I've had a membership at the women's Shapes location on Portage for over a year now, and my experience has been nothing less than great. I have never seen staff so willing to help you learn. In my experience, I have never had a bad instructor. If I have any questions they are always ready to listen after class. The machines are never full and I'm always capable of going on the one I want. I'm confused about the other reviews of unkind staff. Even the care taker of the facility constantly says hello and asks me how I'm doing. In my experiences losing my card, all I needed to do was give them my phone number and I would be good to go! The one problem I had with the payments was when I cancelled my membership over the summer and they had charged me for an extra month. As soon as it was brought to their attention, they repaid the funds and apologized thoroughly. Ive gone to many gyms and this has by far the most presentable facility, the greatest staff and the most accepting community I could ask for. I highly recommend Shapes to anyone!

So after two months my friend convinced me to buy a membership at shapes. Before doing so, I read up on this site the reviews and was concerned about getting a membership, but I thought every place will have bad reviews and it wouldn't be bad, well I was wrong. So I go into shapes, my friend tells me about this promotion they have where you get five free visits for free, during October. So I ask the girl at the front desk about this, she said there was no such thing. I asks if there was any sort of trial or weekly trial,she responded saying there is only a weekly membership bi-weekly for a year so I signed up for it. The next day, my friends had the 5 day free trial pass plus she told me if you go online, you can sign up for one free visit. Knowing she lied with my mother and my friend as witnesses, we went back to shapes and complained about this. The girl denied ever saying there wasn't a free trial or a weekly trial for 10 dollars. Her response "I never said no such thing". So I cancelled my membership due to their lies, but I had a ride from my friend and I had the free one day visit in my email opened up. We drove there together, without ever using the facility one, she said I already used the facility so i csnnot use this pass which I never used! honestly how would you know? I had a free visit coupon in my email and she wouldn't let me use it and said I had to pay a fee of 12$ roughly to get in. Instead of this fee, I had 140$ in my bank and o was ready to pay a 3 month as my friend wanted a gym buddy and on the spot i thought on my head I'm out of shape. Im ready to pay this 140 dollars(includes the student discount) and she says alight its 190$. My friend was right there with me and he payed 140$ because he was a student, I said I was a student and her response was well on here it comes up as 190$ so you have to pay 190$. I said I know, but I'm a student so it's 140$. She said, well it comes up as 190$ and that's what you have to pay. I asked to speak to the manager, they already made me wait over 30 minutes and she said the manager was on break so I would have to wait another 30 minutes. So I pay the 12$ fee instead and after the fee was payed I was looking at the email and through he website, and noticed not one place said you had to pay 12$ to use their facility as a guest.. I asked if there was any kind of paper or documents I can see to prove this 12$ fee was true. The worst of all, she looked at me straight in the eyes, heard me because she turned her head to me and walked away, completely ignored. So she walks back towards my direction and I ask again, she looks at me and walks away. She was completely ignoring me. I wanted some sort of proof about this 12$ fee. For example, if I go into the y and right there on the front desk says guests are a 4$ fee. About 2 months later they finally added a sign about this fee.
Another lie they said was while they showed me their facility which I must admit was very good, she said there was a sonna and a hottub. So I ended up getting a three month membership as a gift, I couldn't find this hottub. I ask the front desk, they said it was only on the girls side.... Technically they didn't lie but come on!
I told my dad about them trying to charge me 50 dollars extra and he called them and their answer was because I didn't have my student ID card, which was in their hands!
Only reason I have a membership there is because I got it as a birthday gift. I heard a goodlife is opening up near my house, so I will be changing there. My friends father knows the owner at the nairn shapes and her father told the owner about this, and they told her to tell me how they apologize also saying their service at Penbina shapes is terrible. He also said they receive complaints about their service all the time. I recommend you go buy a membership somewhere else, or a different shapes! I saw some person in a review saying its probably be cause the customer was rude. Let me tell you I was nice the whole time and still they just kept lying and lying to get my money. If your in the st vital area I recommend you go to the snap fitness, the y, or purchase your membership for shapes at a different location which will cause you no hassle. Ever in my life have I been lied to this much by a company. My friends dad who knows the owner to that location even told me to send a email to the management, and also I had witnesses throughout everything! We were nice, and didnt want a hassle and everytime where they thought they could get money out of me they lied!

For those of you who would like to join shapes I will tell you my experience. I was a member with them before and I cancelled my membership close to the expiry date because the staff members were rude to me.

The first time was after I had a high risk pregnancy 6 weeks after I delivered my first born, a personal trainer came up to me smacked my ass and told me I got an ass now and how much weight I gained. I complained to the manager and nothing was done about the situation. I lost the baby weight after two years.

After I delivered my second son a staff member made some rude comments about my body and how much weight I gained and she compared me to another member at he gym who didn't have a high risk pregnancy. That's inappropriate, unprofessional, and rude. I called head office to complain.

