Rush Fitness Complex

Smaller than most in the franchise, but the equipment is great. The massive Gold’s at Knoxville Center has two squat racks. The Gold’s on Chapman has one squat rack. This smaller location has 5 – 6! Even though I’ve moved back to Knoxville, this will still be my primary location to work out.
The staff are friendly and every single person remembers who I am without having to show my tag.
The place is clean and things are fixed quickly. I give the cleaning staff 5 stars too for not vacuuming between my feet while working out ;)

I was relocating to the area of Oak Ridge Tennessee and went to try out the Rush fitness center. I am retired military, not expecting any favors, and inquired about a trial membership or a day pass. They do not offer trial memberships and wanted to charge $ 15 for an hour on the treadmill. I am sure they do not want my business.

Equipment variety, steam and dry sauna, and finally, the alway cheerful & helpful staff make this place great.
Some of the equipment is past its prime and they could use new matts. I think both of these attest to use this place gets which says something about the quality of the gym.
I’ve heard the classes are great though I’ve not taken any yet. They certainly seem to have hours reflective of the workweek and a lot of variety.
I use the personal training available and it’s very good. I trust my trainer’s knowledge of the body and its musculature and unlike Jared I’ve never felt snubbed by any of the staff.

I’m trying to be a good person with 2 stars but will stick with one.
Here is the nicest thing I’ll say: There was (at one point) a staff member that use to work there when I signed up that was actually nice and did actually follow up with me. There is also one male trainer that is there now that is nice to everyone and does not walk around too proud to ignore the regulars.
Now then, let’s generally review first: The Oak Ridge facility is smaller than the others. In fact, watch out when they do group exercise; for they send people running around in the center area with the potential for a collision into people not paying attention. The equipment is always clean so whomever they contract with does a good job. I do not use daycare so this review will give no opinion there. It’s your usual crowd: creepers, regulars, new years resolutioners. It is fair to say that out of 10 people inside that the male to female ratio is like 8:2 or 9:1. I have done no group exercises or 1-​on-​1 training so I will not speak to that either.
Now for the horror stories:
One day I went to work out and I was informed that I was not to proceed until I resolved a 10 dollar fee that is the accompanying monthly fee for my wife. I attempted to explain that her and my charges are drafted out at the same time every month and there had to be some mistake. I was turned away and given a card with an 1 – 800 number on it.
The second incident was something everyone that joins the rush gets the pleasure of experiencing: the October express. What is that you ask? Well, the Rush is kind enough to deduct your membership fee X 2, as well as x 2 for every other add-​on you have done as an «Enhancement Fee». This came with no warning before, during or after the contract sign up. And when I ask about it at the front desk, I got the usual «DUH STUPID» look that I normally get when I dispute charges.
The last incident (by far the worst) was that I discovered after 3 card declines at various places that the Rush had apparently withdrew 3,278 dollars out of my account without warning. At that time I had received no phone call or notification of the incident. Upon reaching their corporate office I was told that something went wrong with payments and accounts. They would disclose nothing… no reason, not who or how many it happened to and gave little to zilch explanation on why someone neglected to contact me. At the conclusion of me putting a stop payment on the withdrawal they called me to let me know it had been ‘resolved’; that is if by resolved that they realized a stop payment had occurred. Not to be outdone, Steve asks me if there is anything that they could do to be of assistance. At the very mention of compensation and/​or getting out of contract I was apologized to and hung up on. No one would answer after that when I would return the call.
I will give them legendary 5 star rating for Worst Customer Service ever. I’m tempted every time they do a walk-​through to walk up to the unsuspecting sucker that is about to get «the rush» into a bad contract to RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN. I would like for the staff to actually ask me about this review for that would force them to actually say something to me other than «STAY PUMPED» while my back is turned and I’m on my way out the door.
Oh yeah, I have 3 1 – 800 The Rush cards just in case you need them for when you have questions.
Do your homework and ask yourself… can I find something better than this? I bet you can.

Do not go to this gym, they will try and take every dollar they can from you. I went in after my one year contract ended to cancel my membership. After I «canceled», I got billed again, went in, and said I already canceled, but they lost the paperwork and would have to do it again and I was not eligible for a refund. The same thing happened again the next month, but this time I had my half of the paperwork as proof I canceled. They reviewed the paperwork and agreed it should have been canceled. I was refunded, then three months later, I was billed again from Rush. I call and complain and they said that they have notes stating that I wanted to freeze my account, not cancel, and my freeze time ran out, so I’m paying again. Told me I was not eligible for a refund because they had notes saying I wanted to freeze… even though my paperwork I still had showed I wanted it canceled. Avoid this place, they are thieves.

As with many health clubs, BEWARE of the fine print in the contract.
Wanted to enroll my son to work out with me and was interested in signing him up for the $ 10/​mo special. As you would expect, when I started expressing interest in this deal, the details start coming out. In addition to the first and last month’s payment, they wanted a $ 49 enrollment fee. For the first year, this makes the membership actually cost ($ 120 + $ 49)/12 = $ ¹⁶⁹⁄₁₂ = $ 14/​mo.
I still agreed to do this so the membership services employee sat me and my son down to sign the contract. We start signing on all of the lines when he requested that I also initial a line that says we will be charged $ 29/​year on Oct 1^st and it is called a «club enhancement fee». Are you kidding me!!!
Now the «$ 10/​month deal» is actually $ 14/​mo + $ ²⁹⁄₁₂ = $ 16.50/mo
That is 65% more than the «advertised» deal.
I politely slid the contract back to the membership services employee and asked him to waive the fee since he did not mention it when I asked him to give me all of the details. He said he could not do that… that I would have to call the corporate office. I told him «no deal» for now. I emailed the corporate office.
Along with some polite rhetoric, their basic response was «the $ 29.00 enhancement fee is mandatory for all memberships and we are unable to waive this one time yearly fee».
Many people who are accustomed to the way our Federal Gov’t works and things now work in this country would say «oh, that’s just the way business works now». I say it is sad that our country has come to the point where these kind of business ethics are the norm.
It is simply «DISHONEST and UNETHICAL» to advertise $ 10/​mo but actually charge $ 16.50/mo.
Maybe I am just old fashioned. It would be so refreshing to do business with a business that quotes the price and then you actually pay that price. What a novelty…
I also own a business in Oak Ridge. Wish that every October, I could charge all of my customers, an «enhancement fee» so that I could enhance my wallet. My customers would consider this absurb as any sane person would…
For the record, I went ahead and added my son because the time with my son is more important than me making a statement about business ethics. I believe that it is still wise to voice your concerns when confronted with unethical business practices.
Hope that everyone who joins the Rush will have something to say about this fee. If they are going to charge me an «enhancement fee», the least I can do is charge them a «bad PR» fee.