West Coast Fitness Lacey — Attraction in Lacey

My husband and I attended west coast fitness for multiple years beginning in mid 2022. I loved the gym at first, built community there, frequented the small businesses within (estheticians), and I worked with a personal trainer there. A few months ago I would’ve left a glowing review about the gym. While there are areas needing improvement it was exactly what you’d expect at the price point.

A few months ago my husband and I went to workout together as we always did. I paid for a membership with guest privileges for myself and he was my guest. He, like many others, was Olympic lifting. We had never been corrected before so had no idea about their new policy against Olympic lifting. The owner calmly asked my husband to not drop the weights. He was confused but agreed. After our workout he went to inquire about the dropping weights when he was using bumper plates, which were used by many in the gym for Olympic lifting. They had what appeared to all to be a cordial conversation about the new rule and all walked away with a new understanding. I did not think anything of the conversation. There were no raised voices or bad vibes at all.

At a later time my husband inquired about the process of canceling my membership because I am beginning medical school out of state. The employee gave him the information and it all seemed fine. I think this is where the miscommunication possibly occurred.

Next time I came in the gym alone and nearly completed my workout. I received a text on my phone asking me to go to the smoothie bar to speak with an employee. I was then informed that my membership had been terminated because “my partner did not like the Olympic lifting rule and requested to end the membership”. I was shocked. I explained that was not the case and was confused how that was understood from the conversation. The employee didn’t know what was going on and was very patient with me as I was upset and honestly so embarrassed by the situation. She promised to speak to the owner and call me back with more information.

She came through and ultimately they said I could have my membership back but that the owner was not comfortable with my husband returning! I was so surprised. I tried to inquire about why or to see if he could return with me to no avail. It was just me or neither of us.

To top it all off I did continue going to the gym as I only had a few months left and saw multiple people Olympic lift without correction.

I had multiple friends at the gym who had their memberships terminated similarly without conversation or warning and were offered no explanation. I am grateful I was told why, even though it made no sense to me.

Additionally, the gym markets itself as a gym supportive of the military community, but offers no monthly discount for military members like my husband.

I caution you to consider this before getting...

So disappointing.

I have been joining my family member under her pass for the last two months. The gym is okay. Not perfect but certainly not terrible. I have been debating getting a membership not attached to another person but wanted to make sure I was continuous with my working out.

The gals who work there are always super friendly and attentive.

Fast forward to today. We showed up at the gym, unknowing that it was no longer guest hours. We waited at the counter and no one came around to check it. So, we started to work out and would check in when someone showed up at the counter. About 5 minutes into being there a man approached and asked if we had both checked in. I let him know that no one was at the counter, but I could give him my ID for check in.

He stated that guest hours were over. My family member and I were both confused for different reasons. She was unaware that guest hours were early on Sunday and I was unaware that her membership level was guest only.

I made a comment to my family member that we would go to my gym and started gathering my belongings. The guy (we think was Nic but could be wrong) immediately started speaking aggressively to me that I was not welcome to return. I let him know that I wasn’t speaking to him, I was speaking to my friend, and before it escalated further, I walked away and out the door.

It’s really disappointing as a veteran family to be treated so rudely and without need. The least complicated and customer forward approach would have been to offer to check us in or allow people to pack up peacefully.

I’m sure this gym on a daily basis is a great place to work out, but one employee can absolutely ruin it.

Edit for response: I don’t know what kind of power and control move you are attempting with listing my full name. Are you attempting to intimidate me? (See: Consumer Review Fairness Act and RCW 42.56.050) Very inappropriate for both a City Council member to behave this way and for a gym that supposedly values caring for the safety of women. This is counterintuitive to that statement.

Again, your actions speak loudly for you.

No solution or conclusion was offered to the issue at hand and so we decided to leave. No favors were ever asked of you.

You received an appropriate reaction to your aggressive behavior when I told my family member we would just go to my gym.

Examples of appropriate reactions to create a solution: “Yeah, sorry you’ll need to head out and come back later”. “I hope you have a good workout at your gym and sorry for the inconvenience.” “Yeah sorry folks, see you later.” “Sorry for the confusion about membership tiers. Hopefully we’ll see you back during regular hours.” “Have you thought about joining as a member? If you come back later I can have an employee assist...

If you are military... STAY AWAY! Apparently, regardless of deployment orders they will still charge $125 cancellation fee. They stated I signed the contract that states I will pay for 6 months or pay $125. So I paid. I was unaware that wasn’t waived for deployments because I’ve broken leases and memberships to other gyms many times for deployments, no questions asked, and I figured “veteran owned” means they know and understand this life. I went in with my orders and wasn’t given a clear answer at first and was told I’d receive a call back from the owner. It took constant calling and sending emails to get a response of what they are going to do for me for my membership. They fly the “VETERAN OWNED” banner high, but that is only a facade, they don’t take care of their own. It was a nice place to workout when I was a member. I do not recommend for military members.

*Edit: Your facts are not straight. I brought the memo in early in the morning when I worked out on Wednesday march 17th and no, I did not expect an immediate response but I WAS however told that I would be receiving a call that morning about it, and I did not, I kept calling to talk to someone and finally said screw it I’ll just pay the fee, because as you stated, and so did your employee on the phone, I did in fact sign. Congrats bud, ya got me. Yes, it is a memo not “orders”, the way my unit employs is different than others but it is nonetheless considered operational and I do not need to explain that to anybody. This pandemic hasn’t only affected your gym, it’s affected the entire world, which also affected when I leave. And at one point I was possibly not ever going to leave. So, I didn’t bring it up to you guys because I had nothing set in stone until Tuesday March 16th, then immediately notified you guys. My memo signed from December, by my commander, that I use to BREAK MY HOUSING LEASE isn’t sufficient for your company, no matter the circumstances. Fine, it’s paid, you have your 142.22, and you also have this review.

Note: any one looking to join that is in the military please read more reviews than I did before taking a friends word of mouth, I’m not the...