Creating a general forum topic for gyms
Gyms
SomeGuyOnOzB on 18/05/2008 - 20:59
Last edited 15/12/2011 - 12:12
Last edited 15/12/2011 - 12:12
Comments
If you are interested in joining a gym, I would strongly recommend making use of some free gym trials and free gym visits if you can get them.
I found it was a great eye opener to get an idea of what the different gyms near me are like, what the gyms offered, what I enjoyed, what I really wanted (eg I decided I wanted certain classes, cardio equipment, weights and didn't need a pool, spa or sauna), and whether I could get into the classes or onto the equipment (some gyms at some times can have too many people arriving all at once eg straight after work).
Longer trials tend to be better for people. 7 days is good. Some gyms even offer 30 days.
I would recommend against any gym that requires your credit card or bank account details for any reason, before you join. There are too many stories on the Internet where people ended up being billed despite verbal assurances otherwise.
If you aren't sure at the end of the trial, then maybe you need to either walk away for a bit to think about things, try other gyms or just try something else.
There are other ways to get fit (if that's what you want to do) apart from a gym, such as dancing, sports etc.
Anyways, that's the end of that ramble.
Oh, one site that's pretty useful is
http://goodgymguide.com.au/s/s1.htmThis should take you to the search for free passes
Comments on specific gyms or gym chains
Free pass over the Internet was nice. Getting 2 more free passes when I did a tour was also nice.
I only tried a few group fitness classes so I can't comment on too much there, but my impressions were that it was a nice place, with helpful friendly staff. Plenty of equipment. Includes pool, spa, sauna, creche and group fitness classes.
Different memberships are actually advertised online, some here, which is a big plus over other gyms. A relatively good monthly membership plan (compared to other monthly plans in the area).
I did not end up joining them because they don’t have Body Combat or a similar type of class; another gym I tried did.
SUMMARY
In short, if you have a Genesis Fitness gym near you, try the 30 day trial and see if you like it.
Oh, if you do like it, and are going to join, I think you can list someone as your referrer … hint hint :)
FREE TRIALS
They have several different free trials, of differing lengths:
- the one on their home page is only 14 days; you don't want that
- I think I tried this 30 day free trialI had to go in for a tour of the facilities to get the 30 day pass. The consultant offered me "no admin & no joining fees" if I skipped the trial and signed up for a 10 or 12 month package, but I declined.
I signed some paperwork after checking the terms and conditions and they did not ask for or take any of my account details.
During the trial I could go to all the classes I want and use their equipment. I probably could have used the lockers and showers too.
(To Genesis Fitness: A personal assessment would make the trials better and would make it more fun for people on the trial, thus increasing potential sales conversion)
At the end of the trial, they asked me again if I'd like to join. I thought for a week and told them I wanted to check some more gyms before making up my mind. I agreed to a call back a number of weeks later.
MY EXPERIENCE
I ended up liking the staff, the classes, found the equipment pretty good, could get there and park without much problem, no hard sell … I joined up.
Everything I want is included at no extra charge: classes, personal assessments (these are not personal training sessions), weights, lockers, showers, towel loans and drinking water.
The monthly payments have provided reassuring flexibility and have been an okay price for the area. Plus as I'm going 4 or more times a week, it works out at less than $5 a visit.
5 months later, I'm still there :) enjoying it all, they've just given me a free personal training session for my birthday and they've called me to discuss dropping my weekly payments by just over 50% (More on that next week as I find out more).
PLANS
I am on a monthly plan, paid weekly at around $20.00 a week. I could have gone on a 10 or 12 month plan, but needed the flexability in case of travel requirements, earlier on.
My plan includes, at no extra charge:
- personal assessments with weights program reviews and rewrites
- all classes
- use of all equipment
- use of lockers, showers etc
- towel loans
- (drinking fountains are also available)It looks like starting this week onwards, it will also include a free breakfast club … if I can get to the gym in the morning :)
There are also monthly (paid monthly), 10 monthly and 12 monthly plans. The 10 monthly and 12 monthly plans are offered at significant discounts across the year.
Student discounts and I think other discounts available. There may be offpeak plans too but I'm not sure.
There are joining and admin fees standard. These are waived or reduced during some promotions.
Medibank Private members also have a special offer for joining up with Genesis Fitness. Something like 1 month free, no joining and admin fees.
NB:
They use an intermediary collection agency for some or all of the plans. There may be an additional set up fee and you will probably want to check with them before making a decision. I had a $30 set up fee.
EQUIPMENT
I've used cardio equipment (treadmills, tread climbers, spinnaker(?) and some other gear), pin weights and some free weights. I have not yet tried gear in the "only free weights" room or the cycle room.
