Jerry Wei (Google User)
1 month ago
The facility and staff are pretty good, but the customer interactions needs improvement, especially during a pandemic.
The equipment inside the gym has a lot of machines and some free weights, including 2 power racks. This usually is good enough given that it's a relatively small gym, but it would be much better if a third power rack or a deadlifting platform was added (I think this could be done with some slight rearranging). Of course, this isn't a major issue, but there have been quite a few times where I've come to work out but none of the power racks were available. There have been a few times where I waited up to 30 minutes for them to open up, so it would be helpful if a third station was opened up. Other than the power racks, the other machines are all usually available.
The staff are pretty nice; the personal trainers were friendly and gave me some good tips. I had some sessions with Jon, and he helped me work on my form for deadlifting and squatting. However, I would note that one of the staff members (I don't know his name) seems to not really care about safety during a pandemic, even though the gym claims that their "priority is safety for all our members and staff." I usually stay away from him, but I often see him walking around without a mask on (even though the gym says "masks are required for staff") and he seems pretty nonchalant about getting within 6 feet of people and even making physical contact with them. This staff member's carefree attitude towards the pandemic made me feel a bit wary of the gym and whether or not they actually took actions to prevent the spread of COVID (for example, they said they implemented hourly cleaning of all equipment, but I have yet to see any staff member ever wiping down equipment).
The only area that is a bit lacking in my opinion is customer interactions. Previously, this didn't really matter to me because I never had to actually call the gym, but during the COVID pandemic, I prefer to call the gym and check how many people are inside so that I can avoid going when it's crowded (my personal threshold is 2-3 other people since the gym is pretty small). However, about 50% of the times that I call, no one picks up, and I end up having to go in-person and check myself, and a good percentage of the times that I go in-person, there are too many people inside already and I end up just leaving. Every time this happens, it's essentially a waste of my time and my gas money. Though I admit that it could be my fault for not wanting to work out when there's too many people inside, I'll still prefer to not take the risk of being infected. I often try to go around 12PM - 4PM, and that's when I call the gym. The sign on the door says that someone should be in the gym's office from 9AM - 7PM or something like that, and I just noticed that the gym's website says that no one will be inside between 1PM and 3PM. In my opinion, (a) this change in office hours should be noted on the gym's actual sign, and (b) the times that no one is inside should be more consistent with 1PM to 3PM. I've called as early as 12:30 and as late as 3:30 and not gotten a response, so it would be nice if they could stay in-line with the 1-3 PM.
I really like this gym because it's not too far from where I live and the facilities and staff are pretty good, but these past few months have been a bit frustrating for me because of how the gym chooses to handle the pandemic. My main issues right now are with not being able to contact the gym consistently and some of the staff not seeming to care about the pandemic, though I do point out that these are pandemic-specific problems, so my current review and rating is based my experiences during this time. My rating would be higher if there wasn't a pandemic happening.