LA Fitness — Local services in Renton

I'm a relatively new member. Overall, the gym isn't bad. I mostly signed up to shoot baskets in the basketball gym, as I'm spending more time at home during this WFH period. I'll just comment on the basketball gym, mainly. The main issue with the court is size -- it's a 3/4 size court, so basically the half-court line is practically an NBA-distance 3 point line (not quite, but feels like it). The side walls are the out-of-bounds areas (there's no sideline there). Also, there are lots of younger kids who play here (many of them quite good, though). I'm in my upper 40s, so kind of prefer older ballers.

If you go in during the day (during business hrs and while kids are in school), you'll have the best chance of being able to shoot baskets by yourself. Don't expect to use any LA Fitness basketballs, though. The ones in the gym should all be tossed in the trash they're so bad. Bring your own. The backboard and rims are good quality and in good shape, as is the wood floor.

One other non-basketball detail is worth mentioning. On signup, one benefit is a free session with a personal trainer. This free session was hyped to me as one of the best benefits of the membership. Well, you should know that the main point of this free session is to try to get you to sign up for personal training sessions, so you spend 45 min. of this session sitting and chatting with a personal trainer about your goals, what you want to get out of it, and so on. Only about 20 minutes time is spent with the trainer showing you different techniques in the gym. Near the end, there's an emphasis on having an "accountability partner" and such, with different pricing tiers such as 3 sessions a week, 2 sessions a week, or 1 session a week with the personal trainer, all with costs that are way beyond what I'd pay. So this free session is more like a free pitch.

That said, the exercises the personal trainer showed me were really good ones, and I'm sure that the plan would be much more successful than if I were to go it alone, and surely if you're paying that much a month for a trainer, you'd probably make an effort to go more regularly.

Overall, I like the convenience of this gym and think it will work well as a place to shoot baskets. Mask wearing here doesn't seem strictly enforced, esp. not on the bball court, but honestly few seem to care about that anymore,...

While the gym facilities seemed adequate, the actual business practices of this place are appalling and predatory. They show very little concern for customers beyond their ability to siphon money from them.

On multiple occasions, I had shown up to use the gym and no one was there to let me check in. In one case, I had to wait 20 minutes for the front desk attendant to show up. But I think the most appalling thing is what happened when I attempted to cancel my membership.

The day I called to cancel (November 24th), I was told that I'd have to come in to cancel and that I couldn't do it over the phone for security reasons. I felt this was odd, but I agreed and told them I'd drop in later that week. I stopped in to cancel my membership on November 29th and was told that the gym "didn't have a manager on hand because they'd all recently been let go and that I'd have to drive to the Landing LA Fitness to cancel my membership." Being a bit annoyed and not wanting to drive over to the Landing, I argued with the person until they finally said they could put in a request to cancel our account but I'd have to wait for the email to approve it. I reluctantly agreed annoyed with the amount of hoops I had do jump through just to cancel my account. At this point, I asked to make sure that I wasn't going to be charged for anymore services, (everything they had done seemed shady up to this point so I wanted to be sure) they informed me that I would be charged for December because I needed to cancel my membership at least five days before my billing date (something they didn't make me aware of when I first called). Now I had never heard of such crap, at previous gyms, I'd cancel and they'd pro-rate me for the days used. But apparently if you don't want to get charged for an extra month at LA Fitness, you have to cancel your account 5 days prior to the billing date.

My advice is to avoid this place, don't join a gym where they exploit their customers. I'll never use LA Fitness again thanks to this shady behavior and I recommend you all be very careful if you're going to do...

Today we had by far the worst customer service experience we've had in the past 2 years of being faithful customers during the pandemic and post. We were approached by Amanda at the counter and asked in an abrupt manner to provide a photo for check-in or we could not go in to the facility. We told her we would work out and come back to the counter at the end of our workout. Upon finishing our workout we approached Amanda in a very friendly manner that we would like to provide and use a photo of our choice for our profile picture. No one provided us information as to how the picture layout needed to be. My husband picked a picture of himself that made him very happy. He was quickly denied of use of that photo without being given an alternative. She continued arguing and used very aggressive energy towards my husband and showed frustration. She reached a point where she asked a colleague by the name if Ed to assist. Ed was shown the photo and said that was a great picture. Amanda commented that her colleagues were not helping and stated she comes from military. My husband is from a war torn country and by just saying that comment, it triggered all forms of emotions that did not need to be brought out by a gym employee. My husband has assisted and helped the US military and he kept his composure; however, those comments and demeanor are not to be used in a public setting. No one asked for his background or upbringing. It is very unprofessional for your staff to be carrying themselves in that manner and using "following rules" as an excuse for her lack of training and human compassion. A photo that is by choice should not be a reflection of a person. We have a great payment history and a credit card on file for recurring payments. Had we had a poor standing at the gym or poor gym etiquette, then i would have expected her behavior. But that is not the case. I am hoping management can resolve this situation and restore a positive state of mind...