GoodLife Fitness
reviews and complaints

I have been a gym member for 30 years. Recently I attended a spin class at cobourg goodlife fitness. I asked the girl beside me a question and the instructor stopped the class. Asked everyone in the class if it was exceptable for me to say "anything", then asked people to raise their hand if I should be able to return. I was embarassed. I asked everyone if there was a sign or some sort of notification that not a word could be spoken during the class but I was told the instructor Rob is a freak and snaps all the time. When I complained to corporate goodlife and the manager they did nothing. Apparently it is normal for the "Goodlife Experience" to be bullied, humiliated, embarssed. They want your money but they don't want you to frequent their club or classes.

This place is ridiculous. Jacob - a personal trainer is constantly talking badly about his clients, to other clients - he gives every member in the gym a rude face anytime you see him - serious does this guy ever have a good day? Well maybe when his older women clients come in and he constantly flirts with them over and over. Its gross that GoodLife would even allow such negativity come from this guy. Why on earth does he still have a job? He is unqualified to be a trainer - I myself is a highly trained certified personal trainer. I understand how important it is to treat people WELL and to not always have clients on the floor rubbing up against them. Its absolutely sickening. Stay away from this guy unless you want to be mauled like a little puppy.

If your thinking of signing up for a personal trainer don't. I signed up for a year (Stupid I know) and all I have been dealing with ever since is headache's! I had a trainer who would cancel whenever he got nosebleeds, migraines, or would set the alarm clock for 4pm not am? He basically put me on a treadmill and watched me run for 40mins then took me from machine to machine. Waste of time and money. They give you 10 days to cancel but trust me you will be doing fitness testing for those first 10 days! I got no compensation for 6 mth's after dealing with him and having to switch locations (After I requested it). I'm asking for a little help with what's left of my 4 mth contract because my car was stolen, and my parents were affected by the recent calgary floods and other companies were willing to make exceptions but not goodlife?. Goodlife is not about making "lives better" its about making sales and I hope to get the word out so other people see the fake sales tactics these trainers use to suck you in, while the club lives "the goodlife" with your money.

In September 2012 I purchased a promotional gym membership, 3 month term. Expiry was end of November 2012. This membership was paid with cash, the full amount.

November 2012, at that time I renewed my membership for another promotional account which was also 3 months expiring in February 2013. This membership was paid in cash, in full. However, the membership consultant advised me he needed my account information for file purposes but assured me my account would not be touched as I paid for my membership in full with cash.

During the months of December 2012 to March 2013 I received letters from Good Life stating I owed them an outstanding balance of $28. I brought this to the attention of the membership consultant. He told me he will take care of the charge as it was an error. I received another letter, in which I advised the club again. Further to this, my scan card would not work. This happened numerous times.

In February 2013 I received a letter from the lawyers of Good Life stating they are going to be taking me to collections for $58. I called the lawyers office right away and left a message. I also physically went into the Good Life location to advise them of the letter. I was told not to worry about it by staff.

I emailed both the lawyers office, manager of 10th Line Good Life and copied Good Life head office of the issue. I received a phone call from manager Ali. He was to call me back later in the week, which he did not. I followed up with an email over the weekend in which he replied. We set up at meeting on the Monday at 930am.

Monday I arrived for our meeting to fix the error. I waited until 10am to meet with Ali. However, no meeting was had. Rather a front desk employee got me to sign a piece of paper stating it was a club error and to waive the outstanding balance. I followed up with an email to the lawyers office with a reference number.

After this in March 2013, I noticed Good Life had been making fraudulent withdrawals from my chequing account. I went into my bank, launched an investigation and had my money refunded.

I spoke with head office of Good Life in March explaining the entire issue. My accounts were closed after a long battle with Good Life. The assured me no more payments would be taken out.

April 2013, they are still taking out money even after all my accounts have been shut down. No one from Good Life has returned my emails or phone calls.

