mariideen

Review of Premier at Sawmill Athletic Cl...

I thought these guys were quite nice, relatively c...

I thought these guys were quite nice, relatively clean location, lots of towels, all the fun Les Mills classes I like but they have a $149 cancellation fee that gets charged after a *free* three day evaluation period, and there were a number of little things I didn't like about them. It's basically a lot of minor things, so pretty much stop reading if you hate whining:

First, the contract. I just came from a month to month location, so the cancellation fee already gave me some pause. Strikes me as greedy, frankly. For me, they did offer a ~$25 higher fee I could pay for month to month.

Now, this location to me is very busy. Someone said it wasn't, wow! I wonder what they consider busy! Their main lot was overflowed and members who can't park there have to park across what I consider to be a fairly busy street. Thankfully they do have a street light seemingly dedicated to pedestrians in the area. Pretty cool.

Then you get in. They only issue cards sized like credit cards. They do not do the smaller card you could add to your keychain. You also have to hand the card to the person at the front desk and personally, I prefer locations where I can scan a thing myself.

They hand out class passes thirty minutes before each fitness class. This is to prevent busy classes from overflowing past capacity (unsafe), give more customers the opportunity to take the classes (you need a separate one for each class), and some classes require equipment which are limited. I just find it annoying to have to walk to the instructor in front of everybody before each class. Also hate having to do this additional interaction with the front desk prior to every single class. If they could limit it to just the busy classes - eh, I'd still hate it.

One other thing I found strange was that towards the end of one class, they announced they wouldn't be doing the last couple tracks and if you wanted something similar, you had to go to another class that was starting around then. To me, that's disrespectful. Members come to attend a class you've published on the schedule. Don't trivialize that choice, and the commitment you made to teach the class. I've seen where at other gyms they'll recommend or announce the upcoming classes, but never a pair of able bodied instructors just not finishing their class because the gym wants to fill up another.

The scramble lock on their locker room doors is new to me. I saw a number of people struggle with it... There's also a hot tub - in the women's locker room, anyway - if you like that sort of thing. But for me it's just so hot when I go to shower after a workout. I prefer to cool off right away

They have ice; just have to ask the person at the cafe to please get you some and it's free! Although I've been spoiled by a prior location where I could just grab ice myself, I have to say this is pretty useful.

It's basically a lot of things I'm not used to. Without the $149 fee, I most likely would have tried. I may still be a guest in the future at $15 per visit.