If you are thinking about visiting a Future Fitness location, let me save you an hour or your time and a whole lot of money.
The sales pitch takes about an hour. No lie.By the time it is over, you would give them half a million dollars just because you have already invested an hour or your time before they would even tell you the price. I will tell you the price. The membership they really push is $801 for the first year!!! This is double the price of most fitness clubs.
They tell you that their gym is different. They sell a limited number of memberships so it is never overcrowded. Well the limited number is 4000 ACTIVE members per gym. They also tell you it is different because you get to meet with a personal trainer who will design a work out for you 1 time per month for no added fee (this is where they really got me interested). Truth: you will have to wait about 3 weeks for the appointment.
The day that I paid my $801, I tried to make an appointment and could not get one for several weeks. After explaining that I was not willing to wait that long, as I wanted to become oriented to the gym and the equipment (which all gyms provide on your first visit), I was told if I left my phone number, a manager would call me. Well, when I gave the girl my phone number, I was told they would not be able to call me because they do not have long distance calling!!! They had no trouble taking my out of state credit card, but couldn't call my out of state phone number? (I live in PA but work in NJ and thought I'd join this gym to avoid rush hour traffic).
Fast forward 2 days. I go to the gym for my first workout. Don't they have the nerve to ask me for a credit card to put on file? I just paid them $801 for a year in full. Now, if they needed a credit card, why didn't they state that when they had my credit card in their machine, processing my $801 payment? Because they don't want you to know that they are automatically going to bill your credit card after the 1st year, and that you cannot cancel at anytime. There is a 90-day waiting period. I didn't have a credit card w / me. Generally, I don't carry my wallet to the gym.
After telling them on my first 3 visits that I didn't remember the credit card, I was told that I would not be able to work out until I provided it. UM, DIDN'T I PAY FOR THIS MONTH AND THE ELEVEN MONTHS AFTER THIS? HOW DARE THEM!
I had a REALLY bad customer service experience about 3 weeks after joining. It is a long story, but put simply, I lost the key to my locker, and my car keys and other values were locked inside. Not one employee was interested in helping me. I wound up having to clear out the women's locker room (politely asking each woman if they could prepare for a man to enter) and ask a male member (some very nice gentleman that I had never met in my life who was paying good money to workout) to use wire cutters to cut my lock.
I was treated like a piece of trash by the staff and they really didn't care if I ever got the lock open or got home. Literally, the girl at the front desk was rolling her eyes at me and when I asked for wire cutters, picked them up from under the desk and put them on top and walked away without ever saying a word to me!
For $800 a year, a staff member should have been willing to cut my lock and certainly should have been the one to explain to the women that a man was going to need to enter the woman's locker room. I cannot believe I had to interrupt someone else's workout and ask them to use the wirecutters for me. Other members were actually helping me look for my key because they could see that I had become so angry and frustrated that I was actually crying. The staff NEVER offered to help.
I didn't return for 3 months. Today I called there and tried to cancel my membership. Of course, since I paid for a year in full, they consider that a "nonrefundable sign-up fee." So no portion of the money is refundable. Even after explaining to the manager that I can never come back there because I have so much rage towards that place, he was not willing to negotiate whatsoever. So, I informed him that I was making it my goal to notify as many people as possible that FUTURE FITNESS IS NOT WORTH THE MONEY! You seriously don't get anything that you wouldn't get from a fitness club that is half the price.
0 comments