BK Fit Studios - Bed Stuy — Local services in New York

This gym is a sad excuse for inclusion in the Bed-Stuy community. Sadly, this gym demonstrates a non-inclusive mantra to make people feel not welcomed or provide teaching on core gym exercises. It’s really sad that BKFIT is an opportunistic organization that has been allowed in the community. Let’s start with the review:

Due to the changes and loss of culture in the Bed Stuy neighborhood, the gym is catered to people who have maybe slightly higher incomes or geared to a demographic that is not inclusive. As a minority of Black and Latin decent, the classes were not diverse, the discussion content was not even engaging to promote universal discussion and it is evident that the BKFIT is catering to a particular demographic.

There is no diversity in the training or gym regimen. Will who is the trainers, really shouldn’t be teaching. He is either focused on training people to become body builders or again catering to the demographic of people who are familiar with the gym.

The gym promotes “Open to everyone” which is not the case. It is geared towards 25-40 year old transplants who have had access to gyms and other forms of fitness education.

The pricing is steep; and the amenities are not worth what is being charged. The equipment is lackluster as well.

If you don’t have a basic understanding of the exercises, the instructors get frustrated with you and make you feel less than. The gym is supposed to be an encouraging experience. Not one to walk away feeling like a failure.

It is evident BK FIT, particularly in gentrified areas need a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultant to educate their staff to make all members feel welcomed.

Overall, the gym was not motivating and more so demoralizing. I am thankful I am a strong person. After doing math, I joined LifeTime fitness and get quadruple the amenities and experience is overall top tier. Also, with their multiple locations and coaches my fitness journey has been amazing. A year strong.

Also, if you go to the gym on class pass, Bonnie will send you a snarky email about attending too many classes and it is mandatory to join. Again, without talking to the clients, it’s an assumption already made. Good luck to anyone who reads this. I would seriously consider a class pass 1 visit before commitment.

Lastly, the tone of the individual writing this response demonstrated a condescending tone. The fact I am being accused using is a "False" name is my response to my actual email that I used. Again, the owners and trainers demonstrate a hostile environment and for me, it was just not a great place to be. Please feel free to join yourself and experience on your own. This was...

STAY AWAY. Don't even sign up for a free workout, don't go anywhere near this place. If you do, read carefully and memorize every inch of the fine print. Beware of predatory membership policy and practices, poor bedside manner, and bad vibes.

The vibe of this place is off. Fluorescent lights, things look disheveled especially around the check-in/""welcome"" area, and the website/sign-in portal is a complete and total mess. I got text messages from the gym every single day asking how the workout was going. It was friendly, though the frequency was a little over the top

Trainers are distracted, and it was clear that they are pushed to upsell new customers rather than providing a positive workout experience. Nobody showed me around the gym (i had to ask another patron where the bathroom is so I could change--it's on the 2nd floor shared with several other businesses), nor did anyone show me how to check-in. Despite attending all the classes I signed up for, I got charged a $15 no-show fee 3 times which I tried to dispute with my friend over text message, he directed me to send an email. Thanks for all the help!

Nobody seemed to know the right way to wipe down equipment after use. No thanks to the trainers - the rags for wiping down equipment and cleaning off white boards are all intermingled in two 5-gallon buckets. If you told me i used white-board cleaner to clean off the rowing machine, I wouldn't be surprised.

Before I knew any of this, I foolishly signed waivers, policies, agreements via PDF as well as online forms. So. Many. Pages. When the bad vibes of the place got to me, I initiated the process of cancelling via text since i had some rapport with my correspondent. Oh, but you can only cancel over email. Fine. So, I sent an email to cancel. Nope~was told I needed to fill out a form to cancel.

So I completed the form, 28 days before my membership was due to renew. Oh, but the cancellation policy is that you have to cancel 30 days before renewal. So despite canceling on 4 weeks notice, I was charged in full for an additional month. I refused to pay, registered my dissatisfaction and was flatly refused. It's in the policy I signed. I still refused to pay and just got my collections notice. WOW!

Is your head spinning like mine was??? The whole process is byzantine, extremely lengthy and frankly predatory, extracting money from people just trying to stay in shape through technicalities and fine print.

The workout is fine. I injured my wrist doing handstands as part of a workout that was probably way too advanced for me, but that's...

If I could leave a review with 0 stars, I would.

I was injured shortly after joining BK Fit, and eventually decided to cancel my membership because I couldn't utilize it. However, due to some technical error on BK Fit's end, my cancellation request was never received and so they have been attempting to charge my for an additional month of membership.

I tried my best to discuss this with them, but they refused to acknowledge that despite my (very logical, reasonable) decision to cancel my membership that it is in fact I who is at fault, instead of a possible error in the system... Which is strange, because in the very first email they sent me about it, they include a caveat at the bottom of the email "*Use Chrome to complete the form". I wonder why they might include such a caveat? Is it possible there may be technical difficulties their system experiences otherwise, where folks who don't use Chrome (like myself) experience issues? It is also strange that this isn't highlighted on the cancellation page itself, where someone might submit the form initially... They claim that this caveat is included because "it is simply the preferred method of browser" - but why state this at all then?

On top of my medical bills I am now being squeezed for an additional $200 that I already paid. Really despicable people! Do not join this gym!

Edit:

My statement of "a couple weeks ago" was an approximation i made over the phone, because I didn't immediately know how long ago I had cancelled. I did not change my story, in fact, I was hurried off the phone and into email where "All membership/billing questions conversations are reserved to email for record keeping purposes and clarity". I was never able to expound on my story.

If you are thinking about joining this gym I highly recommend you...