City Sports Club — Attraction in Hayward

Whenever I have encountered a poor customer experience, I always walk away from the poor experience without writing a review but this was excruciatingly hard to walk away from. The customer experience at City Sports Club is beyond abysmal and I mean from the corporate office to the club level.

Sam, a District Vice President said to me in verbatim "OUR INTERNATIONAL CANCELLATION CLAUSE AGREEMENT DEMANDS THAT YOU PROVIDE A COPY OF A FLIGHT TICKET AS PROOF OF OUT OF COUNTRY RELOCATION IN ORDER TO TERMINATE YOUR PERSONAL TRAINING CONTRACT". This was a cruel and dishonest attempt from a District Vice President to keep me locked in a fraudulent contract that should have been a one-time transaction.

My mother was visiting from another country so I signed her up for training sessions. The personal training director had assured me that the sessions would be a one-time transaction but the personal training director abruptly stopped working for City Sports Club thus the personal training account was not closed as promised. The account thus transitioned into monthly recurring payments with an over charge of $1,320. It was during my numerous attempts to terminate the contract and recover my funds that I encountered Sam. In order to terminate the contract I provided Sam with 2 relocation documents in the form of utility bills showing my international address but both were rejected on baseless grounds. These were 2 separate documents on 2 different occasions after Sam had rejected the 1st document. On the 3rd occasion Sam requested for a flight ticket. It became clear at this point that I was dealing with an unscrupulous human.

I therefore headed to the club and notified the management on duty about Sam's obstructive and absurd tactics. Shockingly, management's response was "IF SAM SAYS SO, THEN IT IS THAT WAY". I then demanded for a copy of City Sports Club's membership agreement and realized that the very 1st document I had provided was more than enough for Sam to do his job. All of the aforementioned experience spanned a period of about 2 months with countless phone calls and up to about 25 email correspondences. Through it all and as far up to the corporate office, I did not encounter a single voice of reasoning that objected to any of Sam's devious demands. It is therefore safe to conclude that City Sports Club fosters a culture of entrapment through dishonest henchmen like Sam in a bid to steal from their members or how else would you explain a District Vice President casually concocting a flagrant lie in order to enrich the personal training metrics of his district. You should read the review left by Veronica T. on 5/29/2023. Veronica's review confirms an established pattern of corrupt practices.

Being a current member of 2 other fitness gyms I initially found it comical that club members at City Sports Club had to engage with a District Vice President in order to address routine workflows that front desk associates at my 2 other clubs cater to on a daily basis and on the spot for that matter. It now adds up when your business model is that of entrapment. You will require the likes of Sam who are corrupt and not easily accessible to tighten the grip on stolen funds. This place will contradict your fitness and wellbeing goals considering their business practices induces stress. As of this review Sam is yet to do his job and unfortunately not a single manager at the club is empowered to do the right thing because the club management is only empowered to debit.

To Anne, who was my mother's exceptional personal trainer, you are exempt from all of the above lunacy. Here is your 5...

Disappointing Customer Service Experience

I had an unfortunate experience at this gym today. To keep it simple, I have multiple gym memberships and wanted to downgrade my plan at this location. Upon arriving around 7 AM, I spoke to a very kind and friendly front desk representative. He did his best to assist me but informed me that only the store manager could handle plan downgrades or cancellations. I was surprised that employees aren’t empowered to manage basic requests like this, but I appreciated his respectful and helpful attitude. Honestly, he displayed better customer service than most managers I’ve encountered.

The front desk employee told me the manager would arrive at 9 AM, so I waited. Unfortunately, the manager arrived about 10 minutes late, which I understand—traffic happens. However, when I approached her to explain that I wanted to downgrade my plan, the interaction went downhill. She repeatedly asked me the same question, “What plan are you downgrading to?” despite there being only two plans offered. I explained this clearly, but her tone and attitude were dismissive and rude, as if I didn’t understand what I was asking for. It was incredibly frustrating and unprofessional for someone in a management position to behave this way.

What upset me the most was that, as soon as I told her to cancel my membership entirely, she suddenly understood my English perfectly and had no issue processing the cancellation. Her abrupt shift in attitude was disappointing and made it clear that she wasn’t interested in providing genuine customer service.

Frustrated by her behavior, I canceled my membership on the spot. It’s disappointing that someone in a leadership position displayed such poor customer service. I feel bad for the employees who have to work under her, as they seem to genuinely care about their job and the customers.

Overall, this experience was enough for me to never return to this gym, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. With so many other fitness options available, I’d suggest looking elsewhere where customer service is valued—especially...

As a long time member of city sports, I have seen nothing but great quality gyms and good customer service from the sales team. However, my last experience with Fernando the personal trainer has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Fernando did not just show lack of customer service skills, but he was purposely trying not to help for some reason. I tried to cancel my personal trainer membership in the gym and When given the opportunity by an associate to waive certain fees on my behalf, Fernando chose not to and asked for a physical card which I then I had to drive home and come to pay it just to be surprised that he had “clocked out” which I understand ( could have been the end of his shift) but when I came in the next day and asked the associate to cancel my subscription, Fernando happened to be completely busy and told me that he would need to check his busy schedule and try fit me in a time slot sometime next week. His actions are unprofessional and immature because he could have connected me with another associate, or freed up some time to help me since he knew how frustrating this situation was.

The manager/ assistant manager Jason from the sales team however stepped in and de escalated the situation and took quick action to resolve this problem by connecting me with another personal trainer who helped me cancel my membership. He called me minutes after leaving the gym and informed me that he took care of it which was the quality of service that’s truly appreciated and hard to find in...