LA Fitness — Attraction in Niles Township

Let me start off by saying that this is not a question, but a complaint about an employee and his practices. Now I frequent this particular X Sport because of the distance to my home and the 24/7 nature of the business. Some background about myself is my fitness goals consist of just staying in shape now that my football career is coming to an end. I was fortunate enough to participate in Bears rookie minicamp, arena football with the Chicago Rush, and CFL with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. What brings me to complain about this location and employee is that I am currently training my little brother as he attained a scholarship to play football at Robert Morris University. The unlimited guest pass seems to be perfect for us to utilize the facilities, primarily weights and the turf given the nature of what we both intend to accomplish. We have had issue with one particular employee on four different occasions that stick out. The first encounter we arrive at my usual time after midnight because at the time I was unaware of the 9pm guest pass rule. The employee said he will let us in if I purchase a “day pass” for my guest, which resulted in me having to purchase some merchandise at $20. I thought that was kind of shady, but I wanted to start our workout, so I bit the bullet. Next instance is we arrived at 9:02 which I understand is still pass the 9pm mark but it wasn’t so egregious but still had to lobby and pled my case. We were let in on the condition we didn’t use the basketball gym or the pool which wasn’t an issue for us because we had no intention on use those facilities anyway. A third encounter I made sure we arrive well before 9pm and ready to work but again the same guy had me jump through a hoop in some way shape or form by the way of photo ID. All my brother had was his school ID which the same employee said was “cool” and finally proceeded to let us in. Tonight, is the night where the final straw broke the camels back, we arrive on time and happen to run into the same employee who was now saying that I needed to register my guest and he needed government issue ID. I like to think I am a reasonable person and I fully understand rules, regulations, and policies but at the same time when running a business there has to consistency and employees must be able to educate their guest. The first to instance he DID NOT bother to ask for any ID of any form and the third let a school ID pass, how would one expect a customer to respond when every time they arrive some stipulation is added. Additionally, to make matters worse when I asked for a manager the employee asked me to sit, I kindly decline only for him to say he won’t summon a manager unless I did have a seat which I found to be very rude. Next, he went on to tell me that having the guest pass is a privilege, which is confusing to me because last I check I pay monthly for said privilege. When you pay for a service you get that service in a trade off, privilege sounds more like a gift from x sport, but I digress. I’m not sure if this particular employee has some sort of animosity towards me but given the track record, he insisted on give me a problem with every encounter, any other time we were let in no problem. My brother and I take our workouts very seriously and when we are there, we don’t hinder anyone from their workouts, don’t cause disturbances, we just handle business and leave. It has been very displeasing having to deal with said employee. To add I keep referring to the guy as employee because they didn’t have name tags and would give me his name. This all could have very well be avoid if from the very first encounter he had suggested I register, check ID, inform me of what ID, and just plain been more professional about it. At this point I'm convinced he just wanted to give me a hard time every time he saw me which is not a good look for the X Sport knowing employees can have personal vendettas with...

Unless you're an already buff dude with 200 pounds of muscle who never needs help from staff, this is not the gym for you.

I hate this gym. And I'm somehow paying more for it.

Let me walk you through a general workout. We'll start with a quick warmup on elliptical. That's fine. On to stretching. Wait, why is no one wearing a mask on the stretching mat? It says you can take off a mask only when actively working out, and I KNOW stretching isn't that exhausting. Maybe one of the staff will come over and... nope. They're way over at the check in desks, on their phones.

Time for bench press. Now, I'm 120 pounds and can't warmup with the 45-pound bar, so I need to get the 30-pound straight bar from the rack...where is it? Not on the rack. No one's using it. I peer in the training room. No. Group fitness room? No. Other rooms? No. Basketball court? No. Stretching area? No.

I go the guys at the desk, who are still on their phones. Oh, one of them picked up the gym phone to look busy. That's nice. The other gives me a blank look and asks me if I looked in all the places I have obviously looked.

Cool. So I've wasted 15 minutes now, gotten all my day's steps in going back and forth, and I still can't warm up.

Not a great bench workout, but moving on. Time for the cable row. Once again, I'm not a giant buff dude who can go from 55 pounds one set to 70 pounds when I'm ready to move up. I need some weight add-ons. You know, like they have at EVERY OTHER XSPORT GYM. But no, not here. They do not cater. So I improvise by finding a 5 or 10 pound weight from a squat rack... Well no. There are only 45 pound weights on those. A different machine then. It takes me 10 minutes to find one. Why? Because ALL I SEE ARE 45s. Yeah, the picture I took below? There are over FORTY 45s, six 5s, and zero 10 or 25 pound weight add-ons. NO ONE USES THAT MANY HEAVY WEIGHTS.

