Idaho Athletic Club Corporate & Membership Services

Is there anything lower than 1 star? I joined IAC about 3 years ago. Whole their gym is clean, and convenient, I have a nightmare of a time with their policies. After about a year, I tried several times to speak to someone about getting out of my membership due to business. I travel 80% of the time, and could not use my membership to its fullest. After repeatedly no return calls, I went to their website. I found a place to cancel my membership (section now removed), and thought no more of it. A year later, I receive a notice from a collection company stating I owed over $ 300.00. Again I tried to contact the administration. I finally got through to a very smug, arrogant man, who told me I was under contract, and there was no negotiating it. I reluctantly paid the money owed, and asked to have my membership closed. Today, ¹⁄₁₂ years later, I received another letter from a different collection company stating I owe over $ 800.00!!!
I luckily have the ability to fight this, and will. Please!!! Go to another gym, and read your contract very closely.

Wow. I was considering joining this club. until I read these reviews.ouch.

Left Idaho Athletic Club in Eagle today after six years. I would rank this Organization as one of the most unethical businesses in the Treasure Valley area and have chosen not to ever again promote or be associated with them. We are active in the Eagle community, politics, business, and churches — should someone in the Community want our opinion about the Idaho Athletic Club business practices, I will share the unfortunate circumstances.

Idaho Athletic Club is the worst gym ever! My husband and I had nothing but issues with this club as it related to our membership. We lived in the Star/​Eagle area of Idaho which is not too far outside of Boise for 9 years. There was a gym in Eagle called Rocky Mountain Fitness which was taken over by Idaho Athletic Club about 2 years ago, if not less. After the takeover, we were treated horribly despite being long term members. Everything was an effort to transfer the membership, we were not respected well as long time customers (doesn’t matter that they now took over another gym, we were still customers), and the Eagle location manager was an asshole which is why a number of employees transferred over from Rocky Mountain left!
Today, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We relocated out of the state, thank heavens! Will NEVER live in Idaho again, but that’s another story. I dealt with a general manager who is no longer employed there, which I discovered, today. I relocated about 5 months after my husband left, however, I had to sign up for a month to month membership because we were on a corporate account which was my husband’s former employer. They wouldn’t even consider giving me the same rate for just another few months of membership after being there for 9 years. Anyway, in January, I spoke face to face with this former manager letting him know to terminate my membership after the month of February. He called the corporate office in front of me and let them know that the last payment should be for Feb. He did say that I needed to provide a «proof of move» such as a utility bill with my new address on it BUT he never said that if I didn’t provide it within a certain time frame, that my membership would continue with payments being taken from my credit card. I noticed a charge for March dues which based on what I just said above was incorrect. I called the corporate office asking them to reverse the charge and they said that per the rules and the fact that I didn’t provide a proof of move, they would charge me for March. Our move has been horrific especially now that our 8 ½ year old dog passed away last week. She was an extremely close member of our family as we have no kids. I asked the dumb bimbo on the phone at corporate if she would give me a break and rectify this and she says, «…I’ve had dogs pass away too and we have to abide by the rules…» Can you fucking believe that shit? How heartless and so NOT customer service oriented that is!!! I scanned and emailed the proof of service to this bitch and then I immediately contacted my credit card company to dispute the charge. They credited my card and put a block on it to avoid any further charges from this piece of shit establishment!
If you’re living in the Boise area, my suggestion other than to leave the state is to join another gym as this place is horrible!

This review is specific to The Idaho Athletic Club in Meridian, however, I believe this review ought to also apply to all of the Idaho Athletic Clubs, since this is how all of the clubs are managed, and the membership contracts are all the same.
Bear with me, there’s a reason why this is so long.
My husband and I sat with Sean at the Meridian Idaho Athletic club for about an hour, discussing everything involved with signing up for a membership and everything that was in the contract (we did everything but actually read ALL of the fine print, which no one ever does, because it would take 4+ hours to do so). We were happy to hear that, should we choose to, we would be able to cancel our contract at any time with a $ 75 fee. This was the ONLY reason we felt comfortable with signing a contract. So, in the end, not only did we sign a monthly contract, but we paid an extra $ 500+ for ten private sessions (5 each) with a personal trainer (that’s a hell of a lot of money for us, but we really wanted to get into going to the gym).
Well, during the next month and a half I ended up using my five sessions. My husband never did, because I got pregnant and we decided to cancel our contract. What happens? We go in to talk with Sean, and we’re told we can’t cancel unless we move out of town or have a Doctor’s note! Of course, both of us were shocked and frustrated, since neither of us remember being told that we’d be needing to do either of those things in conjunction with the fee. But can Sean do anything for us? Nope.
Sean: «I told you that you would need a doctor’s note. It’s absolutely not a possibility that I didn’t explain that to you perfectly when you signed the contract (even though both of you don’t remember me saying that, and would never have signed a contract had you known). I can’t do anything to fix this, I’m just an employee and I won’t work with you on it. Here’s the number for Corporate. Call them.»
After leaving the gym, feeling angry and screwed over by Sean’s unwillingness to budge or even make an attempt to call Corporate himself and try to settle the issue for us on our behalf, we went to get a doctor’s note from my OB recommending that I not go to the gym throughout the remainder of my pregnancy. During this time (the next two hours) I attempt to call the «Corporate» phone number Sean gave us, at least five different times. Each time, it either kept ringing, never going to voicemail, or was busy. Real helpful.
So we go back to the Meridian Idaho Athletic Club to cancel our contract and pay the fee, with my doctor’s note. What happens?
Sean: «This note doesn’t say that you won’t be able to come to the gym for 90 days, so this doctor’s note won’t work.»
At that point, the yelling began. My husband and I had never been so angry with any business manager/​customer service rep ever.
Me: «Are you kidding me? It says that I’m pregnant — and I will be pregnant for the next 8 months! Clearly, I cannot go to the gym for the next 90 days! Besides, all you said was that we needed a doctor’s note, nothing about it saying ’90 days’!! What the hell kind of business is this?!!»
That’s when he started yelling at us and threatening to kick us out of the Athletic Club. At that point, I couldn’t even look at the guy, I was so livid. Finally, after my husband and Sean talk for another ten minutes, Sean decides to call Corporate himself and read them the doctor’s note. «Corporate» says fine, it’ll pass, let them cancel their contract. And then we get into ANOTHER argument because they (Sean) want another month of payments out of us on top of the $ 75 fee (Even though it doesn’t explicitly say so in the contract we signed). You’ve got to be kidding me… My husband was ready and willing to take it up with their legal department at that point. I just wanted to get it over with and get the hell out of there. We signed our paperwork, paid them $ 130+, Sean tells us: «Alright, it’s done», and we leave.
But you know what, I’m seriously concerned, because the «cancellation paperwork» he filled out says that it is a «request for cancellation». What the hell does that mean? I swear, if they try to extort more money out of us I will flip.