Rochester Athletic Club
Reviews
Great gym with very friendly staff. It's enlightening to see that they employ several mentally challenged individuals. I think this says a lot about the gym. Price is very reasonable as well.
I got a 3-month membership here through Groupon. Its convenient as far as location for me. Parking is typically okay, parking in the back you can just enter through the back door entrance. I mostly joined for the group classes. The Zumba class that Sandy teaches is awesome! Its typically very full, that's because she's a great instructor. I had some questions during my membership and found the staff pretty uninterested in helping. I often had to wait a while for someone to assist me and then those helping often seemed uninterested. I asked about a certain weight machine, and instead of showing me where one was, and how to utilize it correctly, the staff simply nodded to its general direction. Another time, I was interested in getting more information on membership. I had to wait for a bit (there were at least 3 staff hanging around the desk,) then the person who was found seemed super uninterested- he simply handed me a sheet of paper and said these are the options. Bottom Line: although Sandy's Zumba class is great, but much better customer service and cleaner gyms, in better repair can be found in the area.
I'm new to the Rochester area and heard that RAC was offering spinerval classes. I looked into the memberships online and decided to do their 3 day trial. Upon entering, I was not greeted - I was hardly acknowledged. I prompted someone to tell me more information about joining and the guy wanted 2 pieces of information - what kind of membership I wanted and how I was going to pay. Really? Didn't you miss something? Like - welcome to RAC, oh you haven't been here before? Let me give you a tour! Here are our membership options, etc, etc? It was left to me to ask all the questions and there was absolutely no salesman in this guy, nor a display that he even cared. Beyond that, the gym is very small compared to others I've been to, and I was not impressed. There are a total of 3 arc trainers (Planet Fitness has an entire row of these and it only costs $10/mo to workout there). There are 6 tvs that are too small to even see from beyond the second row of workout equipment. Lastly, why would I pay $44 a month to take your generic spinning class and use the workout equipment, when you charge $16 for a non-member to take the spinerval class (an upgrade from the original spinning class), but a member still pays $14?? Nooooo thank you. If only Rochester had a Planet Fitness, then I'd still be working out there :/ Just wanted to let everyone know that this place seems to be overrated from what I hear - and it definitely did not seem worth it.
The owner of this place is very deceiving. Customer referral program doesn't mean anything at all. He lies to you on your face to make you get a membership. The equipment is subpar and always in need of maintanence. There is nothing like customer loyalty at this place. Paid for this gym for 12 months straight and he wouldn't let me in for one more day without paying 10$/day or renewing for one more year (and btw I never got one free month for customer referrals). I was going to extend if he wasn't so shrewd. Just keep in mind that there are far better places with better customer appreciation for this cost, and don't believe anything you are told before joining the gym..
They don't let you use chalk (without any posted signs relaying this) because in the words of the managers, "it means that we have to clean the place." They don't want you to get strong; real athletes should not even consider this gym.