This small chain has a few locations in NC. But the Bordeaux location in Fayetteville, NC has problems potential members need to be aware of. Since no one cares about current members, maybe potential ones can make a difference.

Like all gyms, the staff acts nice and attentive when you sign up. After that-forget it. But you would not want their help or guidance anyway, the employees are mostly teenage kids who spend their time playing and flirting with each other. The employees-even the managers and older employees-are worthless. I've seen one of the older managers playing dodge ball in the front lobby with the teenagers. When the managers away the employees play.

The TVs are so old, they must have picked them up at Goodwill. The television pictures are so dark they can't be seen from the cardio equipment. Not that you would want to see what is on; keep in mind this gym is in "ACC Country". During the ACC basketball tournament, a request to an employee to change the channel on one of the 5 TVs to the tourney was denied-the TV was on ice skating. Yes, ice skating. The employee claims they were not "allowed" to change it. But later in the month I see the same slug change the channel to something he wants to watch-on MTV.

Do you like to listen to your own music when you work out? Or would you rather listen to what the childish employees select? Well, you have no choice. There are Bose speakers mounted right in front of the cardio equipment, and if the manager is away, they are blasting what ever crap the employees want to hear. And it s usually some type of rap-not what the demographic of the people who go there care to hear. Now there is a protocol for what should be on and the level, and also what should be on in the locker room too-the owner "Bob" has dictated it. But the employees ignore it, especially on the weekends, and laugh off what he says. You may as well leave your MP3 music at home. A request to turn the music down gets a surly attitude from the kid/s or another "we can't do anything about it" response.

The cardio equipment is often broken in some form or another-the machines have the ability for an RCA plug headphone to be plugged in for TV audio, but since all the little black boxes are damaged in some form or another, your chances of finding 1) a machine (treadmill, elliptical, bike) that works 2) has a cardio theater jack that works and 3) is clean enough you dare get on it are slim to none.

Which brings me to another problem. Cleanliness. I've seen a used condom in the locker room. Maybe it was left behind by the boy employee with the funny sideburns who vanishes from duty with his girlfriend into the closets. Vacuum the floors? No. Pick up trash on the floors? No. Clean dirty socks or jocks or underwear or tee shirts from the tops of the lockers? Nope, nope nope and nope. Wipe the machines down even once every 2 weeks or so? Nope.

Why in the company pays to have 3-4-5 employees working at one time is a mystery to the members. They spend most of their time talking up front or in the offices. They contribute nothing to retaining members by providing a clean well-managed place to work out.

If you think you're going to take advantage of the hours by coming in close to closing, say an hour ahead-forget it. The clocks in the gym can all read 15 minutes until the hour, but the announcement by the employees at that time is "The Spa will be closing in 5 minutes" comes on. And then the employees come around and turn the TV off in front of you.

This is not a real customer friendly place. This is what you get when you have no competition. There is no viable competition in this market.

If you are considering joining, say you're coming into town as part of BRAC, be aware of these issues. Don't say you weren't warned. Comments and requests to the staff gets you nothing, and complaints to the main office may make a change for a week or two, but then its back to the old ways.