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January 2024 by Shannon McGregor
Love this gym! Friendly staff, open early, clean equipment, and lots of polite fellow gym goers to workout alongside. Also love the recent addition of new equipment and their ongoing yoga classes!
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December 2023 by Danny Razzano
I only visited this location once and during that one time I was left with enough of a negative impression to never return. I agree with one of the recent reviews regarding terrible hassle of trying to exit the garage. I was forced to wait and speak to some distant attendant and provide them with a bunch of personal information before I was permitted to exit.I visited at 5pm and had to wait 15 minutes for a spot in the freeweight section, then had a woman accidentally hit me because the space is so cramped.For over $100 per month I expected the overall experience to be much better...I also noticed on a lot of the reviews the gym's response seems primarily focused on crafting some type of excuse to try to invalidate the feedback instead of accepting it and stating what they will do to improve, which seems really unprofessional to me.
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November 2023 by Bryce Boyd
I will begin this review by saying I have been a member of 5 different gyms over the last several years (due to moving among states for work), and not once have I considered writing a negative review. I don't take negative reviews lightly, and have waited to actually submit one for over a month since I first thought this location deserved it. I joined 3 months ago. The gym charges $129 or $169 a month, but I fail to see any substantive difference between it and LA fitness which charges a fraction of that. To justify a rate like this, the gym should be going way above and beyond, but they just don't.Positive:-Offer huge discounts to certain groups-Good selection of stairmasters which can be uncommon at many gyms.-2 "free" 1-on-1 sessions with new membership (though of course not really free and just lumped into the "enrollment" fee).Negative:-Facilities are just alright, nothing special. Again, feels more like a $30/month gym. Can't imagine what they are doing with all their profit from the people who pay full price.-The sanitary wipe containers are often empty. So simple to keep them all fully stocked, but I guess customers should be expected to peruse the entire gym to find a basic necessity.-The only water fountain on the main floor was "out of order" for legitimately a month. How is that possible? The only possible answer is that it was not a priority; they don't think the customers are worth a little extra effort to get this resolved in a reasonable amount of time.-Way too cramped in the main free weight area. People genuinely brush up against you trying to do basic exercises when it is busy. This effectively forces you to visit only during off-hours. Which brings me to the next point...-The hours of operation are already the most restrictive of any gym I have ever attended. I would love to hear why that is (3 days a week closing at 9pm or earlier??).-Parking. This is what ultimately forced me to write this review. On their website it is 1/6 "perks" specifically listed. 5 of the last 10 times I have visited, I have had problems using their "free" parking. When you enter, you are forced to pull a ticket that you must validate at the front desk. No big deal, until the tickets consistently produce errors that the front desk has no remedy for and that force you to call and sit on hold going over 5 different unnecessary personal details with somebody who says they can't hear you multiple times and thus consumes 10-15 minutes each time you try to exit the garage. I have sat behind another gym-goer and listened to his frustration go on for so long that my validation expired and I was forced to pay to exit, as there is only one lane. I have had other times where the front desk apparently failed to properly validate my ticket which resulted in me being charged an outrageous $19 for 90 minutes. But I should at least give them a chance to fix this, maybe they aren't aware? As was conceded to me today, manager Sarah (who I understand likely has zero control over the issue herself) informed me that the gym has been aware of the problem "for years." Thus, FFC's owner is either too incompetent or too lazy to actually address it. I have heard every excuse you can imagine, such as "It's not actually our garage we don't control that." In 5 minutes I can think of multiple permanent solutions, such as having a stack of validated, functioning tickets to hand to parking gym-members, or simply demanding that the entity (landlord?) that "controls" the parking garage solve this continuous issue or pay damages to the gym for breach of contract (as I assume the gym has a lease for the building that includes unrestricted use of their portion of the garage). It is a simple problem with a simple solution that has costs to me, both directly in terms of cash outlays, and indirectly through wasting cumulative hours of my time, which I value much greater than the cash.In summary, if you don't have to park and you don'
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November 2023 by Terence A. Pfaff
I was going to Planet Fitness for 5 years (except for the year when all the gyms were closed due to COVID). After 5 years, I decided that I was going consistently enough to warrant a larger investment in my health pursuits, so I came to FFC East Lakeview. I LOVE this gym! They even have Physical Therapy on site (affiliated with Rush). The staff have all been exceptionally helpful and friendly. I would recommend FFC in a heartbeat.
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November 2023 by Caesar Mendoza
I mean this place is okay. I used to go to the one on Halsted and that place was very nice. Incredible in comparison to this location. Once they closed it I was forced to come to this location and it’s just not the same.Compared to locations like the west loop, Gold Coast, Oakbrook, Elmhurst, and the old boys town location, this location falls short.
