LA Fitness

Doesn't Recommend

Uzark

Joined 4 years ago

With LA Fitness buying out the contracts of Bally's, I was told that my contracts with Bally's would be honored. To my dismay that is not the case. Since I had renewed my contract for 2 years, LA Fitness is only going to renew my contract if I pay what I paid last time for a year. In other words, since I paid $ 265.00 for two years, I now have to pay $265.00 per year if I want to continue. When I pointed out that $265 for two years translates to $ 137.50 per year, they seem to not get it...

Leaves me thinking if a manager cannot do the basic math of what 265 for two years means per year, what does that say about LA Fitness. Incompetent or Unscrupulous? You tell me...LOL! I think both.

Recommends

Susannah Hart J.

Joined 1 year ago

LA Fitness Review. I do like this gym very much, it has all the equipment and a great variety of classes to take (which I love). I go to the one in Hollywood and, I do have to warn some of you though, it is a tad like a public gym. There are just SO many people, sometimes it's hard to get a treadmill, the locker room is always busy and you definitely have to be considerate of others and their needs when weightlifting. So while I do like this gym a lot, I know it is not for everyone.

Recommends

rosalinmoor

Joined 2 years ago

Hard rock ABS!. I stumbled upon this find with a local school auction win; I had always wanted to try Pilates. In a short series of classes, I felt a noticeable change! With a few more classes, I felt sleeker in my over-40 body! I was amazed at how much fun I was having too! Trisha and Jesse worked me hard while making me smile and laugh as the hour passed. I find myself missing the camaraderie almost as much as the expert instruction. Pilates takes mental energy and the descriptive approaches given and encouragement along the way are best in class! Thank you to Cassidy and her tremendous staff! TRY THEM OUT!

Doesn't Recommend

fifthlegend

Joined 2 years ago

**CRIME-RIDDEN, UNSAFE!!**. I tolerated the stench, the horrible parking, and the run-down machines for over 3 months (I had just moved to the area), but I called it quits when one of the gym's denizens broke into my locker (cut off the lock), rummaged through my backpack, stole the cash in my wallet, and then abandoned my backpack in the middle of the locker room. While the theft itself was pretty horrible, the way the staff handled the incident was what truly shocked and disgusted me.

From what I've been able to deduce, the theft must have taken place around 5 PM. I immediately spoke with one of the managers about the incident. He wrote up a report and then told me that I would receive a phone call from Bally headquarters within three days.

After waiting a week for this call, I contacted the gym again, and asked another manager why I hadn't heard back from the company. The person I spoke with actually told me that there was no record of any report being taken, and that I would need to go back to the gym and file another one. I did that, and was told, again, that I would receive a phone call from Bally headquarters in a few days.

As you can imagine, I received no such call, so I again contacted the gym and asked the manager what was going on. The guy basically told me that if the corporate office hadn't gotten in touch with me, it meant that it didn't think the matter was very important-- apparently this company doesn't think that theft is a very important issue, even though, as I later found out, it is quite common at this gym.

Fed up with the whole situation, I joined Equinox, and have never been happier. While the cost of my 3 year membership at Bally's is approximately equivalent to 5 months at Equinox, you get 10x your money's worth at the latter. Plus, this gym is extremely close to where I work.

Unfortunately, now that I'm off for the summer, necessity, convenience, and proximity may force me to patronize this cesspool a few times in the next few months, but I will NEVER use its lockers again, and neither should you!

Doesn't Recommend

malibujack

Joined 4 years ago

Annoyed. Wondering when I will give up.... It does not appear that corporate Bally's has any idea what's going on at local gyms or refuses to act on feedback from members. As a member of the Culver City location for 1.5 years, I have had numerous concerns, which your employees have always seemed to agreed with, but nothing ever changes. Latest are the new membership key chain tags. I have asked for this since I joined and now you have them but are charging. This is an 15+ year old technology your are now charging a fee for...really??? How about fixing the parking, machines, etc... first?

Recommends

Santamonican

Joined 4 years ago

It works, most of the time. After seeing so many negative reviews on Ballys Culver City I thought I should come to their defense just a bit. This gym was a beauty when it first opened about 10 years ago. It's definitely due for a remodel and most of the equipment would be better off replaced rather than constantly, emphasize constantly, being repaired. If you come between 10am-4pm the crowds and parking are fine. Rush hour is rush hour in LA, and this includes the gym. What's this about cognitive deficiencies in the staff? Chill....as long as you don't ask cognitively questionable questions yourself your good. Contact corporate and try to get a membership through them, at least a quote. Accounting issues...corporate, not enough dumbbells...corporate, smells...corporate. Think of the gym as a dealership, you get the picture? As long as their meeting quotas and getting paid your issues are trivial, sorry you're in LA and working with a poorly supervised cash cow in the city, think. You shouldn't be paying more that $250 per year, just mention 24 hour fitness in Marina del Rey with a costco offer. Lastly, keep in mind that this is the last gym on the westside until you get to downtown. Meaning the corridor between Venice and Jefferson Blvds. from Overland to Hoover (yes that's after Vermont) does not have a gym to serve these areas. Also keep in mind that many folks use this gym to shower, like for the day, perhaps the week, because their trailer doesn't have a working shower. I'm not joking. Next time you drive up and down Venice Blvd. notice the house-trailers (RVs). Where do you think they shower? And they may decide to go for a jog on the treadmill before they do. Hint: take a machine between two unquestionable people. But your happy paying under $300 a year for your membership, huh? They are too. Live with it, it's all good. Most of the people there are fine. Relax, and quite making excuses.

