SNAP FITNESS Franchise Complaints

72 thoughts on “SNAP FITNESS Franchise Complaints”

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• Snap Fitness is all lies.

• The Snap Fitness in Pollock Pines Ca is a rip off.
  They will charge you for membership even after you cancel the “month to month” and then when you try to get a refund, Mark Sanchex(owner) will give you the run around!
  Its been over thirty days and still get the same story, “It’s not my fault, its corporate!

  What kind of Business conducts themselves like this?

• The truth is that some people get in over their heads. People with some money to burn will purchase a license, be backed by corporate and when they spread their wings, they crash. People make poor decisions and Corporate does what they can to pick up the pieces and keep the failings afloat. All you other idiots, READ THE CONTRACT BEFORE YOU SIGN. If you need to pack up and leave in the middle of the night, then you probably should not have any sort of memberships.

• The truth is that your comment is a load of crap, there are people who do fail and invest money into snap fitness but its lying deviant franchises who portray something far different than what the investor is buying into. The fact of the matter is that these franchises (snap and ones like it) false advertise. The victims are hard working honest people who have saved a little bit of money through an entire life time of work and Peter Taunton and the Snap Franchise are wolf s in sheeps clothing who misappropriate themselves and paint a “risk free pretty picture” knowing full well that the real thing is nothing like what they are leading the franchisees on too.
  Retirees have lost there entire life savings because of what is portrayed by a commission earning snap fitness franchise sales men to be a win win investment and the truth is the only ones that always win are the Snap Franchise who profit hand over fist while most franchisees struggle to pay there note.
  There’s a special place in …. for the people who do this with a clear conscious.

• To all of you with little to no factual information. I am a successful Franchisee, and there are lots of us out there. How? We do the work! We utilize the tools the franchisee gives us, and there is no shortage of these tools and customer support. Anyone who ways differently was probably constantly working against the grain. Every unhappy franchisee that I know of has bought into a system, but then they just want to do their own thing! And they expect it to work? You can’t own a McDonald’s without having the Dollar Menu. This is no different.
  And to respond to “Guest” with what your trying to display as a fact based list.

  Why do Snap Fitness franchises fail?

  1. Inaccurate representation of potential financial success by corporate
  —I actually read our FDD every year, and the numbers have changed drastically over the years. They are without question accurate. What’s not accurate is the “HOPE” of potential franchisees.
  2. Factual statistics about financial health of current franchisees “not available”
  —–With every franchise you have individual owners, this isn’t a Wall Street business publishing results every quarter. However, any potential franchisee can and should pick up the phone to call as many Franchisees as they wish. And I promise you the owners will give honest responses. Some good, some not so good. And again, the ones with success will tell you it takes work, the unsuccessful ones will point at Corporate and play the blame game.
  3. Weak business model
  —-Any business model is only as strong as the operator. But in general you will never find a business model with such high potential revenue, and costs that are basically fixed. This is not a bar where the more beer you sell, the more beer you need to buy, profits based on %. Once you hit breakeven the rest is basically profit, and you know that breakeven going into it.
  4. Inadequate support provided to franchisees by corporate
  ——-Without question you are clueless on this. Snap Corporate is literally amazing when it comes to corporate support. I have a direct contact at corporate, as does EVERY franchisee. There is absolutely nothing they won’t help you out with. Where the misconception lies, is that the unsuccessful owners that exist, don’t always like what they are being told–which is that they need to follow the system, and the reason they are failing is because they are trying to reinvent the wheel.
  5. “No contract” memberships become a liability in time
  —-“No contract” is a huge selling point. We can offer 12 month contracts, and we do in my clubs. But to have the option available is great to make people feel comfortable walking through the door, knowing we won’t pressure them.
  6. Billing, software and technical equipment continually have issues
  —–The only issues that typically exist with billing are operator caused. The system itself is as close to 100% as possible. People who have issues with their card working at the door are usually caused by declined billing, and those people never respond to a club’s attempt to collect the payment, so the card is turned off, just like it should be.
  7. Requires turnover of staff to keep costs low. Revolving door employees.
  ——Again, you have no idea what you’re speaking to. Turnover is almost always caused by an owner/manager, not our system. I have had the same manager in one club for 6+years and running, another club had a manager for 5+ years-she left to open her own clubs, one former employee of 1 year left and came back, another lasted 4+ years and only left because of relocation. You can easily keep employees in this business.
  8. Return on investment, if any, is scant and unjustified for the amount of risk
  ——-I will take my return on investment against any other investment you can come up with.
  9. CORPORATE IS MAKING HUGE PROFITS WHILE FRANCHISEES ARE WIPING OUT
  ——Absolutely corporate is making money, and they SHOULD!! And so are a lot of franchisees! Nobody goes into business without the intention of making money, but you can’t go into business thinking it won’t involve work. And Peter Taunton works his a** off, and has for decades.
  –Nobody can become that successful without someone pointing a finger, making accusations, and getting blamed for others failures. All of you on this site are just the “professional complainers” of the world, unwilling to take responsibility for your own actions and decisions, unwilling to take the time to read all the fine print until after the fact, and even then you blame others because they didn’t read it out loud for you.

