LA Fitness International
reviews and complaints

LA Fitness opened a new club in Kirkland. They call it a "Signature" club. The "Signature" designation is made for only one purpose, to avoid having to honor contracts they took over from Bally's. This is a scam. LA Fitness has another club in Bellevue. With the exception of providing towels that most clients do not use, the clubs are identical. The club charges an extra $5 per visit to members that bought contracts through Bally's where rates were guaranteed to remain constant just because management calls the new club a "Signature" club. Clients are getting ripped off. Now there is talk of the company going public, and for major owners selling out their stake. Before you sign any contract with these people, get the facts. Lawsuits are already being filed against LA Fitness.

The membership agreement I signed with LA Fitness states the following:

"You (the member) have seven business days to cancel this contract. If you so cancel, any payments made will be refunded and any evidence of indebtedness executed by you will be canceled."

Later it states

"To be effective, your cancellation must be postmarked by midnight, or hand delivered by midnight on 7/03/12"

Following these instructions, I sent my notice of cancellation via USPS Certified Mail on 7/3/12, thus meeting the deadline for the cancellation. Later, on 7/9/12, I received a notice of membership cancellation from LA Fitness via email. However the wording of the email concerned me, because, unlike the contract, the email stated that the membership would expire on 8/21/2012. Assuming my money would be refunded in full, the membership should have expired effective immediately.

In light of this, I called an LA Fitness representative that same day. She assured me that, if I submitted my notice of cancellation on time, I would certainly receive a refund. I informed her that I had not received the refund, and asked when I would receive it. She told me that she couldn't say.

After a month of waiting, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and with my credit card company. The credit card company temporarily refunded my money, but later reversed the refund due to a request from LA Fitness! So then I had to submit documentation proving that I filed the cancellation on time. Finally after two months of waiting, I received my refund.

This is clearly unreasonable, and violates the terms of the membership agreement. LA Fitness forced me to file all of these complaints before finally refunding the money they owed me. Had I not filed all of these complaints, I am certain they would have kept the money, even though I filed the cancellation procedures TO THE LETTER.

For a year, the word was out that this club was being built, and the word on the street was that any member with an all club membership would be able to go there. Then, within 30 days of opening, a last-minute decision was made by the owners to "brand" this a signature club - meaning that existing members either need to go in and pay a huge upgrade, or pay a drop fee on every visit. I went there last night to take a look at the place, and it is nothing special, compared to their other locations in the area. In fact, it is a smaller facility, more or less on a par with their regular clubs. Their only real competition in Kirkland is a 24-Hour Fitness location that is a complete dump, that the owners have let fall into dis-repair. This is a classic example of price gouging, and a disservice to their existing customers. It seems like a prime target for a class action lawsuit.

I recently joined LA Fitness that is only opened 2 months. After working out i noticed 3 paper towel machines were empty and many of the treadmills had stains on it. I went to the front desk to advise them. After about 15 minutes nothing had changed and i saw members go to put soap on their hands and had nothing to wipe them with. i went back to the front desk and was told they were all out and would not have any for the next 4 days . this is totally unacceptable.The germs and sweat are all over the machines.and it is discusting.i was also told the other facilities would not lend them any as they were running out too. how do you run a gym like this. when 3 more are opening up in the area.I also paid an enrollment fee of $69.00 only to find out if you sign up on line it is free. what a scam i am discusted already after only 2 days. Be careful

Stay away from LA Fitness. The whole corporation is a bunch of ###.
I just joined an LA Fitness in Schaumburg IL in May of 2012. It was a Ballys acquisition. I joined because it was near my new job. I specifically asked the sales guy about the future of the facility. He said they were remodeling it and it would stay open during construction. I said great and gave him $200 initiation fee. Now 2 months later they tell me the place is closing at the end of July! I ask for my $200 back and they say shove it. The contract reads that they can close any facility at any time and can transfer me to any LA fitness within 25 miles! They expect me to drive 30 minutes out of my way to go to an LA Fitness. The other locations are inconvenient. Alicia the customer care rep actually told me that they are within the bounds of the contract and that I should not get a refund because of an inconvenience. What? I thought they were in the business of attracting and retaining customers!
Do not under any circumstances sign a contract with these cheaters. They lied to me to get my money and are now treating me like dirt. These guys will lie to you to lure you in and leave you hanging the first chance they get. Lifetime and Xsport will bury these scammers soon. Don't get caught paying for a membership at a dying company..

