Finding time to exercise consistently can be challenging. So can figuring out the right fitness routine for your goals. That’s where a personal trainer can be a huge help. Personal trainers can create personalized workout plans for you, keep you motivated, and help you progress towards your goals.
But not all personal trainers provide the same experience. There’s huge variance in the quality and trustworthiness of personal trainers. This is especially true when it comes to online personal training. Unfortunately, many people report being scammed, ghosted, or otherwise taken advantage of by shady personal trainers.
If this sounds familiar, you might find yourself in a situation where you need to get a refund from your personal trainer. This isn’t always an easy process, and can be stressful. But we’re here to help. Below, we provide a step-by-step guide on how to get a refund from your personal trainer.
There are some common situations where asking for a refund from a personal trainer is justified.
These include:
What do these things actually look like? Here are some examples.
Maybe you connected with a trainer and they provided you with a fitness plan. You’ve been following your trainer’s plan diligently for months, but you haven’t seen any progress, despite spending time and energy on the plan’s exercises and schedule.
Sometimes, personal trainers make promises that clients will see exorbitant progress, and then fail to deliver. These are considered unmet expectations, and they can warrant a refund.
Maybe you committed to training with your trainer three times a week for six weeks. But, after paying up front for those six weeks, your trainer says they are only able to meet with you once a week instead of three.
These kinds of scheduling conflicts or trainer unavailability justify a refund because you committed to the schedule the trainer presented to you, and the trainer led you to believe that they were committed to that same schedule as well.
Let’s use a variation on the example above. Maybe you committed to training with your trainer three times a week for six weeks. Your trainer also commits to training you for this schedule. But when you arrive at your third session for Week 1, your trainer isn’t there. They text you to say their car broke down, and they offer to make up the session later. You agree; you understand that things like this happen.
When you arrive at your third session for Week 2, your trainer is missing again. They text you to say they’re not feeling well, and offer to make up the session later. The same thing happens for Week 3. At this point, you’re only training two times a week with your trainer, not the three times a week you agreed upon. This justifies a refund for failing to uphold agreed upon terms.
The most blatant examples of inappropriate behavior are things like flirting or inappropriate physical touch. These behaviors are absolutely not ok, and definitely warrant a refund. But inappropriate behavior can look like other types of behavior as well.
For example, say you commit to training with your trainer three times a week for six weeks. Your trainer has a specific gym they want to train at, and you agree because you don’t have a gym of your own. Then your trainer says that they’ll need you to give them a ride to the gym for each session, because their partner needs their shared car during your sessions. When you’re at the gym together, your trainer spends more time doing their own workout than training you. And later, as you’re leaving the gym, you see a sign posted that says “No Personal Training Allowed.”
Asking for a ride to sessions from a client can be considered inappropriate behavior for a personal trainer. And a trainer spending more time on their own workout than on the client paying for the training session is also considered inappropriate behavior. But the most significant red flag here is training at a gym that doesn’t allow personal training. All of these behaviors justify a refund from this personal trainer.
So if you find yourself in one of these situations and you decide you need to pursue getting a refund from your personal trainer, what should you do next?
Before requesting a refund, you need to do some research and preparation.
First, take a close look at the contract or agreement you signed. Is the contract with the personal trainer as an individual, or with a gym? Is there a refund policy listed? If so, what is it?
It may be that instead of signing an official contract or other official agreement, you simply exchanged messages with your personal trainer. This is common. For example, many people find online personal training services on social media such as Instagram, and come to an agreement via Instagram direct messages.
These or other types of messages (text, SMS, etc) are still considered a record of services offered by your personal trainer, even if you didn’t officially sign anything. So take a look at the information included in the messages you and your personal trainer exchanged, and see if there’s any mention of a refund or canceled services. Be sure to take screenshots so you can refer to them later if you need to.
Next, identify valid reasons for requesting a refund and gather evidence to support your claim. If your contract has a refund policy, it will likely list reasons that a refund can be issued. Identify which of these reasons your experience falls under.
Then, gather proof of your experience. This might mean emails exchanged between you and your trainer, or screenshots of text or SMS messages, or other evidence you can use to support your claim that a refund is justified.
Once you’ve done your research and preparation, it’s time to request a refund.
There are some clear steps you can follow to request a refund from your trainer.
Remember to follow these steps calmly and professionally. Document as much of the exchange as you can, in case you need to escalate things (more on that below).
It can be tricky to know exactly what to say or what to write when you begin talking or emailing your personal trainer about a refund.
Feel free to use some of these sample phrases to get started:
How best to communicate your request for a refund? It’s up to you.
Think about what you’re most comfortable with, keeping in mind that you might feel anxious or stressed about this conversation. The goal is to stay calm and professional, and accomplish your goal of getting a refund.