Also the daycare is filthy. It stunk like sweat and pee after I picked up my kids from the daycare. There was a change pad on the floor as well as crackers. Plus I hate the fact you have to call in to book a timeslot for your kids. Sometimes the daycare is not open because there are no kids booked for that time of the day in the daycare.

Also the washrooms are filthy. There are used maxipads thrown in the showers. There's a sign in the ladies washroom that asks members to not throw used tampons or maxipads in the shower.

Also if you sign a contract they wont let you cancel and if you give your account number for monthly payments they could take out double payments. That's what they did to me and I called head office three times and left a message and no one got back to me. When I finally reached someone they told me send an email.

Also there's not enough aerobic classes in the evening after 6pm. I like to do kick, power, and step at 6:30 pm. Most of the classes I wanted weren't available at that time. The class that was available was zumba. Sorry I don't do zumba.

So if you are thinking of getting a gym membership at shapes i would say don't do it. There are other gyms out there that offer better aerobic classes at better times and have nicer professional staff members. Shapes is a ripoff. Hopefully they get closed down in the near future for the way they treated people.

I availed this Shapes hot yoga promo from Dealfind - $20 for 20 sessions. I walked in, gave the front-liner the voucher, and that's it. Last Friday, I got a call from Shapes Pembina, telling me that I didn't pay my monthly fee. I was like, "what fee? I am not even a member to begin with." She told me that I should call the head office instead. So I called the head office, and told the girl that somebody called me and asking me to pay that monthly fee. The girl from the head office told me that I have a contract, and that they have my credit card number. I again said, "What contract? I didn't sign any contract and I didn't give you my credit card number." So I asked the girl to send me the contract that she was talking about. I received the 'contract' this morning and guess what? Except for my name and home address, everything's fake! They faked my signature, credit card number, and birth date. And the amount that they are asking me to pay? More than $500. I wanted to sue them for harassing me to pay, I don't know If I could do that. If not, I will just spread this experience to everybody... AVOID SHAPES. They are scammers. And if you don't have plans to be a member, never ever give them your personal information.

First let me say that I have been to many gyms in Winnipeg including Rady JCC, Good Life and UofM.

Shapes Fitness Centre is run by a group of people who will do whatever they can to scam you out of your money, the have the rudest staff I have ever encountered.

I decided to try Shapes for a 30 day hot yoga. I did enjoy the classes, taught by professional and well trained fitness professionals. I had to hand in my card to the staff while I did a yoga class, as per the policy. The front desk holds on to your card while you are in class. My card was lost during the class, either picked up by a person leaving the gym, or by the staff themselves. I will never know. I told the staff about this and they said, you lose the card you cannot do yoga. THat means I am out of 20 class-no ifs and's or buts.

I am so disappointed by how rude the staff was, and how unhelpful. Any other business would look at my contract, see that I paid it and help me to continue attending. Not only that, but on the contract I SIGNED it states that if a card is lost or stolen you can pay a fee to reinstate your card.

very disappointed, please avoid shapes at all costs, it is not worth the hassles and rude staff-not to mention the FRAUD.

I signed up for the 30 day hot yoga challenge at Shapes on McPhillips. I was given the rules and understood them. One of the rules was to NOT lose the card. Fine. But I admit it, I lost the card. Anyway, I called the next day and they basically said no card no hot yoga. I tried to reason with them saying that coudn't the membership agreement prove that I paid for the membership? The girl just told me to call Head Office,which by the way, no one can physically go there. So fine, I called head office. I told them the situation and still tried to reason with them and I was told that someone will get back to me. For 48hrs, no one got back to me so I just decided that I would cancel the membership before the 7 days was up. I wanted to confirm that I would get my money back right away so I called McPhillips. AGAIN, they directed me to head office. Once again, I called head office and was talking to some lady who at first was sort of helpful but it turned ugly after. All I said was that I just want someone to call me back so she proceeded to find some answers for me. She came back and was told that I was already "dealt with"...First of all no one dealt with me because I was still waiting for someone to call me back prior to making a decision to cancel. Then she tells me that I can't get my money back because I lost the card. No where in the membership agreement says that you can't cancel the membership if you signed up for hot yoga or lost your card. I started to raise my voice out of frustration and this so called Shapes receptionist or customer service HUNG UP on me instead. When I tried calling back, it just went to voice mail. Overall, they are shady, member hungry scammers. Every single person I told this story to has had nothing but the same or worse experience and it all involved money. This validates how much I HATE shapes.

My husband and I have been Shapes members for almost two years now, after having had family memberships at both Rady Centre, and YMCA - we opted to move over to Shapes because of the lack of equipment at the Y and inability to get our kids into reasonable classes/child care while we were wanting to work out.

