The sales team at the LA Fitness in Floral Park New Hyde Park, Long Island, were so pushy to a prospective customer that they basically forced her to take her business elsewhere. Apparently if they actually let a customer redeem one of their free passes, the gym will be sucked into a vortex of non-commission, so they have to deny you access.

Nazli writes,

I wish I wasn’t writing this because I really wanted to be a happy customer of L.A. Fitness. Here is how it happened.

I live in Floral Park, LI and I am (or rather used to be) a swimmer. I hate doing cardio so the one and only element I look for in a gym is a swimming pool. After a quick search, I realize that the only club capable of offering a pool around my house is L.A. Fitness. So yesterday I printed out my “3 day free pass” and headed out there. I’ve already done my research, I know how much it costs and have accepted it. Needless to say, I am a sales person’s dream.

They make me meet with this young attractive guy and he shows me around. You know, it’s L.A. Fitness. It’s big and has the cutting edge work out equipment and classes and the swimming pool. Not much needs to be said there. He shows me the pool, I like it, it’s fine I want to swim already.

We go back to his desk and he tells me the fees, if I pay slightly more I can have 2 guests all the time, unlimited yada yada. So I’m like, “Listen, I’m sold but I still want to try it for 3 days first. I have to sleep on it before I make a purchase because if I cancel my deposit is gone so I want to make sure this is what I want. Give me the free pass and I’ll be back.”

So he says, “Ok let me go see my manager Neil.” The young guy comes back and tells me his manager is busy but that [his manager] wanted him to tell me if I sign up TODAY they will lower the monthly fee by $10.00, and then he moves on to try to calculate that to show me how much I would save in a year and trails off without being able to add it up. When I decline that, he offers me another deal that is only happening TODAY (it’s gotta be my lucky day, right?) and if I sign up today, my registration fee will be $75 instead of the regular $149.99.

A few minutes later an older guy, Neil, comes and tells me, “So I hear you want the 3 days pass.”

“Yes, and then I will come back and will become a member.”

Neil starts reading the fine print on the coupon and circles 3 places.

“Well, according to this for certain areas we have to charge $20 dollars. Now you can work out for free but if you want swimming classes, squash, work out classes, they are all 20 bucks.”

“I don’t want swimming classes. I know how to swim.”

“Well I meant the swimming pool. Because you know—and you’ll appreciate this when you’re a member—members say, ‘Why is she in here? We pay more than her, she shouldn’t be here with us.’ We also don’t overcrowd our pool with nonmembers…”

He continues like this for a couple of minutes, totally insulting and offending me. I am starting to wonder if I smell bad or something and I am so disgusted that even though his logic is awfully flawed I don’t want to argue with him.

“Alright well, I didn’t bring any money since it says ‘free’ on the pass… so I guess I will have to come back tomorrow and print another pass for tomorrow and try it then.”

“So you’d rather pay 20 bucks extra to try it rather than become a member and put that 20 into becoming a member,” and he starts to draw a comparison chart of some sort.

So I say, “I can do math, the money isn’t the issue here. I just want to try it first before I make a decision. So since I don’t have money on me today, I have to come back tomorrow anyway right? Whether I become a member or just try it out?”

“Well yeah… “

“So I’ll see you tomorrow and I will have made up my mind by then.”

He interjects and asks me if I have an ID. (I do but I lie because I can already tell what’s coming so I tell him it’s in the car) “Well tell you what, if you go get it from the car in the next 10 minutes, I’ll register you as my personal guest and you can use the pool for free today and then we can talk.” And then he starts to totally smile and suck up to me.

Really? Two minutes ago, you were telling the members wouldn’t want me in there because I’m just trying it out, now you’re offering to sign me up as your personal guest, after offending me?

So needless to say, I didn’t get to swim.

You know, I did my homework and knew that they were going to try to screw me, but honestly, I didn’t think it would be this bad. If he had just let me be, I was going to sign up for a platinum membership anyway. Bastards.

What we like about this story: the salesmen kept telling Nazli no without actually using the word “no,” so she did the same thing right back to them.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.