Crunch Fitness - West Ashley — Local services in North Charleston

Update: this review was for Pivotal Fitness not crunch. Crunch is wonderful! So I have been going to this gym on and off since 2018. The first time going there, I did a seven day trial, when they were open in Mt P on Johnnie Dodds. When my friends and I first did the trial, we went to a class and then we had to leave right after for an event, so we weren’t able to sign up for a membership that day, and one of the staff replied to us “well I think you’re just trying to use the trial and leaving”. While I understand people probably take advantage of that a lot, we were genuinely wanting to get a membership and her saying that to us was very rude. But we got a family plan for a while and it was good. Eventually I stopped it, and then about two years later in Jan of 2021 I decided to join again with the deal they had, $30 a month for all the classes and the gym. It was great deal. However, the summer of 2021 comes and I want to pause my membership, because I wouldn’t be there for the month of May, they never inform me that pausing my membership would further push my year contract that I had signed up for. Maybe it said it in the contract, I’m not sure but I think the communication would have been nice. Then, I got charged the month that I paused it, and I tried to get in touch with them, one of the staff said I shouldn’t have gotten charged. Then he told me to get in contact with one of the guys that worked there when he was in, he told me to call back on a certain day. I called there multiple times for over two months to get ahold of him, and I left voicemails and spoke to other staff that said they would have the guy “call me back” and he never called me back. I finally got ahold of him and I came in to try and understand why I got charged. It didn’t make a lot of sense what he said about why I got charged and because he said that it was for “April”, when I got charged in May when it was supposed to be paused. However I didn’t want to argue, and so I just accepted it, because I was frustrated at his lack of communication. I never ever like to write reviews unless I genuinely don’t have a very good experience. And unfortunately, I didn’t have a good one with the staff at this gym. The instructors for the classes were wonderful though, and some of the personal trainers were awesome. However their management and staff are never on the same page and not very kind. It was not worth the year contact, which by the way it was supposed to be from Jan 2021-Jan 2022, but because I was uniformed about the pause membership pushing it, I was not able to end it until next month (May 2022). On top of that, two of the months that were “paused” I didn’t want them paused I only requested May, but they kept it paused while I was trying to get ahold of them. I don’t recommend, my roommate has a crunch membership and I’ve gone with her, and that have a lot more better classes, better staff, they have guest privileges, clean showers, sauna,...

I really like Pivotal. I've seen mixed reviews and I've heard their management is terrible, but as a customer I never saw it... only heard about it through people who had worked there. (So maybe a bad place to work, but not a bad place to workout?) I've also not tried to quit my membership, so I don't have any experience with that, but my billing has been in order since I started.

I think the facilities are nice (newly renovated as of Fall 2014) and clean. They have two of almost every machine, so you're never waiting around. They also have free weights and a boxing cage, as well as TRX equipment, a place for crossfit, a stretching area, a nice yoga studio with mats and blocks you can use for free, a cycling studio, and other equipment that I don't even know the names of. They also have PLENTY of treadmills and ellipticals... I read someone's review that they don't take care of them but I've not noticed that at all. Even if that were true though, there are so many that you'd never be stuck without a working machine.

The classes are the best part. They offer a really wide range of classes, and if you pay $10 you get the results classes. I don't have enough time to spend to actually use those AND the other classes, so I don't have the results package. But I have taken almost all of the results classes at various times and loved all of them. The trainers push you, but not more than you feel comfortable with.

My one actual complaint is that one of the group fitness trainers says things without thinking sometimes, and some of it is quite offensive. The class he teaches is so good that I still go (Funk n Weights... it's hard, I promise), but it's not without a lot trying to keep my temper under control when he talks about how women's bodies "should" look and giving advice to never lift heavy weights if you are a girl because you'll "look manly." (Untrue, and also, who is he to tell women how they should look?) He's also bragging about being the best trainer all the time. But he does get people to really work hard, so I'll give him that.

Bottom line, I love the gym and will continue to go there until I move. I use the weights and cardio machines 2x a week and classes 2-3x. I highly recommend the gym and the majority of the trainers... just wish they'd do something about the couple of them that say...

This is to warn current and prospective members of Pivotal Fitness not to sign a long term contract for membership and to either do only a month-to-month membership or cancel your membership and join another fitness club; Gold’s Gym, Crunch Fitness and Planet Fitness are much better alternatives. Briefly, the reason for this warning is that Pivotal Fitness management is not to be trusted regarding membership contracts and charges. In our case, we are still owed $240 for one of the two memberships that Pivotal Fitness cancelled, but has not refunded.

The sequence of events was as follows: • January 11: renewed our two memberships for 15 months for $240 per membership; this was based on the assumption that the facility on Johnnie Dodds Blvd in Mount Pleasant would remain open for the 15 months. My husband and I had been members at this facility (managed first by Eco Fitness and then by Pivotal Fitness) since 2014 and 2012, respectively; • January 20: email from Pivotal Fitness owner to members announcing that the Johnnie Dodds facility would be closing on January 22; • January 20, immediately after owner’s email: sent email to Pivotal Fitness General Manager to cancel our two memberships and credit our VISA account with a refund. GM responded that he would; • February 27: after not receiving a refund and several email exchanges with the GM, filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Pivotal Fitness did not respond to any of the BBB three notices of the complaint to them, the first on March 8 and the third on April 13; • March 18: after still no refund, even after contacting Peak Payment Solutions, the business that performs billing for Pivotal Fitness, contacted VISA to dispute the two membership charges from January 11; • March 22 – Pivotal Fitness credited our VISA account with $240 for one membership; • March 23 – April 9: multiple emails to Pivotal Fitness owner, GM and Peak Payment Solutions regarding not receiving second refund; no...