We pay reasonable fees (less than the Y for the both of us) and have unlimited childcare. My husband uses the free-weights, but I use the classes primarily on a daily basis (Mon-Sat).

Positives about Shapes are

- Great Classes - there's always a group cardio or weight class on and the classes are phenomenal
- Great instructors
- Women's only side at Pembina and McPhillips make it a more comfortable environment to work out in
- Nice hot yoga facility
- Lot's of equipment - rarely if ever a wait time to get on a cardio machine

Negatives

- Not enough child care slots. You need to be a vulture on the phone at 8am to be able to book in for the following morning, and if they don't book up, they close the slots off - also, if they have more than 1 or 2 babies and not enough staff (because the mostly rely on volunteers), they cannot take in more children.

-The boot/shoe area in the front entrance is disgusting

- The smell of the mens change room permiates the entire gym - it smells like a combination of feet, a** and Balls. it's disgusting.

- The bathrooms and change areas are disgusting. Not because of a lack of cleaning - the cleaning staff are always in there, but the women who use this facility - especially Pembina, are pigs. It's disgusting. Even my 3yr old knows to flush a toilet after he goes. I do not understand why grown women behave in such a way.

- Pushy and Rude sales staff. This is mostly a problem at Pembina, where the staff are rude unless they recognize you. Try to call on the phone to ask a question and the day time staff will be snarky. It's off-putting, combined with being spoken to like you're some piece of garbage (instead of a paying member), they then try to hard sell you on things that you have no interest in. It's really irksome.



Overall we're happy enough with Shapes. If GoodLife beefs us their centres, we'll likely switch over, unless Shapes develops a better childcare policy because if you're paying for unlimited but can't get in 3 out of 5 days that you need the care, there's really no point in continuing on.

If you're young and single and want classes, Shapes is a good enough place to do it.

I was a shapes member for 5 years and one of the last people I knew who actually had something good to say about them, now I will join every other person I know who has ever gone by saying STAY AWAY FROM SHAPES GYM! Trust me, you will be sorry, I didn't believe people but now I understand and boy am i sorry. I was happy there for years, I always used their women s only facility, then one day this fall they claimed to be doing 'renovations' and saying they were just getting new equipment and new TVs etc. So at one point me and a few other members even asked, will this be affecting the womens section in any way, oh no they claimed, just plain simple renovations, making the gym better. So unfortunately we trusted them just to find out after Months of renos that Surprise! The gym is less than half the size for starters! Then most of the equipment is gone and the machines are so close together your practically working out on someone else``s lap! Not only that but the womens only section no longer exists, and even once it was gone they still try to tell you its still there!! I called the head office about canceling my membership and the stupid chick who answers the phone tried to lie to me and convince me it was still there! It took me almost 2 minutes to finally get her to admit and say oh no, your right, its gone. I was SO mad!! How stupid do they think people are??? So I cancel my membership and now they're telling me I have to give them 30 days notice so they still want me to pay for over a month more!!! Criminals! Worst customer service ever!! They constantly lie and do anything they can to get their hands on money that isn't theirs. Not only this but when my sister was 16, she went in there with a friend, they tried to sign them both up and even though they were under age, they still tried to sign them without parent consent. so they lied to get them to sign something they said was just so they could try the gym for a week or so and then decide, next think my mom knows they are calling her demanding money!!!!! So my mom told them to screw off! they signed under age girls without parent consent and claimed my mom owed them money! They are awful, do yourself a favor and join the Y or buy your own equipment, its cheaper in the end! If you do want a gym Ive never heard bad things about the YMCA, they NEVER give you hassle about quitting, and your initial start up fee is tax deductible! So basically you get it all back. Trust me, go there!!!! Stay Away From Shapes!!!!! Unless you enjoy awful customer service and giving away money for nothing.

I joined Shapes Fitness Centres about five years ago and have never regretted my decision. I usually work out at the 2535 McPhillips location. It is super clean. They keep the equipment up to date, it is really taken care of. You can always be guaranteed that shapes will have the latest equipment and trends in fitness. The staff are super friendly, helpful and always willing to help.
The personal trainers are professional and always motivating. I would recommend this gym to anyone.

As a member of shapes Fitness center for over 5 years I find the *** previous posts uphauling. The Fact of the matter is , Shapes has the best Quality of equipment /facilities/ and services for the price. Most of the previously posted reviews are bashing this company on issues which are caused by customer negligence. If you sign a contract at any business of course they are going to hold you to it, why are you complaining about having to pay for something you signed up for? *** The constant upgrades , renovations, additions and innovative ideas of the Shapes Staff are continuously adding more for the customer. The Fact that this company continues to add to your experience, proves that in the long run you can trust Shapes.

**Editor's Note: portions of this review have been removed in accordance with the ChickAdvisor review policy