NYSC/TSI

Thievery and bureaucratic incompetence abound

I have been a member of the NYSC for approximately 3 years now. I have visited 3 different branches in the midtown NYC area regularly and have had items missing/stolen from 2 of them as follows:

1 - had locker and laundry service, one day my clothes (including a brand-new pair of Adidas track pants) went out and a random bag of (male) clothes was returned to me. Club disavowed any knowledge or input on laundry, what goes in or what comes out. Was a nice service while it lasted though.

2 - Three days after I initiated the laundry service, a brand-new pair of sneakers went missing. Front desk sent me to housekeeping staff, housekeeping found one of them in the cleaning closet, the other one never appeared. I had a bit of a language barrier issue with the housekeeping staff, though they were extremely nice, and of course the front desk worker who told me to go ask the housekeeper did not volunteer to ask her any questions on my behalf, or even to walk me back and point out the housekeeper to me. Just "go in the locker room and look for her". Because I assumed no one would steal one sneaker, went back to front desk, who averred they had no other hiding places for missing items. However, when I handed them an extra sock that I'd been given from the laundry service, they opened a random cupboard behind their desk and threw it in there. What else was in there, I have no idea. Maybe my second sneaker. But if you ask them, mind, they have no other storage places or any lost and found, absolutely everything that's found goes into the housekeeping closet with the bleach and mops. Except that sock I guess.

3 - went to second branch for session with trainer, someone stole my raincoat out of the locker room. No one returned a coat, so was not taken by mistake, and when I asked if I could post a sign asking if someone had taken it by mistake, I wasn't permitted, because that's against policy, naturally.

4 - went to same branch again, this time I had my lock clipped and my wallet stolen, along with another woman who had the same type of lock. As a result of our losses, my club had no problem posting official New York City Police reminder bulletins prominently in the locker room areas of the club, reminding people *generally* to watch their stuff in the locker rooms. Naturally they have no problem posting these, because it's protective for the club. But you can't post a sign offering a reward for the return of items that are actually stolen. Because then the members would see that these posters aren't just theoretical warnings by a kindly police force looking out for your best interests, but that they were placed as a result of a specific theft or thefts that already happened, and that would be a negative for the club. As for the resolution of these issues, they were actually helpful in the case of the stolen wallet, and promptly called police and offered me the use of their office to cancel any outstanding cards. Unfortunately, this included the same credit card on which my gym fees were billed, and you have to fill out an entirely new form every time your credit card expires or is stolen, you can't just hand the card to someone and have them do it on-screen. Sometimes they'll even make you see a sales manager to change the card, and this particular sales manager had to be told twice that the reason I had to hand her a new card was because my old one was stolen right out from under their noses in this very gym branch. Even when I finally managed to get this point across to her, she had very little reaction, maybe because they think kindness or sympathy = potential liability. The front desk workers were very kindly and sympathetic in this case, but of course they can afford to be as they don't have any actual power.

In the case of the missing laundry/sneakers, I complained to the sales manager who sold me my membership, who said I had to speak to the general manager of that gym branch. Who was never in. I had to apply to the same sales manager three times before he actually conveyed my message to the general manager, the excuse being that the GM was in the middle of a personal issue and wasn't in the gym that often (!). When the GM finally made contact, he said I should bring him my receipts for the stolen items and that the gym would reimburse me. Of course he was only in the gym during the hours I was in work, so I squandered one lunch hour running over there, and when I had had no response within 6 weeks, I called again and when I found him he said that he had lost the receipts and could I bring them again. This time I wasted half a personal day, only to find out that when I got there he was "too busy" to see me, so fobbed me off on the assistant manager. Who took my receipt again. And, apparently, promptly "lost" it again. I never saw that money. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the policy was never to reimburse people for stolen items, since they have no liability after all. Except for the fact that when I couldn't get to see the GM in the flesh I sent a certified mail, return receipt requested letter to the headquarters of Town Sports International (their parent company) outlining the problem. They wrote back claiming to have alerted the GM (I had cc-ed him on the original letter) and that he would be available at any time to reimburse me. If the policy is not to offer any reimbursement, ever, that should've been said up front by the people at headquarters in their response. "We are not liable for lost or stolen items placed in our care, and we're not liable for what happens with the laundry service because they're an outside contractor, so sorry, you won't be getting reimbursed." But no one ever did. They gave me a lot of lip service and then stonewalled me into giving up. They also have a seriously unhelpful web site. I tried to log in using my barcode number to access the Member Services section - because of course, after all this, I couldn't wait for my membership term to be up so that I could say farewell to these yokels forever - only to be told I didn't actually have a valid membership (which is certainly a lie, they charge me every month until my contract runs out). When you manage to burrow through the layers to find an actual address to send your cancellation request to (the contract you sign doesn't have this information either), you discover that the people on the website haven't cared enough to include the city, state, or zip code in the mailing address section of the FAQs. Nice! And of course you must cancel via snail mail, you can't do it by email. As for the equipment/facilities, whichever branch I decided to attend just so happened to decide that this would be their time to remodel their locker rooms. I specifically asked beforehand at my home club whether or not I would need to move the items out of my permanent locker in the locker room, or if I would be able to access it during the remodeling. I was informed that I would certainly be able to get into my locker, no problem (I even pointed out which one it was when I asked the question.) Well, they were as clueless about what would actually happen with the locker-room remodeling as they were with stolen items, because the first day I got there, of course I found out that the MEN were going to be housed in the locker room where my permanent locker was. So a male employee had to be drafted to go in and drag all my stuff out of my locker