This is a fitness center for retirees. There are few younger people who go there, but very few. There are some nice features, but a fatal flaw: The system of locks on the doors and lockers is dangerous. All the doors require a key card, including the dressing room. If you go swimming, for example, and forget your key card in the locker room, you will be locked out of the locker room and unable to get your phone, clothes, or keys. If you are there after Sean, the person who runs the fitness center, has left for the day - and he is only there a few hours a day - you are out of luck, because the emergency phone does not work and the number to call in an emergency is listed INSIDE the locker room door, so you would never be able to see it even if the phone worked. And it makes me nervous to think that Sean is the only person in the company that can solve these emergency problems. The other fatal flaw is that lockers in the dressing room have an electronic keypad into which you must enter a code. Say you thought you were pressing 1234 and you pressed 1345, and didn't realize it: you are stuck. You will not be able to get into the locker. If you locked your key card in there, there will be no way to leave the locker room to go the phone (that does not work.) The previous two nightmares did not happen to me, although I was nervous they would - it was a pain to remember to take my key card out every time I went swimming. But there is another problem with the lockers: if there is anything at all sticking out the smallest bit at the bottom of the locker, after you close the door, it will not open again. Even if you are careful, some piece of clothing could fall forward or down as you close the door and this could happen. There is no warning on the doors about this, and it happened to me. I was in a hurry after working out, threw my clothes into the locker and went to take a shower. The showers are in a different room, so I locked the door. Thank God I had thought about a very quick swim, so brought my swimming suit with me, because the door would not open again and I was stuck with no clothes, no phone, no keys, and no way to contact the person I was supposed to be meeting in 20 minutes that I was not going to make it. I needed to ask for help but my key card was in the locker and the locker room door opens with a key card. So if I had gone out of the locker room without the key card, I could not have gone back in. I stood at the door calling, "Excuse me," and not one macho SOB would look up and respond. Thank goodness I had left my shoes out, so that I could block the door open with them. I had to ask for help several times from the gentlemen working out - not a helpful culture, I guess. The only response I got was a snicker and "Well, guess you have to wait till 6 am." It was 7:30 pm and Sean was long gone. Nothing happened till I got loud about it. It was not pleasant to be wandering around in the main part of the building with a swimming suit and a small towel and a bunch of old men making insulting comments like, "You must have punched in the wrong code." Finally one man went to ask the physical therapist for help. Thank goodness he was there, for it seemed that no one else had a working phone. He would not let me dial his phone myself because he thought I was going to "throw it" because I was hopping mad about what had been going on. And he made a really demeaning comment - in a condescending tone - about how it must be upsetting to have my schedule changed, as if I was some kind of dementia patient. I had a meeting that I was missing. Sean came in about 15 minutes and opened the door - what if he had been out somewhere, or sleeping? I was late to my appointment, which was embarrassing, and the story was just too complicated and ridiculous to explain. Since it is a sort of place where mostly retirees go, it closes early - 8:30 pm. But by late fall it is dark at that time, and the back door opens to a very dark parking lot that is surrounded by woods. If you would get locked out of the locker room or out of your locker and had no phone, you would be in trouble. I have been spooked at night when I am the only one leaving the building. After 8:30, you cannot get back in. So if there were an emergency outside - a suspicious person or car, for example, and you had already gone out the first set of doors or the main door, you would be stuck. This has always bothered me. After this experience, I put my card on the desk with a note to cancel my membership immediately. I cannot afford the risk of being stuck there, especially at night, and missing a meeting or even being in danger. It takes all pleasure out of going there.
by Ohio musician
xxx.xxx.196.103
November 26, 2013