Goodlife Fitness - Toronto - Toronto

Won a one week free membership through starbucks. Got there and from the start they were at you about joining, nagging, pleading, bribing with free bags. So I go to the bathroom and they talk my friend Katie into joining and they had all the paperwork filled out so I joined to go with my friend. Was told 19.95 a month which was great and all these other empty promises.

Turned out they could not get my void check info to work so charged ME an NSF fee because their staff was incompetent, all info was correct and no one else has issues running it through.

Then Katie never went and I had family issues so we never actually went but they were billing me 19.95 Bi-Weekly not monthly... that's their actual fee they told me later, not even apologizing for the wrong info I was given.

So I cancelled, paid the cancellation fee of 100 bucks if you dont stick with it a whole year. They told me I owed 150.00 for the past months I hadn't gone because they never called me back saying my banking info worked and I was a member. Whatever, well worth getting rid of them. So I asked a bill be sent to me for the whole amount owed and I would pay it. Never got a bill in the mail, missed their one call to me and then suddenly I have baristers calling to collect the money.

Went in, they tried to re-charge me for the cancellation fee but I had come prepared with my receipt. So they took that and then I paid the 150 that I owed them.

Barister called again a week later, had to tell them I paid and give them receipt numbers for them to leave me alone. Goodlife didnt even inform them.

This was all in the beginning of November, end of December I get another letter in the mail about the 150 I owed them. SERIOUSLY? They need to get their crap in order!

I would like to warn possible good life members about how much ive been over charged and had to pay consequences for:

1. changed the date on when I had to pay
2. over charged me more than 3 times
3. don't change the light bulbs in the tanning beds
4. sold me already used goggles with mascara bits inside for $6
5. took my personal training sessions away and changed my trainer with absolutely no notice
6. Paid $400 in charges because THEY screwed up!

If that isn't enough to make you reconsider ask me this...

Am I still a good life member?
According to them I am because when you join you are a "Life time" member which basically means I am still getting charged without notice and JUST realized this 2 weeks ago!

I use to like good life so I am not completely saying they are terrible but ive been to other gyms and good life for me is the dead last choice!

I've been a member of Goodlife for 2 years. One of the things I like best about Goodlife is that your membership is good at most locations so depending on what's convenient for me, or where a class is happening, I can go to a variety of different spots.

My main location is at Yonge & St Clair. They have a LOT of cardio machines, you never have to wait, even at 5:30 on a week day. Lots of weight machines too, so again, not a lot of waiting or there's at least one other alternative to each type of machine.

The locker rooms are really clean and have good sized lockers. Gets crowded after work, but what can you do?

Goodlife has some great classes as well. My fav is Body Jam - an hour of choreographed dancing to great music. The instructors get really into it and no one cares if you're missing the steps - it's too much fun!

After graduating university my gym membership on campus had expired. I had to start looking at health clubs around my area.

I decided to try out Goodlife Fitness. What I liked was I found the facility to be very clean and had great workout equipment. Most of the cardiovascular machines have televisions hooked up to them to make your workout seem to go by faster.

One thing that struck me about Goodlife is that the staff are very friendly. They always know your name and greet you when you walk through the door. I was also able to try out a few of their fitness classes. The fitness instructors are also very enthusiastic about exercise and motivating (in a positive way).

Because Goodlife is a large chain of gyms they do have those initial deals (ex. pay only 30 cents enrollment fee on a one year membership -- the one right now) to get you to commit to a 1 year contract. The woman went through all of the fees with me. There are different ones for regular adult, student and corporate. I found that the fees were actually cheaper or comparable to many other gyms I had been to before (minus my campus gym, because that's made for students!).

Be aware however, that there are certain locations in downtown Toronto where they only have Platinum memberships for those particular locations. They cost more than the regular ones but have extra benefits.

Like all health club memberships, they become more "worth it" depending on how often you go. The thing is, when people first join they like to have the idea that they will go very often in order to get the best bang for their buck. But as the year progresses, many people do stop going or will end up not visiting as often. I think when it comes down to choose a membership, you must keep in mind your commitment level to exercise. If you really want to commit to a workout regime and know that you will work hard enough to reach your goals, then committing to a contract will probably benefit you more mentally and physically rather than robbing your wallet financially.

Even though I was not ready to commit to them at the time (I am currently very mobile) the woman did not pressure me to join. She understood and said that she hoped that maybe I would join another day in the future.

When the time comes for me to get a full membership at a health club I will keep Goodlife in mind.