HiTONE Fitness — Attraction in South Congaree

Not recommended prices jack up without your knowledge. And apparently the bar code decides to let you in only sometimes after hours. Great equipment, but only whenever you can get in the door lol. Update turns out I’am unable to cancel my membership, because I signed a contract without realizing. Yes, it’s one of those gyms… After this year is over definitely moving to Anytime fitness as they actually have doors for their showers. Anytime is way cheaper and you get more variety of equipment. Also, Anytime fitness keeps their bathrooms extremely clean you’d think if you payed $50 a month you’d have the luxury to not have to wipe piss off the seat, or stand in it. Almost forgot, no paper towel either $50 a month for this joke I don’t think so. The trainers seem like nice people, but I don’t need a trainer why am I paying for that? Make that make sense. I guess one of the redeeming features to Hightone Fitness is their compression room, their sauna room, but if you think I’m going in that sauna heck no! Because if they keep their bathrooms like they are you really think they clean that sauna room after each use? That’s something I won’t have to worry about. 2nd update. About 3 months ago I left this god forsaken place, because of reasons listed above. Whenever I was attempting to end my membership via in person Dan told me that I would have to come in a couple days before the auto renewal. I asked why he couldn’t just cancel it now because that’s a big inconvenience due to my line of work to schedule that 6 months from now. His response basically just set a reminder on your phone. Bru is what I was thinking I went along with it, but after that I was done. I then came in when a trainer was working after discussing the same thing they told me I need to contact there third party which handles payment transfers. Okay, I can do that thank you I emailed them 10 business days later nothing. Frustrated I read over the contract and turns out you can cancel early also getting a percentage back if you do the buy out. I called the gym through like the span of two weeks even telling them I’ll just pay off what I owe I have cash or card. Finally scheduled a time when Dan would be there. After telling him I get the said percentage back he said “no I’m not paying you that. I showed him the contract bro I kid you not this guy just kept saying no. I then pointed out the website for their third party on the contract I received was actually a website that was no longer active, and my dad actually had to search for the real one. Which never emailed me back or it went to my trash emails that I was not about to go searching through. After this whole divorce thing I got angry and just gave them the money and said “I would like a receipt”. They said “we can’t print receipts”. Okay then send me an invoice via email, and they did. After that I mentioned please don’t charge me after I cancel like you did my brother. Because my brother didn’t realize once he left due to the price gouging that they were still charging him after the matter. I then mentioned I was moving over to anytime fitness where they don’t have piss on their bathroom seats for the same price. All and all not recommended one of the biggest headaches of my 19 year old life. Overall this would be a book if I added in every phone call and interaction, but I’m sure they have it all on record I usually don’t act this way, but once you deal with said person for so long it eats at your morals my recommendations fix your price gouging, fix your bathrooms, and fix your management communications. With all that you’ll be setting yourselves up for success! Honestly I hope they fix these problems they’re in a really convenient spot for...

An awful gym that’s cramped, with cheap matrix equipment.

This is my experience as a member who frequented the gym at all different times and days for years.

From 3-7 it’s unbearably crowded with almost zero space to use barbells and free weights, especially when classes are being held in the small amount of free space they have.

The wipes to clean off equipment are stocked infrequently. The bathrooms were constantly dirty and the floor was always wet because of plumbing issues. The showers were clean, but would constantly have little bugs on the tiles and curtains.

Equipment selection is okay. In half of the gym theres two squat racks, one flat barbell bench, one incline barbell bench, one matrix cable cluster in the center and another adjustable cable system in the corner. There’s several matrix plate loaded rows and chest presses. In another corner there’s a smith machine next to a nice rack of dumbbells. There’s several adjustable benches near the dumbbell rack with very little space to adjust and move them around. The tight space makes it cumbersome and somewhat dangerous when dumbbell pressing. All equipment is tightly placed next each other. The barbells are awful. With almost all being bent and damaged in some fashion. The floor is not level which causes the barbells to move and pivot when deadlifting or doing olympic lifts. 1/4 of the space is filled with cardio equipment (bikes, stair steppers, and ellipticals). Another 1/4 is the basic matrix machine lineup.

I have to highlight what you do not get at this gym. Its stuff I have asked for repeatedly. There are zero platforms to deadlift or squat on. This makes the uneven floor an unavoidable hazard. No hack squat machine. No plate loaded iso lateral rows or presses of any variety. There are almost zero unbent or damaged barbells.

Worst of all, the membership costs more than doubled from the rate that I paid for years. It went from 20$ per month to 50$ for the cheapest package. This package does not get you access to any amenities other than one personal training session. To add insult to injury they have a clause that requires a 30 day written notice of cancellation to stop your membership, which forced me to pay for another month at a rate I did not agree with.

I did not know how bad I had it until a shopped around for other gyms. I have not looked back since leaving. There are better options close by that are much cheaper, have better equipment, and more amenities.

Avoid this gym...

Don’t join if you want access to paper towels or the ability to contact the corporate office who makes these decisions! I’ve been a member of this gym for years, and recently they removed the paper towels and paper towel dispensers from the bathrooms. So now the only way to dry your hands is to use the dirty air dryer that doesn’t do a good job, and you cant use it to wipe the sweat from your face after a workout (hence the need for paper towel access). When I asked why they removed the paper towels from the bathrooms an employee told me it was a decision made by the corporate office made to save money. So, before I was paying for the paper towels that I used with my gym membership, and they took that expense away but kept the price of their gym membership the same. We as customers are getting less for our money because of this change. When I asked for the phone number for the corporate office so I could contact them to express my dissatisfaction with this change, I was told there is no corporate office number to contact, that they don’t give out that information to the public. So, I do not have to ability to complain to the people who made this decision. When I contacted a different branch trying to get in touch with the corporate office, the employee suggested I write a review of my experience so corporate can respond to my review… So instead of discussing this privately, they would prefer their customers share their negative experiences with the public to drive down their own business??? Makes little sense to me but here we are. Corporate office of Hitone Fitness – please give us back the paper towels in the bathroom, or lower your prices to reflect decreased value in your gym service, and add a phone number so customers can reach the main office instead leaving public reviews of their...