Shapes Fitness Centres

My overall rating

I was a Shapes member about 9 years ago, and at the time, I didn't really understand people's complaints about how they treat customers. Today, however, I figured it out. I don't live in Winnipeg anymore, so am now a member at another...   +

I was a Shapes member about 9 years ago, and at the time, I didn't really understand people's complaints about how they treat customers. Today, however, I figured it out. I don't live in Winnipeg anymore, so am now a member at another gym in Calgary. Both my gym and Shapes are IPFA affiliates, which is supposed to mean that your gym membership will be honored by other IPFA affiliate gyms when you're out of town. I have used my IPFA gym membership in a number of other cities, and never had a problem. However, I'm in Winnipeg for about a week while my father is having open-heart surgery here, and thought it would be great to be able to continue my workouts while I was here, particularly because I find exercise a great stress relief. When I got to Shapes, however, they informed me that IPFA rules state that I would have to sign up for a 30-day membership with Shapes in order to use their gym for the week while I'm here! It was utterly unbelievable. I was standing there with my membership card, plus a copy of my contract, plus an email from my gym confirming that I was a member, and a phone number they could call if they wanted further confirmation, and they try to make me sign up for a 30-day membership. This, after a rather condescending little speech from the girl at the desk who wanted to "explain to me" how IPFA works. The amazing this is that right on the IPFA website, they state the terms and conditions for their members, which state that "A transient member is a club member temporarily in a new area who will return to his home area. Transient members are to be honored for 30 consecutive days, after this time, they must transfer their membership." It seems pretty darn clear to me that this means that as long as it's less than 30 days, they just have to honor your other membership, and you very clearly are not required to transfer your membership. At any rate, I was not impressed with Shapes, and I only hope that their own members receive better treatment from other gyms. They sure managed to make a bad week much worse for me. How disappointing.    -