  –The case below pre-dates the formation of Snap Fitness, and is completely unrelated. But I suppose if you put “case #……fraud…..convicted”, that just supports all the other non-factual information you post.
  Remember, anybody can sue anybody, and for anything. But just ask any lawyer, there’s no point in filing suit against someone with nothing. But once you become very successful, suddenly you are a target.

  PETER TAUNTON = Case # 24040055, Court File # K598001371, Disposition Date 3/18/1999, Minnesota Attorney General’s Office St. Paul, Kaniyohi District Court, Theft-by Swindle-Artifice/Trick/Device or Other, Statute # 609.52.2.4., CONVICTED, Probation Sentence – 2 Years

• The comments above are obviously written by someone on payroll for SNAP FITNESS Corporate.

  The fact of the matter is I can disprove nearly everything you’ve had to say any Person with half a brain no’s that Snap Fitness isn’t in the health and fitness business they are in the FRANCHISE SALES Business they could give too s***ts about anything but selling franchises and then making profit off of every single aspect of the sails all the way down to having there people lay the carpet and rubber vs. using a local business in the town your doing business in and establishing those types of relationships.

  Above all of the things you responded to that were mostly loads of crap was the comment about the software.
  6. Billing, software and technical equipment continually have issues
  —–The only issues that typically exist with billing are operator caused. The system itself is as close to 100% as possible. People who have issues with their card working at the door are usually caused by declined billing, and those people never respond to a club’s attempt to collect the payment, so the card is turned off, just like it should be.

  I mean are you kidding me close to 100% how you can say that with a clear conscious would tell me that you have absolutely no clue about fitness business software.
  Checkfree is absolutely without a doubt the most god awful, out dated, slow functioning, and inaccurate gym software there is on the market we can’t even record pictures of our members using this software and that by itself is one of the most basic functions of gym software. Something thats been around with other software for over a decade and this doesn’t even touch on how inaccurate the reports are the numbers you are given are faulty and don’t match any of your actual financial income even when accounting for everything else.

• I signed up as a member at the Mt Juliet, TN location and explained to them I would be exercising at the Hendersonville location. Within two weeks they shut down the location with NO notice and now will not refund my money for 4 weeks. That is poor business, while I might have signed back up if they had opened a closer location there is no way I would now.

• Snap fitness is really a pain, if you want to work out late at night. At first I wasn’t having problems with snap fitness, I could go in anytime/any day (24/7 right? That’s the point) and weight lift however after about 2 months I haven’t been able to get inside to workout. The card would scan turn the light green but the door won’t unlock.this started happening at the Robbinsdale location. I moved downtown and started going to Minneapolis one at the thrivent center, no problems at least that’s what I thought over the weekend or holidays when business are closed I couldn’t get past the front door it is unlocked during the day on weekdays at night the front door is closed (I have to call security) but the second door to get in works. What the hell?

• I completely agree with “don’t buy what you can’t afford!”
  I am not involved with snap I own an anytime fitness their competition – who use a similar business model I imagine. All of the people on this site are completely negative whiners who should have never become business owners. You cannot expect to buy a franchise and expect head office to do everything for you. it’s very easy to point the finger when things go wrong and take credit when things go right. If you put the work in you can absolutely make money put of these franchises. most people are idiots and should not going into business if they are not prepared to work hard- plain and simple.