GoodLife Fitness falsely advertise their Personal Trainers are certified. Fitness Managers are encouraged to hire uncertified people as trainers that are passionate about fitness so they can put them through their own three day cert process at a cost of $500. Even if someone comes with a 3 year kin degree or already certified they must go through the process (albeit at a reduced rate of $200). This is because David Patchell-Evans is also the owner of Can Fit Pro the governing body for fitness professionals in Canada and getting people certified is a revenue stream he does not want to loose. Each club is given a PT hiring quota every month with the idea of hiring 3 to keep 1 and to get their $500 asap before they decide if they truly like what they are doing. As well, new hires are expected to work 20 - 30 hours a week UNPAID and UNTRAINED and are even given write ups if they do not comply. Often someone is hired, pays $500 and is written up and out the door before the end of their 3 month probationary period without recouping their initial investment.

Recently Goodlife took over for Gold's in a plaza on Chemong. I used to attend the original Goodlife 6 days a week and followed them to the new facility. It definitely took some getting used too, but since switching over I have heard stories of bullying and harassment from old Gold's members, as well as poor manners from former Gold's employees(trainers). I even at one point over heard a trainer talking badly about Goodlife and how he would be going to another gym because of the change over(he is still training for Goodlife). The trainers, mainly from Goodlife, but some from Gold's also are anything BUT professional. Often trips to the gym end in frustration with poor gym etiquette, messy gym floor, inappropriately stored equipment, misused machines and just missing parts on top of dirt and hair in the tanning beds and a change room with only one garbage and a shower that has been out of order for 3+ months now. At one point in time the Male change room was without hot water for 6 whole days and the dry sauna, as far as I can remember, has never worked.
But my trip to the gym today took the cake. When I changed and walked out onto the workout floor I went over to a row of 3 squat racks. In this already congested area there were 3 bench press bars on the floor, a yoga ball, 2 medicine balls and 2 bench's completely out of place along with two members who brought their bags and clothes onto the floor. These members specifically were using chalk (which I didn't think was allowed) and the chalk dust was EVERYWHERE. I have chalk dust on my gym shoes and on my gym bag still because of the amount of chalk. One guy was lying stomach down on the floor for the entirety of my workout and the other sat on the bar of the rack. They watched me do my work out as well as talked and joked with a Gold's trainer who was also working out on a separate machine. The gym was not empty, it was actually particularly busy for this time (Sunday-3pm) and these two men were taking up an unrealistic amount of space! The trainer said nothing about the obscene mess there were making or about the fact that neither of these men were wearing shoes.
Once before, 2 men from Gold's verbally attacked 2 young men from Goodlife for improper form during a shoulder press! The behavior among the gym members is atrocious not to mention the behavior of the staff. Some are exceptional and I would be very forthright to give names of those. But there are a certain few trainers and staff that either have no idea what is going on in the day to day or make it very clear that they do not want to be there or help.
I am completely understanding of the transition and the growing pains that can be experienced with these changes but the management has turned a complete blind eye to the disgusting conditions in and out of the change room as well as the blatant bullying and harassment that can be experienced on the workout floor.
I welcome comments, or contact with anyone from Goodlife or otherwise to further discuss this, as well as a handful of suggestions I have to improve the service and possibly make it a more welcoming place for all of the current members.

Bleach poured all over the counters, floors, filthy toilets, filthy studio, workout areas and change rooms. Someone burned themselves on the bleach. This gym is known as the Ghetto Goodlife and should be shut down. Staff shouldn't have to work in this hazardous environment and members shouldn't be getting their clothes ruined and skin burns due to the bleach!

My daughter was pressured into a personal trainer, she was a member before. She was evaluated by Troy in London and told she would still have three sessions, he was then fired. I had to call Frank the manager who never returned my call. She all of a sudden was given a new trainer who said my daughter Kaitlyn would not fit well for her schedule. Since then she has been told she would get assigned someone but has never been contacted, there is never any manager on duty when she goes to work out. This has been dragged out since Christmas and I cannot believe the lack of doing what the customer has paid for even though she was pressured into the personal trainer. At this point if we don't get her money back for the lack of her personal trainer sessions we will never get a membership with this company again and we will also share with everyone why. Somebody please remind us what good customer service looks like! You can reach me at [protected] after 3pm(Kathy V.)

I feel members should be allow to go to Any Goodlife Gym they feel like
It's not fair at all what makes the gym different !

