LA Fitness — Attraction in East Brunswick Township

DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS GYM. They use bait and switch tactics to misrepresent the service they're selling you and get you to sign up for a 52 week personal training session that you can't cancel without paying the gym several hundred dollars. I'm currently trying to resolve this problem with unhelpful staff and corporate office. This gym is mediocre for paying $30 a month. There's a lot that the gym is trying to offer - machine and weights wise - in too small of a space, which makes the entire gym feel crowded even when it's not. The class selection isn't that great either.

I've been a member of LA Fitness for about 3 months. I just moved to the area and wanted to join a gym. This new gym was appealing to me because it would be cleaner with reliable machines. I also figured that the staff would be good at dealing with new clients, as I had never signed up for a gym membership before. I signed up and even did the personal fitness assessment. I talked to a guy about personal training and after everything was explained to me I thought it would be a good idea because it seemed affordable and I could cancel my month to month billing at any time.

What I unknowingly did was sign up for a 52 week personal training program. The salesman told me that I could sign up for 25 minute training sessions which were discounted deeply right now because the gym was brand new. He said that the average time people used personal trainers were for 10 months - to see and solidify results. Again I thought everything was reasonable and I could cancel at any time. At no point did he mention that it was a year long program. Had that been the case I wouldn't have signed up on the spot but explored different options to try out the service because I was truly interested in trying it. You also sign up on the computer so any fine print is very hard to read. If you look at the file they email you on your phone it just comes up as a fill form with no information in it. You have to be on a computer to read the copy you actually signed...with zoom to see the fine print.

I soon realized that training sessions were just okay and I enjoyed working out on my own much more than the training and the money spent wasn't worth it. I've recently tried canceling this with both this location and the corporate office. I learned that if I wanted to cancel I would have to pay $700. The woman I spoke to offered to "throw a few extra sessions my way" and suggested that "may there was someone else would I could give the sessions to". Aside from that my best bet would be to move to an area where there was no LA Fitness in a 25 mile (50 miles when talking to corporate) radius.

I'm now filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in NJ. If this happened to you too I encourage you to file a complaint... after doing some research on canceling this I found out LA Fitness is notorious for this bait and switch tactic and this gym is participating too. I ultimately say avoid this gym all together because it's honestly not worth the hassle of what I'm going through right now. I plan on canceling this personal training bs and then canceling my membership all together. This has been a...

I have been a member of LA Fitness on Rt.18 in East Brunswick since January 2020, and have been going 3-4 times a week (except for the several months the gyms were closed due to Covid-19). A couple weeks ago without any notification or alerts to their members LA Fitness Rt.18 changed their brand to ESPORTA and began renovations to their policies, equipment, and attitude… to that of mobsters. I have been paying a $50 membership fee for single gym use including sign up fees and bi-annual fees since January, but ESPORTA’s most exclusive multi-club membership costs $25 a month without any sign up fees and includes several more amenities than my twice as expensive membership to the same exact gym!!

Today I inquired about switching my membership from LA Fitness single-gym $50+ dollars a month to their most expensive $25 dollar membership… for the same gym. I was told that if I wanted to switch I would have to pay a $190 conversion fee, and that I could not simply quit LA Fitness and join ESPORTA because that would be somehow illegitimate and unlawful and they screen their applications and prohibit this behavior. Therefore if I wanted to continue to use their gym I would have to pay the inflated price of $50 dollars a month ($25 more than their most expensive membership) or I would have to pay the $190 dollars up front.

When I inquired about quitting the gym, I was told that was not even an option! I was told by the manager that there is no way that I would be able to quit my gym membership through the online portal, I would also not be able to quit the gym today because the only person who can do that for me works Monday-Friday, and if I wanted to speak to her I would have to call and make an appointment first.

Don’t you love when you sign up for a gym, but without warning they change to a whole different gym and give you an ultimatum of paying their extortion fees up front or on a monthly basis without giving you a way out unless you jump through hoops and I am positive pay a hefty cancellation fee, that is if I am ever able to schedule this appointment in the first place.

PS – On Thursday 12 November, ESPORTA Rt. 18 decided to put in an afro-turf in half of the gym space they typically use for equipment. But don’t worry because they didn’t take any equipment out, they just smashed it all together until you feel like you are sitting on the lap of the person next to you while you are exercising. Not only is there no social distancing, they are pretty much leaving you no choice but to rub elbows with everyone the entire time you are there....

I wasn't going to post a review but the rudeness of the middle aged Caucasian woman at the front desk at 9am this morning made me feel like I had to. First of all, I wasted about 5 minutes prior to my workout just trying to find a working machine. A good 30% of the machines have had "out of order" signs for the past few weeks, but the other 20% of the machines are traps that aren't working and you waste your time figuring that out after trying to use them. One of the machines that WAS working had a cell phone on it. I didn't want to touch the phone because 1) I didn't want the owner/anyone seeing me thinking I was stealing it and 2) I don't want to be responsible for potentially dropping and breaking someone's expensive $1K plus property. I still wanted to do the right thing though, so after my workout, on my way out the door, I approached the aforementioned woman at the front desk, who was on a cell phone. I waiting a second until she gave me the "What?" nod and raised her eyebrows at me. First offense of no polite greeting to the customer.

I continued,

"Hey, sorry - someone left their cell phone on one of the ellipticals. Just wanted to let you guys know in case she comes back.' She responded, "Where is it?" I repeated, "On one of the ellipticals, next to the guy wearing blue right now."

So...then then says, "Can you go get it then?"

I was a little taken back I was being asked to take more of my own time as I was clearly leaving the building. But I politely replied, "No, it's not my property so I'm not comfortable touching it...I just wanted to let you know." She just continued to stare at me looking annoyed and then proceeded to get back on her cell phone without saying another word to me. No "Thanks for letting us know" no, "Have a great day." Nothing.

I guess she wanted me to take more time out of my day to better the quality of the customer service at Esporta? Maybe I should run home, print out some more Out Of Order flyers and paste them on later today too to help other people and myself save more time in the future? Should I schedule some time to go to the workout machine companies to learn how to fix their machines and swing by and fix those...