Customer service at gyms

sorry to hear about your experience. my husband and i just sold our gym and i will say customer service was most important to us. i taught aerobics at the gym for 14 years and my husband lifted there for years before we purchased it. we knew everyone that walked through the door by name because 1. we worked out with most of them...2. we worked the desk everyday, got to know new ppl and chatted when they came in...3. we knew if they had a bad experience, they wouldnt return...4. we personal trained tons of ppl for free to show them the way to use the equp and form. the more they knew they more they would return daily....5. our office staff were athletes. we hired ppl that knew personal training and used every piece of equpmt we had. they not only worked our front desk but worked out with everyone also. we had an opportunity to sell the gym last year with this economy, we took the offer. i miss the people but still teach at a few diff gyms in our area so i still workout with a lot of them. my advice would be to check out several other places in your area if not happy at planet fitness. see which place works best for your needs and if you're comfortable with the surroundings, you'll return. i hope you find a place that cares about you and your needs.

Good move, sounds to me like you'll be a lot happier with Planet Fitness. How's your experience been with them so far. You said you were a member and are now rejoining? I'm a PF member and I love it. I've never had a customer service issue at all. The worst I had was at the new one by our house that just opened a few of the machines were out of order for a couple weeks and a few other machines needed some maintenance that hadn't been done. I sent them an email about it and within two days the machines were fixed and the maintenance on the others had been performed.

I'm at a point in my life, maybe it's related to our recession too, where I refuse to give my hard earned money to any company that makes it clear they don't value those dollars.

Customer service was really important to me when I was deciding on a gym! I tried five gyms before choosing the one I wanted to join, and I can tell you that I felt a lot more inclined to go to the gyms where the managers were friendly and showed me around the facility than the ones who just signed me in and let me have at it. Bottom line is you need to go where you're comfortable because if you aren't you will dread going to the gym and might stop going. I love my gym and the people there, so I am willing to pay a little more to go there than the cheaper places where I felt awkward.

No way! Gyms are for everyone. Some gyms seem to cater towards just lifting weights and power lifting and other towards cardio and others are a community center like the YMCA. They are also a business and a service being offered in exchange for YOUR money, they would not thrive without CUSTOMERS. I wouldn't spend my hard earned cash at a place like that.

Just before I moved away from home to pursue my Masters I had a bad experience at one of the local gyms as well. I paid hundreds of dollars that year for the owner to show up in a little two seater roadster, shrug and "oh well" the list of broken equipment (that had been broken for weeks) and walk away with the money in the cashbox. I had to struggle to get assistance and very few people wanted to answer general fitness or equipment questions (unless, of course, you wanted to pay for them to be your personal trainer). The owner even treated employees terribly, getting them to work LONG hours and snapping at them. He was sarcastic to me on several occasions as well and wouldn't even speak to people who were not affluent in the community, wealthy or in really good shape. The attitude people displayed towards people who were not in peak condition was abhorrent. I had paid my membership in full for a year. I just went, used what I needed to and let it expire. I have NEVER gone back.

My gym is pretty horrific when it comes to customer service too. I joined online rather than in person, which appears to have been my big mistake. Everything went swimmingly for a while, got a call pretty quickly to book in an induction/personal training session as standard. Various automatic e-mails arrived in my inbox explaining next steps, what I'd need to provide, what I'd receive... the usual.

Rocked up to my induction and got introduced to the PT who would show me around. This is where everything started to go downhill.
He didn't seem to really grasp why I was there (not sure how that's even possible haha). At no point did he ask me any health questions to see if I was fit to workout, or accomodate any problems I had.
He had me 'warm up' on the crosstrainer for 5 mins, and then took me over to another section to do some squats and sit ups. At no point did he ask me to stretch, and I stupidly didn't even think to do it... (yes, my own fault in a way, but he's the PT, surely he should have reminded me!). He got me doing some squats that were so low I almost fell over backwards. My legs seized up in between sets, unsurprisingly, and I couldn't carry on... which made me feel like I was really unfit, and I'm not.

After a few more standard exercises, he declared that was it. No cool down, no stretches.
I had to then ask loads of questions, due to him neglecting to show me round. I don't know if it's just me, but on an induction I'd quite like to be shown where the changing room is, how to use the fancy lockers, where the women's only room is, where the paper towels are etc etc.... it was like getting blood out of a stone.

To top it all off... an e-mail had said I would have a membership card ready for collection. The guy behind the counter was like 'Ohhhh I have done themm right... but I don't have the key to the cupboard because it's Saturday.... come back another day and it'll be waiting'.
I came back. They said 'I don't have any cards right now... can you come back in the week?'.
I can only work out evenings and weekends, so I duly came back on a weekday evening... nobody had any means to create new cards. They did me up some sort of temporary card, with my details in marker pen, which is now coming off. I'm bored of asking for a proper one now... not sure why nobody else at that gym seemed to have trouble getting their membership card?!

I kind of feel like I've been treated as a bit of an afterthought, because I didn't join up in person... like I've somehow missed out on a load of information I was meant to get. Why bother offering the option to join online, if you're not willing to sort that customer out with everything they need once they arrive??

Rant over, sorry haha!

I used to go to a small ladies only gym close to my house, run by two young women with some other women working as instructors. It is tiny, it's in a converted church, so has no swimming pool or anything, but has all the machines you need and has classes every day of the week too.

A few of my friends suggested I join a local chain gym and they would join too. I went and joined, and signed up to a year long contract. I must have gone to the gym about three times in that year. I had an initial assessment with some huge, muscly guy, who literally laughed when I told him my goal was to lose weight. I was told I would have a follow up assessment the next month and this never came. I was given a "personalised"workout which contained hardly any cardio and my workout card was lost and not replaced.

10 months into my year long membership, I gave up and went back to my old gym, thinking I could get away without them asking any questions since it had been so long. Literally as soon as I walked through the door I was greeted with "Becki! Hi, how are you?" I couldn't believe it. They make me feel so good, always asking how I am, referring to me by name and noticing when I lose weight, and it makes me want to keep going there.

I totally understand your decision and I wish I'd done the same with the gym I joined!!

i would have just walked in and started working out without paying, if they aren't going to greet you and check, use them up until they decide to catch you out for not paying, then tell them their customer service sucks and find a better gym.

My husband and I were just talking about this the other night. The lack of customer service we as a society have allowed to be the norm is ridiculous! I don't blame you, I would have walked out as well. We belong to a locally owned gym here in our town, DePaepe's Gym, and they are absolutely fantastic!! I am sorry you found a crappy gym. I would definitely go elsewhere!