Generally equipment is in good working condition, if not all looking the newest.
A few cardio machines did break down, but there were other cardio machines to use, and machines tended to be fixed in 3 - 10 days.
Most or all rooms have a water fountain too.
There is air conditioning in the rooms I've used, and the group fitness room also has fans.
There are a number of tvs playing with audio available through radio broadcast. Regular tv channels are played, as well as one Fox cable channel. I haven't listened to the tv broadcasts though.
Speakers play music with occasional messages suggesting (more) people try classes for fun and asking people to remember to wipe down equipment after use.
I'm pretty happy with what is there, machine availability and how quickly things are fixed should things break down.
STAFF
I've found the staff to be happy, friendly and helpful. When I've had questions for them, they were happy to help out how they could.
I've spoken with receptionists, sales consultants, personal trainers and group fitness instructors.
During busy periods I have often seen at least one personal trainer circulating, chatting with people and available for any questions.
Personal assessments have been helpful with the weights programs that I've been given.
CLASSES
I enjoy the classes that they offer and their class time table suits me well, with evening and weekend classes. There are also day time classes I can avail of when I get occasional days or hours off from work.
The instructors have been friendly and very helpful too.
Generally I have had no problem getting into classes.
SELLING
I've heard some gyms keep trying to sell you stuff after you join. I haven't had any of that.
I know I could pay for personal training if I needed some more motivation or to be pushed harder, but no one's tried selling it to me.
Occasionally they run promotions where they say, put in a friend's name and number and enter the competition to win an iPod or something, but that seems to be about it.
Oh, there's now a single mannequin in the foyer, with a sign next to it advertising some clothing website. There's also a snack machine, but then, they have drinking fountains in the different rooms. So, no pushing for people to buy anything more. :)
DEMOGRAPHICS
The age, gender, fitness spreads tend to vary from time to time. But there are men and women, ages ranging from teens to 70s (typically 20s to 50s), from those who want to be fit, to those keeping fit, to those who are working on astounding strength.
So, it could be suited towards just about everyone.
Probably anyone in range of a Genesis Fitness gym, might like to try their 30 day trial. (if you have medical issues consult your doctor first)
CONTINUING CONTRACT
They just offered me a continuing contract. It is a 15 month prepaid contract, at $645.00 or so. Which works out as about $9.92 a week.
Included in the package is the same as before, which I've found to be:
- classes
- equipment use
- locker use (but you have to carry a $2 coin around as your own personal "key")
- shower use
- towel loans
- personal assessments
- weight training programs planned for me
- drinking water (I mention that because some other gyms are weird about providing drinking water)
- they are also trying out member breakfasts now tooAlso, I get free suspensions! As many as I like (I think minimum 1 week at a time, but it could allow for shorter suspensions) with only 7 days notice, totalling up to 3 months of suspended time, if I need it. A number of clubs charge reduced fees during a suspension, and require 30 days notice (especially if they use another company to handle billing). So that's good that this new contract includes free suspensions. :)
I decided to take it as:
- I am making use of the gym regularly
- can see myself using the gym throughout the year
- see this is a better deal
- can afford the lump sum at the momentSo, I am very happy with the deal :)
Note: It does not include Personal Training sessions. Personally I don't need those at this stage, and if I do later, I can pay for them with the savings from switching plans :)
They've added new boxing equipment and are running boxacise classes :)
They're heading onto the Summer timetable shortly though.Unfortunately :S the 30 day free trials are now 7 day free trials.
Update - Genesis Fitness, 15/12/2011
RECOMMENDATION CHANGE
Do not go with them
More details to come, including that they overbilled me by nearly $1000, lied to me about making repayments, lied to me about the cause of the problem (being their staff), head office couldn't be bothered to reply, changing classes on members without warning (so you get to the gym in time for class and find out they've just moved your class earlier so you miss out), lying to members about financial status of other gyms to try and secure your continuing membership, ripping up negotiated contracts and going with stock standard contracts instead, stalling clients by telling them nothing can be done about them ripping up the wrong contract … :S
I admire your dedication to this thread, it's sad that so many gyms are dodgy and really only after your money.
It appears that the measure of success for many gym employees is how much $$$ they can make, and that culture is obviously born from the business model.
At least places such as Neil as mentioned tend to be more about providing a community service,
I've also found gyms without contracts are usually a little better at keeping their clients.I'm very sorry to see Genesis Fitness going this way too :S
I had one more payment to go, for the coming year and a bit.
