Crunch Fitness - Chimney Hill — Attraction in Virginia Beach

I have been a member since they opened August of 2023, and promised I'd write this review today if they didn't fix what I had mentioned. Man of my word, so negative review, because of how much they care about members.

First, the positive: friendly staff, and I like the GM, good dude. plenty of equipment aside from a few pieces of equipment could withstand a few more (leg extension, chest fly) they did implement a suggestion I had, but never followed up with me, so that was a tad annoying. Helpful when you want to, or consider joining, When I had questions about joining, Aaron, the assistant general manager at the time, called me personally, and signed me and my wife up over the phone, and was very receptive to follow-up calls UNTIL, I had a suggestion about installing more paper towel dispensers because at opening, you had to walk 1/3 of the gym to get to one which is not a huge deal, but when you're exercising before going to work, every second is crucial to getting in a meaningful workout. (the dude never called or even texted me to acknowledge) It took them about 5 months to install more dispensers, but still said nothing. childcare up to age 12 Kids can join at 13 Now, the beef I have and why 1 star: Just because you're nice, doesn't make you a good manager. This facility is managed VERY POORLY, and that is a straight up FACT. I am not the only person mentioning the issues in this review, but you can bet I'm not shy about saying it.

sauna in the mens locker room was out of order within a month, then wasn't fixed for at least 3 months

two of the 3 sink faucets stopped working after I"d say 7 months or so and weren't fixed until at LEAST 2 months and many complaints later. They stopped working again after 2 weeks, and only one has been fixed as of this writing

The drain in the shower booth next to the handicapped one is clogged, and has been for 2 months. I've mentioned it at least 5 times. Now I say it every day I go in and will do so until they fix it.

took 2 weeks to replace the paper towels in the empty dispenser after mentioning at LEAST 3 times

2 solid weeks I took cold showers before that was fixed.

1 of the 3 shower doors only has one handle, and it has been that way since opening The exercise area: towel dispensers and cleaning solution bottles are regularly depleted and not replenished. There was a 2 week period where nothing was there in any dispenser or bottle.

barbell weight plates are not restacked on weight trees (especially the benches)

This facility is NOT 24 hours. It closes at 11PM during the week and 9PM on weekends. This stuff should be done throughout the day and is EASY TO DO when the place closes at night There's NO REASON why this hasn't been done before opening the next day! It is common knowledge that exercise equipment is to be maintained WEEKLY or more often based on amount of usage. There is Absolutely ZERO I MEAN ZERO reason equipment is out of order longer than 2 days

Blink fitness (who you ran out of business in like 3 weeks) has the same membership business model, but their equipment RARELY went down. I was a member for nearly 3 years, and I remember only 2 machines going down, and they were only down for 2 days AT MOST

MEANWHILE, at CRUNCH: about 3 months in, one of the leg extension machines broke down, and was not operational for 1 month the padding on that same machine ripped at least 3 months ago for the second time and has yet to be replaced padding on the other leg extension ripped as well and instead of replacing the padding, they duck taped it. the adductor machine was broken for 3 weeks tricep pushdown machine has been out of order for 3 weeks and still broken one of the ab crunch machines was down for 2 weeks and the padding of the other one is ripped, so the fix was...

Assistant manager Aaron is unprofessional and won’t answer questions directly. I get it you don’t want to get in trouble, but don’t withhold information, give out fake customer care numbers that you know aren’t in service and stop hanging up on customers who are seriously trying to get assistance that you’ve been avoiding for weeks and almost months.

I ask Aaron why hasn’t anyone returned my contact for over a month and two weeks and I’ve been sending notifications bi-weekly since. He says this phone call is considered my follow up. I said, Sir, i had to call YOU? How is this a follow up. You should’ve followed up weeks ago meaning you should’ve contacted me after numerous emails, filled contact forms and voicemails!!!

I asked for a corporate number and he stated this issue isn’t corporate related and they can’t help. I said I’d like it because I don’t appreciate how this is being handled.

Aaron literally gave me a non-working number. I asked him if this was a true number before even moving on to the next thing and he said yes. When I am trying to gain insight on the real policies because I have not been given a straight forward answer pertaining to the contract.

I have never ever had an experience where someone blatantly tells you they are going to hang up as if you aren’t a customer at all. So far this crunch fitness experience has been terrible. The lack of honesty, expertise and professionalism is a major issue at this establishment. It is giving the brand a bad name. I never had issues when I was in South Carolina to this capacity.

The only time I permit anyone to hang up the phone is when they are being attacked or foul language is being used. Although I was frustrated, I never once got out of line to warrant disconnected call, an unsolved issue and zero accountability was taken for him admitting to not contacting people back who are requesting such.

When I ask why y’all don’t return phone calls, texts or emails, he states it’s not our problem. You signed a contract and it doesn’t matter whether we get back to you or not. What I gathered from this is that, me signing a contract warrants you to not returning customer calls who have been waiting over a month to speak with someone directly.

I’ve tried contact forms, FAQ section, billing, the chimney hill direct email, calls & voicemails. Just like the previous reviews they have a habit of NOT responding and the employees rarely know the policies themselves.

Not to be disrespectful, but the Assistant manager, Aaron, should receive some level of conflict management & problem solving training to better handle his frustrations while working with customers who are having a tough time with staff not working cohesively and ensuring everyone is delivering proper information. I’ve met the GM and in my experience I really don’t think he would have allowed something like this but who knows, people will...

No water fountains in the gym, so people just line up in the bathroom to use the sink tap water for their bottles, machines always broken and out of service, paper towel dispensers are always empty, water fountain filters are already in the red for some reason (which I’d assume that means they’re dirty), no soap dispenser and the one that does exist of the two rarely has soap, and the trash cans in the bathroom are always pouring out from how filled they are, I mean just come on. How long does it take to walk to the storage cabinet and pull out a roll of paper towels and restock the machine? 2 minutes? Max? Take the trash out? 4 minutes max? At this point just let the customers do it themselves. Some things like the water fountain or the machines being broken is, okay, things happen sure, but like really for everything else?

Another thing, and that I’ve also seen on every negative review (so I’m not alone clearly) is that they will tell you they’ll charge you one thing, or cancel payment of something, and then keep charging you or wrongfully charging you, and when you ask for a refund even from a manager, they say they cannot provide it and that corporate has changed their powers to issue refunds. I’ve come to speak to somebody FOUR times just to get my billing changed to their $9.99 plan, and everytime they either tell me there’s nothing they can do without a manager and come back another time, or when the manager is there, they’ll help me, tell me I’m all good to go and the plan is now $9.99, and then a month goes by and I’m being charged $11.99 OR $15.99 which happened this week. I enjoy this gym and the community and the modern equipment, but the gym either seems to be highly understaffed, (with all the missing paper towels and filled trashcans) or they just maybe do not give that much care. From what I’ve read, I expect a slightly snarky joke from whoever responds to this review, if anyone responds at all, and hey, whoever is responding with the snarky comment, the pictures are all right there for everyone to see. The pictures don’t lie.

I’ve come here basically since the gym opened and Blink Fitness went out of business, and the gym has been fantastic, but up until recently, it’s like nobody cares anymore or the gym is just highly...