LA Fitness — Local services in Surprise

I was very excited for this gym when signing up with a family plan at their presale center in beginning of January. We were told it was going to be the most state-of-the-art LA fitness in Arizona and that they were going to have racquetball courts, which would be the first for Surprise fitness center (this was a big selling point for me), and also a big child care center that he described as a McDonald's playground type of setup and said it would be better than a nice one he had a picture of that was at another LA fitness. Well, today we went to opening day at the gym, as we had received a text saying they were opening (this was first communication we've received since signing up). After getting our membership card setup we decided to take a look around, and to our dismay, not only was there absolutely no racquetball courts to be found, the child care center was tiny with really no playground at all (seems like it would be okay for very little kids, but if you have kids above kindergarten age, they may not be very happy with setup). I don't think we would have purposely been lied to, but I still don't understand why no one reached out to relay this to us when plans changed and it gives me the feeling they are more concerned about obtaining memberships than worrying about ones they've already acquired. I can understand that things change, but I'm quite surprised that they changed that drastically in a matter of 4 months considering that the building was being built when we signed up. There was definitely no problem charging our credit card a couple months ago. The reason I gave 2 stars is that the gym seems promising, and if you weren't given expectations of a much nicer child care area and racquetball, then you may be very happy with what it is. Moving forward, I'd be more concerned with customer service and transparency with...

Fraudulent practices, and zero accountability. Filed a complaint with the BBB, the Attorney General, and spoke with an attorney today. Brando (aka Face Tattoo Guy) told my husband he could use the HIIT classes when I signed up-but my husband doesn’t have an account...so it was put in my name when I clearly told Brando I was only joining for the pool. We then learned there was no way my husband could ever use the class package without a membership. I tried to cancel but didn’t hear back from Belinda after texting a “I’m not interested, how do I cancel?” response to her text. I also left a voicemail when I didn’t hear back from her. When I explained all of this to Steven, the Corp Onsite Rep, he failed to show any concern for the predatory practice and lack of communication. He asked me, “If I can transfer this to your husband’s account, would that solve your problem?” He checked his system and saw my husband doesn’t have an account, and said, “Oh, your husband doesn’t have an account.” That’s when he knew a fraud had been committed. He knew we were lied to. That was the moment he became responsible. Did Steven do anything to correct this, or offer me any reassurance that this would be addressed internally and fixed? No.

I called corporate five times over the following four weeks and spoke with several different people who said the Dist. VP would call me...which never happened. I have my AT&T records showing my attempts to cancel. Their final solution was entirely to their gain with no concern about me as a member who was directly lied to. I was told I’d have to pay 50% of the contract to get out of it. Where was the concern that this happened in the first place? I also learned after speaking to EOS that the GM there had fired Brando for the same practices. They offered me an extended trial for my trouble. Even EOS knows how to fix...

I'm not rating the facility as a whole, nor am I rating the staff in it's entirety. I'm simply reading Belinda. At best, piss-poor customer service at least on our specific phone call. Belinda if you're going to cash the payroll check at least do the job that they're paying you for. I don't believe that that job description includes over talking customers when they're asking questions, deliberately not ask answering the questions that you're being asked, and insisting on making points irrelevant to the specific conversation at the time that the call was made. Your sense of entitlement that you can speak to a paying customer in any fashion that you deem fit is a horrible reflection on what I believe to be a pretty decent establishment. Your addition as a member to the staffing is unfortunate for Steve (the manager,) whether he knows it or not. Based on encounter of you in your role, I personally think you're "just lucky" to have the position at all. As we all know, even barely average help is extremely hard to find. That said, Belinda you fit the employment market very well. Nonetheless. I wish we could have had a better exchange in our dialogue when I called to ask if your gymnasium was busy. Seems like a reasonable question before making a drive to the venue, and then having to turn right around due to being crowded. I will explore your response further with the corporate office to verify if it's against corporate policy for you to state to a patron whether or not your establishment is "very busy" with other patrons such as myself. Nonetheless, good luck and...