Thursday, January 6, 2011

why i am boycotting Urban Active's Graceland location

it should not be a difficult thing to ensure your employees are properly informed. i called the gym the day after xmas to see if there was a bellydance class since its the holidays and was assured there was. well i got there and nope, no class. this is the second time this had happened to me and i was pissed. i sent this email:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am an Urban Active member and regularly attend the Sunday belly dance classes at 4:00 PM. It being the day after Christmas, I called this morning to ensure there would still be a class. I was assured there would be. Upon arriving, I noticed a sign on the door of the group fitness room stating that there would be no classes today. The same thing happened to me on Sunday 10/31, Halloween. I called in the morning to see if there would still be a belly dance class that day and was told there would be but, again upon arriving, I saw a sign stating that afternoon classes were cancelled. I am upset about this because on both occasions I was assured there would be a class, went and drove all the way out to the gym only to find out I had been misinformed. This is a waste of both my time and my gas money. It should not be so hard to make sure your employees have the correct information regarding classes on any given day, so that that information can be relayed correctly to members such as myself. The disorganization and inefficiency shown on these two occasions is very unprofessional and I am very displeased.

Sincerely,
Brenda G.

Also, to ensure this doesn't happen again, if possible I would like the email address of the belly dance instructor, Kxxxxx Mxxxxx, so that in the future I can contact her directly.

so, after almost two weeks without a response from them, i decided to call them. i just got off the phone with the manager and explained the situation and how i was very displeased and disappointed with the lack of organization and professionalism. first of all, he told me that he never received an email, which idk whether or not i believe him since i copy-pasted the email address from their website. although it is always possible that the email just randomly got lost in transit i guess. secondly, when i voiced my displeasure about how the employees did not have the correct information, he told me (in a rather snotty voice) that the holiday schedules were posted on the door to the group fitness room as well as the front door two weeks prior to xmas. now im calling bullshit on that, because i do NOT remember seeing anything like that UNTIL the day after xmas, when all this happened. general holiday hours maybe, but definitely not a class schedule. i told him that, and i also told him that if that really were the case and my memory was off, that there is even LESS of an excuse for the employees not to have the correct information. so then i asked him for the belly dance instructors email so i could contact her directly and he gave me the group fitness coordinators email, since she handles all that stuff. mind you i had to almost beg him for it; i asked if he had the email address and he said no the group fitness coordinator handles all the class instructors and would have the email address. i said well can i speak with her please and he said no she is not in today due to the weather (and mind you the "weather" is light snow with less than an inch of accumulation *rolls eyes*) so i said well okay is there any way i can leave her a message? and he finally gave me her email address. ugh. i said thank you and he said youre welcome very abruptly and hung up. no final apology, no "and again i am very sorry for your experience," nothing. i mean maybe im expecting too much, but if i were working and a customer called me with a reasonable complaint i would apologize profusely, do everything in my power to correct the mistake or make amends, and make sure that the last thing they heard before hanging up was another apology. but no. this guy, who is supposed to be a manager and a professional, sounded sarcastic and uninterested when apologizing and almost had an attitude of how dare i make a complaint and well it was my fault anyway for not seeing the supposed signs (which i swear to you were not there). again, i am highly disappointed and pissed off at this particular location and have no plans to ever visit again. thank god theres another location about the same distance from me lol. and luckily this problem location no longer offers bellydance, so i have no reason to go back. now i just REALLY hope the group fitness coordinator responds to my email!

i considered asking for the corporate number and making a complaint about this rude-ass manager, but im just done with the whole thing.apart from getting the instructors email, i am beyond caring about any of this.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Brenda,
WOW! You have MY whole hearted apologies for the issues you've encountered! We do run special class schedules over the holidays and post them both in the club and on our website, and you are correct when you state the front desk should be aware of the correct schedule, someone dropped the ball there and I will pursue finding out just what happened so that won't be an issue again. To my knowledge, we did not receive your email so I am not sure what happened to it!. In the future, please feel free to contact me directly (wjett@urbanactive.com or 859.983.8384) or Ellen Georgeoff, the onsite group x director (egeorgeoff@urbanactive.com) if we can be of any assistance to you. I hope you will give us another chance, as we do have great instructors and provide a wide, variety of classes. In fact, we have just launched "Urbanesque" at most of our clubs, our version of cardio Burlesque. It has had great participation and feedback from the members, perhaps this could work as a substitute for belly dance for now. If I can be of assistance please contact me. Regards, Wendy M. Jett, Corporate Group Fitness Director, URban Active.