I am just commenting on the overall mistreatment of myself. I was a member of Goodlife for about 2 1/2 years. When I signed up the girl told me to cancel or put on hold my membership which I knew I'd be doing from time to time because of the golf season would take approximately 8 to 10 days. After going for a short period I noticed that one of the weight machines had a pin missing for the 5 lb increment addition. I finished my workout and mentioned at the front desk the problem and left. This portion is a long story but to give you the short version since nothing was done a few months later I complained to someone else. Nothing was done. A pin is a minor piece of the equipment and a pin must be the most common thing at that fitness center. In total I complained to 6 people and one of them told me that he would have that fixed within two weeks which never was accomplished so I went to Guy the manager and took him right to it and pointed to the missing piece and was assured that it would be fixed which never did happen and when I cancelled my membership it was still missing. In total I would say that there were probably 3 or 4 things in exactly the same condition 2 1/2 years later. Some of them broke while I was a member there but anywhere from a year to 2 1/2 years and they still weren't fixed. They occassionally do fix things, but just not the ones I'm referring to.
I had witnessed several things between customers and fitness trainers that were complete arrogance from personal trainers towards customers. Hard to believe but some of it was absolutely rude. During the golf season of 2012 I decided to put on hold my membership until the golf season was over. I spoke directly to Guy about it because when I cancelled my daughter's boyfriends membership when he moved away an extra payment came out and 2 months later after speaking with someone who guaranteed me it would be in my account failed to get me a refund at all I thought I should go right to the manager. He told me that putting my membership on hold would take about 30 days to accomplish and I told him no, it should take 8 to 10 days. He disagreed with me and said, no, this is what will happen. I told him, no it won't because so far I did the same thing with 3 other ones, my daughter's, my son's and my daughter's boyfriend and all of them were done in 8 to 10 days except the one time the payment came out for my daughter's bf. He kept to his guns and told me no, it would absolutely take 30 days. At this point I was getting very annoyed and said, No, I guarantee it will not come out and that it will take 1 day and that day is today because I will put a stop payment on the account and that will solve that problem. He told me fine, looked at one of the other sales people and said cancel his membership.

No problem, I went to the bank and did what I said I would do, my membership was immediately cancelled and then I went home and Googled Goddlife head office found a phone number in Ontario and then called their office. I spoke to a very nice, very sincere woman who got my daughter's boyfriend's refund immediately. Appoligized sincerly for the manager's attitude and cancelled my membership right there on the spot so no more money would come out of my account. She made me aware that this phone number is used in the event that someone wants to cancel their membership right away and can't wait for the normal time it will take. She told me that this was available to everyone which is something that the individual clubs will never tell you. So, at this point she wanted to retain me as a customer and asked me what could be done to get me to return. I told her that although I really appreciated her attitude, demeanor and sincerity that I could not allow myself to go to a gym where the manager was as arrogant as the Dieppe club and that if he ever was fired or replaced then I would be more than happy to go back to it. Other than the poor repair time and rude trainers which I don't use anyways I was happy with the equipment in general and would like to return. I was told that of course she could not fire him which I understand and basically we both went our separate ways. After that I became a member of the YMCA in Moncton and have found that they basically have almost everything going for them. Down right friendly staff, helpful, personable and I thouroughly enjoy going there. The only slight drawback is the amount of space they have for equipment although they have a very good selection I would like to see just a couple more pieces of equipment. I noticed on two or three occasions that a piece of equipment would break and I would monitor the progress of it's repair and it would happen between two days and a week or two. You could not get me to go back to Goodlife now if I had a free membership. I am now happy where I am and it's a pleasure to go there.

The Dufferin Club (Toronto) of GoodLife Fitness falsely advertises yoga classes. The classes are just strething and have nothing to do with yoga. The "yoga instructor" believes she is an expert because she has "taught yoga" for years and years and supposedly knows everything. GoodLife is falsely claiming that they offer yoga at Dufferin club.

Kings Mill location. Front desk staff horrible. Besides complete apathy, they ignore requests made from members i.e. change music, clean up bathroom, tidy equipment on floor, etc. They pretend to listen and sometimes write complaint down. I have seen them take the paper they wrote the complaint down and toss it in the garbage.
I will be leaving this Good Life very shortly.

