illuminate Gym

Illuminate gym was a pretty good gym to workout in until my recent encounter. For three weeks I had been signing for a medicine ball for gym usage. On Friday 9/23/2016, one of the gym trainers by the name of Scott, decided to deny me the right to use the medicine ball; “stating that I am not a trainer, and I should have never been allowed to use the gym ball”. When I asked if this was a new change to policy, the trainer replied: “no, you aren’t a personal trainer and you aren’t allowed to use the medicine ball”. I left the gym and returned on that afternoon, to speak with either that trainer or someone in management about the issue, the female gym attendant on duty informed me that no one from management or any other trainers were present, and that she would forward my concerns to management and have them give me a call (during this time, there was another member which was a non-trainer whom overheard my conversation with the gym attendant, and informed me that he uses the same medicine ball that I was referring to, and he had just signed it back in). The gym attendant was present during the morning conversation denying me the right to use that medicine ball, and confirmed that she had checked the sign-out log and saw that I had been using that ball on several occasions. No call was received on Friday, so I returned Saturday morning 9/24/2016 and talked with Katie whom informed me that she was a relative of the owner. At this point she informed me that the medicine ball usage was not the sole usage of the trainers and she would talk with the owner and Scott the trainer about the situation, and would give me a call. I received no return calls or emails from Saturday through Wednesday 9/28/2016. On Wednesday morning I returned to the gym to speak with someone in management, or to Katie to see if this issue had been resolved, only to be met with the following: 1. You cannot use the medicine ball unless you are a trainer 2. We are not writing this in the contract explaining that you cannot use the medicine ball. 3. Your monthly membership only covers the use of the gym, not necessarily the equipment. 4. In order to terminate your membership, you are going to have to pay the remaining balance of your membership dues. Since the use of gym equipment is not clearly stated as to what can be used and what cannot be used, and since certain members are allowed to use equipment, and other’s aren’t entitled to use the same equipment. I now have a new outlook on the gym and its staff ... I'm a little puzzled that I can go over to the free weights and put whatever amount of weight that I think I can lift without a personal trainer, but I need a personal trainer to use a medicine ball....I can get on the treadmill, elliptical and use all other complicated machines without the need for a personal trainer, but I need a personal trainer to use a medicine ball. Now to add insult to injury, when I spoke with the owner of the gym, he main concern was me paying the rest of my annual membership fee, in order to cancel my contract, and tried to process the transaction without my approval before I made it back to my car. Nice gym to attend, until you try to use one of their precious medicines balls.