• If you cannot succeed with Snapfitness, then you are doing something wrong. Don’t blame snap for your failings.

• Hi George, I’m very interested in open a Snap fitness. Can you say more about your experience about this?

• You may wanna check Retro Fitness…

• Snap fitness is a no frills fitness center, but the franchisee should spend some time to take care of vital needs of his center, he has purchased a brand which helps him markett well, so he should use the brand awareness and make money. and serve his customers well, if he needs guidance he can always approach the corporate they will hand hold as much as possible.

• Does anyone know if SNAP requires a monthly marketing fee on top of the monthly franchise free? If so how much?

• I own a snap 5 years and have yet to see a profit , we were hanging on pretty good for a while and now were in the rears because of the competition opened up 6 months ago near me and is eating my lunch,snap has no game for the bigger low fee clubs and had no thoughts on helping us survive…We are for sale , actually I would give my club away to one of you right now ,worst investment of my life,I am down 6 figures as we speak . The Snap or Anytime current biz model is obsolete and companies like Planet Fitness are here to stay and charge half – I will close by years end ..I reached out to the CEO only to have one of his floozies intercept and speak on Peters behalf,now that is a weak leader……I cant wait to get out of the system

• I am looking at buying equipment from a Snap Franchisee that wants to sell. I will be staying in the same building he is operating out of, but I want to run the business under my own fitness name. Do any of you know if Snap has any legal right to stop me? I will be removing all of the snap signs, logos and stickers. He has been a franchisee for over 6 years and just wants out. Thanks.

• D. Klenzing, check out

  http://knightanddayfitness.net/ and http://www.stormfitness247.com/index.php

• Scott W. I appreciate the links, thank-you.

• I see that the former COO of CURVES, Gary Findley, now works for Snap
  Your problems are only going to get worse.

• I am still interested in hearing about a Snap franchisee’s experience selling their equipment to a person wishing to run the gym as an independent. Did Snap corporate try and prevent it? Thanks.

• All the complainers out there just try one thing .. tomorrow just wake up and say it’s the first day of my life .. all that I have seen or done is now in the past I forgive and forget and move on.. then get the f*** of your ass and try working it like hell.. 12 hours a day in your gym caring for your clients.. smile , work , play, $$ will start rolling in and your life will just be so much enjoyable.
  god bless

• okay, so I ordered a global access pass, and it still hasnt come its been about 3 weeks, i keep trying to call, send them email… of course no reply, so I honestly can say they are a rip off, they dont even want to give me my money back.

• I too was “Bent Over By Snap” . I can only say STAY AWAY!

• I like SnapFitness as a clean place to workout but the lack of regular checkup maintenance on equipment is a major safety issue. I just had a repair to my left tendon due to ruptured tendon that happened at the OceanBeach Hwy Longview Wa. First day back two month leave, and the first machine I try to use cable tower has several bolts pulling out. And this is the second time. Actually every week I find equipment in need of repair and was told by Snap employee the maintenance only comes out when equipment is broken. I smell a large lawsuit coming up for the franchise and the owner. Ie my ruptured tendon cost $9000 to repair and a bolt cost $2. ;-(

• I am in the beginning stages of opening a snap. Both my fiancée and I have business, management and sales backgrounds and he has a personal training background. Any advice?

• I paid 34.95 for a month and in one week the new manager, Cathy, called me to say my account was delinquent. And she was the one who signed me up last week. IN FIVE MINUTES I AM AT SNAP ON BRENTWOOD HENRY CO GA AND THEY ALREADY HAVE ME LOCKED OUT. She also tried to tell me the rules of my contract that she never bothered to look up. New management is poor management.

• I am in the edge. About to get a franchise. From what I’ve read inhere I can see that people who have failed, or are mad because this or that, is people who think that just for the fact that is a franchise is going to work by itself. A business, franchise o not, you cannot just pay for it and come back every 1st of month to pick up money, you have to actually be there all time, take care of your customers and try to work with the stuff the franchise gives you in this case, it doesn’t even matter if it works perfect though, if you are willing to get a solution for your customer’s problem, there is always a way.

