LA Fitness — Attraction in Edina

I cannot make this stuff up:

I was given a Free Week guest pass by the sales associate at LA Fitness in Edina, MN. ( I have in hand today still ) 3 days ago as I’m very interested in joining a gym as winter has arrived ( I’m in MN ) and I can no longer exercise outdoors daily. I arrived for my third day of my “ trial period “ to workout, dressed and ready to go, chatted with my sales associate upon entering the building and told him please email me today as I am ready to sign up and join! He said will do buddy and have a great workout today! Immediately two seconds later, some young kid at a random near by cubicle starting getting very involved in our conversation that was overwith in two seconds and forced me to show him my guest pass in front of my sales associate ( after I was already in ) and told enjoy your workout by my sales associate and furthermore, had already confirmed that I am joining this fitness center officially now With my Sales Associate. This person never once introduced themselves or explained why they showed such great interest in me becoming a member of the fitness center. He then proceeded to tell me that I absolutely cannot continue my free guest trial pass, as even though my current guess pass given to me by my Sales associate very clearly states in very large bold lettering, “ ONE WEEK FREE GUESS PASS” on the back of their sales associates business cards. Troy, the alleged “ general manager ” immediately told me that that’s just their business card only and that’s actually not the guest passes that they use now. I asked why do you give this to your new potential guests as their “ free trial period guest pass “ then? He responded with, “ your trial is done “. I had originally first inquired about joining 4 Days ago. I had been there twice only. I let them know there is no need to send me the contract anymore. Clearly hospitality, sales, & customer service are not of importance to this company. I highly, highly recommend not joining this fitness Center. You deserve better. I sincerely hope for corporates sake that this Troy gets the opportunity to become educated in sales, hospitality, & customer Service as it’s truly unfortunate to see such a great brand become so damaged on a daily basis by one uneducated and unprofessional individual. I’m looking forward to joining Lifetime Fitness...

Pros: I LOVE my personal trainer (Brittany), and there is always more than enough space and equipment in the mornings (I go 6-8am)

The membership cost, not including the trainer, is only $32 because my roommate and I are on a family plan. Super affordable.

The people there in the morning are friendly, non-threatening, and mostly just stick to themselves. I don't feel intimidated.

Cons: Mirror/hair dryer space in the mornings can get too crowded, and dryers are super weak. I know, I can just bring my own, but my bag is already pretty full and I'm lazy.

The hard sell upon signing up SUCKS. I don't want to feel pressured into anything, I don't want to have salespeople offer me any "special deals," and I don't want to feel like I can't ask questions without giving them more room to push harder. Just, stop it you guys. (Full disclosure: I DID get a trainer, but it was after the hard sell and I just picked a price I could afford and thought was reasonable and brought it to them to see if they would accept it. They did. My biggest complaint is that I wish I could get a trainer monthly instead of being locked into a year-long contract. in the end, it was totally worth it for me because I need the accountability and motivation to even start exercising at all. I won't do it again once my contract is up.)

The bathrooms often aren't cleaned by 6am yet. It's not a huge deal, but having a nice clean space to come to that early in the morning makes a difference.

Seriously, why can't we just have towels provided?

Wipe stations are just paper towels and sanitizer.

So, three stars because they are affordable but still have almost everything I want. The biggest reason I didn't give 4 stars is because of that hard sell and closed-off attitude of the employees...

Disappointed. I went to work out this morning and found the Womans locker room and bathrooms without paper towels and garbage filled to brim, toilets, vanities, showers etc...very dirty and disgusting. I went to front desk and they responded but said they had no female janitors coming in until 3 pm. but would get towels installed if they can get room cleared out if I could assist. I let them know that if they gave the towels and key to open the towel holders I would gladly help by doing it for them. They showed me and I got it done. I think that the all male team who opened today could’ve taken care of this and other areas prior to opening and think someone dropped the ball.

Also, while I’m writing this I want to let you know that I think the ‘trainers’ area is a put off to members and trainer Jim being Mr. Eagle Eye on anyone who crosses the line. I get that the trainers need some space with clients but when trainers take weights and equipment from regular member area and do not return is disrespectful. Also, I want to use functional equipment but don’t need a trainer, why can’t we get this same equipment? Not fair. So after you train paying personal trainer clients you then exclude them from this area?

Managment if you are reading I hope you use this as an opportunity to change how you manage your team and how you treat ALL members. If you should want to talk further about how to enhance member experience please feel free to reach out to me, you have my information!

Thanks so much and I look forward to hearing from you.

Your loyal...