They hung up on me shortly after they called me to question me why I cancelled after being a member for 3+ years and I began replying that my unhappiness goes back to the time when I was BULLIED by the PT "Lorik" at the Swiss Cottage branch.
Yep one day the PT "Lorik" flipped when I was putting my foldable bike in a room as I had been doing for about two years as agreed with one manager when joining the club.
"Lorik" had a power trip on me, he was very rude, with abusive manners kicked me out of that room treating me like an idiot and kept antagonising me in front of other members as he wanted literally to finish the job by kicking me out into the street.
He didn't want to hear a single word from me but I stood my ground pretending to speak with a manager inevitably creating commotion that could have been avoided if he would have listened to me first and then involved a manager to handle the situation professionally rather than BULLYING a peaceful customer acting in good faith and as per instructions.
Needless to say the manager after making up a poor excuse that wouldn't justify BULLYING anyway, told me to put back the folded bicycle in that room for that evening and the next time just bring the name of the manager I had the agreement with as they didn't put it in the system which certainly is not my fault as I actually requested it at the time just to be safe.
I made a phone complaint to the support line who redacted my written complaint to water it down, then they said they'll have a word with that PT and his manager to make sure it won't happen again, they promised to get back to me to confirm this but they never did.
This damaged the precious momentum and work/life balance I gained by cycling to the gym because me and my gym buddy had no other option than moving to friendlier branches for a while, which then led us to cancel both memberships because this chain it's not up to expectation and they do not listen to their clients.
I listed the remaining horror story of the Swiss Cottage branch on the review page for that branch, regarding the Mayfair branch I can tell that all the staff in direct contact with the clients and PTs have always been polite and professional.
The problem is that everything gets stuck at that level:
- When I joined the branch manager promised to get some support handles for Calystenics/hand stands since there would be lots of space to use them: it never happened.
- A machine that I really depend on was broken and a safety hazard for months, it took me a month chasing the polite staff to keep chasing their managers with the request to get it fixed and to ensure no one will use it in the meantime. Broken machine signage was ineffective, kept falling off so members kept using it unknowingly and the technician didn't have a clue how to fix it so when it finally did it, it was the wrong way. Took ages of chasing again to get him to come back and properly fix it, I emailed pictures, explanation etc basically doing their job.
- After reaching higher levels of frustration not being able to train because of missing clips I had to request clips for the barbells as there were more barbells that clips and they never replenished. I guess people steal them even though that's not an excuse, I pay a generous membership swiftly so I expect to find the equipment I need.
- Same story for pulleys machine handles, the machine was free and I couldn't use it because there were no spare handles, the polite staff couldn't find them in the whole club. Happened more than once.
Differently than Swiss Cottage this gym was decently cleaned but there was a stench of urine in the toilet no matter how often they tried to fix it as if it was a structural problem with the urinals' plumbing.
Airplane vacuum pressure toilets were really cool though!!
No maintenance in the showers, tiles detaching from the wall, many soap dispensers always clogged. After members managed to force the lids open to get the soap from the top, the staff would lock it again and it must have never crossed their mind that if members force them open every day it's not because they are vandals, it's because at a certain point of the day the same dispensers always get clogged.
Dumbbells and barbells left all over the weights floor, most clients can't be bothered to put them back, the staff doesn't keep up and there's no enforced etiquette either, I've seen members doing supersets on a bench and then leaving dumbbells and barbell behind.
So it's a cemetery of barbells getting scavenged here and there when needed which is a trip hazard.
They don't have a single straight bar where you can hang. They have dozens of handles or bars but either they're not straight and/or they're not high enough and/or they are way thicker than an Olympionic bar and/or there's not enough clearance to do pull ups and legs up.
...TO BE CONTINUED... read more