Magnuson Athletic Club — Local services in Seattle

Background: I've been a client for four years. Previously I attended multiple CrossFit gyms. I am an early morning workout person.

Pros:

As stated in other reviews, the staff do not bother you with offers, etc. They are very friendly and are great with both problems and inquires. All my interactions with staff have been excellent.

They have just about every piece of workout equipment you could possibly imagine. They do not have what I would consider super-duper specialized stuff (i.e. a reverse hyper machine), but you have a lot of options to do just about every type of workout you could come up with. For lifting, they have two lifting platforms and real bumper plates, allowing you to both do Olympic lifting and deadlifts, which I love. They also have two pull-up rigs, and plenty of cardio machines of all types lining both floors.

All group classes are included in the membership price. You do not pay extra. I started taking yoga because of this and it has changed my life regarding lower back pain. You do have to pay extra for personal training and small group classes.

They have corporate rates if you work at certain large companies in town.

They have showers and a sauna in both locker rooms. The showers are fantastic "waterfall" style shower heads. Really great.

The entire facility is kept clean and most broken equipment is fixed promptly.

Cons: (mostly nit picky/personal preference stuff)

The layout on the main floor has a couple rows of your standard, one-movement cable Nautilus type machines. I'm not against these machines, only where they are located. Surrounding them are pullup rigs and other open floor space. The biggest issue is that many folks want to do their own mini-workouts in the open spaces and many times you end up getting in the way of someone else. If these machines were moved somewhere else and that space was opened up, it would be a big improvement to the place.

Before COVID, there was talk of the facility getting rid of the basketball court, which is currently only used for a large group workout room and adding a floor on top of it. I don't know if this will happen, but opening the place up for small personal workouts would be a big improvement.

This is a pet peeve of mine, but I do not like TVs in gyms. They are very distracting, especially when the channels are on infomercials. I understand that many want to watch something when on a cardio machine, but those machines seem to be equipped with their own televisions, so what's the point? Aren't we supposed to be concentrating on our workouts? I would remove them, but I'm sure someone would disagree.

Overall, I do love this gym and would not think of moving to another anytime soon. Well worth the price and I would still be a client w/o my...

They're the only game (gym) in town so they don't have to try too hard. Not a great sense of "community" or friendly vibe with some exceptions.

Cons: There are a few staff members and trainers who are awesome! Other staff... not so great. It's a miracle if you walk in and are greeted by someone at the front desk, much less a smile. Some of the members are pretty rude, inconsiderate and uptight (avoid eye contact, don't clean their equipment or out away weights, spacial unawareness, etc). I just never was digging the environment and the leadership from the top down seems to be lacking - with some exceptions. Very inconsistent front desk service e.g. one young woman who works in the morning states to me that they will no longer let members leave their car keys up front to be stored in the desk. As I’m leaving my workout I see a member picking up their keys... from the front desk. This happened a few more times to my astonishment sigh

Pros: some staff and members are exceptionally awesome. Tyger, one of the managers is always friendly and her and Chauncey are incredibly hard workers. Joseph at the front desk is equally as awesome. I'm very impressed with many of their trainers too, and the group fitness classes are tremendous. Sara's battle ropes classes are a great workout and a solid group of regulars. The equipment and machines, and free weights are very good too.

Overall I'm not impressed with the MAC and their customer service and overall "vibe" is pretty lackluster. Case is point, I canceled my membership to go back to my old gym (more climbing, free weights, martial arts, yoga, etc) and had a month to use the MAC until my membership officially expired. I go in to get what I thought was my final workout and say goodbye to some of the staff and members who I liked... only to be told my membership expired the day before. That's fine. I assumed (incorrectly) that the young woman at the front desk would show some initiative to me, being a former member and all and simply allow me to go workout - since my membership literally expired the previous day. She told me she would have to charge me a "drop in fee" of $15. The money obviously wasn't the point, it was the simple principle and was the perfect embodiment of my experience as a member...

I got an unexpected charge besides my monthly payment recently, when I called in to ask what this is about, the lady answering the phone told me that it is the maintenance fee they charge every year for the first two member of a family. I told her that nobody told me this when I first sign up (there is initiation fee, annual fee, and monthly fee, but not maintenance fee), she said:"No, it's on the contract, you signed it", I was like"well, if you didn't clearly told me, you are expecting me read every line of contract in two minutes on your computer screen?" It is actually NOT about the money--it is the way that they try to hide makes me feel uncomfortable, makes me feel I can't trust them with my credit card..... I understand that the lady signed me up might forgot to mention this to me at the beginning, it is okay if this was the case. However, the lady answered my phone insists that I was notified when I sign up---why would I even call to ask if I know about this charge? My phone was abruptly cut off.... Anyway, horrible customer service! I gave two star only because my instructor of the class I...