Fitness First

With 180 clubs in the UK, joining them is easy - but leaving can be much harder. This year scores of you have told us that, once they've got you, they won't let you go.

31 October 2007

Rachel Whillock had been a member for six months when her doctors found a tumour in her foot. Fitness First told her it would suspend her membership at no charge if she provided a doctor's note. Rachel sent one and cancelled her direct debit. Some months later Fitness First said her doctor's note wasn't good enough, and to send another. The firm also said she owed it money.
Rachel appealed but, 18 months on, Fitness First wouldn't let her walk away.
Rob Whitehouse's new job was taking him to Canada for three months. Having completed his three-month contract with Fitness First, he paid for his month's notice and cancelled his direct debit. Fitness First said it had never received his hand-delivered cancellation letter and he now owed the company £31 for an extra month - plus an extra £25 for not making that payment on time.


Fitness First told Rob it was all in the small print. So we asked a legal expert to go through its terms and conditions. Dr Christian Twigg-Flesner, senior lecturer at The University of Hull, told Watchdog that, as it was a very long document with lots of small print and legal language, it's "very difficult for the consumer to find out exactly what they're signing up to". Of the £25 late payment charge, he said: "It's clearly an unfair term, because the cost that the gym incurs is going to be a lot less than £25."
There's no easy escape from Fitness First. The firm's terms and conditions say that, to cancel, you should make an appointment with the gym manager to explain why. Then they'll sign a form to release you. Dr Twigg-Flesner said: "It's such a cumbersome procedure, the real intention seems to be to try to stop them (people) getting out in the first place, and that looks very much like an unfair term to me."


And sometimes it doesn't matter what it says on the contract you sign with Fitness First. If it doesn't like it, it might just change it afterwards.
Rebekah Milford signed up for three months, but when she became pregnant she decided to cancel. Fitness First insisted she was signed-up for 12 months, so Rebekah asked the firm to send her their copy of the contract. When she received it, it had changed since she signed it.
Instead of apologising, Fitness First said she owed them money, and called in the debt collectors.


Fitness First has apologised to the people in our film. The company say it's clear it made errors in these cases, but it's confident it offers a fair, transparent and simple system for cancelling contracts. Less than one per cent of members who cancel have a contract dispute, and, though the firm displays the key points on the front, it'll now be asking the Plain English Campaign to review the contract's wording. Fitness First says its £25 charge IS justified - though not with the case we showed. As for that altered contract, its form has been improved this year to avoid such an event happening again.

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Fitness First Update

Members will be able to email john.gamble@fitnessfirst.com or call 01202 682999, and a full investigation will take place on each individual case.

 

With regards to not understanding the contract it is simple. You ask the membership consultant if there is a cooling off period (All fitness First contracts now have a 10 Day cooling off period). Within this 10 Days you seek legal advise to understand the contract. For example the "Citizens Advise Buruogh". If within that 10 days you are not happy then go to your local gym and cancel you contract. Tip: Make sure you get it signed by a Fitness first employee and request a photo copy.

 

me_works_at_FF, When someone joins a gym they expect to be able do what they intended to do in the first instance, exercise.

NOT a session with a legal advisor, NOT plethora’s of phone calls and abusive staff on the end of the line when you try to cancel, NOT being threatened with legal action, NOT legal battles in small claims court, NOT additional unnecessary stress imposed by Fitness First.

Are you on FitenessFirstSucks.com as a legal representative of Fitness First?

Or are you just honouring us with your own personal thoughts and views as a member of the staff of Fitness First?

Either way thanks you for your imput!

 

As you say i am just a member of staff at fitness first and i am just viewing my thoughts and feelings. all i am asking you so do is "put the shoe in the other foot" so to speak. I am not doubting that you will probably never work for fitness first but i am just saying that we have complaints every day like most other companies and it can be a stressful time for us staff working at head office, and it is not nice.

 

me_works_at_FF I totally sympathise on where you coming from, under no circumstances you should have to put up with abuse from customers however I’m sure that even you do it from time to times, here’s one of my previous replies:

Quote:

Well Maria if you think about it, its normally always the client facing roles that get all the abuse independently of whoever made the mistake We all do it from time to times a good example is when you go to a restaurants or and they accidentally double booked it, or when you call your telephone company saying that there has been a reported fault for the past 2 weeks. I guess what I’m really trying to say is: Shouldn't customer facing roles be trained to handle this situations. I’m not suggesting under any circumstances that people should be rude or abusive, however it is up to the companies in this instance Fitness First to have a process in place to resolve this matter, either by giving some sort of gratuity to the customer or similar... oh wait we're talking about FF so chances of that happening are next to none.

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