Life Time — Local services in New York

Unfortunately, I had to cancel my membership today, because I felt not just unsatisfied, but discriminated against by the services provided. Basically, there are a lot of successful people going to this fitness center, and if you are not on the top of this chain, they can mistreat you because they have a lot of customers and having just minus one would not make a difference. I used this fitness center for 4 months, and at the beginning everything was beautiful. I had personal training sessions that were greatly done, I enjoyed the spa procedures. I started having issues with this fitness center 2 weeks ago, and I have spent at least 15 hours trying to deal with those issues. I was charged for the Fitness Training App, but this service has never been provided to me. I could not enter the app at the begging as there has been a bug, and then my personal trainer never uploaded my workout program, even though it was planned for me to work out 4 times a week (basically, 8 workouts lost). Currently, I wrote an email, requesting a refund, and I have a suspicion that I may not be refunded. While a paid quite a lot of this service - 300 dollars. Today another issue occurred with the LifeTime spa administrator, Bella. I was late for my appointment for 15 minutes. My train did not come on time (weekends, it happens), and I took an Uber to be more or less on time, because otherwise I would be 30 minutes late. When I came, Bella said that she canceled my service because they have a 15 minutes cancellation policy. When I showed her that it was exactly 15 minutes on the clock, she said that it’s already done. My appointment was supposed to last for nearly two hours. While I would fully understand that I would have to pay in full for a reduced service due to the fact that I came late, I do not understand how a professional can look a customer in they eye, hear that the customer took an Uber to get here as quick as possible, and still say, well, sorry, there is nothing I can do. When I said that this means that I will never use this service again, she simply said - ok. I am quite sure that if I was one of their “top clients”, she would not have talked in this way with me. I saw quite a few people treated well, but I also heard some very bad reviews about LifeTime services. Now I understand why. If you are not at the top of the food chain, the elite service will show you that you are not yet good enough to be really elite. I would like to ask other customers to be conscientious of the fact that a group of people can make the same change that one important CEO could do as well. And I would like LifeTime to do some risk-analysis. Basically, I canceled my membership because being charged and not getting the service for two weeks, and getting a rude cancelation without any apologies or assistance in adjusting to a situation is not what can be called an elite service. It is mediocre at best. I will not use this fitness anymore, and also all of my colleagues from a law firm where I work are aware of the situation (about 50 people), because they saw me constantly trying to deal with this app issue. Before they heard about this, they were even thinking of joining LifeTime because they heard how much I enjoyed this place. Also, I am an immigrant, and I constantly have friends (about 40 people yearly) moving to NY and asking what they should or should not use. LifeTime will be on the list of do not use from now on, because today I felt truly horrible. I felt disgraced and discriminated against, because getting rid of me and my membership will not do much. Now, I would like LifeTime to consider that they also lost about 300 potential future costumers. And all that would change this would be polite and not creating a two week issue for the services that someone...

Warning all from a 2 year member. This place will make you want to pull your hair out. Everything about it screams pretentious. The rules and regulations are obnoxious and reflect the entitled personality that runs this place. Someone obviously is calling the shots here that is not qualified. This place is one hundred percent a rip off and represents everything that is wrong with the world. I am ashamed to have called myself a member for so long.

Let's start the review with the staff. I decided one day to try out a personal trainer. At first she was great. After a couple of sessions life happened and I got bogged down with work. I had paid her the full amount. After a couple a months when work slowed down I decided to reach back out. She was nowhere to be found. I was never refunded my money nor had anyone reach out to me. Customer service dropped the ball. After about 6 months I received a phone call about how sorry they were that she left. I felt robbed and still do. Trying to talk to any staff member is incredibly difficult. It will frustrate you and you won't even know why. Become a member at your own risk. Plenty of other luxury gyms with nicer staff, better and bigger equipment and space. Also, the bald middle eastern "manager" is hands down the most obnoxious person you will ever deal with. You are a manager at a gym. Please remember this.

