Wilson's Fitness — Local services in Columbia

I have been a member of Wilson's Fitness off and on for the past 4 years only taking a break during the beginning stages of raising our first child and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The instructors are really great and we have made life long friends. The Rangeline and Forum locations are great and have a lot of equipment and space. However, ever since the pandemic the availability of classes and diversity of classes have dropped significantly.

Additionally, their contract and accounting people are unreliable. Their contracts are highly restrictive giving very little leeway for pausing or modifying (such as pausing sure to medical purpose, or modifying such as adding family members).

For example, my significant other signed is up for a year and included both me and our first born child care. Because my significant others employer pays for her membership the remaining cost went onto our credit card. A few months later the credit card was stolen so we had to cancel it, but it was at the beginning of the month so when we called to update their payment (after seeing it was declined) they said that we would could be charged by their third party because of the decline but we wouldn't know until the following month. I think they didn't charge us but they didn't notify us actively so I don't know. But the MAIN issue was during the updating of the credit card information they somehow redid our annual contract (as in... They restarted it) even though we weren't fully through the initial year. When they did this they some how changed the pricing which went up about $20/month. We didn't find out until many months later when we were going to pause our membership (due to giving birth to our second child) that we could not because there wasn't enough months since the start of the contract which they somehow restarted for no reason. When we brought that to there attention they said we had to drive across town to discuss it with one of their contract people... That's right, they were going to force the person who just went through child birth to make their way across town to discuss this with someone... It couldn't be me... It has to be her... Risking getting COVID-19 or sick in general wasn't worth the trip to endanger our newborn so we basically decided to hand them 3 months of membership fees.

When she finally felt comfortable to discussing things with the personnel at Forum they were rude about it even though they were in the wrong (but if course won't admit to that). One for restarting the annual membership and two for overcharging us almost double then what they discussed during the initial sign up... We were going to cancel it all together out of principal but that would have meant not being able to support and see our friends who work there.

Additionally, they no doubt have decent facilities. I just wish I didn't feel ripped off like we hadn't been loyal customers for of our entire time in Columbia.

There really isn't any competition city wide but a few other places like Planet Fitness and Crunch Fitness might be out next choice if we are...

It is frustrating to workout here. I want this to be an honest review since Wilson's has been an important part of my life, so I'll start with the positives. The staff are very kind and welcoming, the locker rooms and gym itself are pretty clean, and there are some unique features/equipment (e.g., the lap pool, saunas, turf, and lighting). There are few benches and squat racks, but the wait was usually never more than 10 minutes.

The real problems comes from the gym providing opportunities for some patrons to be agitating. For example, there is a stereo that any gym-goer can hook up to. The stereo is right behind the squat racks, and I have had to quit halfway through a set many times due to offensive music being blasted at full volume. The staff have told me that the stereo is only for trainers, but others use it anyways. Also behind the squat racks are a speed bag and punching bag, which make it hard to concentrate when someone is pounding on those behind you. There are other issues with Wilson's: equipment constantly being broken, the dangerous entrance/exit into the Forum location, broken plates, being overcharged certain months and having to call in to correct it, broken clips, having to constantly look for equipment, the gym's music is too loud at times, inconvenient weekend hours, a 30-day cancellation notice, etc.

I had been a member since 2018, and it was hard for me to part with Wilson's, but I was fed up with paying nearly $50/month just to get a migraine from trying to workout and improve myself. I would suggest looking for a different gym. Wilson's is not worth the price and has been dropping in quality...

8/27/25 Update:

WiFi has been fixed for about a month or so. At this point, I have no real complaints for this gym. Everything I've brought up has been rectified and I still enjoy it.

Would still be really really really cool if they could get a standing calf raise machine though.

4/23/25 Update: Still a pretty good gym. The newer treadmills are nice and the gym is kept very clean (as clean as a gym could feasibly be expected to be). Been going here for over 2 years now, and I still like it. However, I'm also again requesting a standing calf raise machine be added; it would be really nice to not have to occupy the single Smith Machine or leg presses to perform the exercise, and plenty of people do them.

My main complaint though is the Wi-Fi. As mentioned in other reviews, the Wi-Fi on the gym floor is 90% unusable, even if you follow the recommended advice of disconnecting and reconnecting as you move around. The access points will either not ever allow the connection, or throw an erroneous "incorrect password" error.

If you are lucky enough to actually get connected, the internet is so unusably slow that it might as well not exist. I'm not sure what work Socket has done to try to improve the mesh network, but they have a ways to go. It wouldn't be so bad if the structure of the gym didn't kill cell tower...