Discovered today that a year after I had signed off my 2 year contract, they continued to collect membership fees because my daughter( who was under 18 when we signed up) had not signed off herself, even though she had gone into the gym to tell them she was even leaving the country.) They told her that because the 2 year contract was expiring anyway that there wasn't a problem. Phoned head office to complain and the guy says that there is no signed paperwork for her so no refund! $500+ n no refund?! What 's going on here! HELP PLEASE! This is theft!

READ your contract very careful because despite the fact that you have fully paid for the year, if you try to cancel your membership early, Goodlife Fitness will penalize you. Canceled 2 weeks before my due date and was fined $80.00. When I informed them that this was a bogus charge and that l would refuse to pay this, l was contacted via the company lawyer citing that legal action would be taken if l chose not to pay. What a bunch of scam artists.

I have made several attempts to communicate with the fitness manager at that gym. EVERY time I seemed to get the run around.
"The coordinator doesn't really have an email address but I'll be sure to give him your message." Or They're in at different times throughout the week." Some of them have told me that they don't have VOICEMAIL!
What kind of manager of a business doesn't have voicemail?!?

I know for a fact that they treat their employees like slaves, pay them horribly and demand that they work exCLUSIVELY for Goodlife and no one else.
If that's the case then they will have to pay me $1000.00 a month to teach classes there.

They are controlling and shady and sleazy! And it's nauseating how their employees are all brainwashed into thinking how WONDERFUL it is to work for them.

Bloor Park Club - what a joke! This club is the worst. Every employee including maintenance staff, yes them too, have access to your personal info on their computer system. Your address, birthdate and SIN, everything.When I complained, head office said - so what?! Receptionist will stop you if you take more than 1 towel. He has a big issue with people using more towels and other amenities. He checks personal info on members to see who interests him. Management does not care and complaints are not heeded to. Personal trainers and other staff have soaring attitudes. Equipment is not maintained.Towels are sometimes just put in the dryer without washing. You can tell. Bad club but from you read on this board, seems Goodlife has an attitude, just like its staff. Barfffff...

I have purchased a ro system with brand name “Nasaka” which is of 13000 from this fraud organization. I had the planning for purchase Kent RO Water Purifier. But the concerned sales executive from this fraud organization biased me and assured me that Nasaka will be the better option and you most go for that. At that moment i had to believe him and purchase the product. When i received the product moreover there is lot of difference between the image shown me during interaction with the sales executive and the actual product. Even they provide offer of some gifts voucher worth rs 5000 by scratching a coupon scheme but the actual price of this gifts would not be more than RS 300. Even they took additional 300 Rs towards handling charges for this gifts. Almost it is over 8 months of purchase of this product and we have not received any gifts. When i contacted the respective Customer Relationship Manager at this number [protected], she handed over my calls to some one fraud and cheater person. That cheater person told be that we have already delivered your product and we cannot provide any further help/assistance. This is completely unethical and unacceptable.

Kindly look into this matter and help me towards taking strong action against this type of fraud and cheater companies. Also we need to build public awareness and informed people beware of this type of fraud and cheater organization.

As a long-standing GoodLife member, I recently relocated to north London Ontario and have found that this 'premiere' gym (charges more, supposed to be 'better'). It seemed OK at first, but soon I noticed that the male 'trainers' were aggressive to the point of being verbally abusive not only very blatantly to the female trainers, but the young and vulnerable women members as well. These overly beefy tattooed staff seem to thing we are there for their personal harem, and it doesn't stop there! We have put numerous complaints in the 'box' and they actually laugh about them and the 'fitness manager' does nothing, in fact he even joins in the verbal abuse and openly cheats on his girlfriend by scooping up impressionable young women for sex and drugs. He is apparently an avid steroid and cocaine user as well if the gossip holds true and his assistant manager, who isn't even a certified trainer but charges like he is (so beware, they are not all certified but charge like they are (shame on you GoodLife, it is all about the money, not the 'good life') is a true used-car-saleman praying on young women there and bragging about to anyone with ears. It is such a nice gym too, but I hate it there and will take my bag somewhere else now.