Defined Fitness Hilltop Club — Local services in Rio Rancho

This place is a full on scam. Don't sign up. the majority of encounters I am having with Defined fitness often involve a horrifying recurring experience of being told something, and quickly gaslit and made to believe I somehow made it up or imagined it.

I don’t experience this problem elsewhere in my life. But again and again, the promises made to me by Defined fitness come to be completely disparate and conflicting with the reality I later experience, more examples of which I will detail in depth below.

I opted to purchase a personal training package for approximately $300. This transaction included a lengthy and verbose contract, which apparently specified an expiration date for the service.

I was not given a digital or printed copy of the contract. A written copy would have provided a helpful reminder to schedule my sessions before the “expiration date”. It also would have been appreciatedl if the staff at Defined Fitness could have indicated the exact date that I should expect the sessions to expire. This was not provided nor was a copy of the paperwork.

While I had scheduled all of my sessions before my travels, several of the trainers I was working with left Defined Fitness, and my personal training sessions were often cancelled and moved around. This also made it impossible to get in all of my sessions in the allotted time frame.

As an aside, the quality of these personal training sessions is ranged from mediocre to poor. In my personal experience thirty minutes is not an adequate amount of time for a substantial workout.

My friends and family expressed similar negative experiences, one being that the trainers pushed them too hard to the point of injury and discomfort, and were not respectful or sympathetic to their fitness level. I wasn’t happen with the service either, and wouldn’t sign up for it again.

In fact, the most fitness progress I experienced during my membership with Defined was on the two month sabbatical when I wasn’t using the facility at all.

When I returned in April to schedule my personal training session, I was informed I was unable to schedule a time because it had “expired”.

This didn’t sit right with me from an ethical or moral business perspective. I believe it is questionable to put an “expiration date” on service products you sell to customers. I work in the service business, and if a client pays me for a service, I honor it in perpetuity. If a service must expire, a year or more is a much more reasonable and adequate time frame, considering the chaotic rotation of scheduling and high turnover of trainers at the Hilltop club.

the reaction from upper management signaled a red flag for me. I found it disconcerting that a business I had been so loyal to would willingly jeopardize a long term customer relationship valued at thousands of dollars to haggle over a $65 service that could be just as easily honored than debated.

Defined fitness reasoned that they could not forgive my scheduling misunderstanding due to a contract I initialed. At this time, I realized I was never given or offered a copy of any such contract. If I had a copy of this paperwork on hand, I certainly could have better remembered to schedule my personal training session within the adequate time frame.

That is when I realized I was never given paperwork, contracts, documentation, explanation of charges, or receipts for any of my transactions with this company, either via print or email. The only documentation I had as evidence was the charges to our credit card statement, which I began looking into.

This is when I discovered multiple unauthorized charges on my credit card. This realization began to validate tmy instinct that I might be dealing with predatory, coercive, and potentially...

**UPDATE 9/9/24 This gym continues to disappoint. The men’s Sauna looks ridiculous right now. The bench has been broken for over a month now. We have to use a bottle to keep the door shut because it stays cracked. The staff here doesn’t care. I also told the front desk over a month ago about the sauna situation. Still no changes.

It took me a while to review this gym because it is the best gym close to my house and by far way better than dusty planet fitness. I come to this gym 6 days a week and finally, I’ve had enough!! They have good machines…… when they are working. The most ridiculous is on one of the bench presses, the bench is literally broken and crooked for months now..

Its always crowded here, especially by the heavy dumbbells. But I would say its unfair to review you guys being crowded..

But where I really get frustrated is the locker rooms.. like wow! the same hook in the same locker has been broken for months now. Some of the lockers don’t even fit my lock anymore due to someone that doesn’t know what they are doing when fixing the locker because it fit before whatever repair they made.. The showers are disgusting, especially when you see the same piece of gum in the same shower multiple days in a row, OR seeing the same blood stain on the same shower curtain multiple days in a row! That right there is disgusting!! What is all the staff doing walking around!?!? And Finally, the toilets! Only 3 toilets to that entire gym!! No wonder they are always covered with stains (on the seats) and always out of toilet paper! Figure something out guys! This is ridiculous especially for what you guys charge!!

UPDATE: 3/28/25 I really do hate leaving negative reviews as this gyms location is very convenient and I enjoy working out here. But you guys just don’t care. I continue to have to clean nasty hair out of lockers. Thankfully you guys provide disinfectant wipes. But that is really gross! You guys should really just leave the water bottle underneath the sauna door because obviously your solution doesn’t work. The door still has a huge crack in it and the sauna doesn’t get hot enough… the same issues just continue to...

UPDATED 9/1/24: Just got a notice that our membership dues are going up 25%(!!!!) for no reason except to price gouge their customers. There are fewer and fewer businesses worth supporting these days. I would maybe be willing to pay more if they didn't have broken equipment that's been pending repair for 4 months. It's upsetting because this is the only gym in town with gender neutral bathrooms and I don't feel comfortable at most other commercial gyms.

Lots to like about this gym. I come in the morning to avoid the crowds, which seem to be at every gym. As a trans person, the biggest selling point of this location is the "family changing rooms" which are gender neutral single room bathrooms with showers that also can lead to the pool. I also really appreciate the specialty equipment like the hip belt and multihip machine that you don't usually find at most commercial gyms. They also have 10+ squat racks, a deadlift platform, and a whole outside weights and turf area I can't wait to use when it starts warming up outside.

The one downside about this location is the pool and hot tub have been closed due to some climate control issues. However, the gym owner sent all members a detailed email explaining the issue and how and when they will be correcting it, so I can tell they are trying to fix it. To me it is obvious that the staff here tries hard to keep everything clean and functioning. I was super impressed yesterday when I saw team members deep cleaning the cardio equipment, like in all the little nooks and crannies. Not sure where these other reviewers are seeing the dirty equipment. I have never seen crew clean like that at the other big gyms I went to.

The price could be better (mainly the sign up fee is a bit rough when you don't want to commit to a full year) but if anything, it's probably good that it's not the cheapest place or you would have a lot of the issues with overcrowding and filth that the other big gym chains have.

Defined fully deserves the recognition as the...