Evolve Fitness

As mentioned in other reviews, definitely unethical, slimy sales tactics. My sales guy was pushy (e.g., buy today or you lose the pricing.) One women who was pregnant with quadruplets was almost not allowed to get out of her contract. Management is unresponsive and it took me multiple days to get out of my contract even though it was during the 10-​day money-​back guarantee period.
Teachers for classes are nice but it’s known among EF members that everyone else in sales, management and front desk are incompetent or rude.
The Zumba and exercise classes are ridiculously crowded, like 40 – 50 people where you can’t even see the teacher at the front.
Fine deal if you are just there to use there equipment. Pricing was $ 29.99/month for 18months. Others get the same price for one year contract. and you get charge $ 50 every year for some annual fee. I’d recommend another gym for $ 10/​month if that’s the case.

If you’re anything like me any exercise régime can easily become routine and boring even in an excellent facilitate like Evolve. Finding an instructor to help keep it fresh while safely pushing toward my goals was my challenge. Fortunately, for the past year I have found Taranjit Saini, one of Evolve’s best instructors, has exceeded my goal. I look forward to continuing working under his instruction for years to come.

LIKE SO MANY REVIEWS ON GOOGLE… my experience follows:
BEWARE! DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THEIR YEAR LONG MEMBERSHIP!!!
Should you have the misfortune to move out of state during your membership, in my case only about 4 months after signing up, they will either charge you several months in fees to cancel, or may very well deny your cancellation altogether and force you to pay the rest of the year’s fees… in my case through March of 2016.
This is utterly insane. How can this be legal?
Just based on this I say BOYCOTT this gym.
AVOIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
And for your convenience, just a handful of reviews culled from google:
Andrew Hammond
9 months ago
Run away! There are much better options out there. Expensive but then god help you if you want to leave. I think getting out of the Mafia is easier. And these guys took their customer service training from the Mafia. Strong arm tactics, intimidation, and veiled threats. Come on guys… it is a frickin gym. Go work out and relieve the stress you pass on to customers. I would give this joint a wide berth.
Jeffrey Miller
a year ago
Ridiculous cancellation policy. BEWARE to people signing up for the gym. If you sign up, they’ll lock you in for an 18 month contract that you can’t get out of unless you move 25 miles away. In other words, you can’t even pay a fee to cancel, but instead have to pay your $ 30 a month for the full term. Terrible system, and doing a good job minting unhappy customers.
Joe Cagliari
3 years ago
As a business this place is crooked and deceitful. Their predatory practices are beyond anything I’ve ever seen. I was given a verbal guarantee that I could quit anytime, but when it came time to move from the city, they wouldn’t accept my resignation. They kept charging me and charging me. After repeated calls, mailings, visits, pleading and providing forms and proof that I was moving, they persist and charge my account month after month. They should be ashamed to exploit their customers this way.
Ann Neczypor
a year ago
Avoid this gym at all cost. It gives everyone that comes in a different price, depending on what you can negotiate. I was given a «lifetime» $ 19.99 a month price because i paid $ 300 to join while under development, yet everyone I talked to had the same !9.99 and they paid little to nothing to join. They are now upping everyone’s monthly fee, including mine and will not honor the contract.
Jose Cintron
a year ago
Evolve fitness has The worst customer service… beware if you move because their staff are poorly trained… and if you call to cancel they will keep charging you and then blame the contract. Do not sign a contract this this awful gym. I wouldn’t recommend this gym even if it were free. Asking for corporate will get you no where. So many other gym choices and even the cheaper ones are better to deal with than this place.

Good, professional equipment and lots of it, nice staff, low-​key atmosphere, nice space.
The air circulation could be better.

I’ve been a member for almost 2 years now, and so far, the experience has been decent. The prices are less than many gyms in the area, and they offer an array of classes not found in many other area gyms in this price range. I have enjoyed the classes that I take.
The equipment is in average shape. Some machines have enough loose parts or excess vibration to the point that I must find a different machine. There was an email sent to Evolve members last year highlighting their plans to add a greater variety of cardio machines, but that has not happened in Cambridge. Maybe in Framingham it has, but I didn’t like getting my hopes up for something that never happened. There are only 2 types of ellipticals here, while many other gyms offer more types. The treadmills work fine for the most part, and the free weights/​benches are good. Some of the rubber grips on the pull-​up/​chin-​up bars are worn off, and it is often unpleasant to do these exercises because you’re grabbing bare metal.
The crowd includes the typical «gym rat» crowd, as well as a wide mix of people who are not as intense in their workouts. Some people tend to hog machines that they are not immediately using by leaving weights behind or their own wet towels on them, and this is downright annoying. While this can be said of many gyms, I’ve definitely noticed this more at Evolve than any other gym I have been to. In general, people are not very good about washing down equipment; I end up washing my own equipment before and after using it.
There is parking in the front lot, but it is often full. There are also people who park in the fire lane by the building and at the edges of the rows, protruding into the through-​lanes. It makes parking unbearable in many cases; it would be nice if tow trucks would remove illegally parked cars to make it better for abiding drivers. There are a few street parking spots, and neighboring businesses allow parking in their lots after 6PM or so for Evolve customers. I have ended up parking on Bay State Road (on rare occasions), which ended up being about ¼ of a mile from the gym.
Unfortunately, there just aren’t very many gyms in the area that offer a good variety of equipment at a reasonable price. Dominant competitors, such as the BSC, do offer somewhat better equipment as well as classes, but the BSC is unnecessarily expensive, compared to Evolve.

