Retro Fitness

I could almost overlook how the undertrained staff handled their response to an aggressive argument between members that led to the COPS being called! But the way one female staffer was mouthing off with threats of her own truly astounded me. And yet what REALLY disturbed me was the way the OWNER showed a complete disregard for how my cancellation was handled. (The cancellation was not due to the cop incident!). I now see TONS of other reviews about how Retro Fitness deliberately BLOCKS people's efforts to cancel, so there is no question that this is a pattern and a scam to extract additional funds from members.

This company should be banned from being allowed to accept credit cards! They have been charging my bank account for months and canceling the account is impossible. Every time you try and call you end up in a loop of people saying the same thing and sending you can to where you started.

Retro Fitness uses a personal training company called Element Personal Training. Terrible company, terrible/dangerous policies. There are personnel issues - I have gone through 3 managers and 2 trainers in 3 months. One manager quit, one was fired, one was just covering until someone was hired. I was told I could get a trainer early in the morning before work. Not true. I went through 2 trainers, paid my program fees and consistently have been unable to get the schedule I paid for. If you're sick, you still must give like 20 hours notice. So you are supposed to know the day before that you won't feel well. So you paid your money, so you go sick and affect the trainer and everyone in the gym because they won't give you a credit. So I cancel the contract with the training company and get a patronizing email from the customer service manager, Manny, about how he doesn't understand why I want to cancel. What?? Really?

I did an agreement for month to month membership at Retro Fitness Park Slope. Now the person in charge is giving me the runaround and claim I signed a contract: she emailed me a fake/forgery agreement without a signature, with an incorrect email and the wrong address but they have my bank information from when I signed in for the membership… I paid month to month for personal training: I would never sign a contract for 1 year, who would? I wrote to the person in charge and this’s what I got from her last:

I signed my for 8 classes of personal training with retro fitness and when I asked them to stop billing me, they apparently scammed me into a 12month $5000 contract and they have done this to many people in the past too. And when you ask the manager for help, she threatened me to call the police if I spoke to her again. So basically she just wants me to pay $5000 and not contact her. A complete scam.

I cancelled 4 times!! They kept on charging me and would not give me a refund!! And they just kept acting nasty!! When I was trying to talk to them the manager just said, "I don’t want to hear your complaining" and just ignored me!

I froze my account a year ago and noticed I was being charged for services not rendered. I called Retro Fitness in Stroudsburg PA and explained that I was being charged for services I was not using. I was told that after a year your account unfreezes and charges restart. I asked to close my account out and I was told to close my account I needed to come in person to close the account. I was not allowed to do it over the phone. I tried to explain to the lady on the phone that I was having some medical concerns and did not want to go in to have to close the account out but again was told I need to come in person to sign papers or they would continue to charge my credit card on file.

I was charged a yearly fee despite the gym being opened for 4 months and then closed for 8 months. The front desk manager in the Jackson NJ branch threatened she would send me to collections if I didn't pay. I got an email saying I had 5 days to comply. When I went it to see if I can get it removed the manager was incredibly rude and I was forced to pay to not be sent to collections. Now I'm disputing the charge.

I am hesitant to trash a "local business", but I've left 5-star reviews on Google for over 25 local businesses, so believe me when I say that Retro Fitness in East Windsor has *earned* this: A negligent personal trainer pushed me into running when I was clearly out of shape and told them so, aggravating a bone spur and tearing a meniscus. In March, the gym closed because of COVID, but the pain continued. After 26 sessions of physical therapy, X-Rays and two MRIs, the osteopathic surgeon says I likely have permanent knee damage. I never had a single knee problem before walking into Retro. My fault for not leaving sooner - agreed, but I'm not the professional here.

Had any action been taken on this unethical and scam organization so far? I have had the worst experience ever with this place. I enrolled at the 1NYP location for a 1 year contract and tried to cancel after finishing a year and they never processed my cancellation instead kept charging. First of all they have the worst method of cancelled, apparently we need to call them and cancel but unfortunately they never pick their calls and if they do they process Cancellation. Each time I called back and said I spoke to a so and so multiple times and the manager said no such person exists and they kept charging my account.