  I am more on the YES side now, I would be worried if what I see would be more like: I have been working my a** off and no results, THEN I would be saying no way. But I just saw silly complains.

  I am open for any criticism or comment that can help me to get to a final decision

• I am sending this in reply to Marco Trejo who commented on August 13, 2014. If you haven’t already, I would strongly encourage you to get in touch with at least two or three former Snap Fitness franchisees whose clubs failed and talk directly with them about their experiences. This may take a little work on your part to find them if Snap Fitness corporate will not provide them to you. It will be time very well spent.

• John/Marco/everyone:

  Franchisors must disclose contact info for current franchisees and franchisees who recently left the system in the FDD (Franchise disclosure document).

  Here is the 2014 FDD for snap Fitness:

  SNAP FITNESS 2014 Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD)

  Franchisee contact info is in Exhibit G, which is around page 250 in this massive pdf. This is a redlined version so just ignore the strike-throughs and print out the relevant pages.

  There’s a lot of other good info, including recent litigation and club closures/transfers.

  ADMIN

• PS

  It’s noteworthy that Item 20 lists that 158 franchises were paid for but not yet open, yet only 65 are projected to be opened in the next two years. That’s nearly 100 franchise fees paid for clubs not yet projected to open. At a discounted $15K franchise fee, that’s about $1.5M in franchise fees.

  It’s worth investigating why there are so many Sold Not Open franchises, and also worth thinking twice before paying for 3-franchise deals to take advantage of discounted franchise fees. It’s not a bargain if they never open.

  ADMIN

• I have a license to teach Songahm Taekwondo thru American Taekwondo Association.

  I am interested in hearing from ATA school and club owners. I have some gripes as to the tactics used by ATA.

  I would like to hear from other school and club owners.

  I am checking into the possibility of commencing a Class Action Lawsuit against ATA.
  My gripe is the insurance requirement and be forced to
  buy insurance from K&K Insurance. ATA set the policy requirements at a level that no other insurance company offers that level of coverage.

  Lets face it ATA and K&K have a sweetheart deal and somewhere along the line ATA is getting a kick back
  for the business that is funneled to K&K, I don’t trust K&K.

• Hi,
  I was sold a bill of goods by Snap Fitness. I bought a 3Pack of licenses. $15k per and a $5k discount if you bought 3 so I spent $40k originally to get involved. After months of dealing with inept real estate people who were to help with finding a location (because they were fitness business experts) I finally found a location on my own.
  The build out was expensive and not really to my liking but time is money and I had to get my doors open to start recouping my investment which was now in the $250k+ range.
  The company claimed they had never had a failure but now I find many disgruntled former owners that like me, got NO SUPPORT when I was failing.
  My doors were open for 10 months, I NEVER made a dime and spent another $100,000 in rent and utilities, etc….! I never got a visit or even a call from the franchisor after their false attempts to help.
  I wish there was something I could do to recoup my losses. Maybe a class action suit!
  When all was said and done, I had to spend another $65k to settle with my landlord and Main Street Bank for my equipment lease.
  A TRUE NIGHTMARE!!!!!
  Charles J. Colucci Peoria Arizona!

• Who needs a successful club manager?

  I am a top performing Australian Snap Fitness club manager who is looking to relocate again to the USA.

  Previously I was a membership manager at 24 Hour Fitness CA.

  You need a passionate, skilled club manager to have a long term successful franchise.

  For a full resume email me at [redacted]

  Brendan

• The portales,NM snap fitness workout facility is very dirty. Trash is always running over and the machines are very dusty and carpet always needs to be vacuum. The entrance desk is very messy and dusty. She is friendly but is not doing the rest. Thank you

• My wife and I are contemplating buying our local snap. I could use any advice out there. It does not appear to have made a profit in 3 years, however I think that may be because there is never anyone there to answer the phone. Is this business worth the risk if we work hard or is it a bust no matter what?