Beware about writing a negative review. The owner will look you up and call you. He questions you in a bit of an intimidating way to ask «why didn’t you like it here» as if you’re not allowed to have a negative opinion of this place. Ignore the phone call, he just wants to be a bully and not a professional business owner.

This place is kinda of a joke. They jacked up the prices for the members and we’re offering discounts to people bringing in new members.
Also, who hires out of shape personal trainers? That’s like hiring a drunken guy to be your driver. You can’t hire someone to train you on something that they can’t even do themselves. Plus, parking in rush hour is a b****

i have been a member of this gym for about a year. I wasn’t looking for classes, so I can’t speak to that, but I can comment about everything else. They have a large number of treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, arc trainers, stair steppers and rowers. Something is always available first thing in the morning. Also, they have a good amount of free-​weight equipment and open space so you can basically execute any type of workout you are looking for.

I was having a reasonable experience at Evolve Cambridge until they notified me via snail mail that they were raising my monthly rate by 20% just because they felt like it. Cancelled now. Not a special enough place to put up with that! And the owner/​manager was so arrogant when questioned. Good riddance!

I recently joined this gym and I’ve been pleased with the caliber of classes, the class schedules, and also with the ease of parking and the machines. I’d give five stars but I think the towels should be complimentary and the gym could smell better – especially first thing in the morning. Also, some of the classes run right up to each other-​not allowing time for one to exit and the other to enter and begin on time. After reading the reviews about cancellation issues, I just paid my year up front.

Evolve is far and away the best deal you will see for the money. It costs about 30 a month and is a very high quality health club. I’ve been a member since it first opened and they have already replaced most of the carpeting and flooring. The owners continually add new/​different equipment and even brought in several different treadmills to let members decide which was the best before replacing them all. Yes it’s a business but they really do a great job of keeping it in excellent condition and strive to make it a great place to work out. Check it out you will not be disappointed.

I’ve been going to Evolve regularly for about 7 months now and I’m continually impressed!
Evolve is really great quality for the price (approx 30/​mo for a year contract or 40/​mo for month-​to-​month). All classes are included, the equipment is all great condition and fairly new, the whole place is clean, and the employees are friendly and low-​key.
I’ve taken quite a few classes and all the instructors are really knowledgeable, welcoming, and fun. Plus, I’m currently pregnant, and the instructors and trainers I’ve talked with about modifications and tips have been so accommodating and helpful.
I took away 1 star mainly because parking can be pain during peak times, which isn’t really Evolve’s fault (actually, they’re generally pretty helpful in giving us suggestions on places to park) but it’s still frustrating when I’m trying to get to a class on time.
I haven’t had to deal with canceling a membership with Evolve specifically, but I have experienced canceling through another gym that used ABC and it went smoothly for me, no horror stories like others seem to have.

I love Evolve. I joined this summer after many years at another gym that closed. After shopping around a good bit, I found that Evolve is comparable to the higher priced gyms for half (or less!) the price. Everything is clean, well lit and inviting. I tend to use the more crossfit-​type equipment, and have rarely had to wait or change around my routine because something was unavailable. I also like the fact that people here re-​rack their weights. The culture is positive and welcoming.
Classes are included and I particularly like the fact that Evolve offers Les Mills Body Combat and Body Attack as well as the more generally available Body Pump. Zumba, yoga and Pilates are also offered, and there are no «premium» classes that are not included or for which you need to pay more. The instructors are all very professional, knowledgable and accessible. They all welcome questions and comments after class.
The only area in which I hope to see a change is online sign-​up for classes. This is just barely starting this month, so I expect it will happen soonish. Right now I have to call to reserve for classes.
Some reviewers have stated they were pressured to sign up for personal training. That never happened to me at all. No one I have ever talked to at Evolve even suggested that I go for personal training when I said I wasn’t interested. I just told them what I *did* want and they totally concentrated on that. Since I have joined, no one has mentioned anything to me about any other services. The staff are all very warm and helpful and get to know the regulars. I feel that there’s actually a community there and like I’m known.
I know a number of reviews have been very negative about canceling contracts. I generally expect this as a given with just about any gym – almost all of them use the same financial processing company (ABC) and that company is a nightmare to deal with to cancel the contract. (That’s why I was actually pleased when my old gym closed; I wasn’t sure there was any other way out of that contract!) I’m not happy about that, honestly, but I knew that going in.