This is the worse la fitness in existence horrible equipment trainers are wanna be and dont really know what they're doing and they have horrible customer service if you want to spend your money at an la fitnesss dont spend it at the one in winter park fl they are racist and incompetent and will only hurt you more than they will help you

Hands down, worst LA Fitness in Palm Beach County. I travel quite a bit and squeeze in workouts when & where time permits, so I've been to all of the various LAF locations in PBC. The Wellington gym is, by far, the dirtiest, most cluddered, unorganized and unfriendliness location of all of them. There is a real failure in upper management for this place to be such a mess. It's located directly across the street from Wellington Regional Medical Center, so I'm very surprised that the local medical professionals would even walk into this place for fear of a skin infection(s). Most gyms have cloth towels & disinfectant spray bottles attached to the machines for easy & convenient use, but not LA Wellington. No, they supply paper towel and hand soap for members around the outside perimeter, which 95% of the members neglect to use. It is probably safe to assume that a public restroom is cleaner than the equipment. It's absolutely disgusting. In addition, the place isn't safe. I watched a member trip over an attachment for a cable machine, guy almost broke his hand falling down. So I was absolutely shocked that the gym employee who was walking behind him did nothing. Didn't ask the guy if he was ok, didn't move the said attachment to an area where is was out of the way so others wouldn't trip and he didn't pick up the rest of the area which was a complete mess. Nope, just kept walking to the basketball court so he could watch guys shoot basketballs. Absolutely lazy. Which seems to be a theme for LA Wellington. There is zero policy for reracking your weight. Good luck trying to find a Hammer Strength machine that doesn't have 2-4 45lbs plates left on it or worse the leg press machines with 6-10 plates left on them. I can't believe this gym has any female members, with the dirty machines and heavy weights left on them, most women wouldn't workout here. It's nothing short of a miracle to locate a dumbell less than 20 lbs. You have to scour for 15 minutes in order to find a set. Here's a tip, check the basketball court. racketball court, aerobics room, around entire outside wall, 2nd floor cardio deck, locker rooms and pool area. It's a workout in itself. One would think that the staff would take some pride in keeping the place clean & tidy, which would increase membership, but that makes too much sense. Plus, like I said before, they are plain lazy and don't even clean up or rerack after they train a member themselves. Most gyms have sayings painted on the walls, like "if you can't put it back, don't pick it up" but not this place. It's a complete disaster. Word to the wise, don't put your phone in the cup holder in the cardio machines. A good friend of mine did and ended up with gum on it. This is the type of environment poor management creates when they let things run amuck. This morning there were two young, heavy-set girls checking people in. Neither one said "good morning" to me when I said hello. One girl held out her hand to grab my scan-tag, swiped it and handed it back to me without saying a word. Made eye contact with me and everything, but no "hello", "thank you" or "enjoy your workout", just plain rude. In fact, she was probably upset she had to break away from her conversation about the TV show she watched last night to check me in. Now, I don't have anything against heavy-set people, I too was once overweight, but the gym is supposed to promote healthy habits. I don't think that it's out of line to say that the large, rude girls at the front counter probably shouldn't be drinking large Starbuck's coffees with an extra helping of heavy whipping cream on top. It's just not a good look and, like I said, doesn't promote a healthy lifestyle to people getting up early to workout in a dirty gym. Tighten up LA Wellington