• Alright people….I have worked for Snap for many years and have been to many, many, and many clubs nationwide as I used to install their systems. I have seen why majority of these clubs fail and the reason isn’t because of the Snap model! It’s more of the fact that there’s no effort by the ownership/management!! These owners who hate on corporate are the owners who just expect to sign up for a franchise agreement and don’t want to put forward the effort. I have seen gym owners profit hugely because they put forth the effort! Yes you have to get out there and promote your product, yes you have engage with the community, and YES YOU HAVE TO SHOW YOUR FACE AT YOUR BUSINESS! Quit hating on a franchise if you’re LAZY! The only reason gyms fail (franchise or not) is because there’s no effort!!

• I own two franchises since 2005. Now the Corporate office is making me spend 15K in modernizations and buy all new equipment. Can’t afford it and now closing. How is that for lazy ‘that guy.’ Over 10 years and that is how you are treated!

• Is it possible to have a successful Snap? Yes, but be prepared to put in a considerable amount of time (greater than 80 hours per week), inadequate billing software (fitware), putting up with corporate selling non-members access to your club for 30 days for $8.95 (none of which goes to your club) We were getting $60 for 1 month’s access to our club, and it was popular with those home for a short time. No more. Snap charges a monthly national marketing fee, which sounds great. National marketing helps get the word out about your club, right? Unfortunately, that’s not it at all. The national marketing fee pays for posters for you to put up around your club, promoting Snap corporate. Why would you need to promote to people who are already members? Watching your fees jump dramatically via having to use crappy software products, which you don’t want and which don’t work properly. These are just being forced down your throat.
  Ridiculous club modernizations (eg $2000 for a flag decal). I really think Snap corporate just sits around and tries to think of ways they can extract money from their franchisees. Can you make money? Yes, but it’ll take a lot of work and you’ll have Snap corporate reaching into your back pocket whenever they can to pull more and more of your hard earned money.
  You have to accept silver sneakers members. Some come some don’t. If they don’t come in you don’t get paid anything, but you’ll have to pay Snap an active member fee for that member. Snap will also charge you an administrative fee to manage this. Does this mean that if they’re not active, or if they’re no longer eligible that Snap will terminate them to spare you the active member fee. Ha Ha. No, they’ll continue to collect and to make matters worse you won’t get notice that they’re no longer eligible until 3 months later. That means you pay, but collect $0. So remind me again what they’re doing to earn that administrative fee?
  Wanna sell Snap merchandise? Well you can buy it for the same price as your members and in some instances you’ll pay more. Why wouldn’t you sell merchandise to your franchisees at a discounted rate? Well, it’s not the Snap way. Every nook and cranny is a profit center designed to make corporate money with no regard for how the franchisee is doing.
  So what is Snap’s value add for a franchisee? Your members get to use other Snaps around the world. We find that’s about 1% of our members. My advice? If you want to own a fitness center visit lots of fitness clubs, figure out what you like and don’t like about those clubs. Incorporate those you like and solve those you don’t like. Go to a couple fitness conventions to talk with different companies about putting it all together. Don’t give Snap your hard earned money, they don’t do anything to deserve it except give you headaches and provide an endless source of frustration.
  – SAFS

• Contract with snap fitness only stops you from owning a 24hour gym. You can have a 23.75 hr gym.

• Directly from the FDD

  National Marketing Fee
  You must pay us a National Marketing Fee of $130 per month. This is a fee that you pay to us, and not a contribution to an adverting fund or any kind of group or pooled advertising program. Payments are accounted for as general operating revenue, and we do not provide a separate accounting for how this revenue is spent. In consideration for this fee, we provide general marketing and promotional services for the SNAP FITNESS brand. These services may include any or all of the following: creative development
  services (such as designing new logos, graphics, and promotional pieces), public relations services, web design services, social media, developing and implementing promotions, tie-ins, contests, and/or sweepstakes, direct mail advertising, sponsorships and endorsements, trade association memberships (such as IHRSA).
  Services may be provided by in-house personnel and/or third party service providers and vendors.

  None of the marketing you receive is national. It’s done locally and distributed nationally, so therefore it’s national. Your $130/month basically gets you a packet of posters, typically promoting snap’s twitter, facebook and social media accounts. When confronted with this the response is “what do you expect for $130 per month”. Fine, then let me keep the money and put it toward actual advertising, such as TV and radio.

