Crunch Fitness - Paramus — Attraction in Paramus

After being a member for several years and having the same problems go unaddressed by management for as many years, I figured it was about time to write a review. Note that this review only covers the equipment and areas I use. While there may be problems in other areas as well, I don’t utilize those areas so will not comment on them.

Let’s start with the cardio equipment. Most of it does work, although there are several machines, particularly in the second row, that do not, which causes a lot of bouncing from one machine to the next to find one that works.

What doesn’t work are a large number of TVs. It is not unusual for almost 40% of them to be non-operational, and the ones that do work are either on home shopping channels or The View. Hey, about a nice mix of CNN, Headline News, Fox News and ESPN? Even worse, 20% of the TVs were on a slideshow of local advertisements. So not only do you pay money to join Crunch, now you are forced to watch commercials when working out. Bush league move.

Several of the circuit machines are usually down at the same time. For example, the leg extension machine just doesn’t seem to be ever fixed correctly, the grip on the bicep machine is defective, defective pin on the back extension, etc. There is also a fair amount of ripped or cracked vinyl surfaces which still need to be repaired.

Speaking of repairs, many of the lockers in the locker room are broken, and have been for years, especially the ones at eye level as soon as you walk into the room. As for cleaning, I am not sure what the protocol is but in over three years I have only seen staff wipe down the equipment one time. Maybe they do it more often, I have just never witnessed it. Regardless, in this age of covid, this should be a priority.

The interior of the gym is generally neat, but certainly not overly clean. It really could use some deep cleaning and attention to detail, especially under the machines, in corners and the bathroom, which has seen better days.

The gym touts its new HIIT Zone but I’m not sure what the fuss is about, as now there is very little space to so any kind of individual floor workouts without being in the way of somebody else. And they moved the personal training desk to the middle of the stretch area, instead of at the front desk where it should be.

While this isn’t the gym’s fault, you will wait on the circuit machines, primarily because of people staring at their phones which is something tolerated by the staff.

What is the gym’s fault is the music blaring over the speakers. It is downright awful. Now, I realize musical taste is subjective, but it should at least be varied. When I go to the gym, almost half the people are older, yet I’ve only heard ‘classic rock’ played one time.

Now, I’m sure the management will read this review and reply back with same lame, boilerplate response about emailing management. Just know that all of these concerns have been previously brought to management’s attention, so they are either indifferent to their customers’ concerns or incompetent in resolving them.

So does Crunch make working out fun? Maybe, just not at the Paramus location.

Update: Despite the canned reply from management, the equipment is still broken or torn, many of the TVs are still not working, the equipment still doesn't seem to be cleaned or sanitized very often and the music is...

My experience with crunch Paramus so just a nightmare . I was looking for some calming strategies like yoga , Pilates or Zumba. My work participates with crunch so, I signed up in March 2024 for $25 . My membership started at $25 and few month I got billed $33 and few $46 . No consistency at all. I was invited for a personal training session and ended up signing up for 1 month for $160 for 4 sessions. As soon as I had my first session , I called crunch to cancel . Mike the manager at that time told me I had to pay for another month as it was a promotion. I was not happy about that but went along with it ( $160+ 200) =8 sessions and confirmed with him that he had canceled my personal training sessions and I will not be billed anymore after April2024. Summer was crazy for me and I did not realize my credit card statement got billed $200 for 4 more times ( May, June , July and August ) Total of $800 without my permission. First I called many times, left letters for the manager to call me. No response . Then in my lunch break from work I went to talk to the manager in person. I requested him to please look into my account . The present manager told me Mike had left the company in April and he never put the change to stop in the system. The new manager said he will look into it. Mind it , I was still getting billed sadly . Finally I visited the crunch gym again , and told them I have spoken to my credit card company to stop letting crunch bill me. Now after visiting crunch 4 times - the new manager Will introduced me to his boss Brett . Who after speaking to their billing department reimbursed me 1 month $200 back for August . He refused to refund me the remaining $600 ( for May, June and July ) and told me I could use the training sessions . Seriously this was not my fault that, the previous manager had left the job . I requested a dispute claim with my credit card firm for those 3 months. I was told it was too late. I finally made peace and decided to continue with my 12 PT sessions. My credit card was charged yet again for another $200 for Sept . I called my credit card company again. I told my credit card to block this vendor. Not sure if October will be billed. This is so worrisome. I had canceled my account in July 2024 . My checking Account got charged yet again $26 and $74 again yearly membership . What a nightmare, now I had to go to my bank and claim dispute . I work full time and life is crazy, who has time for this shit. I was so pissed. I had canceled crunch on 7/8/24. How did they have my checking account details ? This is so absurd .

No doubt, people are scared to join gyms. !!! I truly hate this experience I went through. All I wanted was a fair resolution to my membership. I feel I got played by the whole system for months. I am super upset and never want to recommend this gym to anyone. I want to finish my personal training sessions at Crunch and call it quits. Loss of over $800 is a lot to bear. 😞

I have proof of all charges to my account. I hope this saga with this...

I was happily a member of this gym for many years before Covid. About six weeks ago I did a free trial day at the Paramus location; despite the gym being extremely dirty I decided that for $15 a month it was worth it.

About two weeks after that I called and spoke to the only staff member who was kind to me to go over full details in regards to billing before signing up. I then went online to sign up to find out that the membership I wanted was a few dollars more than expected (I still was not upset at this point). Online and on the phone I was informed that there were be an annual fee once a year starting at the one-year mark.

I proceeded with my work out for the day and then stopped by the front desk to ask a few questions. I was then informed that my annual fee would be coming out in a few weeks, not at the one-year mark like informed. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was staying with the gym for a full year I would never have signed up had this had been disclosed.

I canceled my membership on the spot while having a staff member laugh at me and try to fast talk me into other packages I did not want. I asked him multiple times to stop trying to sell to me and to stop laughing at me in which he continued to be rude. He promised me I would see a full refund within 5 to 7 business days.

At the 10 business day mark, I started calling the gym and it took me over a week to get in contact with any sort of a manager. Some man on the phone told me that I could “just talk to him” but did not introduce himself nor do I know if he was actually a manager. He told me he was notating my account and currently issuing a refund and I would see it within two weeks. It has now been almost 4 weeks since promised a refund within 5 to 7 days and the gyms phone has been disconnected for the past three days that I’ve been trying to get in contact with them.

The corporate end of Crunch does not deal with any billing whatsoever and could not help me. And the company that does all their billing cannot issue me a refund without the location’s permission. They have not been able to contact the gym via email or...