I was a member with both American Family Fitness Short Pump and Midlothian. Overall I found membership, the trainers to be quite pushy. The advertising within the facility was non-stop and just unreal. I have since moved on to ACAC where I feel more comfortable with my friends and family. I love it so far. I will not be going back to AMFAM.

I worked for American Family Fitness at VCC and West End. It was awful to say the least. The business practices are "iffy" and the demands from corporate are just outrageous. As a practicing personal trainer, it just wasn't for me. I have since moved on to ACAC and I absolutely love it here.

I guess it is perspective. I have read several poor or lukewarm reviews but so far I am really liking AFF. Like anything, it comes down to what's important to you. The abundance of classes was the final variable for me when deciding between AFF and the YMCA. I thought AFF had more variety especially Yoga and Cycling. I am new to both of these activities and the instructors have been great IMHO. As a newbie I feel welcome and from what I can tell do a good job of differentiating instruction. As far as general fitness, love the equipment in both quantity and variety. And so far no "grunters"! I have not used the pool but it looks great...They even have racquetball! I have not worked with the trainers so cannot speak to that too much. Yep, the guy who showed me around was young, and of course that means he has less experience (we were all there once). However, he seemed genuinely interested in helping me get a basic plan put together and he did. So I have not experienced the issue with the staff other comments reference. Bottom-line...AFF was a great choice. With the three year deal it came up even less expensive for my wife and me than the Y. Price was not the deal-maker but rather an extra bonus. Do your research before making a decision on a fitness center. Think about what is most important to you and ask A TON of questions. As the consumer, you have responsibility for your decisions too. Namaste!

Miserable incompetent service. Wish I could give zero stars. Tried to cancel membership, months later a collection agency calls. Went in to AFF fix it, told “no problem”. Months later another collection letter. Went in to AFF again fix it, told “no problem again. Months later, yet another collection letter. No one has any clue (kind viewpoint) or they are purposely trying to punish and rob people who leave (evil viewpoint)

I didn't have a problem with AmFam until my contract came up for renewal. I had been a member of this club for about 10 years. I got married and added my wife. Then locations started moving further and further away from the city of Richmond and becoming less and less convenient. I called the location I used to visit in January to find out when my contract expired, I was told February. Great! My wife and I could join a new gym a bit closer to us and only have to pay for another month. Little did I know I would have to appear in person (did I mention my leaving because locations had no longer become convenient) to fill out paperwork to end my relationship with them. There was never any mention of this when I signed up, nor when I renewed in 2008 and I am unable to find it in my contract from 2004. I received no email, phone call or anything reminding me of renewal (as I had in the past) or Auto Renew, and was recently charged for another month. Any attempt to contact anyone regarding this has become another series of jumping through hoops. What's sad about this is that I never had a problem with the facilities themselves nor the people that worked there. Although they do have signs stating a no cell phone policy while on the machines, which is ignored by quite a few folks and staff do nothing. Another interesting thing since joining a new gym, I am seeing a lot of people that used to use the same AmFam facility I did. That should be telling.