I was a little disappointed to find out that this World Gym is not accepting any insurance fitness plans. It's certainly their choice if they want to do that, but they are alienating a huge part of the population that uses these. For example, most federal employees (there's a lot in Tucson) have access to Healthways Prime and pay for it directly through their insurance. The network of gyms is pretty massive and includes both small franchise gyms and the larger ones similar to World Gym. And the frustrating thing is that other World Gyms are actually included in it out of other cities. When I went in to speak to someone at this location, the first girl I spoke to was a little bit rude, saying that they're never going to accept insurance programs. When I asked to speak to someone else about it she said I could, but that they're not going to accept it, so what's the point. She seemed annoyed that I wasn't just handing over my credit card for a membership. I finally spoke to who I think was a manager, and he was polite, but explained that they want it to be "membership focused." Which didn't really make sense because they kept telling me I could pay for a day pass. If it's "membership focused," then a day pass would not be consistent with that idea. Regardless, for all the people out there that pay for an insurance program, they're not going to pay for entire separate membership just to go to this gym, even though it might be a very nice facility. Therefore, since most government employees get their gym access through their insurance company and pay monthly for it, I would think it's fair to say that this location and the franchisee is not very government/law enforcement friendly. And when I spoke to my government coworkers they agreed. If they were law enforcement/government friendly, they would accept insurance plans, especially those by government employees. For that I give this specific franchisee location one star. I'm sure it's a great location, but by refusing to allow any insurance programs, they are alienating a huge part of the population that happens to be civil servants and government employees. Of course, that's their right, but they need to be prepared for criticism such as this.
Edit: The owner reached out the day after I gave this review and I really appreciated the response. While Im disappointed and disagree in their decision to not accept insurance programs, it's certainly their prerogative. It's just frustrating that some locations are and others not. As for the service I got when I walked in, no one offered me any kind of special rate for first responders but that's most likely because I didn't advertise the fact that I might be eligible for it. And that's the issue, if the girl had engaged with me. A little more and actually had a conversation, maybe we would have gotten to a point where other options of membership could have been discussed. But it didn't because she was very brief and dismissive of my questions once she realized I wasn't going to get a membership and pay for my insurance plan. The only thing I mentioned was that as a federal employee, like most, we use our insurance. So because of the owners quick response, I'll give this place 3 stars instead of 1, but I still wish I would have received a little better service and a more substantive discussion when I came in to the location instead of being offered a membership in a rude dismissive way. read more