LA Fitness International
reviews and complaints

I have tried and tried to enjoy my training experience but each time I train I can't function normally for 3-5 days afterwards. I have told them and switched trainers but that doesn't help. They say age doesn't matter, I am 51. I guess I am hardheaded will do exactly what they make me do and even fell a couple of times just to hear, "keep going" your doing great! Well the last time I couldn't walk right for 4 days, now once again I don't want to go near the gym. They won't let me out of the contract and wont take it easier on me... So what should I do other than closing my bank account?

I absolutely hate this personal trainer at the LA Fitness at the Pasadena, CA location. He is rude and he needs to realize that he is there to service the customer, not his inflated ego. Here's my story.

So I start doing Deadlift's. When I get to 175 pounds, everything is going great and I start to lose my grip in my right hand on my third rep, as I'm going down. I have a physical deformity on my right middle finger that really *** up my grip. I feel my back start to round out and instead of risk hurting myself, I let the weights go.

Low and behold, right after I dropped the weight, this *** [censored] bag personal trainer comes up to me and starts to chastise me on how "This isn't that kind of gym and if you can't handle the weight then you should be doing lower weight"

I politely start to tell him that my grip is already bad to start off because of my finger and I that I didn't want to hurt my back because I felt it start to round. He proceeded to repeat his earlier statement, "This isn't that type of gym, you just can't throw your weights, if you want to do that you can do that elsewhere"

I was so shocked by the customer service I was receiving I didn't know what to say. After the fact I know exactly what I should have told him and what I told to the manager of the store and to the district manager.

So this isn't the type of gym where the customer's well being is valued over the dropping of the equipment? Or is this the type of gym where I'm not allowed to lift heavy weights because of a physical deformity in my finger that I have no control over? Or is this the type of gym that only guys that are 6 foot 2 and over 200 pounds can do heavy lifts because they can "handle" it.

The worst thing about it is that right after some [censored] bags doing dumbbell bench presses (They weren't even doing them right...) dropped their dumbbells on the ground and he had nothing to say to them.

It really made me feel that just because I have a physical deformity and a thin frame that I have no place being in his gym

He walks around the gym like he's the big man on in the gym, but he's just a *** personal trainer. DON'T SUPPORT THE PERSONAL TRAINERS AT THIS LOCATION.

I'm currently a sales counselor for la fitness and i am sad to say its a bad thing.I feel good about helping these people sign up for a gym that will help change there lives but at the same time I know that are sales are complete bull crap.They change the prices every month so I constantly have members come in to me and say why does my friend have 19, 99 a month and I have 44.44 when we both paid 50 enrollment, It makes me look deceiving and untruthful.I'm a genuine person and take interest in these members health but the la fintness system slaps me in the face.When a walk-in comes in to inquire about a member ship they make us follow direct steps which im ok with, First we do a fitness analysis which is like a fitness interview then show them around the club and talk prices after that and not every body wants to buy memberships after they see the sky rocket enrollment fees that are bull ###.If we don't close are walk ins and sell them we get chewed out by are manager who also has his balls being held by the regional manager.He asks us why didn't they buy what was the objection(I'm like bro this guy wants to try the club for 3 days and then sign up) You see i have no problem with that because I like to try things before investing money in them, But are manger wants to hit club goals so we are forced to sucker people out of every penny possible.We are forced to stand at walmart and hand out passes and we usually get kicked out by store management because we arnt a non profit organization.Also are managers make us call all of are leads over and over until they finally come in just so you will stop calling them.We get paid dirt 8.55 an hour unless you sell 31 ships or more every 14 days which is tough to do every month.So your looking at 45 hours a week for minimum wage.With all the ### you put up with your virtually getting paid nothing.They make you cross promote all over town with your own car and don't even pay for your gas.Managers are blood suckers just out for there bonuses and getting there cash.My general manager is a [censored] bag! Before I ever worked there I came in to by a membership and he pressured me so bad I didn't go back for months I was just 17 working part time at the movies and finishing up school and he tried to sell me a 240 enrollment 44.44 a month.I told him to suck on it and left because he wouldn't give me a guest pass to even try the club.Bottom line don't join! Don't work there...they say you can cancel your membership at any time but that's bs! It takes 60-90 days at least after you tell them you want to quit for them to stop billing you.I had to deal with much of this and I felt bad it was against my morals!

I had been putting off my "free fitness assessment" since i signed up for my membership 3 months ago because I knew it would just be a scam to make me sign up for personal training sessions. However, when i was working out on my own a week ago a trainer approached me and told me i was doing it all wrong and told me to skip my spin class because he'd give me an even better workout.

