I started going to the SE 14th location 14 years ago, stopped while at college and resumed once back from college and working in the area - I always loved the SE 14th location. I moved to West Des Moines and started going to the Hickman location a month ago and had a terrible experience with them today and quit my membership and moved over to Life Time Fitness. I had the $25 membership at Aspen that allowed me to bring a guest. I signed my wife up for a group training session for $200 that she has been attending for the past month. Today, I had to stay late at work to get a client some requested work and told my wife to go ahead and go the gym without me so that she could make her group training session (she loves her trainer, Kristen, so we have nothing but great things to say about her). I received a call from my wife letting me know that she wasn't allowed to go to her class because she was a guest and I needed to be there. I explained the situation to multiple workers at the Aspen on Hickman and asked that they look up my account to verify that I have guest privileges and asked them to please let her attend her class and assured them that I would be there. They refused to make an exception, as did one of the managers there, even after explaining that we always go there together. Additionally, I know the people at the front desk have seen us come in together before, so they knew that we play by the rules and that this was a one-time exception that they would be making. When I finally got to the gym (45 minutes into the class that my wife missed, with her waiting the entire time), they told me that she wasn't even supposed to be able to take the class as a guest in the first place, and they made it sound as if this was my oversight instead of theirs and told me they'd have to get approval from a manager for her to finish out the classes I'd paid $200 for (Daniel - a manager - said he'd follow up with me). I understand that there are policies, but I've seen McDonald's workers give free food to an unhappy customer that has been waiting 30 minutes for their food without manager approval (that's against policy) - that customer was happy and returned, I'd bet my bottom dollar. I wasn't asking someone to let me peak into a "TOP SECRET" room at the Pentagon; I was asking simply for my wife to be able to attend a class that I paid for without me being there ONE time - I've been there to check her in the other 20 sessions prior. It is completely beyond me how Aspen spat in my face after having given them my money for probably ten years (my dad, sister and wife as well) in total. PLEASE empower your employees to make decisions like one-time exceptions for situations like mine today, because they will arise. Hopefully the Hickman Aspen figures out how to give customer service and trains their employees to put their customers first. I'm willing to pay 6 times as much a month at Life Time (one does get better equipment and facilities, but I don't view it as worth it) and spend a good 15 minutes writing this review to voice my dissatisfaction - call me stupid, but I refuse to give my money to an institution that doesn't value me as a customer. I guess sometimes you get what you pay for.

wish the Aspen athletic club could clone their newest sub for zumba, Patricia. In ten years of doing zumba, she's the only teacher I've seen who doesn't run around like a poco stick who actually does traditional Latin American , and Middle Eastern dancing the way it is meant to be done, not flinging all over the place like a spazola and pounding your joints like aerobics. Patricia actually - OMG DANCES. My guess is she actually has something above and beyond like a dance background and possibly grew up studying those forms of dance as well. That's just not somehting you can train in those little two weeks certificates or whatever they do. You can't train that type of choreagraphy and understanding of the movement, that takes years. when other students come up to me after class and say i just hurt after doing so and so's class. Huge hint at least i don't think jumping around like a prancing pony is what Pedro had in mind either.

wish the Aspen athletic club could clone their newest sub for zumba, Patricia. In ten years of doing zumba, she's the only teacher I've seen who doesn't run around like a poco stick who actually does traditional Latin American , and Middle Eastern dancing the way it is meant to be done, not flinging all over the place like a spazola and pounding your joints like aerobics. Patricia actually - OMG DANCES. My guess is she actually has something above and beyond like a dance background and possibly grew up studying those forms of dance as well. That's just not somehting you can train in those little two weeks certificates or whatever they do. You can't train that type of choreagraphy and understanding of the movement, that takes years. when other students come up to me after class and say i just hurt after doing so and so's class. Huge hint at least i don't think jumping around like a prancing pony is what Pedro had in mind either.