  Also from the FDD…

  We estimate the purchase price for the Technology System, including video surveillance equipment, to be approximately $18,000 to $25,000.
  The estimated annual cost of any optional or required maintenance, updating, upgrading or support for the Technology System is estimated to be approximately $500 to $1,500 per year over the ten-year term of the initial Franchise Agreement

  Buying this equipment in the real world would cost you about $1500 – $1800 and buy you a much better system than what Snap provides. This gives you an idea of the markup Snap forces their franchisees to make. You assume that the price you pay would provide you high end system, but what you receive is bottom of the barrel and has a value of about $500 to $700. Again, you’re getting the worst of the worst technology, but paying for top line quality.

  Again from the FDD…

  No direct or indirect involvement in a competing business for two years
  at the premises of the former Club; within 10 miles of the former Club;
  within any other franchisee’s Designated Area;or within 10 miles of any other business or Club using the System.

  This say a competing business, nothing about it having to be 24 hour. Selling a nutrition product? Sorry, that competes against the nutrition portion of the Snap membership.

• So now here’s a new rub, and gives potential franchisees an idea of how snap fitness operates. Remember that national marketing fee of $130/month I mentioned? This is for that packet of posters you hang around your club. Well now snap has placed a restriction that you must purchase a “myzone” package if you want to receive your packet of posters. The myzone package will cost you a couple thousand dollars to implement. It contains several straps you can resell to members in order to recoup some of your cost.

  The old saying, “those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it”. Here’s the history with Snap when it comes to things like this… Snap used to push the “easyfit” device. Clubs could buy these from Snap and resell them to members. Like Myzone they’re good devices and helpful. (I won’t get into a fitbit vs myzone debate here). The thing is Snap would advertise to your members that they could buy the devices directly from Snap corporate. The price? The same as what clubs paid. However, the member didn’t have to pay Snap’s exorbitant shipping costs. Snap argued that they were only running that special for a limit time. Thing is that limited time was during the busy time of the year, leaving clubs with shelves of unsold devices. Eventually Snap scapped the device.

  The main point here though is now clubs are paying $130/month for their packet of posters called a “shape-up kit” and receiving nothing unless they spend thousands more on a system which may not even be suitable for their club.

  Again, stay away from this franchise and save yourself a bunch of frustration.

• I am considering closing my location but my franchise agreement still has a number of years left does anyone know if there is a penalty for doing this? I am having a hard time locating my franchise agreement and do not want to ask them for it.

• frustratedSnapowner:

  email ADMIN of this site at unhappyfranchisee[at]gmail.com. Let me know the year you signed and what state you’re in. I’ll see if I can find the right one for you.

  ADMIN

• With credit cards today you find yourself receiving a new credit card every 3 or 4 months for various reasons. Your card was lost or stolen, the bank’s database was compromised or you’re getting a new card with the new EMV chip in it. For whatever reason people are having their cards replaced often. If you’ve had this happen you’ve noticed that many companies which you have auto-pay with automatically update your card information. You don’t have to call them and they don’t have to call you. Many fitness management and billing software companies such as Shape.net and Twin Oaks will update your members’ new billing information for you. Unfortunately Snap, and I believe all of lift brands, uses their own software, called fitware. Besides all of the other problems with this awful, glitch filled software, it’s incapable of updating your members’ billing information.

  Instead, Snap will sell you a service which will email your members and autobot call them to ask them to update their billing. Regardless of whether the member updates their billing Snap will charge you. Their success rate? They claim it’s about 70%. What does this mean for the typical Snap franchisee? It means they see about 5% of their members disappear due to not being able to obtain new billing information. Meanwhile, Snap collects their fee for “trying” and other software companies update 100% of their members data.

  When a franchisor is willing to let their franchisees lose 5% of their membership base month after month you have to question if they care at all about their franchisees. Why would you let them struggle when there are proven solutions for this. Is it so they can collect exorbitant rates for their awful software ($155/month, compared to $40 to $50/month for companies with this capability) or is it so you can charge your franchisees a fee for sending an email and running an auto-dialer? One thing which seems obvious is that Snap puts corporate first, before anything else. Franchisees seem to be down around priority 23 or 24, just as long as they’re paying tribute, I mean franchise fees.

