Retro Fitness — Attraction in Jersey City

I am not a member of Retro Fitness but a friend of mine has been a member for years . She hasn’t used the gym since 2018 when she became disabled. My friend can barely leave the house, never mind work out. In November 2020 my friend called Retro Fitness to cancel the membership and was told she can’t cancel by phone. The contract says that so it’s understandable, although the website claims they created one of the most member-friendly cancellation policy in the industry. Not true. Their contract also says cancellation will happen within 7 days of notification to the gym (based on the fact my friend has been a member for over 12 months). Now they claim she has a delinquency and they will not cancel her membership until it is satisfied. It has already affected her credit score and will remain a judgment against her so why can’t she cancel ? So they can continue to charge her when they see she hasn’t used their gym in three years. In a wellness focused business, it’s discouraging to see that Retro Fitness - Route 440, Jersey City is more concerned about squeezing every penny out of people instead of doing the right thing. My friend has always been a financially responsible person so this situation weighs heavily on her, and this during a time she is dealing with a devastating and debilitating illness. This gym has a D rating from the Better Business Bureau so it’s not shocking, but sad. Shame on you Retro Fitness!

UPDATE: To the owner who responded and said for my friend to call, that has been done numerous times with no luck - including today - and she asked if you as the owner is aware of her attempts at cancellation and the current situation she is in and she was told yes- I’ve called on my friend’s behalf several times over the past five days and I asked last week for my number to be given to you - I advised the manager today that if the membership is not cancelled by Wednesday, we will be contacting the Division of Consumer Affairs to file a complaint- she said to do what we have to do - I suggested she check with you to see if you believed this situation is worth resolving - my friend paid thousands of dollars to your gym over the years including since 2018 when she became disabled. If you talk to your staff, you will be able to get my friend’s contact information and resolve this. She is not inclined to keep calling the gym because it has gotten her nowhere.

UPDATE: I dropped off a letter at Retro Fitness 7 days ago (October 6th) so if Retro is committed to their customers, I expect them to call my friend Margaret and let her know her membership is cancelled effective today - this is their 7 day policy - the “delinquency” is in dispute with the credit card company and Retro has opportunities to respond so keeping my friend’s membership open is not necessary. I will provide an update to advise if Retro abides by their cancellation policy. If my friend does not receive a call today advising of her cancelled membership, the Division of Consumer Affairs will be contacted tomorrow.

UPDATE on 10/15/2021: It's been over a week and Retro has not cancelled my friend's membership and she called the 3rd party financial company you make your monthly payments through, ABC Financial, and was told her membership was placed on a freeze on 10/9/2021. Her membership was already supposed to be on a freeze and she canceled it on 10/6-- Retro doesn't abide by their own cancellation policy. They are claiming she is in delinquency for less than $100 and they won't let her cancel her membership because of it. She shouldn't have to pay for months her account was supposed to be frozen. I'm reaching my max number of characters for this review, so BEWARE before you join Retro. I see a lot of angry customers, and similar stories. We should all go to the media to look into these shady...

UPDATE: Today I called DESIREE, retro fitness manager of both Jersey City and Hoboken locations. Retro, if you are reading my reviews, she needs to be taught how to manage properly. She was very unprofessional and kept cutting me off regarding the cancellation (Please refer to the review below for my story). She claimed she left a voicemail and calls back in November 2020. And supposedly, ABC Fitness sent me emails every month until today before sending this to collections. I told her I did not receive a single thing. But she said it’s in her notes. Well those notes are a lie. I did not receive a single thing and I would like to see proof of this besides false “notes.” I will be disputing all charges and I reported them to the Better Business Bureau. PLEASE AGAIN AVOID THIS GYM AT ALL COSTS. Read the other reviews, I’m not the only one.

Original Review: I’d rate this 0 stars if I could. First of all, during the 2020 COVID lockdown, I was charged late fees bc my card expired. I didn’t receive a notification that my card expired until 2 months after incurring charges. Not to mention, I also was charged the $100 annual fee when retro was closed for most of the year due to covid. But I still paid it. After considering the safety of myself and others due to covid, especially being a covid nurse myself, I decided to cancel my membership. I was told to send “certified” mail, which I paid $8 for, in order to cancel. However, I am literally a 3 min drive away from retro and stopping by a UPS and sending “certified” mail to them seems absurd. But I did it anyway. Then they told me they’d have to charge me a 2 month cancellation fee in order to cancel my membership. Are you kidding me? I spoke to a staff member back in November 2020, and she said she can freeze my account so I wouldn’t be charged. Fast forward to May 2021, I received mail from First Credit Services saying that I owe retro $150 bc my membership was not properly cancelled as I did not pay the 2 month cancellation fee. However, as I said, I was told by a staff member that I wouldn’t incur fees as they would freeze my account. I called the assistant manager of retro this morning and she was very rude and cut me off while I was telling her what happened. She said I was given wrong information and I would need to pay the 2 month cancellation. I told her I should not be punished for one of your staff giving me misinformation. And now I owe $150+?! This is ridiculous. She said the balance I owe is from the late fees and monthly membership fees accumulating since December 2020. It is May 2021...why am I only now receiving notification about being charged since last year?! That’s because this business is unethical. It’s because this business is money hungry, especially during a time that people are vulnerable due to Covid. I really hope this business burns to the ground. I will be speaking to the manager on Thursday. I refuse to pay any fees, because this is completely unreasonable. Also, for quality of the gym itself, it’s small and it stinks. There’s not enough equipment and they’re old and outdated. They don’t enforce social distancing or covid precautions. I’ve seen gym members without their masks several times. Avoid this place and any retro at all costs. Join Crunch, they let you cancel just by walking in. And the gym has...

I really wanted to give this gym more but too many issues. Firstly, this is a well equipped gym with a friendly staff. I went twice - but I would not have done that if I had known some things. So, when you go online you can get a free pass and the pictures of this gym looked pretty neat so I wanted to check it out. You put in your info and then they send you a notification that you get 3 free days to try it out. So, I took my message to the front desk and the guy was super friendly, and let me in, no worries.

Locker room is good. Gym is spacious, lots of equipment. Lots of variations for movements and mechanical tension so you can work different RoM and muscles. One of my issues was plates and weights not being in the right place, not being put up, and not being conveniently located and available. When I went some of the other gym goers had like two racks taken up to lift and film, and they had so many plates stacked over there. I needed more plates and had to walk across the gym to get some laying on the ground. Those gym goers were super nice but taking up that much space and that many plates (for multiple pieces of equipment) is kind of off-putting.

First session was good so I decided to come back for my second free day. I showed the guy at the front and he laughed at me and said “we don’t do that.” He then told another guy about it, the other guy was the same guy as the day before, he explained that the online website keeps sending those out but at their location they don’t do that and haven’t done that for a while. He told me it was $15 for a day - but offered to reduce the price - I didn’t have an issue paying so I just paid the full amount. He was really nice but that was annoying. To come to that location, I had to take the train from my hotel then walk twenty minutes.

Second lift was similar to the first. People leaving equipment wherever and people taking up a lot of space for their workout. The bench area is big but doesn’t feel big with the way everything is crammed in there.

Overall good enough gym; but not a...