Some options:
Whatever form of communication you choose, clearly express your concerns, and discuss alternatives or compromises (more on that below).
Document as much of the conversation as you can. If you’re having a face-to-face or phone conversation, take detailed notes either during the conversation or immediately afterwards, while it’s fresh. If you’re exchanging emails or texts, be sure to save them or take screenshots so you can refer to them later if you need to.
After you’ve had an initial conversation with your trainer, it’s time to formally request a refund. If you haven’t already put a request for a refund in writing, now is the time to do that. Email is usually best, as it is considered a more formal form of communication than text messages.
Reference the information you found in the contract or agreement about the refund policy, if there is one. Include the evidence you gathered to support your claim that you are justified in receiving a refund (screenshots, dates / times of missed sessions, etc). And send the refund request along with your evidence via email to your personal trainer and/or your gym management, depending on whether your personal trainer is associated with a gym or not.
Hopefully, your formal refund request will get a quick response from your trainer or gym management, and everything will be resolved easily. But you may find you need to escalate the issue.
If you need to escalate, here’s what to expect, and what you should do.
If you don’t receive a response from your email within five business days, send a follow-up. You might even consider sending a follow-up to your trainer via text, if you feel comfortable doing so.
Depending on your situation (ie, are you a member of a gym using their personal training services), you might seek guidance from your gym management or customer service team. Some gyms have customer service representatives or management in an office in the gym, so you might stop by to follow-up in person.
Leave public reviews or social media posts explaining the situation. The goal here is not to be vindictive. Instead, be matter-of-fact and objective in your posts or comments, explaining the situation without getting heated.
Some places you might leave reviews or tag the trainer in your comments include:
You might also file a complaint with your State Attorney General’s Consumer Complaint/Protection agency. Some cities also have Consumer Complaint/Protection agencies, so check and see if your city has one. File a complaint for both where you live and where the trainer lives.
As a last resort, you might need to consider legal options. Legal expenses can be costly, both in terms of the money you’ll need to spend on legal fees but also in terms of how much time legal proceedings can take. But if you paid a very large sum of money for prepaid training (such as for a year in advance), it might be worth pursuing legal options, or at least threatening to do so.
Sometimes, even when following all the steps above, a refund isn’t possible. That’s ok. There are still alternatives you can pursue to feel like you’re getting your money’s worth.
If you’re working with an independent personal trainer (ie, one not affiliated with a gym membership), and you feel like you’re not getting what you paid for but are unable to get a refund for some reason, you might instead request additional services such as meal plans, additional workouts, or stretching sessions.
If you’re working with a personal trainer as part of a gym membership and you’re not able to get a refund for some reason, you might ask if you can switch to a different trainer within the same organization.
Personal training can be a fantastic experience for many people. But there can be variance in the quality and trustworthiness of personal trainers. Sometimes personal trainers aren’t as customer-centric, transparent, or flexible as clients might wish.
If you prefer online personal training to in-person, once you find a personal training app you like it can be tricky to figure out how much you should be paying for online personal training, or how much you should budget.
Trainwell offers all the benefits of a personal trainer, with added flexibility, and without the complexity.
When you work with a trainwell trainer, there’s no contract involved. Instead, we offer a flexible subscription model, so you can subscribe for as long as it works for you. And if you feel like it’s time to change your fitness journey to something different, you don’t need to have a stressful, awkward conversation about a refund with your trainer. You can just end your subscription, satisfaction guaranteed.
Trainwell provides clients with the best version of personal training: trainers who are invested in your long-term success, with personalized services and transparent communication.
Working with a personal trainer can be great. There are so many benefits to both in-person and online personal trainers. But sometimes working with a personal trainer doesn't go as expected, and depending on your experience, you might find yourself needing to request a refund from your personal trainer.
While asking for a refund can be awkward and stressful, it’s important to advocate for yourself. You need to do what’s best for you, and that may mean ending your relationship with your personal trainer, asking for a refund, and trying something different in your fitness journey.
When you’re thinking about what’s next, think about why you needed to end your relationship with your trainer, and why you needed to request a refund.
For many people, the need to request a refund from a personal trainer comes down to two key issues: (1) scheduling conflicts and (2) unmet expectations. If you find yourself needing to request a refund from your personal trainer for either (or both!) of these reasons, consider trying a virtual personal trainer instead.
Trainwell provides consistent, personalized, flexible long-term support with the ideal combination of real human trainers and advanced fitness technology.
Ready to get started? Great! Trainwell offers a free 14-day trial so you can see if this personal training experience provides everything you’re looking for. Explore trainwell’s 14-day free trial to find your next personal trainer: https://join.trainwell.net/
Written by Ella Browning.