Secondly, if you are looking to join for the basketball gym and this excites you because of all the NBA glamor surrounding it. DONT. This next year they will make the pick up games very hard to watch. The experience for everyone will be short of stellar. When training sessions are going on, there is a very off putting vibe. Lets talk about the quality of pick up games. Over the two years I saw and experienced some ridiculous things. Most notable, a group of Caucasian guys in their 20's looking to fight over the court. The 3 doornobs insisted all of them play. One of their buddies didn't make it into the game after shooting for teams. They all decided to ruin the game and start their own 2 on 1 game on the other side of the court. When asked to move aside so everyone could play a game of 5 on 5 full Court, they started puffing their chest and threatening to call the owner's son who they apparently were friends with. They threatened and shouted for far too long acting like pathetic children. You will encounter some of the most entitled people during your time as a member here.

Please do yourself a favor and save the money and time. There are plenty of quality gyms around the neighborhood.

Good luck canceling your membership here. They will make your life the most difficult and give you the worst excuses. Money hungry is what this place is, with zero morals or ethics when it comes to business. I'm out of the country, they explained that the only way to cancel is by coming in or sending a hand written letter (what are we in the stone age still!!!). Now I'm searching for a post office in a foreign country with my fingers crossed that the letter will get there. Oh, and once they receive the letter.... They won't cancel your membership until one month after. My assumption is so they charge your card...

I have been a fan of Lifetime for the last 10 years and kept my membership on hold status for 6 years hoping Lifetime would come to NYC. Most of the Lifetime gyms are the most amazing gyms that I never want to leave.

However, the Sky location doesn't live up to high bar that Lifetime has set for itself. I can't believe I am saying this but Equinox Sport by the Lincoln center is superior and their Cafe is still under construction.

The locker rooms at Sky are tiny. I could barely fit one of my calf muscles in it. Secondly, there is barely any space to workout compared to other Lifetime and Equinox gyms. Also, as mentioned by others, there is a lack of free weights and other workout equipment in general. Other Lifetime gyms have tons of equipment. Those gyms are so sprawling and have so much equipment that it would amaze me every time I went. The typical Lifetime also has multiple TV sitting areas in the locker rooms.

It feels weird going through someone's apartment elevator to go from the basketball court and locker room to the weight room. I know the staff would probably say its nothing to worry about but it feels like there was a lack of design and planning before hand. When you want premium dollar I think that there should be none of these dings. I think it would have worked better if they just had an elevator that goes straight up to Lifetime gym and they put all the floors back to back rather than split them up the way they did.

Equinox would be jealous and seething if Lifetime was able to build a real Lifetime gym in Manhattan. Build one in the up and coming area of Harlem. Sky gym as it stands right now is like your garden variety apartment gym in a wannabe luxury building.

If the big wigs at Lifetime did their research they would know that everyone in NYC hates going to 42nd street. They also hate having to walk 3 long blocks from the train to go all the way to 11th avenue.

To top it all off they want to charge Equinox prices when they don't really match up in terms of (location, number of locations, size, amenities). I would've expected Lifetime to do way better. Maybe if they had purchased and upgraded the Chelsea Piers then they could've built the first Lifetime gym at the caliber fans like me would expect from Lifetime.

What I will say is their sauna/steam rooms and jacuzzi area was pretty amazing. The roof top also looks nice.

Also, the staff kept trying to convince me that their gym is "exclusive". I'm like I pay just as much at Equinox which offers laundry service, a personal locker, convenient location and its all gym and not split between apartment and gym.

Something that should be noted is that the gym isn't open 24 hours like the Lifetime gyms I am used to patronizing. When I get off work late I hate to have to rush through my workout to finish before 11pm.

I feel like Sky turned out to be a botched rollout of Lifetime in Manhattan. I'll still maintain my hold status until I leave Manhattan or the folks at Lifetime build a real gym in Manhattan that is worthy of the Lifetime...