Rishire Writes

Since August of 2013, I have been going to Synergy Fitness to try and become a somewhat exercised person. I entered with a Groupon, but left with a “Jump Start” package that promised 10 personal training sessions and two free months of membership. Marcel, the manager at the time, charmed me into the “deal,” with his Vin Diesel good looks and sense of humor. I had no problem forgoing the cheaper Groupon for what I believed to be a good experience. I’ve always thought of getting a personal trainer and considered throwing money at my need to get fit, and there was no time like the present.

I started with a thin, male trainer of some sort of Eastern European descent. His accent was so thick I’d need a steak knife to cut it and his handle on the English language was adorably foggy. He was nice and all that, but his idea of personal training and my idea of personal fitness just didn’t click. He wanted me to do sit ups and push ups and lift weights. I wanted to dance the pounds away without realizing I was actually working out. After one session, I knew I couldn’t continue with him. It tore me up inside (kind of), but I I swallowed my kindness and called the gym, requesting a new trainer. They said there would be no hard feelings, but you bet your bottom dollar that I never heard from him again or even saw him at the gym…That might’ve just been a coincidence.

After that complete fail, the gym paired me with a hip hop instructor named Trish. She seemed to be everything that I was looking for. She was African American (like me!), taught Hip Hop/Hip-Hotic (her version of Zumba that she has trademarked and taught around the globe), and laughed at my jokes! I loved her, but much like the other trainer, she actually wanted me to work out. What’s up with that?! It was a lot more bearable with her, though, because she was so easy going, friendly, personable, and motivational. She always made sure to explain to me the affect of what I was doing and compliment my form when I actually did stuff right, which was more often than I thought it would be.

My one and only problem with her was that she seemed to expect a lot of me. She wanted me to come into the gym at least a half hour before our sessions to warm up on the elliptical, doing fifteen minutes forward then fifteen minutes backwards. She expected me to hit the gym outside of our regular sessions for at least an hour and kept me accountable for things I just never felt like doing. She had her reasons, and they all made sense, I just didn’t like exercising and still don’t. I’m pretty sure it’s in my genetic code. All-in-all, I really liked her. In fact, I liked her so much that before my ten sessions were even up, I had signed up for twenty more sessions! That’s a lot of fitness, especially for me, but I did it for her. I did it because I believed that she had what I took to get me to exercise and make me fit and give me the body I’ve always dreamed of. She and she alone was the reason I signed that agreement and paid out the butt for twenty sessions, so imagine my frustration when she informed me that Synergy had fired her and banned her from entering the buidling.

Let me go back for a quick second: before Trish was fired and while I was on a bit of a fitness hiatus due to health concerns and impending finals, I found out that Synergy was charging me for monthly membership. What the heck?! Why in the world would they charge me for coming to their gym to train, something that I already paid an arm and a leg for? Last time I had a training package it included free membership. What kind of game was Synergy playing at?! Needless to say I was furious and called the gym immediately. Firstly, the woman who answered the phone, Sue, was incredibly abrasive and downright mean. She practically yelled at me for calling after business hours. May I remind you that the gym operates 24 hours a day. Business hours? Whatever you say, ma’am. When I did call during “business hours,” she tried to help, saying people who train at the gym usually pay for membership as well, but she’d see what she can do for me. She didn’t do anything.

Back to my wonderful trainer getting unceremoniously fired. I don’t have all of the details as to what happened and why she was fired–something about them withholding her paycheck and some other shady Synergy dealings. After the whole being charged membership thing, I had mailed in my certified letter asking to cancel my membership, a process you have to go through in order to cancel your membership. The man I spoke to on the phone while I was paying for the letter informed me that the money I was charged couldn’t be refunded, but I won’t be charged again. My membership was to end on January 15th, which gave me about a month to complete my training sessions, something I couldn’t do without my trainer. When I called to ask if Trish could just finish out my training sessions (I only had eight left), Sue claimed that it was “illegal” of Trish to inform me and her current Synergy clients that she had been fired. Okay…makes sense…not! She went on to say that I signed a contract with Synergy and that I was a member of Synergy, not Trish’s own personal trainee. What she refused to hear was that I was only a member of Synergy to be Trish’s own personal trainee. She was a wonderful trainer, and I wanted her and no one else. I tried to convey that to her, but her being Sue wouldn’t let me get a word in edgewise. I called again about a week later to talk to Lenny who was a lot kinder than Sue but just as unhelpful. He basically repeated what she said and offered to set me up with another trainer. I wasn’t about that, so I opted to let my membership run out and just call it quits with fitness.

Lo and behold, Synergy went on to charge me for another month of membership. WHAT?! Despite my billing date being on the 15th of each month, they charged me on the 14th. Despite me having sent in a certified letter asking to cancel my membership a month prior, they went ahead and charged me again! Of course, I called the gym immediately. This time Marc Anthony answered. No, not the Marc Anthony, just a Marc Anthony. I explained what happened, and he said I was charged because I canceled my membership after the 15th of the previous month. I told him that I was talking to someone at the gym as I canceled the membership, and that person said my membership would end on January 15th and that I wouldn’t be charged then. He wasn’t having any of it. He insisted that this is what I signed up for when I signed the contract and some other crap that didn’t matter because it was all crap. Synergy was shoveling crap, and I was not going to take it buried at the bottom of the pile. After I hung up from him, ending with what I thought to be the sassiest line I could’ve come up with (“I’ll be sure to remember that when I report you to the Better Business Bureau.” Ha!), I called up Bank of America to have the charge looked into and possibly removed and ensure that Synergy could never charge me again. Fingers crossed that all works out. The woman on the phone said it could take up to 90 days. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I have written this scathing review of my time at the gym and will follow it up with an equally scathing but more concise yelp review where the reviews are abysmal (just about everyone hates Synergy). I still need to look into filing a report with the Better Business Bureau where Synergy already has an F. I will not stop until my voice has been heard and my revenge has been exacted! Don’t. Mess. With. Me.