Life Time — Local services in Gaithersburg

Revised edit as a former member: This location lost a star for increasing an already huge premium to become unaffordable for me. It’s a good location. Just very expensive.

Life time generally speaking has been losing me as a member because they just keep jacking the prices up company wide and have nothing to justify or show for the price hike.

Let me explain. Back in 2008 when I first discovered the gym back in its Austin Texas location they where a silver gym then shortly after they promoted the gym to gold I believe and that was the price hike. Then later I transferred to a higher level gym in Dallas area and they hiked the price again. Then I used the gym here in Maryland and they priced the hike again.

I’m terms of services back in 2008 they were at their peak. Lockers never had a moldy musky smell. Highly maintained. And super organized. Always refreshing to see.

At the pool area I always saw them running that little cleaning machine on the floors at regular intervals. The pools didn’t have a scum build up on the corners. And the water was always fresh and never stinky.

And at the price they offered this for it was a no brainer. They where the gym of choice.

Then suddenly the pool machine started running less frequently till it wasn’t run at all. The pools slowly started building a residue in the corners. And the water was more frequently dirty with a film above it with an odor. The locker room that was the example everyone should follow started growing mold and stinking up the place.

Staff became more complacent and didn’t actively maintain the place. And effectively they became nothing special and just like any other gym.

Then the price was increased and I jumped ship.

The gym in Dallas was a similar situation. But that one was in a bad area where they had to put a note to notify customers don’t leave anything in the car because they have a number of break ins. That gym was decently maintained at first. But slowly similar things happened. They hiked the price and I jumped ship again.

Here in Maryland it’s the higher level gym. So of course my expectations are set even higher than the other lower level gyms. But I didn’t see anything premium for the price that they offered.

While they did somewhat maintain a decent environment I didn’t see a difference for the price paid. The manager here is a very responsive and great guy! He is super professional and the team often acted on emails sent to them.

But I shouldn’t have to send emails to see actions. But at this location it was the first where they didn’t clean the floors at all at least during the times I was at the gym. Pool constantly had build up. Especially the hot tub.

And locker rooms reeked at times. You could smell it before you even got close. The team there always seemed short staffed because many times when I would walk in the locker room would be in disarray. And not really any staff in sight. One night there was a minor electrical issue and when I went to the front to report it nobody was there. Halls where empty and no staff in the locker rooms. It was as if it was just an open space with no staff. When the price hiked I left.

For clarity this is just my review based on my experiences. The company isn’t a bad company they are a great gym. I usually write reviews to see if they could do better. Holding the gym to higher standards so the could be the be best gym and justify their prices with the best service.

I still recommend these gyms. Just don’t hold them to a higher standard then any other gym or you’ll be let down just like I was. Hopefully their corporate can see this for future consideration and...

I cannot speak for the other lifetime gyms in the area, but I can speak for the Gaithersburg location. They have terrible customer service! All you are is a number and once you're a member, they stop caring about you. I pay about 110 dollars a month to use this facility; that kind of price for a membership comes with a certain expectation of customer service.

I brought a friend with me who was going to help me work out and show me a couple more exercises and techniques for me to use to greatly improve my results in strength training. When we got to the front desk they denied my friend access even though I had 12 guest passes to use. When I asked why, they told me it was because he had already been there in the past 3 months and they have a strict policy regarding the same guest coming in more than once. I tried explaining that he didn't come with me previously and that I've never used one of my guest passes on him. They didn't care and said that its policy and sent him on his way.

Next the gym has lifetime Bucks that you can obtain right when you join, by buying them, or buy getting people to join. I'm a bartender at a local restaurant so I'm constantly telling people to join and I have received a lot of these LT(LIFETIME) bucks by helping them grow their customer base. Without any notice or email, or anything, about 200 of my LT Bucks expired. I went in to talk to them about why my dollars expire and how do I get them back since I wasn't told that they were going to expire. They told me they had to talk to corporate for them to issue them back and it would be a couple days. After a day I received an email saying that I was credited 100 LT bucks, half of what I lost, and that I needed to use it that month or it will expire again. Gee thanks for showing me that you really care that I'm bringing you guys new business.

The final insult and why I cancelled my membership: my girlfriend has had an excruciatingly tough year and to take some of the stress off of her shoulders (literally and figuratively), I booked her an appointment at the salon for a massage. Keep in mind that the salon is a separate entity from the gym and you do not need a membership to use their salon. I talked to the receptionist about having my girlfriend who lives in Frederick come down and getting a massage using the rest of my previously mentions LT bucks since they were going to expire. The receptionist was great and assured me that they do this frequently and that they would put in notes in the computer that my girlfriend could have full authorization on my account to use my LT buck and credit card on file to tip. When she went into the gym after a 45 minute drive down to Gaithersburg, they told her she couldn't come in and I had to be with her even though I was assured that they've done this before and it would be no issue at all. Unfortunately I was at work that morning so I was unable to run over there to get her in. What was supposed to be a nice gesture that was supposed to be relaxing turned into a waste of time and just an aggravation.

So lifetime if you expect to keep you're clients at all, I suggest that you guys stop treating your members like garbage. I'm sure that if more people ran into the same problems that I had, your list of members would be way smaller. Oh by the way the best 10 dollars I spent there was the B.S. cancellation processing fee. So I do not recommend anyone get a...

I loved going to the gym at lifetime. I had an amazing personal trainer- Katie! I loved going to yoga classes there and the pool was nice. The locker rooms though weren’t always the cleanest.

I had the worst experience at the spa. The woman giving me the facial made me so uncomfortable. She asked me how much I weighed and how did I do it, what did I eat. That’s inappropriate and also not what one would want to talk about. She then told me I would be so much prettier if I had better eyebrows. She gave my her friends business info to get micro blading. So insulting to be told that and to be solicited during an expensive facial I paid for.

I put my membership on hold during covid as I wasn’t comfortably coming back as I work as a nurse and didn’t think it was right to go back to the gym in March or April (I can’t remember when they opened). When it was reopened and my membership was on hold still I called and asked how they were handling Covid. Would they notify us if someone came to gym with covid. I was told that no one has had covid that has come to the gym. I said that’s really hard to believe when hospitals are filled and hundreds of people come to lifetime. I later learned that at least a teacher had covid. Now I know several people from the pool had covid and I’m not sure if anyone was told about those cases.

. My membership reactived and I called to cancel my membership in April. I spoke with Alex and she told me the last bill I would receive was a prorated bill in May. I then received a charge for the full 118 dollars in June. I went to the Gaithersburg location to inquire about this. I spoke with the front desk person Phuong who was very rude. He asked who I spoke with in April and I initially didn’t remember and he said well you should have remembered. I said would you remember someone who answered the phones name 3 months ago and he said yes I would. I said really say you called CVS 3 months ago who answered the phone when you called. He said yes I would remember. I told him that was rude and asked to speak with someone else. He said there wasn’t anyone else and he was the best to handle this. I then asked to speak to someone in accounts because he said there was no one in management there even though it was 11am on a weekday. I said no one is in charge in this whole building and he said yes. So he called someone from accounts as I asked. I believe Will I feel bad I can’t remember his name. He was great he handled everything cancelled my account and told me he would speak to Phuong as he agreed that it was inappropriate what he said to me and that he said he was the only person I could talk to. My account is finally cancelled. He said he would pass on to have the manager call me when she got in. I was told that the manager Erika would contact me and it’s been 5 days and no contact from anyone at the gym.

Received a call from Erica and all issues were...