I'm going to start by saying this -- my one bad review is probably not going to make any difference whatsoever. But I really felt like I needed to put my story out there.
To start with, one of the receptionists is very rude, and very incompetent. She does not know how to handle irritated or frustrated members. I was without a membership card for almost a month, and each time they expected me to stop and sign in, which is totally fine, and I respect that. But the management never did anything about my membership card, nor did they give me any updates. One of these days I was running late, and I just walked in without signing in, and the woman goes, "Hey! where do u think you are going without signing in? You cannot go in like that!" Mind you she has seen me very very regularly, and knows my problem with the membership card. Whatever. I was in a hurry so I gave her my name and ran up. She ran to her manager (also a trainer at shady side), to complain, who in turn told on me to my trainer. Guess what she comes and asks me? She goes, "What really happened there? Why did you not sign in? You could be a person with a gun and just come in and shoot everyone! You are required to sign in." And all this after taking almost 6 to 8 sessions with her. So it is not like they don't know me. Whatever. Oh and let's not forget abt the manager. He's a big strong guy, okay, and when I confronted him about the events that happened that day, he was in my face and yelling at me. Yep. Yelling. At a client. I felt so threatened. I really was scared. I tried to talk as calmly as I could, but with his body language, I was super scared. And that behavior, to me, was the last straw. I called up my previous trainer and said I want to terminate the contract. He said there is going to be some cancellation charges. I said fine, and asked him to send me a copy of the contract that I had signed in July of 2018 (yeah, they never gave me my copy of the SIGNED contract. never. not once. despite asking for it. no email, no letter, nothing). He did not respond back with the contract for almost two to three days, and then I get this in my email:
"Thank you for your cooperation with following up on this. As per our conversation Friday May 3rd, **our cancellation fee is $150 plus whatever sessions you've used up until this point**. At a rate of 2 times per week which is 8 times a month, that would be 48 training sessions you've used in the 6 month period from July 2018 until January 2019. Since your return from India, you've trained 7 times. In total that is 55 training appointments since July 2018.
So here is a summary,
Training sessions since July 2018 to May 2019: 55
Price per USED training session: $8
Early Termination Fee: $150
There is no signature required to execute the cancellation."
Do you see the red flags here? I had to pay extra money for sessions I had already used!!! And also, no need of any signature and paperwork to execute the cancellation! They'll just charge my account! So I was looking at like $600 to cancel my contract. I was originally told that the cancellation charges would be only $75 and I would be good to go. See the difference???
I asked them all of the Qs, and kept asking them to see the contract which I signed, which should have a cancellation clause. Nope. No sign of contract. Then I received another email, with reduced fees ($150 + $56). I did not respond. And then eventually, they send this:
"In the interest of finally bringing this to a close we can move forward with a cancel fee of $75 on May 7th, 2019. At that point, we will eradicate all your information from our system, including name, address, phone number, email address, payment info and any other pertinent personal information. There will be no further billing after that.
You are not required to come in at any point.
Cancellation Fee: $75 on May 7th, 2019
You may use this as an official document highlighting the status and/or cancellation of your Training agreement with SHAPE."
They came down from $600 to $75. And still no proof of contract. And they were like, "your cancellation fee is $75 ONLY TODAY. Make the payment RIGHT NOW!" I was more than happy to be done with them, and despite them "not wanting me to come in", I went in and gave them a cashier's check of exactly $75, took pictures of where and with whom I had left the check with, and walked away from them. FINALLY FREE.
So, if you ask me, don't go there. Some of them in there are just thugs who threaten you, and treat you just like a money bag. No respect for you or your time. read more