So i said, okay whatever. Well I skipped my spin class and waited for 20 mins for him. He told me to go do a 5-6 mins warmup on the bike and 20 mins later he yelled up to me from downstairs. Seriously? he couldn't come talk to me like a human being? So I go down and im not sure why i even warmed up because then we just sat down at a desk for an hour.

After telling me awful things about myself, and making my weight situation so much worse than it actually is and telling me that i'm in the bottom 1% of the population (even though i work out 5-6 days a week). He did a quick weight training workout with me. While that part was good and valuable then it got down to the selling time.

When i told him i'm a full time student and i couldnt afford training sessions at this time, he suggested my boyfriend or parents pay for my sessions. I'm an adult, I can't believe he would suggest that i convince someone else to pay for my overpriced sessions. They charge up to $60/HALF HOUR! After I cried for an hour about how awful he made me feel about myself I realized it was not even worth being upset over. He was suggesting that I needed to get to 15-17% body fat, and when I came home and researched I found that women are supposed to be between 20-25%. He was doing anything he could to lower my self esteem to get me to pay for training. NO WAY! i'm half tempted to switch to 24 hour since its just as close with better hours.

I was working out at the gym that I have been to many times before. I went to the standing calf machine and as I put my hand to reach for the weight pin a 15 pound weight (which later I realized had been stuck up on top came crashing down pin my hand causing it to swell up and bleed. I asked for immediate help from a trainer who nonchalantly directed me to the front desk. As I walked up to the front desk girl I asked her for help and then I started to feel faint from the pain so I tried to go to the nearest chair and before I knew it I had stumbled and run into the side wall.

A fellow gym, member came to see what had happened and prompted an LA fitness employee to help and call 911. I was given ice water to drink and eventually an ice pack. My fiancé was called and he came immediately. It took 2 hours to fill out an incident report. They tried to say that nothing was wrong with the equipment and then the incident was "suspicious" as if to say I was at fault and deliberately hurt my self.

My fiancé then called for a manger that refused to even apologize for what happened maintaining that I should have been paying better attention to the equipment. I assured them that I was not looking for any trouble or payout-simply some human decency and sense of customer service. I finally got up to say something and explain he situation, and Shawn, the manger who was incredibly rude, kept arguing with me about the incident. LA fitness should be embarrassed to have these employees. I am a long standing member and deserve to be treated with some respect.

I was absolutely flabbergasted at the whole thing.

I went to LA fitness to use their 2 week trial pass. Told them that I was planning on changing clubs from Life time to LA and would like to try LA for 2 weeks before cancelling my Lifetime membership. The manager rudely tells me that they can't accept other club members. I immediately walked out from the club. I have never heard of someone telling me that I can't be a member at 2 clubs simultaneously.

My wife purchased me a membership and personal training sessions at LA Fitness in Denton, Texas on December 7th, 2010. At that time she was charged as follows:

*$146.12 for initial membership fee

*$222 for personal training set up and first month

She was then billed for these additional sums:

*$32.46 on January 5th, 2010 for another month of membership fees.

On January 14th, 2010 I visited the LA Fitness in Denton for my first trainer session which was to include a fitness assessment. When I arrived for my appointment the trainer was sleeping. I woke him up at his desk and he took me over to begin working out on weights. I asked him for a tour since I had never been to the facility. He took me on a tour. He did not know the locker policy for the facility. He then took me over to do some free weights. I told him that I should receive a fitness assessment first. He said he could not do the assessment, and that the proper trainer to do it was not there. He then said I needed a trainer booklet, but could not locate one to give me. He said, "That's corporate fitness for you. Corporate fitness ***." I asked what he meant by that. He stated, "LA Fitness fired me from the Lewisville store. The Denton facility was opened too early and we don't even have a scale to weigh you on for the assessment, or the booklet you are supposed to receive." He then was given permission to give me thefitness assessment on my next visit, even though he stated that he was not officially allowed to administer assessments. When I arrived home, I contacted his supervisors and spoke with them about getting a refund as I did not feel comfortable patronizingLA Fitness in Denton after this experience. My wife spoke with 'Angela' and 'Issac, ' both fitness trainer supervisors. Both indicated that they would not refund any money.

*$172.00 on January 19th, 2010 we were billed for another month of trainer fees.

*$32.46 on March 1st, 2010 when my wife received threatening phone calls requesting that we pay for another month of membership or we would be have 'credit problems.' My wife stated, again, that she wanted the membership cancelled and our money refunded.LA Fitness refuses to refund ANY moneys.

