Snap Fitness Essex - Essex, Connecticut

Nick W.

TLDR: Typical franchise gym, but under and poor staffing leading to a bad gym culture.

Do you like spending $25-100 a month on a gym where young men use homophobic slurs when staff aren't paying attention or in the space before resuming their admiration of their fellow totally cisgender, heterosexual training partners in the mirror? How about men in their forties discussing, with younger men, the relationships of high school girls? And old men who brag about joining the Guard to dodge the Vietnam draft defending Nazi salutes as normal autistic behavior before defending the same Nazism their fathers fought to stifle? If so, this "no politics, please" gym is for you.

Maybe you don't care about that and are too happy to put on your noise canceling headphones. More power to you, but you should also know:

Your headphones may not be able to drown out poor-quality selections of music stations that play such songs inappropriate for the gym as Whitney Houston's classic, "I Believe in You and Me," at least not without inducing hearing loss and increasing whatever tinnitus you already experience. Although definitely a bop, Houston's slow tempo on that track isn't great for anything but falling asleep on the machines, which seems to be not just accepted but encouraged.

As it comes to the equipment: one can chalk up disjointed decision-making, such as overpaying for substandard urethane coated plates, power racks, and incomplete range of motion machines while underpaying for bumper plates, as efforts to meet brand standards and taking advantage of franchisee deals, but those too are shortcomings of the facility.

Toilet problems others identified persist.

Since hiring Langdon, the facility is once again a clean space and when he's there he's a decent conversationalist and folks tend to not express their prejudices so brazenly, but it went months with dirt and dust bunnies and the other attendant's Cheeto dust and trash covering the place and his permission to refer to hip hop in racially charged terms or reject others on their skin color, national origin, etc.

Michael D.

I am so impressed with this particular Snap facility located in Essex, Connecticut. Not only is the gym large, very well maintained, features the latest in both free weight and machine equipment, climate controlled 24/7, the staff is both present and extremely responsive to member needs and concerns. There is a Snap Fitness located closer to me, but I make an extra effort to work out at this premier facility. In my opinion this is the best gym on the Connecticut shoreline...I highly recommend Snap Fitness in Essex!

J M.

It's disappointing that despite customer feedback pointing out flaws, the owner hasn't taken the opportunity to improve. Understanding that customer complaints are invaluable for growth is crucial. Issues like the septic system for showers are certainly a concern, indicative of oversight in understanding the full requirements of a gym facility. Moreover, responding with financial constraints as a justification for inadequate service is shortsighted, especially in a competitive market where supply and demand dynamics play a significant role. Solving these issues, like upgrading to constant pressure pumps to alleviate septic system concerns, is not insurmountable, particularly with experience in the commercial sector. With my experience in real estate (commerical), building and as a former security contractor I can give the customer what they want and any issue can be solved. Excessive cost of key fobs is another example of a flawed business model, with potential repercussions for customer satisfaction. Security contractors mark up keyfobs over 300%. All that is needed is the correct site code and frequency of the fob. A fob works out to about 8 dollars each. Overall, there seems to be a lack of proactive problem-solving and a failure to prioritize customer needs, which is regrettable for any business, particularly in the service industry. After visiting this gym in person I realized it's small and has many limitations. Again this is the fault of the franchisee not performing the basic tests needed. Given I have the means through my investments I can build a state of the art gym with zero limitations. I'm almost tempted but unfortunately there is too much supply. I would be foolish to be working for the business instead of having it work for me.

Jeff S.

Snap Fitness in Essex is a perfect gym. Best Equipment available by far (Matrix), excellent cleanliness for a 24/7/365 gym, and wonderful, attentive owners and staff. Prices are great considering what you are getting and right in line with what every gym charges. Perfect rating for sure. Ive never had a complaint in the 7 years I've been a member.

westover2416

Very limited space per price of membership. Also for the price the majority of facilities don't have showers to clean off in say if you want to exercise before work. It's honestly not impressive ier the price. There's a lot of inconsistencies with what equipment is available per facility. One location has squat racks but no bb bench press stations or even have back row machines or seated cable row. You can get your workout in but overall it's not worth the price compared to what other facilities offer. When I brought that up I was told the high price is to ensure not as many members sign up....okay then take better care of the customers you do have and offer them showers locker rooms, dynamic equipment etc. it's also $25 to replace a key fob, which is pretty wild. So the amount of money you pay if youre a basic lifter it's not quite worth it nor if you're advanced. You can get a workout in for sure and Ive had great ones but it's not a one stop shop gym. I give it an, "ehhhh it works." But I'd be a little embarrassed to say I pay this much to get this facility if I was to show it to some of my friends around the state and country who also workout.

Bob

I have been a member here for years and couldn't be happier. It's always clean and everything is well maintained. The owners are great and so are the employees. Always willing to help if needed or just have friendly conversation. I highly recommend joining if you need a clean, convenient place to workout!

jim C.

The gym is small and incredibly overpriced. $55/mo is absurd for the amenities they have available. Not to mention that the owners/managers are not even willing to honor the deals that their specific site pushes (snapfitnessessexct). Went in to talk to the rep about this deal that was pushed to me from the specific site and the owners/manager was adamant that they do not give out any deals. Moral of the story, travel another 10 min to Old Saybrook or Deep River for other 24 hr gyms for $10-$20/mo less than Snap Fitness Essex.

Update: Let's be perfectly honest, I never asked for anything but the promotion that was advertised to me. It took you 2 days to acknowledge the review and reach out but less than a day to try and spin the story to make yourselves look like the victim? How about the fact that you outright bribed me with a much better membership offer and then asked me to "remove my review" from here because it is bad for business, I'm just trying to let others know what my experience was like at this facility. When we spoke over the phone, I told you I would edit my review based off of our conversation because there was a communication error on your guys part but that you do honor the promotions you push, but instead you reply here making false claims that I was demanding a better deal. Lastly, in all of this commotion you NEVER once actually offered me the promotion that was advertised to me, at worst you adamantly told me you don't offer any type of deals and at best you offered me a better deal 2 days after I left this initial review.

brittany N.

My favorite place! Always clean, and everyone is always so friendly and supportive-members and owners! Love going to a gym with this type of atmosphere. Definitely recommend.