Retro Fitness Reviews

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.

I am appalled as a loyal member of 5+ years at the Toms River, South NJ Retro Fitness gym facility that while during the national lockdown imposed by the government, mayor, state officials, etc; during this National PANDEMIC having closed all gyms 2 weeks ago and prior to what would be a normal charge on my bill retracted at the end of March 2020, that I still have in fact been charged for a (closed) service which had been closed for two weeks now when in all UNfairness I nor anyone for that matter can use the facilities both statewide as well as nationwide.

I was a member of the Retro Fitness Durham, NC branch. The management there is not honest at all, when I signed in I asked about the cancellation policy and I mentioned that I will be moving out of Durham in a month time so the staff told me that all I need to do is pay a 49$ yearly fee and my month to month membership and provide a proof that I moved to a new place that is not within 30 miles of the gym, which I did and then they told me that I cannot cancel unless I pay a 3 months penalty fee as written in the contract which is something they never mentioned before.

I've been coming to Retro Fitness in Marshalls Creek over since it has opened to tan and workout, the tanning bulb need to be replace and equipment needs be repaired faster. Other than that people are great and I love that it opens at place 5:00 a.m.

I have been an Active Member for eleven years and a Retro Fitness Manager for three years. This same location met terms of contract for seven years. This most recent year this location over $19.95 refused to renew my Membership under previous terms so I renewed under a newer Franchise eager to have my Membership under the same terms as the previous years. Shortly after the current Ownership started Staff and Management were so disrespectful to me I personally got word to Eric Casaburi through a mutual Friend.

Belonged to Retro for 6 years. It has been a steady decline for the past 2 years. More machines need repair than the ones that work properly. I brought it to the manager's attention and was constantly told "we are working on it". It's been at least 6 months that they promised that they were working on it. Don't waste your money on this place!

Please read, and never become a member at any Retro Fitness. Do your research. It's so much cheaper to build a professional home gym anyway. I have called numerous times to cancel my membership. I drafted a cancellation letter and they denied my letter. I paid all of what I owed and re-drafted the letter for my gym to deny the letter a second time. I called numerous times and each time I was either left on hold or transferred to their corporate office who always told me to contact my gym. On my last call to cancel the membership I was still being charged for, they had me email ABC Financial who told me my email was in error and that I needed to contact my local gym. I have tried to be as professional as possible, but it is impossible at this point. Even when I did attend their gyms, the three locations I tried were outdated, dirty and very poorly kept. The staff was alright however I always seemed to have a problem with my card which never scanned.

This is for the Fort Lee NJ location. Pointed out to one of the front desk guys Richardo that he lied about what smoothies can be made, and that one of his co-workers made the one that I asked for a few days before, he resolved by barring me from the club. Lovely, isn't it?

I've been going to Retro Fitness for nearly 3 years, until I was unable to for personal reasons. I called them up to request a cancellation and was told that I had to send a certified letter to their office in Arkansas. Did that and received a return receipt postmarked July 15, 2019. That should have done it, but come October, my credit card was still being charged. Called them and they claimed they sent me an email which I was supposed to respond to so I could verify that I was canceling. Never received that email. This is all a hoax. Please be aware of what you are getting into. If they are going to rely on email to verify cancellation, why have me send a certified letter first? It's just a way to keep charging the credit card. Now that I emailed them, they state they will keep charging me until December because they need 60 day prior notice. Ridiculous.

After giving me a very hard time explaining how to cancel. They asked me to send certified letter with the cancellation. I called a month later and they are still charging me and claim that they did not get the certified letter! They keep the certified letters and if the client does not have the tracking confirmation they don’t process the cancellation.

Stay away from Retro Fitness. I found out today that the owners of Retro Fitness Port Jefferson are closing the doors as of 6 PM tonight. No advance notice. Trainers didn't know. No one knew. I just happened to see them changing the locks. Owners are saying Retro is closing the location. WITH NO NOTICE!!!! Is this the Retro way of doing things? Those trainers make their living this way. Scum!!!

I was enrolled in Retro Fitness Citrus Park branch FL during the month of June 2019 and while enrolling there was guy called AUSTIN who walked me through the process. I was 100% confident that I had never signed for any package for one year contract and enrolling for Auto Payment. When AUSTIN (Manager) had asked me to provide my bank details, I said I don't have it with me and that I would first like to try out the facility and later decide. I hardly used the facility for 10 days and very soon I had to change my house to Brandon due to personal reasons. But I never knew that RETRO FITNESS very sleekly robs my money from the ACCOUNT without even me AUTHORIZING them for the AUTO PAYMENT.

