Many of you who have followed my blog for quite some time know that I joined Fitness 19 about 3.5 years ago and it is where I began my health and fitness journey. I joined the San Mateo branch and trained with an exceptional trainer and later trained with 2 other great trainers who I continued to train with even after I moved 400 miles away (when I was in town).
I trained at the San Mateo club, religiously, twice a week (sometimes more) for 18 months. I easily spent over $5,000 at that club on membership fees and training. And even though it was expensive I willingly did so because I was treated as more that just a dollar sign, by both the managers and the trainers.
In November of 2012, I accepted a job offer that took me 400 miles away from the San Mateo Fitness 19, but was thrilled to learn there was a Fitness 19 less than a mile from my new office, in Orange. Before I even left San Mateo, I converted my single gym membership to an all gym membership. Within days of arriving in Orange County, I stepped into the Orange club.
I wanted to keep up my progress in health/fitness, so I immediately sought out a trainer. There were 2 to choose from and based on their schedules I signed up with a trainer named Ricky. I bought a large sum of sessions, and scheduled to train 2 days a week, which I quickly increased to 3 days a week with hopes of getting better results.
As expected, the first couple of sessions were focused on what I could do, what weights were appropriate, what muscles were stronger, what needed work, etc. But then the workouts did not change or progress, they were repetitive, and frankly, boring. I had trained with my former trainer roughly 1700 sessions and never once had the same session!! I asked Ricky to change things up, he would change things for a session and then go back to his normal routine. Most times when I wanted to do something different, I had to come up with it. This was not ideal, but I could live with it; after 1700 training sessions, I knew a lot of exercises to incorporate.
During this time, the manager changed (although most people would never know since both the former manager and the current manager were named Brian). The club definitely took a turn after the management change. Once clean machines had a layer of dust, dumbells were never re-racked, the cupholders were full of flyers and trash, and frankly, the place began to smell like a gym.
Then Ricky became very flaky, cancelling one of my three-time-a-week training sessions almost every other week and ALWAYS at the last minute. He would text me excuse after excuse: my mom needs my help, I am not feeling well, I have a headache, I need to take my car in, etc. Eventually I dropped my sessions down to two a week, thinking that would eliminated the cancellations – it did not. So I dropped down to once and started training myself. Training myself was much more effective and the results I wanted finally started to come (without any other changes). But I had bought a bunch of sessions and I did not want to waste all that money, so I kept training, just trying to use them up.
I had given Ricky my original training documents (from my trainer in the bay area) when I first started so that he could get up to speed on my limits faster. After I began training myself, I asked for them to be returned so that I could use them. I requested their return on multiple occasions by text, email, phone call and was always told I would get them the next session, which never happened. Finally I requested them in person in front of his manager. He told me they would be returned on his schedule and that I would have to wait for them until it was convenient for him. Nice huh? (I did not get these back until I stopped training with Ricky, even after additional requests and talking to the manager).
The final straw with Ricky was when I had back-to-back cancellations. The last time, I was already parked in the parking lot ready to walk in and he texted me telling me he was “too tired” for our training session. I am not a trainer, I have never been certified, taken training classes etc. But I know that part of a trainer's job is to keep you motivated to come back and train with them. If the trainer is constantly making excuses, especially as ridiculous as "I'm too tired", what does that say to the client??
If I told one of my clients I was too tired to keep their appointment, not only would I be fired, I would likely be sued for malpractice. I previously thought I could work these issues out with Ricky as we were both adults, but clearly my requests for advance notice and fewer cancellations fell upon deaf ears. I finally brought all these issues to the manager’s attention in June of this year. I wanted to cancel my “all gym” membership and have my sessions reimbursed or transferred to the San Mateo gym.
My request for either of those was denied and I was left with the following options:
(1) A 1 year membership for someone of my choosing (worth roughly $163)
(2) Transfer half my sessions to another member (no reimbursement to me)
(3) Be assigned a new trainer
Number one was clearly not an option for two reasons: (1) I (really someone else) would be receiving something valued at $163 when I had paid $300 for my training sessions and (2) why would I ever recommend someone to a gym I was trying to leave??
Number two also basically meant a loss of $300, with no compensation.
Number three was the only viable option since all other requests were refused. I was also threatened by the manager that my sessions would expire so I should take this deal and extend them otherwise I would lose the money anyway. While I am familiar with the contract advising that the sessions expire a year from purchase that had not been the course of performance at the San Mateo club, where the manager allowed me at all times to use my sessions bought in 2012, and still did until I decided to cancel my account at which time he allowed me to transfer them to another member who would pay me directly. So being threatened with the expiration of the sessions was new to me, and since I was not the one continually cancelling scheduled sessions, the trainer was, this quite frustrating.
During the "negotiation" regarding the training sessions, I dealt with the club manager, Brian. I was CONSTANTLY put off. He took days (10 days one time) to return my phone calls despite multiple messages being left with multiple people. At one point, I called multiple times within a 2-3 hour period and was promised a call “as soon as he was done” with a client and then was told he had to take another client before me and then another. It was clear he did not want to deal with me.
Begrudgingly, I accepted the new trainer to avoid losing my fairly hefty investment. Again there were only 2 trainers available and only one of them worked evenings, so I was set up with Daniel. I was originally told that he was available on Friday evenings, at that time my only open evening for training. This was not the case. So I had re-arranged my schedule to finish off my training sessions on Wednesday evenings.
I scheduled my first session with Daniel, and 3-4 hours before my very first session with him, he texted me that he was just getting over a cold and we should reschedule. To his credit when I refused to reschedule, he did show up. I completed several sessions with Daniel, who I actually was satisfied training with, mostly because he did not flake, a fairly low bar.
On 10/16/14 I received a text from Daniel advising me that he was considering taking an Assistant Manager position at the Orange Club. I asked him if he would be able to finish off my SINGLE remaining session. He advised “I can prob try to set some time aside to do it but I’ll have to let you know.” I did not hear from him after that.
Then on 10/20/14, I got a call from another trainer, who apparently was taking over Daniel’s clients. He wanted to schedule a session. I texted Daniel and he confirmed that he took the position and would no longer be training, not even to finish my last session. He said that he would have tried to “kill it” but knew I was not available. However, he never texted or called to ask me when I might be available to finish off the session.
So, with a SINGLE remaining session, I was transferred to yet another trainer. A trainer I had never seen, met, or talked to. I asked Daniel to have the manager call me. I did not receive a call that day from the manager, so the following morning, I called the club and left a message with another staff member for him to call me. I also called the new trainer and asked him to have the manager call me.
I knew however, from my previous dealings, that the gym would never refund my training sessions, even just one. And I did not want to go through days or even weeks of phone calls to just have to settle for a third trainer anyway. So I called the newest trainer back and scheduled the session. Only after I scheduled the session with the third trainer did I get a return phone call from the manager.
I wrote a letter very similar to this account to the club's owner, but I am not holding my breath that things will change. Realistically, I should have just eaten my $300 and not bothered with the headaches. But, I'm stubborn and do not like to waste money. Plus, I am sure this is what they bet on people doing.
I completed my last session and I faxed, mailed, and personally delivered my cancellation papers. My subpar experience at the Orange club unfortunately eclipsed the experience I had at the San Mateo club.
I do have to say, that I have learned a lot from this experience. A lot about people, and a lot about myself. So much actually that I need another post .. this one is already quite long.
So, for now, do NOT join the Fitness 19 in Orange, and stay tuned for a blog post about the difference between trainers and coaches, lessons based on this and other training experiences. :)
