Crunch Fitness - Eastlake — Local services in Chula Vista

I was excited to try the Eastlake Crunch as I am a long time 24hr Fitness member and Crunch is much closer to home, and I was sure it would have newer equipment and it had to be cleaner and better maintained. To be fair, I know Crunch is going for a discount pricing, so I did not expect better or more equipment. When I walked in I saw a well lit room with clean laminate flouring and newer white machines. I was surprised to see a 4 lane lap pool! And they have a couple of "water therapy massage chairs" that are a sweet bonus. I did a trial day guest pass and the representative was great. They do have more than one serious Olympic station/racks for heavy stuff with the color coded rubber weights. Good start!

Here is the bad: The rest of the free weight and plate loaded equipment areas was dimly lit and kind of filthy. The floors were appalling with dust/filth wads and shreds of discarded cleaning towels were in all the low traffic ares such as walls, between equipment supports etc. And the frame rails of the cable racks, presses, benches etc were absolutely black with sweaty debris collection. Dumbbells were not plentiful and were scattered about on the floors. They had at least 4 major pieces of equipment (lat pull down, pull up/dip rig with knee counter weight etc) that had "out of service" placards that were soiled enough to demonstrate the equipment and been down for a while. They also had a surprising amount of very old some times extremely well worn and rusted equipment. Even a few very out dated poor ergonomic pieces I have not seen since YMCA gyms in the 80s.

Lastly, I was there in early afternoon on Wednesday before Thanksgiving; not busy; however, they had so few plates for the free weights that people were having to wander around and ask...."do you needs those 45s? or 25? or 10?. There was not close to enough free weights for the few people on a Wednesday afternoon!

When I was leaving, the same person who initially helped me asked for my feedback and I gave her my positive and negative as above. She acknowledge the mess and said they had just hired a new cleaning person, as the previous person had left 3 weeks ago. Hmmmm... so what I saw looked really bad. It was not 3 weeks accumulation. Do they really rely on a single person to maintain a busy gym. I did not see the restrooms. She also acknowledged the shortage of plates and said it's been a problem since they opened but the powers that be, don't seem inclined to purchase more. Perhaps the new cleaning person will do a better job. What about the management? Do they care?

I have a new found appreciation for...

I'm writing to share my deeply frustrating experience with Crunch Fitness - Eastlake I originally had a gym membership that included a Kids Club daycare membership. I canceled my gym membership at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but didn't realize that the Kids Club membership needed to be canceled separately. I assumed that since the Kids Club was no longer offered, I wouldn't be charged for it.

To my surprise, I continued to be charged for the Kids Club membership despite it no longer being available. On August 7, 2024, I spoke with the General Manager, Alma, who confirmed that the Kids Club had not been operational since 2020. She apologized, assured me that she would process a cancellation of future charges, and promised to request a refund for the past charges. Alma also said she would follow up with me by the end of the day, but I never heard back. I called the next day and was told the refund was still pending, with another promise to update me. Days passed without any communication, so I called again on August 12, 2024. I was informed that Alma was on lunch and that the status of my refund was still pending. Despite leaving my contact information, I received no return call.

l even visited the gym in person on August 22, 2024, hoping to resolve the issue face-to-face, but Alma was not there. Eventually, I received a partial refund notification from my card company for only three months of charges. This is unacceptable given that I was billed for a service that was no longer offered.

The lack of resolution and poor customer service has been extremely disappointing. Despite multiple attempts to resolve this issue and Alma's initial assurances, I'm left with an unresolved problem and a feeling of being ignored. I strongly advise potential members to be cautious and ensure any issues are thoroughly addressed before trusting this gym with...

This place needs serious help from top to bottom whoever is running the show, get it together!

Some of these new 5 star reviews are suspect or people just have extremely low standards and have never been to a well operated gym.

Weight room and attachments for cable/jungle gym/lat pulldown area is a mess. 3/4 of the people that go to this gym don't seem to know how to re rack, wipe down equipment, or hold their weight when they are slamming 35 lbs. Only had seen a few people wiping down equipment and practicing normal gym etiquette.

Mens locker room was extremely filthy/smelly. Water on the floor/common areas and mold everywhere. Seems like no employees do a bathroom checks. Faucets broken/no soap. Horribly humid/hot.

Circuit training machines were also very filthy. Had seen a ton of dust,dirt, grime. Trash bins were overflowing... Gross

Some machines seem to need maintenance even though there was no maintenance sign on them. For example several of the blue/grey circuit cable based machines locking red knobs would disengage when lifting weight. This can be a huge hazard. Very unsafe.

The overall temperature of the entire Gym felt extremely warm and humid. Very uncomfortable. This was litterly everywhere. From the front desk to the restrooms/ group training ect...Could use some proper ventilation by adjusting the AC or have an industrial grade large ceiling fan like other crunch gyms.

Once I was done working out, I heading over to the cooler/vending area. Either product ran out, or nobody is re stocking. Had poor selection of protein shakes/drinks.

Had an ok workout but not the best for the reasons mentioned. A fake hello, welcome, or goodbye goes a long way for a gym that feels like it's gone...