Visiting Atlanta, and currently this studio is the closest one to me. Within walking distance,…read morewhich is pretty impressive. This is basically the closest I've been to a studio before.
That said, I swung here on my birthday, this Friday on the week of Independence Day.
My first time here at the studio, and I had to sign a waiver and everything, as is customary whenever you attend a new studio.
Wouldn't you know, they gave me the wrong form to fill out? Yep, it was the new membership intake form. I only found out about that after filling in all the blank fields. I thought it looked different, and that's because it's not the right form at all.
All the folks at the front desk seem way too young for their own good, all girls, though not sure why it'd matter. But anyway, they messed up and gave me the wrong form to fill out, wasting my time even though it wasn't a big deal bc I showed up like 15 mins early, but more importantly I could see that on the desk they'd done the same exact thing to someone else who had yet to pick up their forms. Turns out the front desk lady was rather clueless, and they gave me the one form on the table (intended for someone else) that was the right one -- the form for an intake to a new studio, rather than a brand new member. Shortly, I overheard the same person asking via phone call, how to access that form on the site. I honestly feel this sort of egregious negligence can only derive from being too young and inexperienced. Definitely need someone older manning (or womaning?) the front desk.
Anyway, I would be content to let that slide, were that the only mistake or inconvenience that was noticed. But alas, it was not.
I mean, on the form I filled out, they could see the date I listed as my date of birth, was the same day as *today*. Still, no response other than dead, screaming silence. No "aha!" moment. No lightbulbs flickering. No bells pealing out in the early mid-morning. Nothin' but crickets, woe to the world.
The workout was fairly decent. The first time I didn't see my name show on the screen, so I had to power off my HR thingy and then switch it on again. It seemed to do the trick, but it took a while. I've also come to workout here once more, and plan to at least once again before I pack up and head out of Atlanta. As I say, I'm merely a visitor here.
Even after the workout, no bells going off, did not see "happy birthday my name" on the board up front. I had to go up to front desk and prompt them -- "Hey is this Lizzie's birthday today? Who is that?" "Oh not sure, hold on she might have written her name down there, not sure it's her birthday." "Oh, gotcha. I was just checking, btw it's also my birthday today.." *awkward pause* "ohh no way..?!? wait, that's pretty cool. Congrats, I guess, on the birthday thing."
Anyway, bit awkward conversation, but I did mention to the coach earlier too, and she seemed a bit more receptive, gave me some tips on places to eat at or check out in Atlanta. Problem is, already had noted down those places anyway, so the suggestions largely weren't too helpful, and the cheer/appreciation for a members birthday was literally nonexistent.
In my heartfelt opinion, I pay way too much for membership at OTF, and certainly not to entertain staff missing your birthday completely (even when it's on a form they ask you to fill out, and which they should be entering right after the fact) and not to receive shock and complete dumbfounded blank stares when the news is broken over the wire, so to say.
The icing on the cake, people are mean to you here and the other members don't really care what you're doing when you're doing it here, but that's ok, I'm not here to make friends or anything but maybe receptive and open-minded moods would be rather splendid -- unfortunately, still a bit fat "NOPE!" on that front.
In fairness, this is a generalized problem across most if not all OTF studios, so I won't hold this against them here (not too much anyway).
All said, location is great, staff are not, and members are non-caring, unsympathetic workout robots. But hey, that's OT mindset for you, what can ya say.
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UPDATE (7/11/23) -- A manager or front desk person at the studio called me to follow up on my (1-star) review. They wanted to check if there is anything they can do to improve. It was also mentioned that the front desk person (that I had interacted with) is new -- it was actually her first week at the time. I appreciate that, and said that I didn't really hold the issue with forms and missing my birthday against them. However, none of the members have been kind or accepting of me in the 3 classes I've taken at the studio, and no one has initiated conversation with me, much less looked in my general direction. As such, I have to retain my rating of the studio, as my experience and time here at the studio (as a whole) did not leave a good impression on me.
