I'm 18 years old and just joined Shapes on Pembina on Nov. 16th. I wanted to get a bit in shape before my big holiday in January. First, I saw a commercial on tv about their 6 visits for 6 dollars special, so I called to ask about it and was quickly pressured to come in for a meeting, when I just wanted to be explained over the phone.

When I went in, there was a very cheerful girl who pressured me for TWO HOURS to join the gym. We came up with a big plan and everything an I signed up with a trainer under the impression I would pay for a membership until the end of January and I'd be DONE. I wasn't very comfortable with the idea of a male trainer, but I was told that he was reccomended and AWESOME (a word they ALL overuse), so I signed a contract based on that trainers availability and made appointments with him.

November 27th, I go in for my personal trainer assessment and the trainer isn't there. With no explanation beyond THAT, I had an appointment made for the next day. The next day, I woke up sick, so I called in to cancel my appointment. I was very polite, but soon realized that the Pembina workers have a very hard time understanding ANYTHING, from the little task of rescheduling to the meaning of a monthly contract.

It took me 20 minutes on the phone to reschedule my appointment. When it was rescheduled, she put me on hold for another 5 minutes and then came back saying "I'm sorry, but this trainer is no longer with us"...
The trainer doesn't work there anymore and did not work there the day I signed up either.

Um....

Okay.

So I go home and think about things, look over my contract and then realize that the contract I signed was a ONE YEAR contract instead of MONTHLY. Holy crap. ANd they're taking the money out of my mother's bank account (auto debit) bi-weekly....

I was under the impression that I would be paying 20.00 biweekly for both the MEMBERSHIP AND THE TRAINER TOGETHER for only until the end of JANUARY!

THen I saw that the trainer had its own bill and the general membership had its own bill. And it would be going on biweekly for the WHOLE YEAR for BOTH.

That's over 300 dollars for the year for the trainer and over 500 dollars for the year for the general membership.

I phoned the head office and the woman was very rude and unhelpful and hung up on my me and then my mother later on.
I'm in the process of having a legal letter written up by my family's lawyer.

I feel SO ripped off and disheartened. I will NEVER enter this facility again or reccomend it to anyone.

*** Never go there.
Responses are welcome

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

I agree ***.

I signed up when i was 17 and they told me my parents had to sign for me to work around the equipment so i did, little did i know it was them sighned a contract. I was short for cash and they put me in a huge over draft with my bank in nsf charges and harrased my parents everyday on the phone. I told them that i was moving to vegas and my aparetment had a gym in it so i wouldn't be needing there services and i wanted to cancel my member ship since there was no one to give it to. They mailed we backk and couples days later and said "EVEN IN DEATH OR SERIOUS ILLNESS YOU CANNOT CANCEL YOUR MEMBERSHIP WITHOUGH PAYING IN FULL".

Recently fallowing they began to send me letter from "cridentials credit union" saying that i had over due charges that where going to effect my moms credit. It's been monthes now and i still haven't payed it and my mom still doesn't have and credit problems. So i did some research and found this out...

CRIDENTIALS CREDIT UNION IS SHAPES FITNESS CENTER!

Cridentials is Shapes own credit union inside the facility and can't legally go after you actual credit. These people are ***, don't let there nice facility fool you, there horrible and i told them that i would never refer any one to there gym. My fathers friend worked out at shapes and when his membership ended they still kept billing him, he eventually had to get a new credit card. These peoples called my mother and yelled to her on the phone and made her mad to the point of tears. I also researched some more and found out that if you cannot make your payments with ANY business you can set up a payment plan and they HAVE to agree because the client is making an effort to pay and since i was useing there gym anymore there was no reason to not say ok. But no as soon as I messages them with that they completly ignored all contact with me as if they wanted to ignore it. All I know is I am going to shapes and pay it off in full, and if they continue to but into my life I wont take them to court I will start and riot outside of there building sighning petitions and embarass the hell out of them on there HORRIBLE service.

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

18-1910 Pembina Hwy 204-989-7100. This is the worst healthclub I've ever dealt with. They are dishonest and have a terrible reputation with the Better Business Bureau. They lie to you when you sign up and continue debiting your account long after you quit. I now have a mark on my credit because of them. I will never give these people my business again. I was a member there for years and 2 months before I was about to move out further west, I called head office to cancel my membership because they didn't have any locations where I was going. They told me I coulnd't quit - that I had to pay them a full year. I asked if I could transfer my membership to a friend (I had already paid 6 months in advance even though I was only a couple of months in so I wanted her to pay the next 6 months to use the remaining 10 months of the membership). They said I coulnd't do that even though I had SPECIFICALLY ASKED the sales staff before I renewed my membership. The only reason I renewed it for those couple of months is because I wanted to continue working out and didn't want to get out of shape. They said don't worry, you can cancel with 2 months notice or transfer to a friend. Well head office woulnd't honor any of that and literally told me that their sales staff are allowed to say whatever they want to get the sale. (WTF?) So even though I had used only 2 months of my membership (of which I had paid 6 months in advance), they took me to the creditors for the last 6 months. I have never dealt with such disreputable people in my life. Even the better business bureau told me they had a terrible reputation but I was screwed because of the fine print on the back of the contract that I didn't notice (they make you sign on the spot... no time to look it over first). Don't go here no matter what. Unless they will allow you to pay in cash and don't give them any personal information.