Planet Fitness — Local services in Portland

Buyer Beware! This is the OPPOSITE of a " Judgement Free Zone ' has a WIERD VIBE, starting with the arrogant manager , reception staff down to many of the patrons. Many seem to attend to either have a bathroom facility where to take a bath ( the restroom is sort of smelly and dirty) or spend their time as spectators, focusing on other people with the typical "gym bro" attitude. Been a customer for over 10 years, several states, multiple locations. Never had such bizarre experience. PF boasts their gyms are "a place where everyone feels welcome", it couldn't be further from the truth. What broke the camel's back: spent first two days running around the gym avoiding the constant " stare down " from several patrons while trying to focus on my routine, had to cut it short because went from distracting to straight uncomfortable. First thought it was the weekend crowd , (started on a Saturday) thought to myself should just come weekdays outside peak hours avoid the crowds. Monday, show up really early, not only was it the same, even the manager, did the same. cut my routine third day in a row decided to call it a day, got changed and on my way out sat down on the sofa in reception area to cool down while it stopped raining. Sat there reading a book, the manager walked towards the reception, laser focused on me, when I turned to look, notice him so I made eye contact and as he kept looking directly at me he asked me ""you good?". Confused as I was I said " I think so, why? Is there anything wrong with me sitting or being here?" He quickly retorted that "the lounge area was solely for people waiting for a ride" to which I responded that this had never been the case in any of the other PFs I had ever visited and that I had seen people lounging there on the weekend on my way in and out. He desisted, went behind the counter and kept staring behind the computer while he said something to the girl working the reception. At that point I had realized that I was in the wrong place and decided to walk over to the counter and ask him to please go ahead and refund my money and cancel my membership because I was feeling super uncomfortable and it was only my third day , to which he responded 'sure, I can go ahead and cancel your membership". I told him I wanted a refund and not a cancelation since they were not following though with their part of our contract agreement of providing a "Judgement Free Zone ' where one could feel welcomed and actuall workout. After insisting on my request he went to say that he would contact the head office to get my refund and he would cancel my membership, and so I asked him for something in writing as evidence of this verbal agreement, and he ignored my request and kept saying he would call so I insisted he call as I stood there but he refused. I told him not to cancel the membership that I would go ahead and contact corporate to request the refund and subsequent cancelation. At that point he said " you know what, I am going to cancel your membership and I'm going to ask you to leave or I'm going to call the cops". I really couldn't believe what was going on. I told him " no worries, I'll contact corporate right now " walked outside and stood in the parking lot while I made the phone call and as I was speaking to the customer service rep. from corporate when all of a sudden three Portland Police Patrol vehicles pulled up like there was a robbery being committed. After they realized that I'm on the phone with the company, they asked me what happened , I explained and they were nice enough to just ask me to leave the shopping center premises, it was just"part of their job". As I walked out of the the premises and wrapped up my call with the company's headquarters I was told I should hear from them within 3 to 5 days. I learned my lesson,done with Planet Fitness! Went on Facebook and found a basic set of bars and weight plates for $75, enough to get a proper workout at home without the need to be subjected to this kind of bullying by any...

I haven't worked out at Planet Fitness since the beginning of 2020 due to covid. When the pandemic first began, I called and was informed that the only way to cancel my account was to come in to the gym, so I stopped by and signed what I thought was paperwork to cancel my memberships. Apparently they only put a hold on it, and after receiving an email stating that they were about to begin charging me for membership again, I called and was informed that my account was only on hold and had not been cancelled, and that the only way to cancel it was to come in again or go to the post office and send a certified letter. I explained that was not possible due to covid and having a special needs child who is high risk, so they put another hold on my account, told me to call back in three months if I need to extend it. When I called again to extend the hold, I was informed that they were puting a "revolving hold" on the account so I would not have to keep calling every three months, and that my account would remain on hold until I could safely make it to either the gym or post office. Each time I spoke with somebody there I explained that I originally intended to cancel this membership and that I no longer use the gym and do not want to be a member of it. This year in February, after my not having been to the gym in an entire year, charges randomly appeared on my bank statement. I called Planet Fitness and spoke with an incredibly RUDE manager named ASHLEY who stated that it did not matter that I had not used the gym in a year, and that the charges were goin through and she would not remove them. Since then I have contacted my bank to have the charges reversed, including the yearly fee, and had to pay $30 to block all future charges. The bank representative let me know that Planet Fitness has been a huge problem and many people call about them every day. She even let me know that sometimes they will try getting around the block by withdrawing money using a different business name. APPARENTLY PLANET FITNESS THINKS ITS OK TO WITHDRAW MONEY FROM PEOPLES PERSONAL BANK ACCOUNTS ANY TIME THEY FEEL LIKE THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT, WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE STILL A MEMBER AND WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE USING THEIR FACILITIES. Great job planet fitness, you have now alienated many, many future customers who will now go someplace else, and gained yourselves a bad reputation in...

How this franchise has handle the problems with the pandemic is unethical. I stopped going to the gym in February of 2020 when things started. The gym ended up closing and members accounts were put on freeze which is what they should do. Then at some point they reopened, but through an admitted glitch half of their members were not notified of this and we're being charged without them knowing the gym had reopened. I was billed for 2 months before I realized this yet Planet Fitness refused to reverse charges. They also billed the full years annual fee even though they were closed part of the year.

I ended up putting a freeze on my account because I didn't feel safe coming in. This freeze only lasts 3 months. During that time I had changed cards and didn't realize that this card was attached to my account. Due to there still being problems with Covid and vaccines still being a long way off from being affective I decided I would just close my account. Apparently they will not let you do this over the phone or even on the computer.

I sent in a letter to cancel my membership and when I did it turned out that I had a balance due. Apparently my freeze ran out and I started getting billed again (didn't know because of the change in cards). At no time did they try to contact me about billing problems. The only reason I found out was because I tried to cancel and they said I couldn't cancel because of a balance due amount and I had to come in on person. They also charged late fees.

They refuse to close my account and employees have provided terrible customer service. I have tried to call corporate office, but that was a joke. They just said they can't help and to call the location. They refused to provide any type of solution. I have not been to the gym in 14 months yet I'm still being charged.

The sad thing is is that if they had just provided better ways for members to handle their accounts and if they had cared at all about the complaints/concerns being brought up to them I would have come back to this gym when things got better. As it sits now I will never come back here and wouldn't recommend...