The staff at this establishment are conniving, rude, disrespectful, and arrogant. I should also mention the meat heads and the unabashed male stalkers that prowl the gym are just an added bonus.
I told the staff at evolve that a particular man was continuously harassing me even after I told him (several times) to leave me alone. Their comment? «Ohhh him?! …Yeah we’ve had a lot of complaints about him and have seen him bothering a bunch of female members.» So they were well aware of this potential molester/​rapist/​liability but did absolutely nothing to stop him or bar him from Evolve. Their inaction and refusal to even remotely address the safety concerns of their female members is absolutely unacceptable and utterly misogynistic.
To add insult to injury, after I showed my contract to my lawyer and followed the procedures to cancel the membership (as outlined by their contract), I was STILL charged the following month even after cancelling. It should be noted I submitted a certified letter and received signed confirmation for the cancellation well within the time frame outlined by the contract. I am officially changing my debit card so they cannot charge me again; although I doubt I won’t stop getting obnoxious 7 AM phone calls from «Eric O’Reilly from ABC Financial». Unbelievable.
In summation, avoid Evolve at all costs for the following reasons:
–it’s dangerous for women as they knowingly permit predatory male members
–their financial policies/​contracts are exploitative and manipulative
–their customer service is abhorrent at best
Please, stay away. Bring your business elsewhere. I wish someone had warned me before I signed up.

Bizarre cancellation policy – BEWARE!
I moved across town, so tried to cancel my membership. First, I tried a phone call. Got nowhere. Then I went in person, and they told me to call some billing company. I called the billing company, and they told me to send a hand-​written letter to cancel. I then went in again, in person, and still could not cancel on the spot. They would absolutely not allow me to cancel. When I brought this up with management, they just said, «too bad, it was in your contract. You signed it, and we e-​mailed your contract.» Monthly charges continued to pile up. It should never take more than a few minutes to cancel a policy. Very sketchy.

Simply the cleanest, best gym I have found for a reasonable price. Great equipment, super nice/​helpful staff that answers any question with intelligence! I don’t take classes but they are very popular here.
The choice is clear Evolve Fitness

I had been to Evolve Fitness a few times before becoming a member with my old roommate. I loved that I was able to do a two week trial membership, which meant I could do both the machines and classes, allowing to have a real feel of what the gym is like.
I pay about $ 30 a month, which includes basic gym use any day if the week, and all access for he classes. I really wanted to be able to take part of group classes, and generally I’m able to do something everyday after work.
The trainers are really great! They are all laid back, really positive and out going. They don’t make me feel bad for being over weight, and thus wanting to go to gym, which I’ve gotten at some places. My trainer is John, and he’s amazing! He’s a real people person and funny. He can tell when I’m getting tired, but will push me just to go just a little farther in a way that’s completely reassuring!

Some machines are way more popular and if you’re here right when all the 9 – 5’ers get out of work you’re not gonna get on them, as there are 5. I was constantly made to wait around, total almost 2 hours in the 2 weeks I was given in testing out a membership. Heavy pressure to get personal training. Promises made to me to get me to join that were never fulfilled. I cancelled my membership and joined somewhere more convenient for me with much less jerks of people. I’m a no-​frills lady and I want to be left alone!
Update/​Note: I moved out of the country and cancelled my contract yet I am still getting stupid collections calls from them. I really hate this gym.

I have been going here for 2 years now and have been happy with it — would give 3.5 stars if that were an option. The facility is pretty nice, machines are usually working and everything is pretty new. I’ve done a couple of the group classes and they were good. One thing that kind of surprised me is that the showers are pretty gross and you have to rent a towel — $ 2 to use something worse than what I use to dry off my dog. Overall though not a bad gym, just nothing that really knocks your socks off either.
I do not feel like I got an especially good deal, but I just paid the full year up front to avoid the whole monthly deduction thing. I think it actually works out to a slightly higher price for month, which seems silly, but I had a bad experience trying to cancel a gym membership at another club several years ago so I don’t do the automatic monthly deduction thing anymore.

Just joined and am psyched that I am getting a two for one gym.
I just signed up for a great deal for less than $ 30 a month and they have two spots, one in Framingham and a Cambridge location.
The place is clean with nice bright natural light.
There is a separate women’s work out area, spin room and women’s locker room upstairs.
They have training, cardio and weights on the main level.
They are open from 5 — 10 so now there is no reason for me not to get in a work out, right?
The women at the front desk was very friendly and helpful.
They have a great parking lot which I bet will fill up fast during the day but for the off hours I will be going it seems to be fine.
There are only 3 showers in the women’s locker room which seems low considering the a.m. rush to work but timing is everything right.