They said I could pay it, in the gym and there'd be no administrative costs.Then I get a letter from DebitSuccess saying, I have to pay them, plus administration fees.
I ask the gym what is going on and they say, just make sure I pay on time and I won't be billed by DebitSuccess.
So I make sure to pay early and I ask the receptionist/manager to call DebitSuccess and make sure I don't get billed. (In the past, that's what happened. DebitSuccess has to be called to cancel a payment) She says she'll do that.
A couple weeks later, I get a bill for my credit card. Not only did Genesis Fitness take the payment from me in the gym, they then went and got DebitSuccess to bill me for it again and also charged me an administration fee.
My bill was due soon, too. So, I'm supposed to come up with close to $1,000 extra that month, from somewhere??? :S
I write to Genesis Fitnes to find out what's going on, very irate about this. They read the email (I had read receipts turned on) and don't bother getting back to me. It's urgent so I write to them again, very irate, letting them know, their silence on it all is making it look like this was theft rather than error.
They ring and tell me they forwarded it to the local manager.
One of the guys rings up. He tells me he understands, this should not have happened. They'll pay me back and it might take up to 2 weeks (after they've been sitting on it for about 2 weeks)
I point out the bill is due soon and where am I supposed to find this extra $1000 from in the meanwhile?
So he gets my bank details and says he'll get them to rush it through.
He even rings me back not long later, to say, the money will be paid tomorrow. It will go into my account, but might take a few days to show up. I thanked him for his help and understanding. He said not to worry; he'd be irate too if it had happened to him.
I go in the next day and am told, he left a message with reception. They are to get my bank details and put in that I am to be refunded the money.
I was gob-smacked.
Not only did he lie about sorting out my refund, it's a great big "I don't give a censored about us stiffing you with this bill"
Where is he? Oh, he's gone on holidays …
I ask the receptionist/manager who is on duty, who is also the one who took my payment and was supposed to call DebitSuccess what happened. Why did I get billed. She tells me, the system is automated. When they receive a payment, DebitSuccess are supposed to be notified automatically. But there was a computer error and it didn't go through.
So I ask her what was the problem. She doesn't know.
So how do I know, this won't happen every time? She says, oh no … it won't happen every time.
Wow … (sarcasm) … what a resounding endorsement … I feel so moved to believe her.
I later ring Debit Success to find out how does it all work and they confirm for me that I was right to ask them to ring up. That's how their business works. They have to stop transactions automatically.
So basically, she just didn't bother to put the stop through, and left me with an extra almost $1000 to pay on my credit card service.
That's Genesis Fitness service for you. … (I am so angry about this and their further handling of it all)
She tells me, I'll get paid but it might take up to 2 weeks.
I get home and look, a letter arrives from DebitSuccess saying that my membership has been cancelled.
Lovely.
It just doesn't stop.
I ring the gym and they advise me, no my membership hasn't been cancelled. That's just the way the letters get worded. It means I just won't be billed any further.
… why don't management go work it out with Debit Success and get the wording changed?
I didn't mention it to them. You'll see later that they ignore clients most of the time anyways.
So I ask if they can email me that my membership hasn't been cancelled. They agree and then the email never arrives. I've gotten email from them before, so this is not encouraging :S
I go back in another day, when the manager/receptionist who took my original payment is in. At that stage I didn't know she was lying to me about the system being synchronised. She's acting a bit weird when I ask her if she can send me an email showing me that my membership hasn't expired, saying that I'd paid for my membership in full and that I shouldn't have been charged again, also when I'll be paid by.
But she agrees to it and sends it to me. I do get the email.
In the end I did get repaid the money, after I had to find the money elsewhere and after I had to repay the credit card.
But, I'm far from happy over how it's all been handled.
So I ring head office. Note that they only provide a 1300 number on their site, and that is for people who want to join up.
So I ring up and explain I want to complain about Genesis Doncaster. I'm put through to Danielle Flood's number and leave a message on her answering machine.
It's been 3 days and she hasn't called me. So much for service from Genesis Fitness.
I rang again today, and checked. She is in and around the office. Just not at her desk at that time, today. So I leave a message again, just asking her to call me (not mentioning there is a complaint).
Still no response.
So, that's part of why I'm not impressed with them, anymore.
While I was waiting to get this sorted out, at one stage, there were 2 girls there trying to get something sorted out.
They'd gone in on a free trial.
When the trial was over, they negotiated a better deal and had a new contract drawn up.
Then whoever processed it went and tore up the negotiated contract and put them on the original offer which was not as good.
They had been chasing for a while, it seemed. But everyone they spoke to just said, sorry, there is nothing I can do.
