Crunch Fitness - Trolley Road — Local services in Summerville

Ive been a member at this gym for over 4 years now. I was around before the renovation which occurred 2-3 years ago. Newer equipment was brought in. The huge ceiling fans were installed, the place was painted white which made it instantly brighter and the ceiling was raised. The place had a new car sort of vibe. Folks were genuinely appreciative of the place and the efforts that went into making it better. Adam, the manager at the time did a good job knowing folks and making it a gym he would be proud to workout in. Adam left (for whatever reason) and was replaced by Rob. He too took pride in the place, listened to customers and made sure broken equipment was repaired in a timely fashion. Rob left for a better job closer to home and the replacement millenial team has been in charge for over a year. The downhill slide has been evident. There is no pride in the place anymore. It's all about how many members can we gain. Its a numbers game. Unfortunately the new GM doesn't understand the the power of the word of mouth and the internet. No matter how low the cost you can't gain members if you don't take care of the place. If you don't have quality then you don't have a sustainable product. The cable equipment referred to by Tonya B in a previous post is still broken to this day (almost 4 months). Another broken "fly" machine has been down for almost 2 months. Several of the treadmills slip when the speed is increased above about 7.0. Faucets in the bathrooms constantly flow because the valves are broken. Evidently they don't have a maintenance guy, lowes/Home Depot aren't an option and the general apathy towards maintaining what was once a nice place to workout has been overcome membership quantity over product quality. After overhearing several conversations around the gym it's evident that there is little effort on the part of the Summerville management to fix the problems. The GM is more concerned about how tight can his way too small shirt look, how many girls can he talk to in one day, and the personal grooming of his beard, than he is about the job for which he was hired. He's a millennial who was handed a shiny new car that he drives up and down the strip until it breaks and then throws it away to get a new one. it never occurs to him that he needs to maintain it, get checkups and perform preventative maintenance to keep it working right. I had encouraged my wife to join when they had specials earlier in the year but she decided not too after seeing what I had previously ignored. Now I'm glad she...

Had to come back and edit this review since the Crunch buyout.

To start, I'm not a fan of Crunch dominating the market lately and buying up every gym in town so there's like ONLY Crunch. To that end, Crunch has another, smaller gym on Ladson Rd that's a 3 minute drive from here. As soon as they bought this location, which was already pretty busy, everyone from Ladson flooded in. At this point, unless you're there at 6 am or 10 pm this gym is now packed solid busy. They also shortened the hours to make sure the crowding is increased.

Speaking of hours, since it's no longer 24/7 they close a lot. There are a lot of days they'll close at 12 now. Not that it's unreasonable to let staff see their family on holidays, but the gym was already rigged for un-staffed hours and was changed for seemingly no reason. If it stayed 24/7, this wouldn't be an issue.

A couple weeks ago, all members were informed the day before that this gym would be undergoing 'renovations' and, as I pried out of staff since they didn't want to let this info go, these renovations could go until February. Until then, the seismic crowd is welcome at the extremely small aforementioned Ladson location.

Let me give your a peak about what it's being renovated to. I went to the other Crunch locations, and they're all the same: 85% of the gym floor is cardio machines + an enormous area dedicated to the LOUDEST class you've ever heard in your life. The last 15% is every free weight and machine crammed together so there's absolutely no place to stand. If there's a square foot, there's a machine there. Amazingly though, there's only one (Two MAX) machines for every muscle group, so get your phone ready because you WILL be waiting.

In the month since this gym closed I've put on a bunch of weight and don't even care because the Crunch experience at other gyms is so abysmal. Between the crowd, the cramping, and the lack of diversity in equipment I'm usually only able to get one lift in in the hour or so I have to work out. Based on my experiences, I'm positive that this location, which used to be a wonderful gym called Pivotal, is going to be exactly the same.

It's a very cheap membership but I'd encourage anyone even interested in getting on a new year's lifting routine to avoid here. Other places cost more but will absolutely be worth your dollar.

Honorable mention is all the sales people they let harass you relentlessly. You'll have to fight off charities at least once a week.

R.I.P Pivotal, I'm not sticking around to watch them but my...

WARNING to all current and potential gym members:

Be careful when signing up for a membership—make sure you’re getting exactly what you ask for and not being taken advantage of. During the chaotic transition from Pivotal to Crunch, my membership was completely messed up, costing me hundreds of dollars.

After the switch, all Pivotal members were required to re-enroll. When I did, I specifically requested the basic $9.99/month membership since I only use floor equipment—no classes, childcare, or extras. Despite this, they signed me up for the more expensive Peak membership without my knowledge. I had no idea I was being charged more than twice what I expected until months later when my husband noticed the recurring charge on our statement.

When I called the gym to sort it out, I was given the manager’s email. I reached out—no response. Emailed again—still no response. Tried speaking to him in person—he was “in a meeting.” Two weeks after my initial email, he finally called me back and was completely unhelpful.

Instead of acknowledging their mistake, he gaslit me, saying my monthly Peak rate was actually “lower than normal,” so he couldn’t credit me the difference. He then claimed their system wouldn’t allow him to fix it without charging me a $70+ re-enrollment fee—even though this was their mistake, not mine. To “meet me in the middle,” he offered to downgrade me to the $16.99 membership instead. What kind of solution is that?

For reference, I have friends who own a gym and use the exact same membership software, and they confirmed this was a straight-up lie—they absolutely could have adjusted my plan without that fee.

I’ve been a loyal customer for years, even sticking with them through a chaotic renovation where they closed the gym for over three months, forcing everyone in Summerville to go to the overcrowded and borderline unsafe Ladson location. They lied about the reopening date, then shut both locations down for over two weeks without offering refunds or compensation—just an “oh well.”

At this point, my only option is to switch to a different gym, which is a shame because I actually like the equipment and most of the staff. But the way this was handled is unacceptable. If you’re thinking of signing up, triple-check your membership details and watch out for these...