This morning I woke up with the intention to go to my L.A. Fitness gym and participate in my favorite Zumba class. My favorite teacher only has class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Like a lot of mornings when I don’t work I plan to go to the gym but I opt for working out at home instead. It’s not because I’m lazy, and I definitely hate wasting the money for a membership. I just can’t bring myself to return because of something that happened to my husband and I in July. 
        My husband and I both have two jobs each so we don’t get to spend a lot of down time together. When we do we try to make it count. When we got married I had already been a member of L.A. Fitness since 2009. My husband never joined because he works from 9am to 10:30 pm. It really would not make sense for him to have a gym membership if he really can’t use it. So I workout on my own. 

   Since we got married my husband gets a guest pass at the gym once every year on the off chance we both have the same day off. He had been so busy these past two years that he had no time to go to the gym with me. So when we realized we were off for the Fourth of July weekend we decided to hit the gym together. 

       It had been so long since we had gotten a guest pass I remember telling my husband to make sure he was still eligible. I thought the rules might change. I didn’t want to get all the way to the gym and he couldn’t get in. He read the fine print, and it said on the site and the pass we printed out that you can’t get another guest pass until 6 months had passed. Since it had been two years or more since he had visited I figured he would be fine. 

       I was wrong. When we arrived to the gym I checked in and my husband showed his guest pass. At first the person at the front desk said go right ahead, but then one of the gym managers asked us to meet them at their desks. He ask us if my husband had visited the gym before. My first instinct was to lie and say no. I had a bad feeling about the question. No one else I had brought to the gym was asked that question. However I figured they might have him on file from 2 years ago so I decided to tell the truth. 

      The gym manager asked Jon if he wanted to join. We then explained our work situation and how he just doesn’t have the time. So then the manager say “we can’t allow you to work out here unless your a member.” My husband was ok and said to me well you go work out I’ll wait in the car. I wasn’t having it. 
       I asked why was he not being allowed in. The manager said because he used a guest pass 2 years ago so he can’t get another. I asked my husband for his pass and showed the manager the fine print that says he can obtain another pass after 6 months had passed. He said ” well that’s not our policy any more.” So I explained that’s false advertising. I told him it’s on your company site also. He said well we don’t allow that. I then told him about how my sister had visited from another state and worked out with me on a guest pass on 4 different occasions. I’ve also brought other friends in on guest passes a bunch of times. Why has the rules suddenly changed with my husband? 

       This is when things got suspicious. The manager then say to us” well I’m the manager of this gym and I can bare people as I see fit. Ok so this is when I was about to lay into this guy, but my husband was like just forget it come on let’s go. As we walked back to the car I was so infuriated. I had been going to that gym for so long giving them my money and the felt it was ok to miss treat me and my guest. 

       Then I started telling my husband about one of the last time my sister visited. After we did a Zumba class together on my birthday one of the managers met her just before the door. He asked her if she wanted to join. She said no because she lived in a different state. He then tried to get her to sign up with a more expensive membership so she can go to any L.A. Fitness wherever she is livening. She declined and said I just had a baby so I don’t have the money for that membership right now. He then said to my sister. ” why don’t you get a job so you can afford a gym membership” my sister and I looked at him very stunned at the accusation that she was unemployed. She explained that she’s a journalist, and she does have a job it just wasn’t in her budget right now to have a gym membership. He then started trying bully her into signing up. We left with a bad taste in our mouth. 

       I remember talking to my sister about the incident and telling her I feel it was racist of him to say she didn’t have a job. I have to admit I thought about leaving the gym right then, but I had just started going. Looking back on that situation and then looking at the situation with my husband I felt that maybe it was time for me to go. So I stopped going to the gym as much so  I could take time to plot my next move.

        First thing I decided was that we should put it out on Twitter what they did. We made sure that we tagged LA fitness Twitter page so they saw exactly how displeased we were with them. Next I decided to put my membership on hold. I went through the entire process to put your membership on hold, and it said it went through. However when the next month came my membership dues came out of my bank account automatically again. Then I started to research how to switch gyms. There’s a LA Fitness much closer to where I live now. I’ve only visited once.  I don’t really like it all that much because it’s a little dirty. But a lot of things have gone down at the LA fitness I was currently a member of, and I felt that it was time for me to let them go. 

     I started doing my research and found out that I had to pay $60 to be able to go to a different gym. I think that’s ridiculous seeing as I am already paying a monthly due I should just be able to switch. I feel like it really should be a matter of filling out some paperwork and that Gym is my gym now. They want $60 to fill out the paperwork. To be honest it would be cheaper just to get rid of my membership altogether. Well the only reason why I still have a membership is cause I like to swim and I don’t know to many gyms in my area to have a pool. 

    This is when the story took a turn. Someone from LA fitness corporate call my husband to ask him how he enjoyed working out at the LA Fitness in Alsip IL. My husband explain the situation that had happened. The person on the phone apologized and offered my husband a week long guest pass. My husband still was mad about the situation so he just hung up in the guys ear. So he could’ve gotten a weeklong guest pass, but he wouldn’t of been able to use it because he has to be at work all week long at both of his jobs. So the offer was just a complete waste anyway. 

    I myself haven’t been back since that incident. I get up in the morning, and I say “OK I guess this has gone on long enough.”  I get ready for the gym I get to the door and then I change my mind and work out at home. At this point I’m not sure what I should do.  Should I just get rid of the membership and just continue working out at home? Since I haven’t been back I haven’t been swimming either, so what’s the point of keeping a membership to have access to a pool you don’t use? I’ve brought a lot of friends there that have joined. My sister joined another L.A. Fitness gym last year. I feel like I’ve given so much to that gym and was just mistreated. I’m not sure how to move forward in this situation. Should I just suck it up and pay the 60 bucks and switch gyms, or should I just leave all together. What are your thoughts? 

P.S. I wrote this during the time I would normally be at the 9:45am Zumba class with my favorite teacher.