Tried cancelling my son's membership repeatedly. Given the runaround so they could steal another month worth of dues! Obviously this is commonplace tactic with them, just look at the reviews. Will never join another Retro. They make it brutally difficult to cancel your membership. By far the worse experience I have had at any gym.

I was charged $20 for being 1 day late! Guess they don't need my business! See ya! After being a member for over 4 years. I talked to Melissa the manager and she said it was the policy. I worked there for years and we always waived late fees when a member was trying to pay!

Worst fitness ever, bad management, horrible people, and very racist. They will keep charging you even after you tell them you want to cancel. I told them I want to cancel my account because they treated me very bad and most of the machines are not working most of the time, and when I told them they said, "Ok but you have to pay 70% of what is remaining." I was like, "How does that make sense to pay 70% of the remaining monthly payments when I’m not gonna come anymore," they said it’s in the contract! Even that no one said anything when I was signing the contract, then I said, "Ok I’ll keep it and try to make a lemonade out of the lemon," but then few months later it gets worse so I was like, "No that’s enough. I don’t want to go to this place anymore."

There were two Retro Fitness locations that were convenient when I signed up at Retro 2 years ago, one near my home and one near work. Both locations are now closed. The one near my house closed on 24 December 2018. Now Retro will not let me cancel my automatic deduction from my credit card. I am told that I have to go to where I signed up... Duh the location that I signed up at IS NOW CLOSED. Just a bunch of crooks.

Retro Fitness in Oceanside, NY is a scam! If I could give ZERO stars- I would!! First off- SCAM. My credit card numbers were in someone else’s account and after $336.89 in charges on someone’s else’s account, Retro Fitness and their third party account memberships management, ABC Financial DECLINED to issue me a refund and fix this error. I know that it was an error with their membership account services / set up and they refuse to resolve this and basically told me to, "**, we are keeping your $336.89." If that’s not horrible customer service, what is?

I requested to cancel my membership which I was told to give it in written and said will be charged for next 3 months because we cancelled the contract. We agreed to pay 3 months and cancelled. Now it's been 5th month getting charged and talked to manager and he said the guy with whom we cancelled didn't gave you correct information and said we will be charged until 1 year.

I cancelled my membership on a third day I signed a contract (May 29h 2018). Just came to the gym on Y Avenue (325 Ave Y Brooklyn NY 11223 ) and told manager (don't recall his exact name **- gingerish guy with a beard) that I am done with them. I asked do I have to sign anything, he responded, "No, it's ok." I just need to give my name and my retro card, so I did. After a month I noticed that card was charged about $63. I called to the gym/to ABC. They responded it was just some maintenance fee that I had to pay anyway. WTF?! Moreover, I figured out that my membership was not canceled but frozen. I WAS NEVER TOLD ABOUT IT!!!

My 17 year old daughter joined Retro Fitness in Lincroft NJ when she began working/driving. They happily took her sign up fee and credit card information to bill her on a regular basis. Almost a year later, she was getting ready to leave for college. We needed to cancel her membership. I called the gym, asked for the manager so I could discuss my daughter's membership cancellation. The guy that answered the phone said that, Kathleen, wasn't available and that I needed to put my request in the form of a letter and send it in. Following instructions, I typed a letter on my daughter's behalf and walked it into the gym the next day. I asked for the manager and was told that she wasn't there. This was the second time the manager wasn't around.

Well, I guess it has been said enough already by other reviewers. I just agree with everything. It is a money making scheme run by greedy corporation. Yes, you will join in a second for $19.99 a month. But then they will start billing you all kinds of fees including their beloved $42 annual fee (for what???). I went to the gym directly, made them give me a copy of cancellation request and double checked again in a few days. Make sure you talk to a manager and not just to a cute young lady at the service desk. Still they charged me annual fee, but I am happy I got out from that terrible establishment. I also put my credit card on freeze so those crooks would not keep charging me.

I had been a member here since they opened their doors, I can't tell you how many times the toilets, elevators and exercise equipment has been broken or in need of cleaning. On top of that, although I went into the club three times to cancel my daughter's membership before she went to college, nobody at the front desk could manage to do it properly, which led to me continuing to be charged monthly and annual fees! When I went in again to speak to the staff, it was as if they'd never seen me before! Nobody had any recollection of me trying desperately to close her account, so I was basically told to go fly a kite. The manager actually offered to cancel my membership! What a way to treat clients.