I Signed up for this gym specifically because I wanted to use the racquetball court. I also wanted to bring my brother there every couple weeks or so to play. When I signed up I Stressed this to the sales guy several times. I asked the sales guy several times about the process of reserving a court and he said whenever you need to reserve a court, just call in 24 hours ahead of time and you can reserve it no problem. I asked him SPECIFICLY ! if it would cost me any extra to reserve the court, or to bring a guest to play racquetball.
I was told, anyone can reserve the courts and you get alot of guest passes, and when I run out of guest passes he will give me more..
Turns out the first time I tried to reserve a court, they told me I don't have a racquetball by my name in the system, and that I would have to pay extra each month to be able to reserve courts... So we showed up with no reservation and when we tried to use the guest pass, they tried to take down all his information and were trying to get him to sign up for a membership! He lives 1 hour away! After they took all his information etc, they told us that the racquetball courts can't be used when you are using the guest pass! I am so pissed.. I asked to talk to the guy who signed me up and they said he now works at a different location.. What a bunch of scammers. They will tell you anything to get you to sign up, but then no one is held accountable for what they said when you join. They don't have a customer email address you can send complaints to and their customer service desk is closed on the weekend.. I checked on their web site and it specificly says that you are allowed to use all the facilities with the guest pass..
This company is a freaking joke...

This club lacks basic customer service skills. We prepaid for two years before the club even opened. Our membership expired on a weekend and I came in the following monday to workout and explained that my husband would be in to pay for our renewal that evening. They were rude and tried to demand that I pay $15 to work out that day. I finally had to speak to the manager about it and she tried to say the same thing. After a long explanation about how I felt I was being treated unfairly I got to work out. Then when my husband came in to pay they back dated our renewal to the original date so technically Im out 5 days. Also they are supposed to give a free month for renewing but we didnt get that because we went past the renewal date yet they have no problem back dating our renwal and stealing five days from us! I also referred four people to that gym! All of this could have been avoided with some basic customer service skills. I will not go back to this gym after our next renewal unless new management is brought in and things drastically improve including the check in staff member in the morning who is very rude most of the time and when he does smile it is half hearted. The corporate office needs a serious makeover as well which is another story in itself!

As of this week all of the Televisions didn't have FOX NEWS on them and only displayed ESPN along with CNN and MSNBC. I asked if I could get one channel changed to FNC and was told that Corporate had blocked the station in all the clubs. I don't care what people watch or don't watch but why would you create a political issue in a business? Two members have cancelled at this gym today and as soon as I find a similarly priced gym I will be doing the same.

I went over the head of the operations manager, Sarah Kraft at my LA Fitness in Seattle and complained to corporate. She took me to court to try to get an antiharrassment order against me. She thought going over her head was harrassment. The company actually paid money to hire an attorney to help her. The judge dismissed the case and told her that customer complaints were part of her customer service job and "deal with it".

I joined LA fitness specifically to have access to a pool. After one week into my membership, the pool heater broke. Apparently, the pool heater at the Gresham and Pearl location are also broken. I was told that it was going to be repaired last week and nothing happened. Today I was given the "we have no idea when it's going to be repaired. Corporate needs to buy a new heater and we have no control over when they do that. It may be weeks before it's repaired." This is completely unaccaptable. Corporate should not hesitate to buy new heaters for its paying customers.

The facility is great, but customer service is bad. Dealing with billing is a nightmare!

I have been a member for 1 year, spending over $2, 000 in a year. At the end of the year I inquired about personal training contract renewal. The manager called me within a few days and informed me that they can offer to me personal training membership for $20 (the original rate was $30). I specifically asked if there are any additional fees associated with it. He informed me that since I am already a customer, there will be no additional fees or account set up fees. I also asked if I need to do anything else, e.g. sign contract, and he assured me that all I needed to do is to authorize transaction over the phone.

February comes and I look at my credit card statement and I see multiple charges. I called the LA Norwalk office and it turns out here how transactions break down:

1. $150: $92 dollars for training membership (new discounted rate) + 50 dollars processing fee (which I was not informed about)

2. $31 and S31 - monthly membership for 2 people (no complaints here)

2. $127 - training membership fee at original rate

Person informed me that charges are correct because I have two training accounts set up, one for me and one for my husband. I responded that it is impossible since my husband rarely goes to the gym and if he needs proof, he can check attendance records. I told him how my training membership was renewed and he repeated multiple times that these charges are my fault because I never cancelled my first training membership. I emphasized that I was told my account was being “renewed” and I never agreed to establish a second training membership. I asked to resolve this issue and provide a reimbursement. He replied that I have to cancel my membership to not incur further charges, but he cannot do anything about reimbursement since this is my fault. I asked to speak with the owner and was told that someone will give me a call back.

Is this how a person should be treated when I pay over $2, 000 a year? I understand errors occur, but I am totally taken aback that they are reluctant to address the issue and imply taht the issue is my fault.

