Have been a member at Lifetime Austin north for 1.5 years - ever since we moved to US. Wanted to share my experience in last few days. It was very unpleasant and made me and my husband feel very unwelcome. The behavior of the front desk staff and the site manager who was favoring her and trying to cover for her behavior was very unfortunate.
I had put my membership on hold due to Covid and I thought of starting off by taking a trail class and then start membership if I feel comfortable and sure of moving forward.
I book a complimentary session (as I wanted to try first before reactivating), arrive at the front desk and am denied entry saying I cannot enter as I am inactive. I had expected that the instructor would have arranged for me to come in, but no problem. I think it's fair, given the circumstances. I ask front desk lady to call the instructor and let me speak to him. She blatantly answers that no instructor with that name is in the center. I then ask her to call someone else from that department so that I can speak to them. She tells me there is no one. I then request her to call the person who is taking the class I had requested for so that I can speak to them and clear the confusion. She tells me there is no such class going on at the moment. Frustrated, I call my husband. He had to come and let me in using his guest pass. I reach the class, instructor is there and class is in progress. He tells me I am late by 30 mins and it would be better to reschedule and come back. Fair again. I go back and leave the center.
I book for next Saturday, and come in again. This time I bring my husband to let me in. She checks in my husband, looks at me and says I cannot come in. Voila! There it starts again. She tells me I cannot be let in as my husband used his guest pass to let me in last time (remember that all I could do last time with that pass was reach the class and return back in literally 2 mins as I was late because of all the drama downstairs). we get frustrated. we say that first of all we couldn't really do anything with that guest pass. Secondly, they could have told this last time itself.
Anyways, I didn't want to bother dealing with inconsiderate people. I had to activate my membership ($80) per month to get into that trail class.
Experience was blown out of the window. Joining lifetime which is a premium club - I would expect better treatment. If nothing can be done - then at least politeness and good behavior is the least one can expect.
We went to the manager (Myra). She was another rude and insensitive person. She kept defending the front desk lady saying she was just following protocols. Where does the protocol say that don't allow guest to speak to an instructor (on request) or give incorrect information?
On top of all this, she being a manager tells me there are different departments at Lifetime and they don't deal with each other ! Imagine, I as a customer am expected to connect different departments within lifetime together ! How the organization is structured is totally immaterial to the customer. For us, the brand and the entity is one single unit.
In the end to share my frustration : the manager was super rude, leave aside any apologies for the inconveniences caused - she starts blaming me for coming in without pass. I say we are unhappy with the experience and the way we were treated. Made us feel very unwelcome. The manager cancels my husband's membership - says that's what you wanted. She did noth bother to confirm, or try to retain us.
Just makes me feel, that Lifetime as a brand does not care about retaining people. That is evident in the behavior of their front desk staff, their manager and their sales manager as well. I had spoken to everyone possible, but it seems there is no one who cares or is willing to listen.
Unfortunate, unpleasant...
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