AFAA

I strongly agree with Meredith. I too spent weeks of studying. I was doing well with practice exam getting 116-117 out 120. I was confident that I was ready so I made my appt. The first 10 questions I knew I will fail. None of the questions have anything to do with what I have been studying! All those weeks and time of studying were a complete waste! There are other companies that will help you succeed not AFAA.

I've had WAY too many rude people on the phone. In the last 10yrs they have changed their policy to needing your CPR prior to testing. They were Not very clear on expectations. I signed up to take the test and they wouldn't let me take it. Tried getting me to pay more money to have an RETAKE! Extortionists to a T! AFAA will get $0 more from me.

Please do not contact afaa for any reason.

My salesman was Samantha she lied to me from the beginning to the end.

They tell you you have to pay a certain amount to become an Aerobic Instructor and they tell you have to watch certain videos to become an instructor. It is all the lie is just to take your money away

I paid lots of money for the supplies I needed to help me prep for this test. The study guide they provided, did not match the the information in the quadrants and did not prep me for the actual test. The practice test I scored a solid 90-100% and still failed the test three times. I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place because AFAA is the certification all gyms accept, but their materials do not help prep you for success. I now have to wait a year before retaking this exam and it puts a hold on my career plans… I would not recommend this company. I feel like it's fraud after all I purchased all the extra materials to help me prepare for this test and all the time spend over the past year prepping for this test and still failing three times. I'm a certified medical assistant. I passed my proctored exam first try to receive this Certification. I also have been teaching group fitness for almost ten years… I know my stuff. I feel defeated and very disappointed in paying so much money to this company to be wasted and not have a certification for Group Fitness

AFAA's partnership with ZIN for the GFI certification exam is a complete scam. I studied for 3 weeks. I earned a masters degree from BU with a 4.0 GPA so I am not a total idiot. I had confidence I would pass the test as I was scoring in the 85-95 range on the quizzes and practice tests.
Today, after an HOUR of technical problems I took the test on line (oddly, my system check worked correctly twice...) and I failed the test. The vast majority of the questions were NOT in the course materials or study guides. I was speechless and devastated that so much of my time had been wasted.
When I called to reschedule I was told I am being charged twice the amount of the first test.
DO NOT waste your time with this company. They are not out to educate you. They are running a scam by rigging a test you are destined to fail.

I am a CPT. I had all of my credits for CPT, which is 2.0 CEU's. They just now said all of the credits did not transfer over because they were not AFAA approved and I was 4 CEU's short. (They also cannot look into my NASM account and see that my CPR cert is good for another year. They want me to resubmit that.) They said now I need to fill out a petition, which is $25, for those other credits that were not AFAA approved. I called about a month ago and checked and they said I had all the credits and am fine. Now they're saying I do not have all the credits. In the meantime, my cert expired so I am now in the grace period so I have to pay a $50 late fee on top of that. I called a month ago to avoid that when they told me I had enough credits. I told them this and they said if I paid the late fee($50) they would give me a free CEU course. It's not really free. The whole thing smells fishy to me.

The testing material AFAA supplies you with, quizzes and exams, are barely on the exam you take at the testing centers. I have failed twice after acing all the quizzes given to me on the course. It's just another way for them to make more money by having you pay for retests.

They have charged me with not 1, but 2
Sketchy charges! When I was taking the test, my computer lost WiFi, and they charged me to re-take it. The 2nd time, they did not make it clear to me that that I had to pay a fee to renew my certificate. I called to ask them about it, and they said nothing about owing a fee. All the sudden, they call me a few weeks later saying that I did not pay my fee to re-certify, and that I now owe a $50 late fee on top of that!

Needed help with some questions on teaching safe classes with injured populations, they refused to help me, but are more than happy to keep taking my money every two years without any kind of ongoing support.

Self study guide sucks, website is trash. Study course is only if you have the knowledge of a chiropractor. Unbelievable! Course gets harder and harder and once you buy it you are screwed.

AFAA trashed their old website which was functional but not great with a website that does not work. Highly disappointed. It is as though AFAA and NASM got married and instead of moving easily into one house that works, AFAA burned the first house down and moved in next door to NASM into a house without heat, lights or plumbing.
0 (Zero Stars)

These people have no customer service. They never pickup your calls. The poorest customer service I ve ever had. I will not renew with them again. I pushed another button since I couldn't get an answer on the PT line and the guy got anger with me and said I cant promise I can answer your question. Its not my department. They have no departments.
I think they are working out their home and there is no customer service department... Very poor service but they know how to get your money. No problem with that... I hate this company.

So I signed up for an aerobics certification class with AFAA.
I ended up quitting the job I needed the cert for, so I called afaa way in advance of the class and told them my dilemma.
They said that even though there policy wall no refunds, he assured me of a refund. He did not send any confirmation of my refund.
Months later I still have no refund, but they have stopped sending me their magazine, so I know that they have it in their system correctly.

Do not do business with Aerobics and Fitness Association of America.

Before last week I was fine with AFAA's group fitness course. However, this past week I scheduled my group fitness exam with AFAA's partner proctoru.com. Figuring out the process for scheduling wasn't "spelled out" very well by the training course and I ended up calling AFAA two times to determine what I should do. The average wait time for customer service is anywhere from 10-25 minutes! It seems WAY too long to wait to ask simple questions about a group fitness exam.

Also, after scheduling the exam I tested my laptop to determine it's compatibility and it did not pass the "port test" among other requirements. Protoru.com told me that if a port test failed then they couldn't do anything about it and referred me to AFAA who told me to check friends' laptops and to check with local libraries. I did just that. My Dad tested his laptop from a separate location as did one of my friends with a separate laptop. Neither laptop passed the port test and the library didn't provide computers with cameras. Therefore I called AFAA back and they again didn't answer the phone for 15 minutes and then kept putting me on hold over and over again until finally after refusing any valid solution or a refund told me they would contact proctoru.com and contact me by voicemail and/or by email. And wow! Not only did they not contact proctoru.com; they actually informed me via email that I should check laptops from various internet connections as if I hadn't done that before! WHAT A COLOSSAL WASTE OF TIME, WASTE OF MONEY AND ABSOLUTELY SOME OF THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE I'VE EXPERIENCED IN YEARS. I am ready to take the exam and they literally are not helping me to do that. It's very unlikely I would ever recommend AFFA certifications to all my fellow pilates, yoga
And rebounding instructors. Just terrible.

WHY DO WE NEVER GET A CALL BACK, WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG FOR YOU TO READ YOUR EMAILS, WHY DO YOU NEVER RESPOND. I HAVE BEEN AN AFAA CERTIFIED INSTRUCTOR SINCE 1985, AND THE CUSTOMER SERVICE HAS JUST GONE DOWN THE DRAIN - SO SAD...