Irresponsible trainers and staff

I had a very lousy experience with GoodLife Fitness personal training in Toronto. I believe it’s important to share my experience here in the hope this will help somebody in a very costly decision. It was a decision that cost me roughly $ 4 000, and left me with chronic back pain. I cancelled my contract of 6 months after 4 long months and reluctantly paid the cancellation fee.

First of all, it wasn't cheap. I was paying $393.24 bi-weekly for 3x week/ 1 hour session. And, to tell you the truth, it wasn't worth it. Not even close.

During my time, what I've witnessed and experienced would make you question how individuals are possibly certified and qualified under GoodLife’s very own “CanFit Pro” certification program.

Here is what the GoodLife trainer didn't do:

• Did not appropriately assess my strength, flexibility, and cardiovascular fitness. The initial assessment was no more than 5 minutes in length and only included a weight and body fat percentage reading from an automated scale.
• Did not plan, take notes, or track workouts. I didn’t see him write anything down after the sales pitch, aka “consultation”
• Did not take initiative to demonstrate new exercises or appropriately break down lifts
• Did not provide appropriate routine for my lifestyle, fitness level and goals. I was put through a routine of high repetitions and low rest periods, with very little to no guidance.
• Did not coach on form and technique
• Did not provide adequate warm up, nor was present during warm up
• Did not provide the full hour of training. Instead I was only getting 45 minutes. I would have to wait for my trainer to come out of the office
• Did not include all muscle groups leading to imbalances
• Did not provide feedback, nor asked for feedback
• Did not learn the fundamentals of a squat. But, was still forced to squat through many repetitions on machines that force “a one size fits all” way to squat (Smith machine, vertical hack-squat machine)
• Did not modify or adjust the routine, and when doing so it was also done improperly leading to an injury (Performed what the trainer called a “Chest up lying leg curl” on a lying leg curl machine? Why?! Making up exercises as he went and promoting bad form. As a result of this I suffered an injury- hyper extension of the lumbar spine. This prompted me to eventually cancel)

So, you're probably wondering, what did the trainer do? Besides counting repetitions, the trainer was of no real use. Here is what I was paying close to $800 a month for:

• Pointing out the club’s female members. Including, but not limited to, which one was the “hot teacher”, and which one had the “fake boobs”. None of which I asked for, or was interested in hearing. Surely, this is not what personal trainers are trained to do.
• Go on his phone while I'm in a middle of a set
• Talk to other staff and members while I'm in a middle of a set

When I had made my decision to finally cancel the trainer suddenly became busy and unavailable making it harder for me to cancel. Injured and in pain, I was made to feel helpless stuck in a contract. I took it to the club’s personal training manager to cancel and voiced my disappointment and disgust with this trainer, which, sadly, fell on deaf ears. The biggest disappointment in all this isn't just the low back pain that I deal with on a daily basis as a result of negligence on the trainer’s part, but the fact the manager did absolutely nothing to hold the trainer accountable. Days later when I walked in to pay my cancellation fee, I saw the trainer in full uniform and on his phone, casually sitting in the massage chairs near the front inside the gym. This is the standard that is set by GoodLife Fitness. A very low standard far from the one advertised.

This type of practice, that I have experienced and witnessed firsthand, puts the service-user at great risk. If such poorly trained, poorly educated, and unprofessional individuals are allowed to stay indefinitely, it worries me that many more are out there. I caution you to be very skeptical around GoodLife trainers, for the better of your health and wallet.

Everything I was afraid of about Gyms I Found at Goodlife.

Everything I was afraid of about Gym membership, I found at Goodlife.

My experience ended with me filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I did not accept Goodlife's offer to do nothing for me after being offered a fake incentive to purchase personal training.

Staff at Goodlife earn their wages based partially on their ability to make targets which means they will be working hard to get into your pockets and need clear guidelines. They will say anything to make a sale and thier offers are often NOT valid later on. You may be on the hook for fees they agreed to waive or did not mention. And, trust me, nobody will care.