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October 2023 by Jimmy
Here’s the honest review of this club you are going to get. No one-off, spin stories about some trainer that is probably no longer there.You join a club for the gym, amenities, classes, etc. While many reviews here have a response from the club, they’re basically lying through their teeth.First of all, this club’s capacity tracker is an outright lie. Go at 6-7pm when the tracker shows “13%”. You will not have room for anything. 13% of what?? The 10,000+ members at this tiny location??? I’d love to see what it looks like when it is actually above 23-25% on the app, but again we will never probably know.Secondly, if you do not care about amenities working properly, do not mind locker room closures or issues with water, and love a pig sty, then this may be the club for you. It is very rare that a month goes by at FFC East Lakeview without some kind of closure. *HINT* If you are consistently experiencing problems, whatever you are currently doing IS NOT WORKING.Also ridiculous amount of cruising at the club. Save yourself the trouble and go elsewhere because when you want to cancel, they are going to make it a VERY BIG PITA. Took 3 hours of calling to get someone to send me the email cancellation confirmation LOL kinda sad actually!Mentality there is that we DGAF.
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October 2023 by Jamen Dean
Membership creeps up every year despite no apparent changes. I think this year was a $15 increase? Why?
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August 2023 by Kevin G.
I was a member here for years. I worked with Ari, personal trainer for a long portion of that. He is top notch. He always pushed me to improve without making the session about him. Knowledgeable and genuine.I just treated myself to a massage with Juan and was in awe. Hit every spot that I requested and found a few that I didn't know needed help. I feel like a new person. Solid establishment that I would still use regularly if I still lived in the neighborhood!
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August 2023 by Natasha May
FFC East Lakeview is a neighborhood gym part of a chain of local gyms in Chicago and a couple of suburbs as well. Its a "mid tier" gym that's comfortable. When I signed up on 2018, it was $79/month, today its $109/month without a discount. The gym is very clean, and I appreciated this, especially during covid. Aaron (manager) is helpful and a lovely person, Hilary assisted me with my membership when I could no longer go consistently due to a relatives health, Joy and Ruth are the best, Joe is an awesome boxing instructor/trainer, and I miss Matt's Zumba class.There is legit towel service here. I definitely took this for granted, especially the eucalyptus towels. I never had issues with the equipment nor any of the classes. I would happily return here, just wish that my money wouldn't be played with so often. Having to call their finance team more than three times a year in the last two years (with me even disputing a charge), trainers departing one after the other, as well as the increasing prices, are what drove me to leave.
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July 2023 by Natasha
FFC East Lakeview is a neighborhood gym part of a chain of local gyms in Chicago and a couple of suburbs as well. Its a "mid tier" gym that's comfortable. When I signed up on 2018, it was $79/month, today its $109/month without a discount. The gym is very clean, and I appreciated this, especially during covid. Aaron (manager) is helpful and a lovely person, Hilary assisted me with my membership when I could no longer go consistently due to a relatives health, Joy and Ruth are the best, Joe is an awesome boxing instructor/trainer, and I miss Matt's Zumba class.There is legit towel service here. I definitely took this for granted, especially the eucalyptus towels. I never had issues with the equipment nor any of the classes. I would happily return here, just wish that my money wouldn't be played with so often. Having to call their finance team more than three times a year in the last two years (with me even disputing a charge), trainers departing one after the other, as well as the increasing prices, are what drove me to leave.
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July 2023 by Faith Hernandez
I attend this location for Rush Physical therapy, and I must say I love the staff and facilities. Sarah is always a friendly face to see. The pool, sauna, steam room, showers, and locker room are all top-notch. (I feel like I'm pampering myself, in a gym ? lol.) Not to mention, my physical therapist, Michelle, is absolutely amazing!
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May 2023 by Kathy Y.
I was at this gym for 6 years and at the Gold Coast location for 2 years. East Lakeview is poorly run by their current manager, Sara Fassett, with many problems that never get resolved even after you repeatedly report them. FFC raises their annual fee every year, while you get less for your money each year. They allow men to bully women in the pool by ruining their swim lane with their aggressive swimming behavior, and when you stand up for yourself because they have done nothing about it when you have reported it twice already, you take the fall. This gym allows people to game the system on booking the pool lanes ahead of the 48 hour rule because they don't honor their own rules. Management there - Sara - simply doesn't care about the problems there and does not have the skills it takes for this job. This FFC location is simply unprofessional and won't acknowledge that they have internal issues. There were never any problems at the Gold Coast location and it was run beautifully by the Manager there because they are professionals and are dependable.
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May 2023 by Jay Gilley
Uncoordinated, unprofessional member services team with a not my job ethos. The FFC vibe is “It can't possibly be us, so it must be you!” Listen to the most recent reviews; I wish I would have!
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May 2023 by Xiang Liu
I’m a bit sad that I’m paying this gym but not use it. It’s just way too crowd in my opinion even though it’s not cheap. I was going to Gold Coast before moved to lakeview. There everything is nice and big and they changed whole lockers whereas lakeview location is just so tiny yet same price. I wonder if they plan to expand somehow as the only thing good is location?
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April 2023 by Brandon B.
So, I still like the gym, except for a couple of things. One, the price keeps climbing, which is I guess would be okay, if it weren't for the second point. Two, for about the fourth or fifth time in the almost two years I've been going to this gym, the hot water is not working, including as of the writing of this review. This time, it'll be a full week. The other gym I regularly go to, Gold Coast, doesn't have this problem. Machines are getting updated here, and I like the classes. But this is becoming pretty annoying, and I'm questioning my premium membership.
