Benders Gym

Worse Gym ever, sad to say that about a gym for crying out loud.
First off, the fingerprint scanner works ¹⁄₃ of the time. On some nights it would not work at all.
They have the worse billing ever. I was told my $ 43 or whatever it was would be drafted out of my account on such and such date, well it never happened. Next month later, they are trying to take out like $ 85 or something, which at the time the money was not in that account due the fact I was not expecting anything to be withdrawn.
Staff at night? NO!
They need to have staff at night for people like me who want a drink out of the cooler, which they keep locked up overnight. The Sauna never worked when I got in it and the restrooms were never clean either.
Do yourself a favor and go to Planet Fitness which just opened up. It is A LOT bigger and cheaper.

I called this location to get a basic monthly membership quote. The manager avoided the question, then told me that the rates varied from $ 14.99 to $ 119.99. I asked her what was the difference, her answer was“a lot of variables.” I asked her what the $ 14.99 membership consisted of, she said they didn’t offer that at the Madison location. I asked the manager why she wouldn’t give me a quote, she said that they want people to come in & see the gym they are. I don’t want to visit the gym unless it’s in my price range! Usually if a gym won’t quote a membership fee to you, they will have hidden costs & be much more expensive than necessary. I will happily drive the 10 miles to the gym I’m going to pick that will quote me the price.

I am looking over my old reviews and this is one that needs updating. Since I initially wrote this review my opinion of this place changed abruptly. It has nothing to do with the facility but rather more to do with their billing company, and their managements general indifference about it. My credit card was deactivated on the day my bill was due. This same day I had the same card reactivated. I already knew the billing company had attempted payment because I had the email telling me it failed. I called this company to have them retry. They wanted to assess me a late fee for paying the bill on the same day it was due, 20 minutes after their initial attempt. Finding this unacceptable, I did not pay the bill until they removed the late fee (at which point I paid the contract in full). It took a month to get some headway with this ridiculous unprofessional company. I had to submit a print out of a bank statement showing them I had money at the time of charge… Highly invasive. To add to this I responded to an email sent by the Bender’s Gym manager about my account status outlining the situation. Instead of reading and responding (like an adult would), the response back was that she was not going to read my email and I had to see her during normal business hours… I work those hours. I will not take time off because a manager is too lazy to read an email. I paid the contract and never went back. I now subscribe at the YMCA. If I were the owner, I would review who I use to collect payment, and who fields my complaints a little better. My wife dropped her membership over this as well.

Rude, not friendly to out of town extended guests.
I often visit the area due to family and usually for 2 – 3 weeks at a time. I saw this location opened up nearby and inquired about a prorated or one month fee (as I have done several times with other gyms). When I called I was told about a one week trial membership and that I could come in and check it out.
When I arrived, I was not even brought in to an office to discuss membership and just stood in the doorway (because female staff blocked entry), and told me «we don’t do week trials for ‘outtatowners’ «.
I then asked about a 2 week or monthly membership. $ 40 a week, or 80 $ for two weeks, and was then told that some monthly memberships start at 39 $ but it was only for people who signed up for a year so it would be $ 60 for two weeks.
All in all, the way in which I was greeted and handled show’s that this facility does not value ‘new’ potential members.
Huntsville has a large transient population where people come into town for periods of time. This is a huge oversight and sad display of ‘potential’ customer service.
Look elsewhere… (there are other choices).