Planet Fitness staff conduct complaint

Planet Fitness Brakpan Complaint Little over a year ago, a former member, Lana, had started an altercation with myself and a couple friends with whom I no longer train with. I still to this day have zero clue what the issue was with her and myself and those friends as the situation wasn’t handled professionally. This lady walked in long and positioned herself by the incline bench close to my group while my back was turned towards her, she then approached my group and placed her hand upon my shoulder and started screaming at me to “leave her the f*** alone “ and I must stop staring at her when in actual fact my group and I were at the squat racks, doing lunges minding our own business. She then demanded to speak to the manager at the time, and since Rowan was off on Saturday, Moeketsi Tshehla aka ‘Mercy’, was acting manager. We went over to Mercy who was at the juice-bar tables at the time to tell her about what happened and how this woman was performing with me and she said that she wants nothing to do with it it’s not her job to deal with these things and that she’s on lunch and to speak to Rowan the following Monday. After some convincing I had to do, Mercy, myself, Lana and a friend of mine stepped into the office where this lady (Lana) made it seem as if though I was stalking her. After a while she put out her hand and said “can we be friends?”, to which I said “f*** that. Stay away from me because you are crazy and need psychological help.” Mercy then said that she will speak to Rowan in regards to this issue. My complaint reached Rowan, and NOTHING was done. Instead I got told to be careful where I look inbetween sets and make sure that if this lady was in the gym at the same time as me, I must avoid her. She allegedly only got a verbal warning. In my opinion, management, from actual management down to acting management, was as inefficient as an ice cube in the Arctic circle. I must add that after the whole incident, another manager from another club who was at Brakpan that same day spoke to Mercy about the issue. This is the manager at Brakpan now. Due to the poor management, I left planet fitness entirely. While I was gone for those 6 months I had then been informed that management improved significantly by Planet fitness and came back. The information I received was that equipment is well maintained and complaints get taken seriously. I came back, and then got a staff nominated membership. There was one day, the Pec Deck machine’s seat was not bolted on properly. Mercy was at front desk with Zana. I respectfully asked them to fix it. Mercy, I’m assuming, wanted to make a joke said “Eyy you white poeple like to complain”. We then walked to the machine, she swivelled the seat and asked “does it really need to be fixed though”? She then said she will get someone on it and then walked to front desk to call the maintenance guy. She then said to me “You think because you don’t have to pay anymore, you can just complain now”. I said “No, maybe if the machines were fixed I wouldn’t need to complain” and I walked away. I was very upset and didn’t want to cause issues for the person that nominated me since she works underneath Mercy. Then a couple weeks later, all staff was all hands on because an external auditor was expected to come do a routine check, the irony is that the only time it seems things get taken seriously by management is when they know there is an inspection coming. All other times, the metaphorical ship is sinking but functional to an extent. Not long after the aforementioned incident, I walked in by the gym one day to train, Mercy was at front desk, I greeted her and got completely ignored. It has not changed since. This has been going on for weeks now, so I just don’t greet her anymore. She is a Reception Manager with absolutely ZERO managerial capabilities, and here I am with a Law degree and a management degree from UJ, so I know what I am speaking about. To make matters worse from the no greeting, she helps members while remaining seated with no respect to them. She has been seen at reception CONSTANTLY on her phone. She is also always chewing gum while talking, which is EXTREMELY disrespectful on its own. I have firsthand seen her treat white individuals with less respect than those of colour and purposely embarrass them for no reason and other members have witnessed this and complained about this as well but nothing gets done. She has attitude towards members and staff under her as if though she is doing everyone a favour when she performs her duties. When she doesn’t feel like performing her duties, ie assisting members, she states it isn’t her job and members must contact customer care or speak to the club manager. (see my incident above regarding when she was acting manager on duty for that weekend) I was training late one evening with Zana, a receptionist there by the seated shoulder press near the entrance, Mercy approached Zana and says “did you help the applicant with her forms?” And Zana responded “No, I just explained the questions to her and let her answer.” Mercy then asked “Did you give her answers hmm?” To which Zana responded “No then what’s the point of the form?”Then Mercy responded “Oh, I’m just checking who’s side you’re on” and walked away and I could see Zana was upset. She then explained that the club manager asked her to assist with obtaining a receptionist because Mercy refuses to do it. I don’t understand how a manager can be upset with her colleague for helping with something she refuses to do. Since Mercy’s favourite line to use is “go contact customer service”, I thought I would do one better and contact everyone who reads this so they know who NOT to ask for and avoid.

Planet Fitness is an amazing gym, but when management has such poor attitude, it’s a massive issue, and as the age old saying goes: When a light bulb in a house blows, you do not replace the house. You change the light bulb. I decided to log this complaint because Mercy seems to have an air about herself that she is untouchable and nothing seems to be done to correct her disrespect. Your company is losing business because rude people like her are chasing away eager members with her attitude.