• It takes too much time, and effort just to keep the gym from going bankrupt. Some locations will just never make money, no matter how much effort you put in. There are much easier way of making money.

  I had a location in a suburban town. I invested my savings into getting Snap fitness. I quit my job to open and work at snap fitness. 24 hour gym was a new concept in my town when we first opened up. The gym was profitable the first few months. As the novelty wore off, less and less customers started coming, and many did not renew.

  Many customers wanted services that only the larger gyms offer, and Snap does not offer. At this point net income was zero, and I was working 12 hour days. Half of the money went towards rent, and half of the money went to corporate.

  Then 2 small gyms (cross fit and anytime fitness) opened up 5 minutes away from my location. As the customer base was split between 3 gyms, the net income became negative.

  I was stuck due to the Snap contract and Lease contract. I decided to hire a manager/fitness instrurctor during the day, and I went back to my old job. I would work at my old job in the morning and spend all evening at the gym. Leaving no time for me to see my family or kids. Even then I could not get the gym to turn a profit.

  I worked even on weekends, and holidays. I went door to door. I advertised in the local newspaper, on internet websites, group discount websites. Yet nothing. No Profit.

  The small 24/7 gym has a very niche market, and too much competition. Snap is too big for the amateurs, who would rather just purchase an indoor bike to work out at home. It is too small for the body builders, and does not offer the luxury amenities that the larger gyms offer.

  I operated the Snap Fitness for 5 years and sold it when my contract ended. I was able to sell it for less than half of what I paid to open it.

  Basically I worked for Snap fitness for 5 years for free, so I could pay Snap corporate. After 5 years, I was $100,000 in debt. The snap franchise fees, and monthly fees are not worth, what they provide in return. Snap Fitness does not care if you make any money, as long as you pay them. If you try to end the contract early, they will sue you.

  The person that bought the gym was able to run it for 2 years before going bankrupt.

  Had I not fallen for the Snap sales pitch, I would not only have my savings. I would have 5 years’ worth of income. I would not have wasted 5 years of my life, which I can never get back. I would not be in debt.

  The only reason I was able to make it through the 5 years was because my wife was working. She was able to pay the bills, and mortgage for the home.

• Does Snap act in their franchisees’ best interest? Well, there is example after example of how Snap puts Snap Corporate ahead of the franchisees’ interests. At their most recent convention Snap had a vendor there touting the benefits of LED lighting with “special” pricing for Snap Franchisees. Everyone I spoke with at snap touted the benefits of LED lighting, they had looked into EVERY option and this was the best, most cost effective solution. Their solution? The price tag was $12,975.00. Again, this is the best, most cost effective solution according to snap. I took a trip to Lowe’s, spoke with one of their employees for the lighting aisle. They showed me a solution which uses 1 more watt of power per bulb, but only costs $900.00. That’s a difference of $12,000.00, but snap continues to recommend to their franchisees that they move forward with their “partner” for LED lighting.

  When we opted to go with a franchise we thought we’d have a partner who would have industry experience and guide us in the right direction. Instead we have a franchisor whose only interest is figuring out how to extract as much money as possible from their franchisees and no idea of industry trends. What we’ve received is bad, short-sided advice as well as recommendations which are clearly aimed to profit snap corporate to the detriment of their franchisees.

  If you’ve read any/all of the above posts and still opt to open a snap fitness or buy an existing snap fitness then you only have yourself to blame.

• Want to be your own boss, and run your own business? Well then don’t consider Snap Fitness. Over the years I’ve owned UPS Stores, Sport Clips, Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds franchises. Having now owned a Snap Fitness franchise for almost 5 years I have to concur with many of the other reviews listed above. Snap Fitness is the most overbearing and worst run franchisor I have ever worked with. There seems to be a corporate culture, most likely coming from the top, that the franchisees are simply there to take advantage of and make money off of.

  There is nothing that the corporate level does to help the franchisee. Instead they simply seem to come up with new ways to drain money from their franchisees. They label things in deceptive ways when you’re first looking at owning a franchise. A perfect example of this is their “National Marketing Fee”. With McDonalds I also paid a national marketing fee. It went toward national marketing, meaning TV and radio ads that were broadcast nationally. Snap does none of this and it’s labeled a national marketing fee to deceive prospective franchisees into thinking that Snap is starting to advertise nationally. It’s simply swindling, plain and simple.