Admittedly they were now talking to the receptionist/manager who didn't bother calling DebitSuccess for me (leaving me with a near $1000 extra bill) and she was actually helping them.
She was going to cancel their new contract and rewrite it for them.
I haven't seen them since though, so I don't know how that went.
Then there are the classes.
I'll just talk about one incident.
They had a popular Abs class, running at 5:30pm, 3 days a week. 5:30pm is a bad time slot, as most people do not get out of work in time for that and others won't go to it as they want to get dinner around 6pm.
However, the guy running the class was running a good class and the room would be packed. (15+ people)
I would go to the Boxercise class after, which was also quite popular, drawing around 20+ people at the time.
Now, whoever plans the classes, decided to ditch the freestyle Abs and replace it with Les Mills CX30 instaed. That's another Abs class, but run by the Les Mills group. It's a different structure etc. It also costs the gym more, to my knowledge. Running a Les Mills class incurs a sizable fee per type of class, in addition to paying instructors for their time.
Students from the Abs class tried out the CX30 but did not like it. Some problems included lack of variety, it's too rushed so the instructor can't guide properly or check how people are going, and also if it's not guided properly then people can do the exercises incorrectly (leading to them not working the proper muscles and they find it's too easy).
So, CX30 numbers dropped off to around 5 or less.
Now, instead of going back to having the cheaper and much more popular freestyle Abs class, which had 15+ people … they decide to run the CX 30 at 6:30pm and shove the boxercise class back to 5:30pm making it difficult for other people to get to the boxercise class.
Furthermore, they decide to just swap it and not bother warning the students (or even the teacher).
We get there and it's like, thanks for arriving at 6pm but your class started 30 mins before so bad luck.
So they are ruining 2 popular classes for the sake of 1 unpopular class???
They are destroying good will and making people unhappy about being with Genesis Doncaster because what … ??? Did some person sell them they should go with CX30 and now, if people realize it was a mistake her or his job is in jeopardy???
I wonder if the owners of Genesis Doncaster know that their staff are driving down good will with members and driving them off to other gyms? :S
Oh, that's right, other class members have found me in the gym when I couldn't make it to the Boxercise in time and asked me what I thought about it. I told them I wasn't happy with the time change.
They told me they are lodging complaints and asking for the class to be put back to it's regular time. But they aren't hopeful as when requests have been put through in the past, sometimes at the behest of management, the requests are then routinely ignored.
They figure it's easier to just go to Fitness First across the road since Genesis Fitness doesn't want our business any more.
I've left comments before this mess started. I've said how great the boxercise instructor was (15 years+ in the boxing circuit and she's a great motivator) and that it's having quality classes like hers as well as good, friendly service, that keep me at Genesis Doncaster and not heading across the road to other gyms.
It was nicer, the way I wrote it, as I was happy back then. It was before this payment mess. I was said by managers to be the most thankful person in the gym.
Now I see the Summer timetable. They've pulled the Monday night boxercise class off, completely.
The boxercise class was popular, even though we now have a new instructor. He was getting 14 or more on average (which is good for a class there)
It's not like it's even a cost cutting move. They've instead replaced it with a dance based class … like that's what people doing a boxercise class are looking for ???
While we are at it, no, after all that fiasco over the payment, they have made no attempt to restore good will. It's just been insult after insult, after injury, so to speak.
:S
I'm now thinking about changing. I've got to check how much it'll cost to cancel and see if another gym is happy to offer me equivalent savings to get me in their door.
Oh and talking with other members I've found out first and second hand that, there are heaps of people having problems with the payment system and Genesis Fitness just blame it on Debit Success … though if it really is Debit Success's problems, it is the gym choosing to continue to work with them that is a problem.
Then also, there are the staff who are trying to keep members at the Box Hill gym. Some of the staff have decided to tell people, they should stay with them and not go with the new gym down the road as they've heard the new gym is going bust.
The new gym is not going bust … and it's the exact tactics I saw Fitness First using years ago against Genesis Fitness, which I found appalling and put me off Fitness First before.
…
and just like when Fitness First tried it and Genesis members found out it was a deception … so Genesis members are now finding their own gym is now into deceptions to try and keep people :S
It's not all staff at Genesis Fitness.
Some have been and still are great.
But a number in power have been this way and it's just too many of them, the problems too big and the attitude of the overall chain (ignore it and let it go away) that means I'm now dissatisfied with Genesis and recommend people find some place else, if they are looking at renewing or for their first gym.
Then there've been staff telling members that, the reason they have revised Summer timetables with cut back number of classes, is because the fitness trainers are going on holidays.
