Goodlife Fitness - Toronto

My overall rating

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...   +

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!    -