Be careful enrolling in a membership here, because once you cancel, you don't REALLY cancel. I was added onto a friends account, she canceled and wanted me to split the cancellation fee with her. After being harassed by the company multiple times the day she cancelled, I finally spoke to them once I was off work. I gave them my credit card # to pay the second half of the cancellation fee. Please keep in mind this is the ONLY time I have ever given them my credit card #. The following month I noticed a 29.99 charge from them on my account, confused by this I called them to resolve the issue. Costumer service was unable to help me because they were "unaware" of the charges and said I didnt have an active account with them. They tried to tell me I wasnt being charged, when clearly I was, according to my credit card statement. I decided to have my bank deal with it and reverse the charges. The next month, they decided to charge me 29.99 again. I then realized they must have set me up with some sort of automatic payment. I called them to again inquire about this since I NEVER authorized any such payments. This time they told me that I never cancelled? I asked them why they think I paid 43.50...and explained to them that this was the other half of the cancellation fee on the account and the representative who called me assured me that my account had been terminated along with the cancellation fee.
Basically they kept denying that I cancelled and informed me that the confirmation # I had received with my cancellation was invalid. I could not and cannot believe this. And when I asked them to send me proof that I had authorized this reoccurring payment they were unable to provide it for me.

I do not appreciate anyone taking my credit card information and unlawfully using for other purposes. For a somewhat well-known company, i'm surprised they are able to get away with this sort of stuff. They are a bunch of liars and thieves.

The gym on 441 and glades is a danger zone, it has bum bells and weight on the floor through out the gym area. I trip over bum bells twice the two hours I was there. This la fitness is not kept clean at all there is dusty on the walls and equipment. You can say its run down. On one of my visits there they had pizza and chicken wings for the members, your thinking healthy right ! Well it get worse one of the members I saw eating the grease chicken wing went for the bum bells with out washing his hands. If you are looking to get sick or just like germ infested gyms ! This mite be the place for you. A dump with lazy works.

Last friday we heard the shocking news that Ballys was bought out by LA Fitness. Whether that is a good thing, I dont know. But the thing that LA Fitness really surprised us with, was with the cancellation of the TMA (Total martial arts) program. Let me tell you what this has done. Pissed off parents, unfinished contracts with the students and the worse part is, seeing all our kids sad and crying the day Ballys and LA Fitness decided to shut down the program without any type of notice and kicking us out, including the martial arts instructor. We were all shocked, angry, and emotional because we were not just members we were a group and a family.

Over the years we the parents, students and instructors had build a relationship. LA Fitness just like that, took that away. I am PISSED not only because they shut the program down for no reason but because I had to witness a very sad scene which was my children and the children of all the other parents involved, SAD, CRYING, and what makes me sad is that they are innocent children that do not understand why the place where they loved to go and the place where they learn respect, discipline and friendship is no more. Many can say to just put them my children in another school, but it’s not that simple.

I hope that who ever reads this can understand our feelings towards this issue and knows the type of business LA Fitness is about by this action they have taken. Camp out at “Occupy LA-Ballys” on Facebook and state your unified thoughts. Bally’s gave its loyal members a great example of Corporate greed and LA Fitness is providing the shaft by ending and not honoring the Bally’s fitness lifetime members contract nor any other. I was informed by the new LA Fitness staff that Bally’s has sold all of its memberships with a final expiration date ending 2012 of a calendar year (Corporate Greed), in which time all will be subject to LA Fitness new monthly rates (The Shaft.)

The first day that I initially went to LA Fitness in Conyers I signed up. Fatima, the sales rep was great, but most sales people should be. When I returned for one on one with the trainer, I was blown off. I complained of course, some fees were dropped, and they rescheduled me to come back...To experience the same thing. This time I thought it was going to be right, especially since the manager spoke to me upon entry. Well, I did get a quick 15 minute workout without any talk about dieting or anything else. All was asked was do you want to sign up for a personal trainer. They are definitely in the money business and will not pay you any mind unless you are trying to spend more money utilizing their extra services. Not sure if they all are this way, but I should've listened to God when he advised me to cancel the membership the following day after being ignored.

