Is Goodlife Fitness Really that Good? For Customer Service, Not So Much.

I am taking a break from my more controversial topics to tell you about my recent experience with GoodLife fitness. So please follow my timeline if you will.



July 11, 2012

I go into my local Club and talk to the Manager about closing my account. We were no longer using the Gym . After a discussion, we determined that we would put the account on hoid for 6 months. The manager processes the paper work for this, and I leave feeling good about it all. It is agreed that there will be an 11.50 fee for the hold bi-weekly.


July 20th, 2012

The payment withdrawn from my account is in 27.54. 16.00 more than agreed upon. This almost caused another cheque I had written to not clear. I return to the club and question the manager on July 24th. He is unsure as to why the amount is 27.54. He agrees to contact Member Services, but cannot do so until Monday. I agree.



July 24st 2012

The Manager and I speak, and he says Member Services indicates that the reason for the payment was that my membership was put on hold, but my wife’s wasn’t. They need to pull the paperwork to verify if the manager requested both, before they issue a refund. They assure him that the next payment will be correct. Now here is where I really encounter my first problem. The Manager is saying I requested both, he never denied that, so if he made an error, then why do I have to wait in paperwork for a refund that I am CLEARLY supposed to get. But again, I let it slide, and wait.


July 31th 2012

One week has passed and no response from Member experience. I guess there paper work must be filed in a remote location that they can only get to by traversing ropes and cliffs. But still, after all this, I still give them the benefit of the doubt.


Aug 3, 2012

Lo and behold, another payment of 27.54 is taken. I go into the club on Aug 5 and express my dissatisfaction. They again offer to contact Member services. I agree, but ask them to indicate to member services that due to the 2 payments being taken incorrectly, and the fact that it has now been almost a month since the issue began, that I expect the full amount of the payments to be reversed, in the interest of customer satisfaction and service. They agree to pass on the info. I don’t think what I was asking was unreasonable, seeing as how 2 payments were now taken incorrectly. I was asking for the full refund of 55.00, where the refund of the erroneous amounts was 34.00. A difference of 21.00. So for a month of time, and hours of effort, I was asking for a measly compensation of 21.00.


Aug 7, 2012

So I hear back from the club. They say that Member experience has no record of the manager ever calling and this is the first they’ve heard of the issue! They tell the club they will not be providing any additional compensation, but agreed that the membership of my Wife was not put on hold. So my question is, if that is the case, how did the manager know if he didn’t call member services? So the club indicates that Member services is going to refund the erroneous amounts, via a transfer to my bank account. They tell me it will take approx. 5 business days. So This time, I decided to wait again, but would call member services myself after the 5 business days.

Somewhere in the next few days, I also submit feedback to the Goodlife website, and to present date, have no response.


Aug 15, 2012

5 business days have passed, and still no refund. So I decide to call member services. When I get the young lady on the phone, she is quick to reiterate that they have no record of the manager calling, they are not in “the business” of giving compensation, and that the refund takes 10-15 business days not 5. I ask her what their escalation process is, and she tells me she can file a complaint for me. I ask her to do so, and ask how I would know that what I asked for would get done. She tells me all calls are recorded and notated. I dispute this, as the Manager from the club’s call was not notated. I request as part of my complaint to have the call records reviewed for my account for the time period of July 23 and 24th. She indicated as well that the refund needed to be “Approved” so that was the delay. Approved? It was an error. So my refund essentially is placed in a queue with all the other refunds, regardless of severity. Perfect.


August 24, 2012

No response from Member Experience, and still no refund. It has now been 13 business days since the refund process started, and 7 business days since I last spoke to Member Experience. I call again, and ask the person to give me the status of the refund and the complaint. He says the refund has been approved and “in process”, but can’t give me a date when to expect it. When I mention about additional compensation, he says “What else do you expect? We are refunding the incorrect amount”. WOW. I should add that this guy interrupted me multiple times, and called me by my first name, which I never indicated he could do. When I asked him about the complaint, he says it was sent to the managers at head office and the club. I asked him who was going to inform me about the complaint. He was perplexed, and asked my why. Well Hello…. I’m the one who submitted the complaint! Would be a good idea to include me in the loop, don’t ya think? He says that the complaint will go to his research dept and they will call me back, on Monday or Tuesday. I hope they have my phone number on file, because he never asked for it. He also made it a point to nit pick about when I called, correcting me by one day. This particular call left me feeling very upset, and as if my issue didn’t matter.



August 28, 2012

Today is the 15th business day, and still no refund. Not a penny, and no call from Member services. So to recap, this issue began on July 20th, and now we are at August 28, with no resolution. And I bet that they STILL would say that no additional compensation is necessary.

To be fair, I didn’t initially ask for compensation. But to be truthful, after the dreadful service I received, I don’t know if they could compensate me enough. ANY chance of me renewing my membership is out the window. The lack of customer service I received here is appalling. I wanted to share to make all of you aware that this company is not what it seems. 3 weeks to refund an error is just ridiculous. To not take into account the amount of time and effort a client like myself put in to try and correct it is asinine.

I hope you all will share this with everyone you know. It needs to be known how they seem to really feel about customer service.