  The new contract they’re waving at us is nothing more than indentured servitude, where you own none of your membership information. Guess what we’re not renewing and I refuse to let Snap do anything with our prime location. Instead we’re changing it over to a Subway. This is one more location which Snap will lose this year.

  Want to see the trend at Snap? Look at the FDD. What you’ll see is that there are more and more US clubs going away and corporate clubs trying to take them over. The only growth they have is in the foreign market. The question you have to ask is how long will it take before Snap’s reputation makes its way overseas.

• Have you every wanted to work with the mob or maybe do business in a communist country? Here’s your chance!! Buy a Snap Fitness franchise and experience it first hand. Wanna sell your franchise after your 5 years are up? Get ready for a big legal battle. Snap will do their best to make this as difficult as possible for you and retain a lawyer, Then be prepared to have them create all sorts of busy work they’ll send to your lawyer in an attempt to raise your bill.

  You can negotiate lower prices yourself for equipment from the recommended equipment manufacturers, Matrix, Cybex, Octane Fitness and others. This equipment is shipped directly from the manufacturer, but ordered through a reseller. However, since you didn’t buy it directly from the manufacturer snap will charge you to send someone out to “inspect and verify” the equipment. In other words if it goes through a reseller they don’t get their “cut”, so they find another way to get it. They charged up a total of $3500.00 to inspect our equipment. Again, this was shipped directly from the manufacturer, just as if we bought it from them directly. Snap will point out that this is in the franchise agreement.

  They also sell access to your club for 30 days to anyone for $8.95. You get $0 of this. They claim they’re helping you out by getting your “phones ringing and doors swinging”. Problem is those phone are ringing because you’re paying members are calling to complain and the doors are swinging because they’re leaving. Since this is something they claim to be doing for your benefit you’d think you’d be able to say no thank you. Sorry, that’s not an option, it’s considered a mandatory program which you can’t opt out of. Snap claims to screen for previous members, students home for break and such, but it’s quite obvious that you simply have to change your email address to get past their “checking”.

  Lastly if snap screws over one of your members because of their assinine software don’t expect them to help out by taking the blame. They don’t want to take the blame for anything and always point back at you. obviously it must be something you did, even if they have no evidence of it. If the customer calls corporate to complain you can expect corporate to throw you under the bus. This organization has no idea about how to do business.

  It’s no wonder that they’re nowhere to be found in the franchise 100, or probably even the franchise 500. My guess is that snap, and lift brands, won’t be around in another 5 years. Their franchisees can only pray for it, because at this point most of them want nothing to do with snap fitness. Oh, and the $8.95 program was met with a petition opposing it which was signed by 95% of franchisees. Snap’s response? crickets. They don’t give a damn about franchisees, the franchisees are simply there for them to collect money.

  HEY Snap, here’s an idea “DO SOMETHING TO IMPROVE THE MEMBER EXPERIENCE RATHER THAN SIMPLY PUTTING MONEY IN YOUR POCKETS” If you wanna see how well your current strategy works take a look at Curves. Oh that’s right you made the stupid mistake of bringing Gary Findley on board after he decimated Curves by gouging franchisees over and over again until they cried UNCLE.

• Snap Fitness has no mind share. The website pitch of “most franchisee’s are able to keep their day job” should have been the the first clue as to what we were getting into: You won’t make enough $$ to leave the shitty job you currently have.

  2nd: You don’t need a corporation to help you find a location with X amount of people nearby with Y amount of average income. That’s what your realtor is for.

  3rd: Franchise fees: They are going to get you in the startup fees. They are going to get you in the fixed monthly fees, they are going to get you in the per member fee on top of all that. That’s the margin between red and black right there.

  4th You HAVE to use their Club Management software. We wanted to use another gym management software system from http://www.firmpos. com and we weren’t allowed. It was light years ahead of the supplied system.

  5th: Check this out: do a google search for Modernization Date: 6 months site:craigslist.org

  Just go ahead and copy/paste that into google.

  As of January 2016 there are over 90 listings for corporate repo’d locations. Something has hit the fan at Snap Fitness.