Life Time — Local services in Eagan

Gym is way oversold in my mind, the free weight room is especially crowded. To make the problem worse, 2/3 of the strength-training section is full of machines that hardly get used while the benches and power racks are frequently full. What free weights they do have are jammed into such a tiny space that most of it feels cramped. Try setting up your bench without having to contort your body every which way just to access the plates and load the barbell.

If all you need is cardio then you should have no problem because they have a million treadmills, bikes and whatever else. Problem is you can buy a nice machine of your own if you just save the money you'd be blowing on a membership over the course of a year.

Another complaint would be the trainers. Not all of them, but some of them simply don't seem to respect other customers they aren't working with. I've had multiple experiences where a trainer would cycle their client between 2-3 different pieces of equipment claiming all of them for their self. This winds up leaving whatever equipment they're not using between the different circuits unavailable AND unused for long stretches of time, but don't you dare try to work in.

Last major complaint is the guest policy. I don't expect to be able to bring a guest as much as I want or anything, but it's a joke. I can't remember how many 'guest passes' you get or how frequently, but it's miniscule. When you do bring a guest, that person will have to fill out a full-page form full of details, then wait for one of the Lifetime salesmen to come out and try to peddle a membership on your guest. All because you wanted to workout with a friend. I did this once and felt like an accomplice to a crime.

Finally, the cancellation policy is a joke. You have to do it in person just so that they can get one more chance at keeping you on. Then it takes 'one billing cycle to process'. Oh really? Is it really that difficult or do you just want one more month's pay?

The only real positives here would be the hot tubs, the dry sauna and the steam room. Also, some of the staff IS kind and helpful despite the bad eggs I mentioned above. But to me that's just not enough to...

The only reason why I'm giving this facility one star is because it's open 24 hours. Other than that, I wouldn't ever step foot into this facility again. The staff are all nice and chummy when you first come in interested. Showing you around, spending nearly an hour talking about your options and what they all offer, and kicking back in their office. I'm already busy as it is and I was hesitant at first to join. I was told I could cancel within 14 days and get a full refund so I figured okay, let's try to fit this into our lives.

The first week I couldn't get in because of only having one vehicle and my kids were sick. Finally, I was able to get them in for a 30 minute swimming lesson. The pool wasn't warm enough for them and came out shivering and with purple lips. The "family changing room" is a bathroom. Toilet. Sink. Diaper changing station. One small bench. Since I had an opposite sex child with me, we had to go through the "front" door to get to the pool. For a facility who says they're family oriented, you'd think they'd have a better family room set up.

After the swimming lesson I determined it wasn't feasible to add the gym to our lives so I emailed the person who gave us the tour. No reply back. No, "I'm sorry this didn't work out for you but thank you for giving us a try." This set me off so I called Lifetime to ask how to cancel my membership within my 14 days. I was on hold for 10 minutes for an assistant manager who never came to the phone. I hung up, wrote a letter, and after running errands stopped in around 8:30pm to speak to an assistant manager. When he walked up to the desk, he didn't even greet me. I explained to him what I wanted and why I couldn't keep my membership. It seemed like he was distracted the entire time I was talking to him. Even stopping me to chit chat with someone who was waiting to talk to him about adding two people to their membership. He barely looked at me and barely listened. He just listed why I couldn't keep my membership and said someone would call me if they needed anything else. No "have a good night". No "thanks for giving us a shot." No nothing. The worse customer service I've ever...

For what this gym charges, I would expect it to be clean all of the time. It does seem to be better earlier in the day, but I always have to kick away someone's towel that was carelessly left behind, or used wipes crumpled up and thrown on the floor. I went this evening and it was the worst I've seen it. Used towels and wipes were all over the place, and it did not appear that the floor in the weight area had received a proper vacuum in some time.

The staff are friendly and generous with their time. This is good. The equipment is of good quality and decently maintained. But the free weight area is small and gets very crowded. They recently finished a big addition, but much of the new floor space was built out as an alpha studio and a gtx studio. It is nice that you can use the new space if there is not a class going, and the new power racks, bars, and plates are of top quality. I am fortunate that I can go over my lunch break during the week. There is usually plenty of open racks. But the main weight area remains relatively tight in space. If I do have to go after work when alpha classes are going, or on a weekend morning, I frequently have to wait for equipment. There are not enough benches or power racks for the customer demand. It can be a challenge to find enough floor space to simply stand in one spot and do dumbbell work.

I will continue going to the gym because there really are no other decent options in the area. The closest one in terms of size is LA Fitness in Apple Valley, and that place is a staph infection waiting to happen. But I digress. To get to the point, I would feel just fine paying the high monthly fee if they only did a better job of picking up after those members who don't have the decency to pick up after themselves, or re-rack their plates. I really don't think it would take much to devote a staff member to circulating the floor and keeping it clean, and plates put away, all of the time. It's a very simple thing, and would make my customer experience the premium one that it is...