the code at that time, then they should have applied it once they figured it out on their end. The manager Matthew never called back either (after leaving him a few voicemails).

After some time, my wife began traveling often, so we felt the membership wasn't needed. I called in to the local gym to cancel (because they have it designed where a customer can't cancel online, over the phone, or call into membership services to do it). After speaking with Mike, he said that I would have to physically come into the gym and fill out a cancelation form. I asked him if it could be faxed to me and I fax it back in...his reply was no, you have to physically come into the gym to do it. I told him that it sounded like LA Fitness wants customers to come into the gym so they can try and bargain about the cancellation and possibly more high pressured sales tactics. Mike's reply was "Are you kidding me, do you think we're going to high pressure you over a $29 membership, come on now" (and that's word-for-word). I immediately asked for a manager because Mike obviously thought he was talking to one of his boys on the block! Well, Harald gets on the phone and poses as the manager. I specifically asked Harald if he was the manager (I already knew he wasn't and that Matthew was) and his reply was yeah, sort of. I immediately asked him for corporate's number because I didn't appreciate asking for the gym manager and getting one of Mike's peers to pose as the manager. Harald's reply was that there wasn't a number to contact corporate. Really, do you expect me to believe that the reps in the Everett gym are the end-all be-all for LA Fitness! After searching the net, I found the number to member services and actually canceled my wife's account over the phone (after the Everett LA Fitness said you have to physically come in) and received a confirmation email on it.

I am now looking into a different gym for a membership for myself! The reps at the Everett LA Fitness gym have terrible customer service and I would never refer anyone to them again! Please beware of that gym. Their service was so bad that I don't even think I'll give the Mill Creek location a second try. I wouldn't want to keep investing in a business that rewards the Everett gym for their horrible service.

FYI...if anyone needs the number to their member services (because Everett gym won't give it to you and will tell you that you have to come in to cancel), here it is: [protected] (option 5)