LA Fitness — Attraction in Richardson

I like this gym. I really do. I got into LA Fitness thanks to a friend of mine who goes to another gym. I've grown to like my personal trainer KP and I like Jake, the manager who signed me up for personal training and got my registration for this gym all sorted away. I don't mind the $50/month. While the most I've ever spent a month at a gym, I can understand the pricing for it all. It's no skin off my back.

What I don't appreciate is how unhelpful they seem to be with their guests. I'm dealing with financial hardship that has essentially made paying for personal training and the gym a bit of a problem. The gym membership is fine-- I can cope with that. The personal training prices are insane though. The lowest tier is $240, and I chose the $360. And when I signed up, I hesitated, but I wanted to get back into fitness and I considered it worth the price. And, to an extent, I do. However, I failed to understand that cancelling said personal training is impossible unless you have the money to do their buy out. Basically, if you decide to cancel your membership for whatever reason, unless it's medical, you have to pay half of what's remaining of your bill. There's no "pay the next month's ahead of time" or easy cancellation. It is either a buy-out, or you bring a medical note saying proving that paying for personal training is not beneficial. You can imagine how distressing that is for someone.

For me, as someone who is working 24/7 to pay my own bills, and is my partner's Uber for work and whatnot, going to the gym has not been a priority and PAYING $360/month is not worth it at this point. Again, I still love this gym and the employees are nice and I do see the value in the price. But I cannot afford that right now. And I'm going on a little over a month of me trying to figure out how to either freeze my account or reduce what Im paying. And so far, I'm not getting the results I need. I spoke to Jake, I've called the front desk and I've been told multiple times "we're looking into it" or "we're reaching out" and I've yet to really get anywhere. The one time I came in person after playing phone tag, I thought I was getting somewhere but this morning, I wake up to see an overdraft notification with a price tag showing that I in fact did not get what I was told would happen.

As someone who works sales/retail, i get it. I really do. Im empathetic and I know that there are rules and requirements and all sorts of processes that are above the employees' heads and they cant control everything. But it's really frustrating being told that something will happen or being told you'll be reached out to, when none of that happens. Not even an update that says "we couldn't do it." It makes me not want to continue going to this gym after I fulfill my contractual PT obligation.

I'm not saying this to dunk on this gym/LA Fitness as a whole or even scare customers away. I just want to be honest about things so if someone sees my review, they'll understand some things that can happen. You'll notice how it's a 3 star and not a 1 star-- after all, I LIKE this gym. I really do. And I've enjoyed the people I have gotten to know. But compared to other gyms I've been to, this gym has made me feel the least heard and...

2 reviews 1.0 star rating 9/22/2016 DON'T EVER SIGN UP FOR PERSONAL TRAINING SESSION THERE! LA is the worst company to deal with and never own up to their mistake. Here is my story. I opened my gym member with them July last year. Then they offered me a free session with a trainer to see how I liked it. So I came in and trained with Conrad. He then deliberately explained the contract totally wrong to get me sign up with him. He told me that it was not a contract, it was a month to month base and I could cancel anytime. And he would be my trainer. Since he seemed to be very nice and convincing, and I wanted to get in shape for my wedding this coming year, I signed up with him. After the first session, he disappeared and I was assigned another trainer, who was so rude to me. So I wanted to cancel, only to find out it was a 12-month contract, copy of which Conrad did not give me after I signed up on the computer with him. So I called the corporate line, and they said I had to pay $600 (the 50% of the remaining contract) to cancel. I came into the gym to speak to the manager, who was Rick at that time, and he was so rude. Then I spoke to the sale guy that I signed up with since the beginning, the whole team promised to help, said they would speak to General Manager or district manager and would help me out. NO ONE. No one called me back. I finally gave up and came in to cancel, whatever it took. When I came back there, they changed the whole team, from Manager to the sale team and even personal trainers. The guy helped me cancel member was Ben. And he said Conrad was fired since LA realized what he did to me and other customers. But Ben could not help me cancel my personal training sessions, he would notice the lady in charge and she would give me a call. Another lie. No one called me back. At this point, I was so tired of fighting. So I came in to use up all of my sessions until the contract ended this June. I pretty much enjoyed working out with Afraz. But again, this company has the worst customer service ever. And they don't treat customers the way they suppose to. So don't come in here. Contracts are never...

I had my account frozen due to health issues. On Friday 5/25 I was finally cleared to work out again and was excited to go back to the gym. They had just reopened the location due to remodeling so I was happy to see the new changes as well. I inquired about how to use some of the machines only to be told that I needed to PAY a training session if I wanted someone to show me how they work. ( some of the pictures are not very self explanatory) So I declined and just stuck to cardio and did some swimming. After my swim on my way to the shower another lady accidentally kicked a bench and a bunch of little ROACHES came out running everywhere. This was in the shower area which made it even more disgusting. The cleaning lady was kind enough to kill the couple of them that didn't hide because I was TERRIFIED. I have a bug phobia and let me tell you, a gym"s bathroom is not one place I thought Id ever have to deal with them.

I asked to speak with the Manager, who never bother to introduce himself, but found out later his name was Noe. (No ee) I told him how upsetting it was to have a SHOWER and DRESSING room infested with roaches. instead of apologizing he said "We cant do anything about bugs coming in maa'm" I showed him the pictures and video I took explaining that these type of bugs were not outdoor bugs that "just came in" but rather the type that have nests inside walls and under wood planks due to lack of cleaning and pest control. Yet gain he said there was nothing he could do about it and just told me I could refreeze my account if I wanted but they still charged me for the unfreezing I had already done, even though I clearly pointed out I was NEVER going back there.

So if you go to this gym, please wear thick footwear at the locker rooms and showers because God only knows what bacteria and diseases these bugs have and the management obviously does not care about our well being, only about...