I notified la fitness that I cancelled my direct debit as I had been advised by my doctor. I suffer severly from panic attacks which I can not go in public places without having a anxiety attack. I explained my situation to the gym on the phone who was understanding and said to send a doctors letter and they would freeze it for 3 months as this is the longest they would do it for. I sent my doctors letter in as they asked. The following week they said they would not accept my letter.
I then rang and spoke to someone else who said no that's fine and put a freeze on my account.
3 days later I received a letter from a credit debt agency demanding £380 within 10 days. I rang la fitness again all I got told to do was to ignore the letter and a apology.
Im really not happy with the way I was treated and think the customer service was disgusting. I now want my account closed permanently as i feel I have been treated unfairly

My name is Sherry; I was a member of the La Fitness in Carrollton Texas. The reason I am not is because the one manager there named Jon Michael offended me and embarrassed me in front of people working out there at the time. I am a white female, on the heavy side but was working out to be more on the thinner side. As I walked by Jon he said something I couldn’t believe, I stopped and said excuse me what did you say and Jon replied there is no excuse for you being that fat. Jon said it loud enough so that other members start saying did you hear what he said to her. I was so embarrassed and ashamed I run out of their crying and went home. I tried calling and taking to someone in charge but they keep giving me Jon Michael the manager and Jon repeat called me fat ### stop calling hear, we don’t like fat ### here. I hope this helps stop overweight people from signing up at the Carrollton Texas la fitness store so they will not be made fun of by the manager Jon Michael as I was. Do not go to the Carrollton Texas la fitness is you are some overweight, beware of Jon Michael.

I worked in the capacity of supervisor for three different periods of time and I was never paid the supervisory pay of $13.00 per hour and I received only my $8.00 per hour for janitorial/Maintenance worker, I directed staff, had staff member to fill out hire package, was asked to give inventory for supplies and I had to perform his daily task by working a split shift which I was never compensated for.

I was a loyal LA fitness club member for over 4 years. Unfortunately, I have to cancel it last year because of my puppy. Now my puppy is fully independent so I want to re-join the club again. LA fitness is always my first choice. So yesterday(2/27/12) me and my friend went to the Arcadia club try to talk to somebody, around 7:30pm. The staff's name is Jonny Blanco. He was ok at the first few minutes, asking about what kind of deals we are looking for. But for some reason he was not able to pull out the right record of my previous information. I was telling him I used to have $29.99/month and can bring a friend with me, he said that was not in the system, you didn't have this offer. My friend went to this club with me before I cancelled it, so she couldn't believe his reply. By all means, I was with the club for 4 years, I know what I had before, and my friend is the witness, we went to this club together more than 20 times! So I asked if I can get this deal again, he didn't give me direct answers, just saying that was not what I had. Then my friend said " well then, we'll get for 24-hr fitness." Then he said:" IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD LA FITNESS THEN GO FOR 24-HRS FITNESS"
We couldn't believe that was coming from your "friendly" "Professional" "trained" staff! I replied:" It's not about I can afford it or not, I just want to know if I can get the same deal that I used to have." Jonny wasn't apologizing for what he just have said, he said:" I CAN'T GIVE YOU THE DEAL THAT YOU IMAGINE YOU HAVE" So we left the club feel very insulted. I can't believe that how can LA fitness has someone like Jonny, treat your previous member and possibly new members in such a way! What kind of staff LA fitness hired for such a nice location? I feel like me and my friend will NEVER go with LA fitness again, and we'll tell all my friends how we were being treated at your Arcadia club. This makes your business looks very bad.
Fitness clubs require high quality trained professional staffs in contact with clients. We are just two young girls come with simple request, the result wasn't even matter at this point. If this is the kind of staff your club can offer, you'll lose more business in the future. This is the WORST experience I ever had at any kind of business, not even a small restaurant will treat their customer like this.