I finally find a round 10 pound add-on to do my rows, and now it's time to get a 10 pound dumbbell for the next workout. SURELY that won't be a hitch right?

Wrong. So so wrong. There are 2 sets of 10 pounds on the lifting rack. They are both missing. No one around me is using them. Because apparently people CANNOT PUT THE LIGHT WEIGHTS UP???? and of course the staff wouldn't enforce that or even do a quick clean up of weights that look unused. So no 10s. But I know there are lighter weights in the group fitness room because I use the 7.5 and 12.5 pound weights. I depend on those for my routine, so thank goodness for them.

Wait, the bins are locked. Only the 15s are available. Okay. I go ask the infamous front desk. The guy with the keys...is on a break??? Are you KIDDING ME? How is there not a protocol to pass the keys to someone else during that?

FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER he tells me that we can't have those bins unlocked from now on. They're only for groups doing their workouts. Which ones of the few you're offering, XSport? The Zumba class or the yoga class? Because THEY DON'T USE THE WEIGHTS.

So there go my 7.5, 10, and 12.5 dumbbells. Which is nearly MY ENTIRE UPPER BODY AND ARM WORKOUT.

And nearly every day is like this.

TL;DR: you pay EXTRA for this place??? No. This location doesn't have the right equipment, staff at the front desk don't give a flying fish (although the guy who replaces the cleaning supplies and the manager who I don't see anymore are nice), and this place gives me a headache because I spend literally twice as much time there as I should because if stupid simple things. I actually...

Nightmare!!! Do yourself a favor, never ever signed up in this gym! I am a student and went there with my excitement to start going back on track on my active lifestyle. I signed up with the manager named "BILLY" he had me encouraged to do the 2 year one time payment plan because of my school discount. at that time it sound like a very good deal for me because then I don't even have to think of monthly payment. Gave my money closed deal! bam! Biggest mistake ever! Unfortunately I overlooked that I had my student load that will kicked in that following week, and I will be a little short with my budget. I went back there the following day, take note the following day! Not even 24hrs because I went there at night, and came back the next morning. I told the lady at the frontdesk that I needed to change my plan, that I just signed up yesterday and did the 2year one month payment plan, but I needed to change it to just one month payment plan instead. Right there, the nightmare began! The frontdesk already told me that she doesn't think it's possible, and I was like "what?" I informed her that I just recently signed up yesterday. She said that I needed to speak with "billy" the one who originally worked with me. Okay, but he was with a client. I waited and waited almost 1hr. I told the stuff, is there any other manager that could help me out? . And to my surprise, I was shocked because NO ONE wants to deal with my case. And i was like what the heck is going on. Like really! So fine, I already wasted almost 1hr of my time I might as well wait a little more. So here comes "BILLY" and i told him, hey I have to switch to monthly payment plan because I have unexpected bill to pay. The first thing he told me was... Oh you have to call customer service blah blah blah. And I wa like dude, I was just here with you yesterday, why is it sounds complicated. And if I have to call customer service what's up with the idea of helping me out since I already waited for you or tell me that you will take care of it. Instead of making me feel like I'm in the dead end and have to take care of it myself! So I got so upset and that's time he told me that he will change and call them by Monday. Monday came, Tuesday, Wednesday. I called him back, and he said that he already called customer service and should expect my mone by Thursday or Friday. Friday I called him back in the gym.. I was put on hold, for again half an he because they said he was again with a customer. I said fine. Is it possible to speak with any other manager just to look at my account. I spoke with this lady manager that I couldn't careless about her name because right after I told her my name, she didn't even look at my record and just told me you have to speak with "BILLY" and put me again on hold, and I was like lady he was with another customer but still put me on hold.. So I hang up, called customer service and told them what happened. And guess what, they told me to go to the location because they cannot see anything on the system. And I was like "seriously?!? Xsport! Really?! The customer service transferred me to the cancelation department which I've been waiting for forever! And now a week pass, and still can't get hold of anybody! And still hasn't get my money back! Crazy! The worst customer service! The worst experience ever! Very unprofessional! Guys! Please do not give your money to this people! THEY...