I am a member of LA Fitness South Elgin and enjoy working out there...when the club is actually open during its business hours. Today, February 15th, the club failed to open at opening time for the second business day in a row. I, along with many other patrons, waited in the parking lot from shortly after 5am until after 6am, but no LA Fitness staff member with the ability to open the club showed up during that time. On Friday, February 12th, I waited until approximately 5:50am and, again, the club failed to open before I left. I personally experienced the club opening significantly late twice around Christmas time and once in late October/early November.

On Friday, I called LA Fitness Corporate to inform them of this situation. It obviously didn't do much good if the club failed to open the following Monday on time. I plan to call again today to report this situation.

As mentioned, I generally enjoy my local LA Fitness and feel that the group class instructors are excellent. However, management seems to have some difficulties...managing. Besides the early morning staffing issues, there seems to be a lot of facilities issues (broken equipment, horrible heating/cooling issues) that the local management blames "corporate" for. Whatever the situation is, local management needs to get there act together, particularly regarding staffing issues, before members start leaving in droves to the many other health club options we have in our area.

I signed up for a membership and was talked to by a trainer/manager/salesmen/?-too many titles but no scruples. I verbally agreed to Training with him-he gave me a few sessions then asked what price i would want to pay-I said, "no more than 120$ a month for training-he said he could train me with four One hour sessions a month for that price-he also told me he had credentials for physical therapy as i have a disability-I never signed any agreement for the training-When Mr? left that location several months later I asked if any other trainers were available with physical therapy credentials and no one could step forward but I was told I have a 12 month agreement-so another manager (I think everyone there is!) looked up my training contract-one i had never seen or signed and i had him print it out-The signature is so different then mine a 10 year kid could forge their parents report card signature better!
I am now awaiting credit card dispute process-thanks to all the people who complained about LA FITNESS corporate I went straight to my credit card with it-oh not to mention -it's fraud!
This company should get their act together and fly straight

there is an employee at the la fitness in grand prairie on I 20 that is rude to people. he yelled at a ladie for no reason.someone else wanted to know the cost for membership and he acted rude about it at the end he didn't even give him the cost for membership. so later on he got fired but now he is back working again. i don't think they should have hired him back for rude behavior and attitude torward the costumers.
the employees name is JOHN . i think he should be fire and not let him go back again.
that is my complaint.

I think that LA Fitness is a relatively good place to work out. They have good equipment and lots of fitness programs.

I joined there in October of 2008. This has nothing to do with anything, but my wallet was stolen on my very first visit. Then they tried to get me in on their "coaching" which would have added up to an additional $160 to my monthly bill. I did see the light and refused that.

ANYWAY...I wasn't using my membership enough, so I decided to cancel it in July of 2009. I went in to cancel and they said you can't cancel here, you have to send in written cancellation and it will take a couple of months. That should have been my first clue.

I got the form, and sent it off. I also learned this, keep a copy and send registered mail!

Everything I do is electronic. I don't get paper copies of any bills to try and be more green. I rarely use my credit card anymore, so when I logged on to check it the other day, I noticed that LA Fitness was on there and had been all of the previous bills.

I called immediately...and gee, guess what they said? Oh, it looks like we never received it.

I hate dealing with dishonest people. I played their game and did as I was told. They are the ones who got my letter and pitched it in the garbage. Why not? It wasn't registered, so I can't prove that I sent it.

Sometimes it is really embarassing, or maybe just depressing to know that companies like this exist.

I know I have no way to get back my fees for the past seven months. What I am really hoping is that someone will read this and realize they are dealing with a dishonest company and take their business to someone who is trying to do a service rather than steal money from their customers. The people that run the individual clubs were great. It is just the people who call the shots that I am so disappointed with.

A friend and I went into LA Fitness with a free 7 day pass. I wanted to try it out cause I am not a gym person but my friend is. She dragged me along with her and she plans on joining the LA Fitness at another location, but she wanted to try out this location to see if she wanted to pay the extra fees to use other locations for when she comes home from school. Well the first night we went in we had no problems with any of the workers and were able to work out with no problem. The second day we went in with our free 7 day pass, we were told me had to talk to the manager. Well, we already got a weird feeling from the lady at the front desk cause she was kinda rude to us about asking for our proof of GA residency. So we went over and talked to the manager. Well, he started talking to us and was trying to force us to sign up then, wasn't going to happen. My friend said she is signing up at another location and the manager became very rude towards us. He started harassing us about not signing up and about the prices of the gym. It kept going on and on. He even looked up other information about my friend to see if she was telling the truth. He called the guy sitting in the cubicle next to him to come confirm the information we had been telling him. If the was any intent of me signing up for a gym membership there, all chance was gone. I have never been into a business that a manager has harassed me so much that i felt completely unwelcome and embarrassed and I didn't even want to be there. I am completely appalled by the professionalism of LA Fitness. For this guy to be a manager, he is a disgrace to the company. Great way for the company to lose business.