Goodlife has, by incentivizing their staff to sell, and by refusing to take responsibility for these sales techniques, have set the stage for "BAIT AND SWITCH" sales to take place.

MY CASE

A manager offered to waive the cancellation fee on a personal training contract after I found the price was too high. After this manager left Goodlife and I asked to cancel my training, the offer was revealed to be false. I find this to be unfair and, in my opinion, should not be an opportunity for Goodlife to enrich themselves. I expect the cancellation fee to be waived as offered and the employee disciplined as they see fit.
Goodlife claimed that I needed the offer in writing, but I was never given a hard copy of the contract since their printer was broken. More than likely, the verbal offer was never written down. It was "Bait", whether it was on purpose or just a misunderstanding of the manager's authority.

It wouldn't be an effective "Bait and Switch" sale if the "Bait" offer is in writing, right? Then it couldn't be switched.

In case you think this was a one off occurrence, I had already witnessed some other trainers waiving the membership fees of other clients after they purchased personal training packages, so it didn't occur to me that the manager could be lying or mistaken or have a different understanding of the contract than the regional manager. It seemed common practice. I wonder what happened in these cases? Were the members charged in arrears for the membership fees? I also knew of other trainers who had lost their jobs for not securing many clients.

In my case, the fees in question that were to be waived were to total 10% of the total cost as quoted to me when I signed the contract. Over $700. But a regional manager at Goodlife offered to reduce the cancellation fee to 10%.... but that was the amount quoted in the first place! Confusing.
As it turned out, the cancellation fee had actually doubled to 20% during the few months I had been training, without any notice or warning. The regional manager would accept no responsibility. In fact, nobody except another trainer covering my last few prepaid sessions ever spoke to me in person about the problem, or tried to contact me personally until I requested it. Every action made was to try to keep me training at the gym.

Let's assume they were able to charge me at 20%, it would have cost over $1500 to cancel the lessons, so 10% was presented as a bargain, as help for me since I had been duped. This "discount" was presented to be through another personal trainer, not the regional manager, but on behalf of the regional manager.

It was in rereading my contract, I found that the cancellation fee was never actually set at all. It was simply mentioned as "a cancellation fee". I cancelled my membership immediately. Remember, I had never received a paper copy of my contract because the printer was broken and the contract emailed to me said nothing of the agreement I had made with the trainer.

FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU.

The shame is that the trainers I encountered were genuinely passionate about fitness and eager to help. I don't believe they were trying to screw me around, despite how this must sound. I benefitted from their valuable advice and attention. The personal nature of the service is what convinces clients like me to believe what the trainer is saying. But with pressure to sell + confusion about their authority to negotiate + broken office equipment + changing contract details....there are bound to be mistakes. In anycase, CONSUMERS will be the ones paying and to me this is not right.

Needless to say, I will not do business with Goodlife in the future. There are so many options. Consumers should look around! I hope my story will give them an advantage as they shop for a gym membership or personal training.

Happy Training to all!

GoodLife Fitness , Toronto(various Locations)

Never join this club. They have non working equipment at most locations and they never fix them. No working dry sauna. 3 months in and still wont fix it. Other locations have only wet sauna that i cant use. Their website does not say which type of sauna they have. Go to any other company but stay away from Goodlife.

Spend your money elsewhere

I stopped using Goodlife gyms after I became aware as to how pushy their sales associates are and the appalling tactics they use to get you to spend more money. I get it, everyone needs to make a living, but not by intimidation or by making someone feel poorly about themselves and their goals. I also find their gyms to be very VERY dirty, like no one has ever thought to clean them, and clean them properly. For one of the most expensive gyms around I would expect better quality and service.

Gawd I just cringe when I think about GoodLife. And I'm from London, ON where it started and the head office is located. If you have never dealt with them, just stay away. Stay far away!! In one way or another they will find a way to screw you over. It's overpriced and poorly managed, a revolving door of never-ending loophole policies. The staff are judgey and offer little to no help or guidance, and they are sales people through and through. DO NOT BE FOOLED. Don't do a free trial, don't give them your phone number (home or cell or work), don't give them your email, don't give them your bank info, don't give them your visa #, and don't give them anyone else's information unless they are your enemy!! Clean facilities and decent equipment though, I will give them that.

