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Crunch Is Taking Over Eastern Athletic’s Tribeca Gym
It looks like Crunch really was looking for trainers for a new Tribeca gym (and has given up on 66 Leonard): Heather Hopkins tweeted last night that Crunch posted this flyer in the window of what used to be Eastern Athletic at 80 Leonard. And from the wording, it sounds like Eastern Athletic’s Tribeca members are now Crunch members.
The question now is whether some other gym will move into the subterranean space at 66 Leonard….
Update: Comments have been turned off due to spam. To have them turned back on, email tribecacitizen@gmail.com.
23 Comments
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Could just be just bad grammar but “If you have any questions regarding new membership..”, sounds more like EA members need to pay and enroll in Crunch, not that their EA membership will be transferred.
I read the “new membership” as being directed to folks who aren’t already members. And in the previous graf, the “your gym” implied—and this could be a stretch—that current EA Tribeca members will have their memberships honored (unless EA is planning on refunding)
Normally I would probably go with what you’re saying and give them the benefit of the doubt but EA has been shady during this entire process.
I mentioned in the previous post about how EA’s billing cycle begins on the 15th of the month, for monthly members. The fact that they’ve known about this, probably at least for several weeks, but told the members they’re temporarily closing for renovations was the first sign of being sketchy.
When the morning of the 16th arrived and they were supposed to open, they weren’t able to bill anyone because the 15th was a weekend. Conveniently they put up a sign that said they would open in 2 days, knowing full well they wouldn’t. Later that day, they charged all of the members for the period from 6/15 to 7/15. Then miraculously 2 days later, it’s Crunch? I find that to be much more than just mere coincidence.
I called them several times in the last few days and there was no mention from EA about Crunch taking over and nobody knew why they weren’t listed on the website anymore. If Crunch was actually going to honor the memberships of EA’s current members it’s much more likely that someone would have informed us of it. But they just gave us the run around just long enough so they could take more money from people.
If anyone has pics of the 2 signs they posted about club being closed and the opening delayed please post them. I need them to dispute the charges on my amex.
I disputed the charge on my Chase card this morning and they reimbursed me. I also put a rejection on all future charges from them. I will be reporting them to the BBB. They probably sold all of my information to Crunch without my authorization.
I disputed the recent charges on my credit card as well and am thinking of filing a complaint with the department of consumer affairs.
Crunch is a better alternative, but what Eastern Athletic is doing is not right. Why was I billed for June when the gym was closed for half the month and why did they just bill me for July? No one at EA will return phone calls so I’ve disputed the charges with AMEX. I recommend people file complaints with the department of consumer affairs as well: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dca/html/resources/complaint.shtml
Good riddance, Eastern Athletic! Good riddance, never-once-seen manager Lenny! Their customer service standards have been appalling for the 8 years I have been a member–you’ll ask, why did you stay? convenience, all the other gyms are too far. I hope Crunch will be more professional.
Let’s not forget, EA still has clubs in Brooklyn. I will make sure the Better Business Bureau and other consumers associations and blogs know about how EA behaved. If you were a member, you should do the same.
Very shady on the part of EA. I called them 3 times last week to ask about Crunch and my previous and current months payments (which they already received). I have yet to receive a call back and whenever I do call, the “manager” is never there.
Called again this morning and got the same response.
718 622 1926.
Just received a call from Lenny. According to him, all members will receive a 2 week credit from EA. We are also no longer EA members as Crunch has inherited our contracts. As for this months payment that was taken this week, he stated that Crunch is going to honor that.
He kept urging me to go speak with people at Crunch so I don’t know how much I trust anything he said.
Was just there myself, took almost the exact same snap- guess I will have to call the office, but based on my previous dealings with EA, I expect a nightmare.
Also, boxes inside are addressed to Crunch at 80 Leonard, so this has been in the works a while…
There’s certainly a big opportunity for Crunch to do the right thing here….
Erik’s very good at keeping the calm. I’m all fired up and ready with my pitchfork!
The whole thing is completely ridiculous. I called EA to see when the place would be open, they didn’t have a response. I tried crunch this morning also, and whoever I spoke with had no idea there even was a tribeca location.
spoke to crunch. they’re honoring memberships. members will get an extra month for the construction delay, gym will open either June 19 or June 20. Memberships will be converted to universal (any crunch location). Equipment upgrades and layout upgrades sound very good – all new stuff coming in, but will be ongoing (while gym open) for 30-60 days
For those like me who paid upfront for a year, its a little more complicated but still a net positive.
Thanks for the update!
do you work for EA or Crunch?
Re: Dave’s comments- do you have a contact at Crunch, as I also just paid my upcoming year in full recently. Thanks.
Stopped by Crunch yesterday afternoon. I was a monthly member at EA and I cancelled my membership and stopped payment so they said I could either reverse that and get one month credit or just join as a Crunch member. I’d much rather do the latter than give EA another dollar.
As for other memberships, they said they would honor any remaining memberships with EA but I didn’t ask specifics about it.
They’re going to open at 5 AM on Friday. From what I can remember, the weekly hours from M-TH was something like 5 AM to 10 or 11 PM. F was a little earlier. And weekend hours were from 7 AM until.. I forget.
i am a long time member of EA, very frustrated as i keep going there and its not open for working out, i did speak to a representative who backs up what Dave says above, and i paid for year in advance so for me its fine, however all of the years with this club are filled with bad experiences, no management, shit services and more and more lameness. i live on the block so its my only convenient and attractive option. i also can’t imagine what they are doing in there for these weeks that they have been closed and that they are still not “ready” for us to use the gym. i tried yesterday and now today, hopefully by saturday they will be open. Honestly the EA gym something was always off about them but i kept on going because of the convenience and also, which will probably change -the fact that it was empty and i was often the only one there in the mornings, which was heaven. I’ve always hated the big chain gyms, lets see if this is an improvement over EA. also that spa downstairs was a joke.
Totally agree, worst customer service gym ever, and Lenny had no commercial sense whatsoever.. although now it all makes sense, he was trying to make some last pennies before closing down the gym. Good riddance… What’s crunch like?
I have been a member of EA Tribeca for over five years, and they never said a word about selling the gym. I don’t even think the staff knew, with the exception of Lenny. The whole situation is beyond shady. It’s not a huge shock though. They closed the gym a few years ago for “renovations”, and filmed a movie inside.
As a former Crunch member when I lived near one, I can tell
you they run a fairly professional organization. But they are still
a low-end money making organization, which means there will
be lots of compromises and a lot of training upselling. According
to my trainer-cum-friend, that’s where most of the profits come
in because they charge a lot, but pay the trainers very little.