Retro Fitness — Local services in New York

SCAM ALERT!

The gym itself is a great gym, friendly staff, and nice People who workout there. Clean gym and the front desk is very helpful.HOWEVER, the PT manager is a terrible manager. Keelan has no idea what she’s doing, nor does she care for anything but the money coming in. A trainer by the name of Henry Sanchez approached me in November of 2017, four months after I signed up. He talked to me and said I had a free session with PT because it came with the package I got when I first signed up. We worked out and he asked me if I wanted to sign up. I told him I’m a full time college student whose schedule is very busy and don’t want to commit to past this month. He said we can do a month to month contract. I agreed since it would not go past that month and I would have the choice of signing up again. Long story short, he scammed me and instead of giving me a month to month contract like we agreed on verbally, he gave me a 12 month contract to sign. I did not know until the next month December 27th when I started getting charged for classes I didn’t even do. When I brought this to his attention, his excuse was that he knew nothing of this and that it was a miscommunication. I asked him for a refund and he told me they don’t give refunds. I told him I never wanted a 12 month contract and at that time i asked for the managers number. He did not want to give it to me and I had to get it on my own at the front desk. I called the manager whose name is Keelan and she ended up telling me that she can’t terminate the contract but she can freeze it for the remaining months and I would not get billed again or charged. She did not give me a refund for my $200 but I told her that it was fine and if there’s no trouble in the future I will accept the loss. On March 28th, 2018 PT tried charging me $320 on the card on file but because I had no trust in them I deactivated the card on file prior to that so they could not take any money out that card god forbid something went wrong.... which it did. What’s funny is Henry Sanchez doesn’t even work there anymore.... so how can they even be trying to still bill me. I ended up waiting for Keelan that day to tell her ( since she doesn’t like answering phone calls ) and she told me she doesn’t remember us having a conversation in December and that she deals with so many clients. I told her I’m Not paying them another dime since she lied to me about freezing the account indefinitely and that I wouldn’t have this problem again. She ended up calling the owner ( supposively) and she told me that because of this problem she got , “raped on the phone by her boss.” I told her she should have done her job in the first place. She told me that she never had a problem with Henry in the past and I told her that’s funny because I know people at the gym who got scammed by him the same way. Her excuse to this whole situation is that I should have read the contract and I shouldn’t have signed it. My response to her was that why does she have an employer ( or former employer ) who’s under her approaching members telling them One thing but giving them a contract that says another and taking advantage of people in the process. I told her let’s just say I did agree on that.... I don’t have a trainer and the guy doesn’t even work here anymore... how can you charge me ... she just kept repeating that I signed the contract and she doesn’t remember telling me she would freeze my PT account indefinitely and I’m being irrational. She is a scam artist and is unprofessional. I strongly recommend not to sign up with the PT part of that gym or if you verbally agreee to something make sure that is what it is. I am in the process of letting the department of Consumer Affairs know my situation and I will win this fight You don’t treat veterans this way but I will not pay a dime to these people. Keelan is slick she knows I was wrongfully mis led and did nothing to help my situation. I know this because she claims I paid $200 meanwhile that was the money I wanted a refund........

The single worst experience I have had with any business in NYC.

I am editing this post! After I wrote my initial review I started reading the other reviews here and realized that they are doing this to a lot of people! I am going to be reaching out to a class action lawyer friend of mine because if they have done this to 15 people at this one location i bet they have done it at the other locations as well.

SECOND UPDATE! after doing some research at consumer affairs it appears this gym is doing this kind of stuff all over the country they have even swindled people who supposedly won a "free lifetime membership" .... game on retro fitness. I am going to enjoy this.

The customer service is terrible. I have been trying to close my account for a year .... haven't been to the gym in more than 18 months and they continue to take money out of my account every month. A year of sending emails and making phone calls only to be told that I must go into the location in person to close my account. In the middle of the pandemic, retro fitness would not close my account unless I came to the club in person because "that's what is in the policy agreement".

I am sorry, I am not going to risk my life or the lives of the immuno-comprimised people in my family to close my stupid gym membership.

I have been given the run around every time I have called or talked to anyone. Every person has been combative and unhelpful.

I almost never write reviews but the customer service here is...

Was a member for a year. Worked out here every other day. Some of the equipment is good, and some of the staff is very nice. I tried to ask about the heavy bags that were falling apart one day and was met with a pretty aggressive staff member. I also got pretty heated, but tried to stay cool and asked for the manger. He identified as the manager, which was very surprising. He then basically told me that I was "out of luck" about the heavy bags being in such a poor condition and basically falling off their mounts. The manager told me the owners didn't care and were refusing to fix the damaged bags. I told him that I had seen a trainer repeatedly kicking the bags as hard as he could, and asked why this would happen when there are signs that clearly ask people not to kick the bags. I believe this was because their wall mounts weren't strong enough to support that type of force. The manager then told me that trainers can do whatever they want as they are licensed - and that I had signed a liability release and any injury caused by a trainer or equipment would be my fault. I never went back and cancelled shortly after this. I now realize what a danger that trainer was and am glad I was never there to be injured when he was practicing his made-up martial arts on...