Good life fitness is my first committed gym I've signed with. So far, it's not too bad - at least the location I usually go to. It's the one on Weston Road. They're clean, polite, always smiling and they're very welcoming. The only thing I found to be a bit of an annoyance was that they try very hard to up sale you and will only give you the best of advice if you give them money... Only one staff member approached me and gave me some advice on how to do my routine, which I really appreciate! I think they're overstaffed and should have staff walking around helping the clients out as to oppose to making them pay extra. If the clients really want one on one hour sessions then it's reasonable to pay, but some people just cannot afford enough to stay as healthy as them , and want the basics. Some literally don't know what they're doing and it'll be nice to have staff walk around the facility to briefly help with posture, equipment use or just simple guidance. We just want to feel someone really care and that what we're paying for to use their facility is worth it. Some may argue to use the Internet for posture ect... But if it was that, we could just stay home and do the work outs instead of going to the gym. We go to the gym to be motivated by others around us and the staff who know apparently do know more about fitness than us, that's why we pay the extra money. So please if you are paying your staff members to be there at least have them do something like walk around and check up on clients as much as u check on the cleanliness of the facility. Other than that, I enjoy the company of people there.

Joining the goodlife gym was a horrible experience. They find ways take money out of your account. When I joined, they took my banking information incorrectly then charged me extra money...the whole process was very distressing and horrendous. The gym is packed and crowded so you cant use any of the equipments unless you line up and the classes are packed also, even the morning ones. If you are interested in joining goodlife gym, I highly recommend you rethink your options. In addition, it is way too costly for the little services they provide, packing in customers like groups of sardines.

I have just renewed for my second year with Goodlife. I have a corporate membership through the Ontario College of Teachers and it's pretty much the best value I could ask for. I'm able to access any of their gyms and have towel service. It does get very crowded sometimes and many patrons leave weights around making them hard to find which is frustrating but being able to use any of their Canadian club locations is incredibly useful for me. My only other qualm with Goodlife is how pushy their trainers can be. I'm frequently approached by training staff at the worst times pitching training to me. If I want it, I will seek it out. End of story.

Overall I do enjoy going to Goodlife and will likely continue if I keep getting my corporate membership.

I've had to deal with customer service issues a couple times with Goodlife and it's always been disappointing. There really isn't any effort to make the customer feel valued. If something goes wrong with your payments for example you're really on your own. I tried speaking to someone at a physical location and they couldn't help me, I appealed to the manager of that location and still no help. They give you a head office number but that doesn't seem to lead to a human being. All and all a very disappointing customer service experience.

Too much money, most times they take money out of your account when they shouldn't, i don't find them reliable at all...

they have gotten so packed with people that you have to wait to use machines and the facilities are not very clean. I have tried a couple around Toronto, finally got out of this gym, broke contract and joined a new one, and I am happy I did, I will NEVER go back and do not recommend Good life as a good company.

Not that it matters.... but when I signed up with them I gave them my banking, and I am not one to check my banking much, however I gave them a void cheque from my bank, so it should never have had any problems, I go in about a year later and they stop me saying my account was in "collections" in front of a couple of people, when I questioned it, they said it had to be investigated. Long story short, they typed in wrong banking and were pulling from someone else's account, because I never checked, I never noticed, and they said I owed them $800+ dollars. Anyways, I had to go through head office because they wouldn't do anything for me at this location saying I should have checked, which is a valid point, however keep in mind that I DID give them a void check from my bank, so they messed up... anyways, I ended up getting it reduced, still had to pay cancellation fee, but so glad I got out. I was fed up with the gym and the only thing that was keeping me there was the cancellation fee, but after all the embarrassment they put me through I was better off leaving, and I am VERY glad I did. Never again!!!!!