LA Fitness — Local services in Aspen Hill

If I could give negative stars for the way I am currently being treated, manipulated, and lied to by the training manager, MAX, at this gym, I would. The gym itself is nice.

Whatever you do, DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THEIR PERSONAL TRAINING!!!!

They use shady and manipulative tactics to get you to think you're getting a good deal. I was lied to about the program that I was signing up for. Mark, the trainer that signed me up told me $165 for 3x/week, come to find out the contract was $165 for 3 times per MONTH. When I spoke with him alongside the training manager, Max, to clear up the confusion, Mark explicitly told me that I must have not understood and that 3x per month for $165 is "unheard of" - as if I had any way of knowing that. He was condescending and tried to make me feel stupid for BELIEVING THE "DEAL" HE OFFERED ME. Utterly ridiculous. Then of course, Mark was shortly "promoted" to the PG Plaza location. Mark lied and misrepresented the personal training - my first issue.

When you sign the contract it will be on a tiny screen where you can't see the full contract. If you are wise enough to immediately read the contract in full on the day of signing, FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS TO CANCEL WITHIN THE FIRST 3 DAYS - otherwise you are locked into a horrible contract that only allows you to cancel if you pay 1/2 the remaining balance of the term.

Now, I've been dealing with Max for several weeks trying to cancel. They held me to the contract when I tried to dispute that I was LIED TO AND TRICKED INTO SIGNING UP, but they will not stick to the contract when you want to cancel - instead Max will give you the run around. The occasions in which Max lied or misrepresented the facts to me: (1) In December he told me that I could cancel my contract as long as I completed 9/18 sessions. He said he would have his boss, Chris, email me to confirm. This did not happen. (2) he told me to just come into the gym between 9am-5pm to cancel when the corporate lady would be there. When I expressed that I work during those hours, he said I could call. When I called the next day, I was told he was on break from 1pm-4pm and would give me a call back. He did not call me. (3) After finally reaching him this morning, 1/15/25, he told me that I needed to come into the gym to cancel. I immediately called this out - see #2 (4) Today, Max told me that my cancelation would go through effective today, and that I will no longer be billed. He said that I would see the notice of cancelation in the LA Fitness app within an hour. I spoke to him around 10am, by 12pm there was no such notification in the app. I called him back around 12:35pm, and he returned by call around 1:40pm. I asked him to guide me to where the app would show this, and this time he said it would take a week. Then he said by Friday I should see that my trainer was no longer available on the app anymore to book sessions. I asked for clarification - if he meant this Friday, or a week from today. He said this Friday. From "you'll see it today" to "a week" to "this Friday" - sure.

This evening, I noticed that LA Fitness did send me a notification of cancelation, but it says that I am scheduled to be billed through March 15th - which is not an immediate cancelation.

LA Fitness THIS MESSAGE IS TO YOUR OFFICES DIRECTLY: the contract states that I must cancel PT by registered mail, return service requested. In fact, I mailed a letter via USPS on January 4th, 2025 requesting cancelation by certified mail. My letter was delivered and picked up by an agent today in Irvine, CA where your corporate office is located. I intend on going to the gym to have them process my final payment, but I need to let others know the extent to which LA Fitness lied, gaslit, and treated me like shit while smiling in my face.

Once this is resolved I will be obviously cancelling my La Fitness membership entirely. I actually used to love coming to this gym, it was my safe space during a difficult time in my life, and I have been a member here for several years, but this is simply WRONG to treat...

LA FITNESS ASPEN HILL

Edit 8/24/2022 Having joined and used the gym for group classes, So far I'm happy with the services offered. Gym instructors are great. I love the aqua fit classes and look forward to attending all my group classes. I'm going to add 2 more stars for now.

My Previous review is below: Almost purchased membership except for Manager’s profiling and healthy ego

Courtesy of a friend who’s a gym member, I was invited to join her for a Zumba class. I didn’t know about an LA Fitness in Aspen hill.

The good

Gym looks well equipped and a bit more modern and seems to have plenty of group classes. It has a pool which is a plus. There’s a pivot PT therapy center whose services I would be utilizing in the next few weeks.

The bad and Ugly I requested a trial pass which was 7 days. But only used 3 for Zumba classes and unfortunately due to unavoidable circumstances I was unable to utilize the other 4 days in the pass. I asked an employee if it could be extended for 4 days just to try out Aqua fit and other group classes. Sadly, the manager told her the employee that it was my responsibility to use the 7 days once activated and I had to either wait 6 months before getting another trial pass or pay 20.00/day to try out the gym. Most managers would want to speak to a prospective member but, not this one. His ego has the best of him.

The Profiling

Yesterday my friend invited me to join her at a Zumba class, she was at the pool but said she’d informed the reception I would be there. Upon arrival one staff member noticed me, immediately contacted the manager who came to the front and quietly had a conversation with the rest of the staff as I signaled my friend at the pool. I was then told my friend had to come and give her phone number which she did. To my surprise, they asked to take a picture of me and sign some waiver on the machine for liability purposes. They never asked for this previously. It was not a good feeling nor impression. It appears the manager purposefully created a single policy to handle my entry, I doubt he’d have done it to any other race. My friend and I were both confused and perturbed at the sudden...

UPDATE: Looks like they've install some new management. Cleanliness has improved and broken things are repaired a little more quickly. I'm not so happy about the sanitizing liquids being removed as they're not always too quick to replace the wipes that are now available.

There's a lady who goes around wiping down the equipment and sometimes doing deep-cleans on them. That's a great sign. She works super hard too.

The TV line-up is still awful.

Previous review is below:

Nice open spaces? Yup. Clean? Mostly. Incapable of maintain equipment? Totally. The cardio floor upstairs is a travesty. 10% of the machines are labeled "Scheduled for Service" (those labels stay on there for well over a month) and 40% (no exaggeration) of the machines are broken in one way or another (ranging from the inconvenient broken TV to the inoperable "no working buttons"). Did I mention that the water coolers happily issue hot water? Yum! Okay...only one of them does...the other one is broken (scheduled for service...HA!). The TV channel lineup is also a joke. They use to have all the local channels plus some additional cable channels. Now your options are: CNN, ESPN, AMC, and Cartoon Network. Pretty lame. Some of us members are paying BIG MONEY every month. We should have a gym with functioning equipment and barbells that go where they belong (staff should walk the floor once an hour to return gear to its correct location). I wouldn't pay the initiation fee plus the murderous introductory rate with all the stuff that's wrong with this location. Management needs...