Doesn't Recommend

dextermorgan

Joined 4 years ago

WORST GYM IVE EVER BEEN TO!!!. went in 2 weeks ago to try and work out a one week membership and try and see if the gym was right for me. the manager brought his friend along and talked about the gym for a while as he showed me around, then he showed me to an office, and gave me a speech for 30 mins about the gym and insisted i join right that minute. i walked out and was simply disgusted with this place. i will never ever use a bally's, as this experience has shown me how ridiculous this gym is. the employees are rude and condescending and their one week membership that they offer is nothing more than a sham to try and get you in the door.

Doesn't Recommend

gsabean

Joined 7 years ago

Ick. I walked in on a Monday afternoon at 11:00am, and was out by 11:01am. After opening the doors to this place, you're immediately assaulted by the smell - much, much more disgusting than any other chain gym I've ever been to - and then you see the people. ALL of them, in one sweaty stampede, running on the treadmills. There were so many more people there than I expected for a weekday afternoon. I'm BEYOND glad that I didn't sign up, no matter how low the cost. Now the only thing I have to do is find another gym in Culver City!

Doesn't Recommend

acblue16

Joined 5 years ago

Stupid Employees and Old Equipment. First off, if you are considering testing out the gym with one of their free trial memberships, DON'T DO IT. They will constantly harass you with calls multiple times a day. This happened to two of my friends and they did not join the gym because they were so persistent and annoying. I am currently a member only because the gym is 2 blocks away from my apartment.

In addition to the staff being irritating during the sales process, they are also extremely stupid. They offer group fitness classes. Some are free, but most of the classes you have to pay a fee for on top of your membership dues. These classes that they charge are the better classes in the evenings such as yoga, pilates, boot camp, step. The fees are 1 class for $10 or 10 classes for $29. Not too bad. When you get the 10 class package, they give you wristbands for you to give to the instructor of the class you're taking. Last night I went to Ballys to get the 10 classes package so I could take the Pilates class in the evening. Well they ran out of wristbands and refused to sell me the 10 session package. They said the only way I could take the class was if I paid for a single session. How stupid is that? They also said that they might have more wristbands in a week.

I also agree with the other posts about the old machines. The ellipticals don't incline and are make strange noises. The treadmills aren't much better either. They are often out of order too. They only have about 4 treadmills that are decent. In addition to the crappy machines, when i first signed up, they didn't have stabilityballs and bosuballs available in the general member area. They were only in the personal training area. I called and asked if members could use them and they said not unless I bought personal training packages. Finally a few months ago they moved some stabilityballs and bosuballs to the stretching area. This gym is terrible!

Doesn't Recommend

Kiki2009

Joined 5 years ago

CON ARTISTS. I dont even know how to begin to warn the public how HORRIBLE Ballys is. When you sign up they do try to throw in all the extras in the world for a price. No matter how many times I told the goon who signed me up that I didnt want personal training he wouldnt hear of it and made me fill out some stupid question and answer sheet about what my goals were to working out. Ok working out is the point of a gym, but I told him, look I just want to take classes. And when he kept insisting and that should have been my warning to leave but I really wanted to join a gym to take classes.

After a while I moved and read an article that Crunch and Bally had merged and found out that I could upgrade my membership to Crunch. I decided to do that as Crunch was more convenient. Somehow the membership dept at Bally couldnt understand the fact that I upgraded not quit my membership early. So this is probably Bally and Crunch's fault 50/50. Where I blame Ballys is their inability to help me sort the situation. The local branch I signed up for (Culver) had no clue what I was talking about. Oh but they sure love to upgrade you so that you pay more to the company.

Now the problem is that a debt collection agency is trying to collect 3,000.00 on behalf of Ballys. FOR WHAT??? Now that Ballys and Crunch are two different companies again neither one of them is accepting blame or taking the high road to help me get out of the situation. Corporate Ballys has been no help. They are rude whenever I do get someone on the phone. And the membership dept at the local gym is like talking to rocks. They are that idiotic.

Yes, I am angry. I am bitter. No one will help me and I still have a bill for 3,000.00 that Ballys has eroneously charged me with. I am taking my complaint to a lawyer and warning anyone thinking of signing up with this horrible company. Trust me, if you sign up you will encounter problems. Dont do it!!!!!!