Energie Fitness Forest Hill

[mmanson1992]

Technically in Lewisham but I would like to share my experience as it was so appalling.

I have just moved to the area and was looking to join a new gym with price and convenience as priorities. I poked my head into Energie Fitness on my way to the station and signed up for two free trial passes. The owner, Ashley, greeted me on my first visit and was very friendly, promised me that the club was being refurbished in the near future and that more classes would be added to the sparse timetable. He conviced me to somewhat hastily pay for a year upfront as there was no joining fee and it would save me some money, and told me i would recieve a copy of my contract via email.

I joined on the 7th, and by the 11th had become painfully aware that this was not somewhere I wanted to work out. More machines than I had noticed were broken, towels and changing rooms were hot and extremely humid - when i raised this with a member of staff he told me 'I don't go in the womens' changing rooms, i'm a man' - staff were (that was one example of many) petulant and unhelpful and the few classes i did try to attend were either late, different to the timetable or taken by lax instructors who didn't appear to be taking them very seriously - With the exception of Li, who left shortly after I joine (speaks volumes that the only competent member of staff didn't want to be part of the team).

Hoping there was some kind of get out clause that often comes with these kinds of things, I looked for the contract in my files and on my email, but it wasn't there. I requested it at reception and was told by a sullen member of staff i would have to ask a manager. I asked a manager when he was next in, who also didn't know how to 'get my contract to me' and told me i would have to email. I emailed making a polite request. I emailed again because the two week period i was hoping to catch was coming to an end and i didn't want to miss the opportunity to cancel the contract. Eventually I was emailed back by the same manager who had told me he didn't know how to do it - Jonathon - who told me he had contacted head office about it. By the time i got to the end of the month i had emailed on three seperate occasions and still had no copy of my contract.

I went into the gym to complain that I hadn't recieved my contract and that really i was looking to cancel - I had been extrememly unimpressed with the quality of the gym and the incompetence and laziness of the staff in this matter was the icing on the cake. 4 or 5 times i went in before I was actually able to speak with Ashley (the owner) who was also irritable and unhelpful and told me, after i listed all the ways in which they had breached their end of the contract and the fact that they had STILL failed to get me a copy of mine - he would think about my refund and get back to me the following friday. Needless to say he wasn't in contact, and when I went in in the evening to ask I ended up waiting 20 minutes to speak to Jonathon (not Ashley) who eventually showed up brandishing a hastily printed copy of the terms and conditions - which are readily avalibale online just googling 'energie fitness full terms and conditions'. He clearly had no intention of contacting me and i'd caught him off guard. I explained, again, that this issue was no longer about the contract but a refund, and that anyway, what he was offering was NOT my contract that I had been asking for for the past month. He told me I would have to speak to Ashley (!) and assured me he would get him to call or email.

Eventually I got an email, again from Jonathon, telling me my refund had been refused. This verdict took over a month to come to due entirely to the laziness and unprofessionalism of the staff. Had i signed up for a rolling monthly contract, the numerous explicit reasons I gave would have provided enough evidence to constitute a breach of contract on their parts, according the terms and conditions. Because I paid upfront, this was not avalibale to me, something which was not made clear to me on signing. All in all an entirely unproffessional, shoddy quality establishent run by a group of bad-tempered youths. Steer clear at all costs!

[simonethebeaver]

Go to the Small Claims court. That sounds shocking.

[Angelina]

I concur. Write to them saying you will be processing a claim and see if that jolts them.

[dbboy]

Go to trading standards.

[annabel42]

I would suggest the Press.