Island Health & Fitness — Attraction in City of Ithaca

My experience was so-so. I cannot speak to the cardio or classes, as I only lifted weights and swam a bit. The equipment was fine, and most of the staff seemed friendly enough-- no one at the front desk was ever rude to me except the manager (see below). However, their billing practices are manipulative (you need to terminate your membership in the first 10 days of a month for the termination to take effect in said month and not the following, i.e. terminate it April 1-10 if you don't want to be charged for May as well). The biggest problem was that they didn't allow chalk, and wouldn't allow weights to be dropped, despite having the proper equipment. Both of these are health hazards once you reach a certain weight in various exercises: if you're deadlifting 350lbs, it is simply unsafe to place the weights back down on the ground after completing a repetition. Disallowing this is especially ludicrous when the proper equipment (which Island has) is designed to be dropped. The nicer equipment was the only reason my brother and I came to Island, but with their lifting restrictions, we could've gotten the same deal at Planet Fitness and saved $100 a month collectively. The manager (I think he's the manager) was also both very rude and very condescending when he told my brother to stop dropping weights, saying "We don't let that go...

The facilities are fine- HOWEVER, their membership policies are totally outdated and their customer service around any issues that arise having to do with money and their memberships is terrible. I canceled my membership a few weeks past the due date for the next month so they charged me $130 for a month I didn’t use. Okay fine, it was my poor planning I accept that. Then I canceled my membership with plenty of time and yet the following month they charged me $70. I called and they said sorry we will reimburse you. Great! Unfortunately, it’s been over a month and 3 phone calls later and I still haven’t been reimbursed. With each phone call the manager was less and less friendly and insisted that I had been reimbursed even though I was looking at my bank statement each time I called. I went to the bank and filed a vendor dispute and have put a hold on any withdraws to Island just in case. I still have not been reimbursed and it’s been 5 weeks since I originally called them... they have a nice sauna, it’s true but if you ever want to...

I wouldn’t recommend getting a membership here unless your ok with giving away free money, they have all these unfair rules to make as much money from customers as possible, I was coming here for a little while until I found out the hard way that shower goes cold if someone else is taking one at same time, I got my membership for two reasons the sauna ans the pool, Every time I come, there’s no room in the pool, In the sauna, they turned it down for the elder people so you don’t really sweat in there, On top of a lot of rude members, I felt like I was walking on egg shells, I’ve canceled my membership halfway through the month and they keep trying to charge me for an extra month after I didn’t get my moneys worth. They can take me to court. Terrible experience and I’m not the only one ! … also not one time did a single employee ever come up to me, I paid for 3-4 months and went maybe 10-15 times and they’re still trying to charge me , they’ve made out enough from me. ( top dollar for low quality experience, no more paying for cold...