AFC Fitness — Local services in Lower Merion Township

How they used high pressure sales tactic to try to scam me for $850. ( till now i am still not sure if the way to do it is legal or not.)

I normally don’t write reviews because as a small business owner, I understand that businesses make mistake and always leave them room to grow. Most business are doing their best to serve their customer and mistake happens. But, the way this business have done things to me is in a way disgust me and I want to warm all of you out there who to be careful while deciding which gym to use.

I signed up this gym around 2018 Jan-Feb.The gym was very ordinary and you can definitely get a better price or value in many other gym such is LA fitness, Sweat or any other neighborhood gym.

But honestly, I was signing up there is not because I want the best deal for a gym. I just want to go there to hang with my friends while working out. So,I didn’t look at how much it cost me to join.

I moved away around July 2018. So before I did, I went into the facility and told the staff I want to cancel the contract in person 3 times. Every time they told me i just missed the person who can help me canceled it. On the third time, the staff told me i can probably canceled it online, but she is not sure. She told me to call.

Sure, I will call. I called few days later,and talk to the manager at this location. She told me I have to come in to cancel it, and I told her my situation and she said I have to come in and it is on the contract. I told her I have moved away. She basically goes, we don’t care, come back or we will keep charging you.

I was very unhappy how she told me that she wants to keep charging me. So, I canceled my card. So, since then I have been getting harassing call from them every other day. So, i blocked their number, and the manager called me again from another number told me she will put my account under collection. I told her, I am willing to settle the bill. I can pay whatever you guys think i owe you, but i can’t come in. She said, she can’t do that. So, I hung up. After a month, I called them again, said I can pay you guys a cancellation fee, as long as i don't have to come in. So she finally says okay,and said to me if you send me a bank statement or government letter says my current address and my name, with a check paying the balance. At that point was around august, and they tried to charge me $180. And I told them I will do that.

So, I mailed in the address proof and an empty check with my signature on it. I thought it was end of it.

Guess what! At the beginning of Dec 2018, I received a call from ABC financial collection department and told me I owe them $850, and if i don’t take care of today. They will report me and ruin my credit and etc.

I was shocked. I thought I took care of them already. Apparently, the manager didn’t even use my check because i never got a check that charge around $180 - 200 from them. And I was never contacted either.

If any other person was in my shoes, would probably got scammed by them and pay them $$600-850 which is a lot for a lot of people who is making average income in US.

It is very unethical for them trying to flip a $700-800 contract to another $850 after half of the contract already paid. As what they planned to charge me, $850 + 5-6 month I already paid which is well over $1k.

Personally, I am very well educated in sales and well aware of a lot of sales tactic so I was able to bargain down to $300 which is pretty normal for a cancellation fee.

If any body who has no experiences in sales, and no idea how the credit system work, they could be easily scared and scammed by these people.

I want to warn everybody and do not use this gym and try out sweat fitness in manayunkm which is 10 min walking through the bridge. My friends try to canceled their service at sweat and it was not this difficult. And they didn't go after my friends for $300 like these people do. AFC fitness spent the past 6 month to try to get me pay them $300 which is very...

I gave this review one star, since zero stars is not an option. My wife charged a membership period to her Capital One credit card last year. Because they charged a premium of $35 for the charge, she advised them that she would pay by check in the future and to please destroy her credit card information, which they agreed to do. Today, upon routinely checking her Capital One account, I found two charges from AFC for $87.13 each, one that had already cleared and one that was still pending. This is NOT the first time that AFC has fraudulently charged her card. The first time, we allowed them to correct the situation, which took over a month. This time, we called Capital One to report the two fraudulent charges and then called the club to report the situation. Naturally, the person that we needed to speak to was unavailable; we were told that they would call back. True to form, over an hour later, we're still waiting for the call. Again called to request someone to speak to about this… no callback. At this point they can call or not; the fraudulent charges have been reported and Capital One will take charge now. Please know that this NOT a reflection on her personal trainer, who is truly a wonderful guy and is not involved with any payment actions. Nice how they just reach into your pocket and steal your money.

Now reporting a month later… as of 6/14/25…

I originally reported how AFC fraudulently charged my wife's credit card twice, in the amount of $87.13 per charge. No explanation, no reason... just charged the credit card account, which BTW, was supposed to be purged after they did the same exact thing last year. Called twice to speak to someone about this and got no response whatsoever. I then reported these unauthorized, fraudulent charges to Capital One, the credit card issuer, who immediately credited the account while an investigation was initiated. After a week or so, one of the charges was refunded, again no explanation. Here we are, over a month later and the second charge still has not been credited. DO NOT give this company your credit card or bank information; THEY WILL STEAL FROM YOU JUST LIKE THEY STOLE FROM US. One would think that after reading a report like this, also reported on Yelp Reviews, that someone might reach out to try to rectify the situation. Nada. Nothing. Companies like this shouldn't be...

I started attending AFC Fitness Bala Cynwyd for physical therapy back in 2023 while attending my first session I immediately noticed how I was not greeted nor given any instructions by the physical therapist Alex Riccardi (Ivy Rehab). I brushed it off the first time not trying to make it a big deal but as I continued my sessions I noticed Alex would go out his way to greet and attend to other guests but never would greet me or give me any instructions on how to do my physical therapy exercises. After weeks of this behavior I went to the general manager and told her what has been happening and how unprofessional the physical therapist has been. Alex would “pick and choose” what guests he wanted to help or greet and that is unacceptable & unprofessional. The manager apologized to me and gave me a sorry card on the behalf of AFC, but I decided to discontinue my sessions there for over a year.

I decided to return in March 2025 even though I didn’t have the best experience with the physical therapist, the AFC center itself is very nice and I love the jacuzzi. Upon returning I learned that Alex Riccardi was now the clinical director and the only physical therapist there that I could work with. I was hoping for a new experience than before, but that didn’t happen. Again I was never greeted by Alex, he never helped me with any physical therapy exercises and I continued to notice he went out his way to help “his pics”. I told Mr.Riccardi how unprofessional & disrespectful his behavior has been and how disappointed I am with my service at AFC. He just gave me a blank stare but gave no type of apology or acknowledgement. I discontinued my service at AFC and will file a complaint against the Clinical director. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and courtesy no matter the race or gender. I hope no one else will ever experience what I have by the staff at AFC...