LA Fitness

Reviews 3

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Anonymous User

LA Fitness Signature Club? I dont think so. I joined the gym switching over from Lifetime Fitness in Rockville (which by the way is an awesome club). Made the switch because this gym was closer, brand new, and appeared to be close in terms of what they offered. Appeared to be is the key term here -- In my 10 years of being a member of higher end gyms in Bethesda/Rockville/DC - this is by far the worst experience. I signed up as they were ramping up and its been a total mess. Lets start with Personal Training. I had a good trainer to start with (Carl) who moved to NYC 2 months after I joined. Since then its been a round up of amateurs. They appear to be either completely unqualified or have the bare minimum certifications. And then they are not available when I am in town. I tried to cancel out saying that they simply couldnt meet my needs and the responses got even worse. Talking with their corporate office, their response to "Im unsatisfied with the PT offerings and dont want a refund, I just want out" is too bad, youre committed for 12 months and customer satisfaction doesnt matter. Its Victoria and Tom (her supervisor) at the corporate office by the way if anyone is interested. The best offer I got was to buy out with 25% of the contract. Now thats customer service for you. Theyd rather I cancel out the membership of $100/mo that I pay for my wife and I (and would continue to pay for as a close by backup gym) thats not under any contract, than cancel out the remaining 6 months worth of $144/mo of training costs. Great business decision and awesome customer service. Now lets talk about the facilities. They were nice to start but there are pretty glaring and obvious oversights that are a new gym shouldnt have. The dedicated room with the bikes for spin class? Poorly air conditioned! And no sanitizing gel or wipes in the room. And its not part of the end of class drill to wipe down the bikes. How gross is that? The other parts of the gym have the same problem. Hand santizer, but thats it. And then onto the group fitness classes. Most of the people running the classes that Ive been to, are terrible instructors. Part of it might be that they arent allowed to use their own music and have to stick with LA Fitness provided music. Crazy, right? If youre ever there, check out how many people attend each of the spin classes. The only good instructor is Michael who actually has people who attend the class. The other instructors dont even have the right equipment (bike shorts, etc.) when they show up for class So heres the short version - this would be an OK entry level gym if its wasnt for the atrocious customer service and total lack of the management wanting any sort of feedback on their offerings. They just dont care, and it shows. If you can afford to pay more, go to Lifetime Rockville (no I dont get or want a dime for the recommendation) or sign up with Ballys where at least they dont pretend to be a high end gym.

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Anonymous User

THIS GYM SUCKS!!! You have other options in the area and if you are considering this club please read this review. I joined this club mainly for the fitness classes. So far almost half of the classes that I have attempted to take have been canceled without prior notice or some sub teaches the class. For example last week I took a Yoga class where the sub showed up five minutes late for the class and then proceeded to take out a notebook of notes to teach a darn yogo class. For gods sake we are just stretching, then she did a total of 3 yoga stances the entire class. I kept watching the clock wanting to leave the class but didnt want to be rude. The next day I took a spinning classes where again the instructor was reading off of a notebook--now I dont know what is more retarded than being on a stationary bike and someone needing instructions to tell you to pedel. Earlier that week I did a kickboxing classes where the instructor had poor form the entire class and COUNTED every single darn rep from the beginning to the end of the class. Whoever they are hiring to teach these classes are people that still need to go back and get some aerobics instructor training. I have been members of other gyms in the past and whoever is heading up their aerobics instructor program needs to seriously be fired along with all the instructors. The classes at most have 8-10 people in them who most of the time are new people who have not had the opportunity of taking the class only to be disappointed and never to return. Hence my conclusion is that If you are an "class" work out type of person as I am, stear away from this pathetic place. Lifetime fitness or even simple Ballys has its act together better than this place. A few other points. There are NEVER any towels when I go at 5 PM. There are no wipes to clean off the equipment, they have this stupid foam stuff that you have to pump like 20 times to get a decent amount on a paper towel in order to wipe things down. The personal trainers are really really sad to watch...I think they must complete some sort of weekend course and then someone gives them a certificate to train others. My first week the club had no air conditioning and it took them like four days to get the problem fixed. The place was humid and disgusting. When you have a complaint to make there is noone ever there that is responsible for anything. Its like they threw a bunch of dense monkeys into that place and were like here guys why dont you run a club. I have been to other LA fitnesses in california and they seem to have their act together--honestly I think this club is going to go out of business if management doesnt get a hold of the place and turn things around...surely Im not going to be a member much longer. By the way when you have a complaint they ask you to call corporate office in California--Good luck with that one!

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Anonymous User

This club is REALLY dirty. Its disgusting, they dont wipe down their machines, and dont even provide wipes for people to use to wipe them down afterwards. The fitness classes are taught by amateurs it seems. Ive taken about 5 different classes and only one instructor was intense. The other ones hardly made you sweat, even if I tried to push myself harder theyd get confused in the steps and the whole class would be out of sync. It was frustrating. When I first joined, within 2 weeks of the club opening, it was really nice. Great towel service, great locker rooms, nice equipment, everything. But that was expected because everything was new. After like 3 months of going, things started to go downhill. There were hardly any towels and people would throw the dirty towels over the clean ones so you couldnt even use the clean ones! Gross! Then the locker rooms started looking like no one took care of them. There were rips in the walls that werent repaired and it would be messy. Dirty towels were left on the floor, benches scattered all over the place, etc. The machines started to look gross and were covered in dried up sweat. I never tried the pool because the thought of a "self cleaning pool" just kind of grosses me out. I know the LA Fitness pool in Downtown Silver Spring is disgusting and murky looking, I dont know why people even attempt to go in it. After seeing that, I dont even want to try this one. Another thing that bothers me is that its in the basement. Theres no light! No windows! I feel like Im in a dungeon! I know they are still building the gym and it looks like there will be lots of windows when its done, but the cardio area and weight room are already set up. What are the windows going to be for? I just think its a poorly designed floorplan... so far. Im still a member here but havent been in weeks. Ive been trying to hold out on cancelling until after the club is finished being built but I dont even know if its worth it. I think I might just go ahead and cancel and stick with my other membership at Fitness First, theyre a great gym and dont claim to be something theyre not. Plus I cant beat 25 bucks a month and have tons of locations in the area. Sorry LA Fitness but youve really gotta up your game to be charging that much for a membership. Plus having to pay MORE MONEY for a universal membership is crazy. Most other gyms let you go to any location as a free perk. I hope you read these reviews and take note of what you need to improve on!

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