This is an exaggeration, at the least.
The usual process is the class co-ordinators work out what classes they want to run, being a cut back schedule. They then check who is around to teach that.
The classes get cut back by the co-ordinator, first. Holidays of staff are secondary to it. :S
I was told this when I joined (and asked about why there was a cut back schedule).
The actual reason I was given was that, well, there are less people around so they can't justify having as many classes.
But if you are a member, you aren't paying any less during Summer and yet they give you less classes and reduce the operating hours of the gym :S
Oh and on Genesis Fitness now becoming like Fitness First …
They do have promotional racks of clothing and products in the gyms, though there hasn't been any hard selling … yet
I've now been approached by a couple of Personal Trainers coming up to try and push me to try their training sessions.
So it's starting to be more and more like Fitness First, which, I notice, is having financial difficulties. (Reported on earlier this year)
No need to be a gold member this Summer?
Then, with a heap of people complaining about how badly the classes are being cut back at quite a few of the Genesis centres, I heard the Box Hill class co-ordinator saying that they will let clients go to classes at other Genesis Fitness gyms, if they can find more classes to suit themselves.
But if you've paid for Gold membership, so you can use multiple gyms … what? They won't give you a discount. You're just paying more for the same thing that everyone else is getting.
…
Wow, you must type fast. Some of those comments only have a few minutes between them!
What a nightmare experience.
Bargain-wise, the YMCAs tend be the cheapest (no contracts, not trying to rip you off). Fitness First usually the most expensive, long contracts, hard to quit.
But honestly, you have to think is the gym really for you and will you go enough to make a membership worth it? It amazes me how many people come to my gym and ONLY use the treadmill. Um hello, there's a huge park like 5 minutes walk away.
Another thing with the YMCAs and probably other memberships that you may get is they often offer other discounts. With my YMCA membership I get discounts on local restaurants, movie tickets, etc.
Treadmill
- good or bad weather, can use treadmill
- less muggers stopping people on a treadmill
- can use treadmill late at night with a greater feeling of safety
- less people, bicycle, animals, animal presents, etc to dodge on a treadmill
- easier to push yourself by setting a steady speed on a treadmillPark
- fresher air in park
- cheaper in park
- different people in parkSome reasons for both :)
Also with YMCAs, or some YMCAs, I heard the group fitness instructors are treated really well there, so if you like your instructor, they are less like likely to be moving any time soon.
Hi Neil :)
Is the Genesis continuing contract cheaper than YMCA?
It is a 15 month contract with prepay, but the weekly rate drops to $9.92.
I can only speak for my local YMCA.
I pay $35.20 a month, ($28 if you want off peak) (billed every 2 weeks onto credit card).
Includes-Outdoor Pool (use of other gyms pools in winter)
-Lockers
-Gym
-Fitness Classes
-Personal training/fitness assessment, once every 2 months or so
-Water
-Use of Gymnasium
-8 weeks free suspension per year
-no contracts or minimum terms
-use the gym whenever you want
-Sauna, Steamroom
Can't think of anything else…
Been going there a while. Can't complain really although as its a Y its oriented to helping the community rather then making money. So there will often be people from commission flats there, they get discounted membership. No towels, TVs and not as many machines as you see in the bigger gyms. Mainly freeweights.
Sorry..looked it up…
All memberships have a joining fee to $58.00
@neil: I had a $30 fee originally, to set up with the billing company. I'm still happy. My Y is more expensive, though they do have an indoor pool. I was originally looking at doing one class a week (about $10 - $12) so this is beter than that and almost as good as your Y :) Plus I suspect, much closer to me than your Y :)
@SomeGuyOnOzB: Yeah, that's a good deal. Id probably pay the difference just to have towels and TVs.
@neil: Towels will now be loaned out at a $1 or $2 charge, starting 1 Nov 2008 … :(
(Small or large towel)That's a pity … I hope they remove that … or provide a more reasonable option, like $10 a month and they'll mark on your membership details if you have included towel hire …
Surely muggers would motivate you to run faster.
Doh! :P
Hmm … how to come back with that one …
I go to Curves - I liked that it's for women only and because it's a circuit, you don't have to think. Gyms scare me.
Here's a good articles on the founders of Curves:
http://www.australianwomenonline.com/tragedy-and-passion-the…
great thread foundit! kudos!
Thanks kermuffle
Seems like this has been ongoing for a while now.
Have you gone to consumers affairs and get them to step in? That might help sort them out.
With all your correspondent emails, names of the people you dealt with, date and time it was dealt with. Give consumer affairs a call and find out what else you can do and get them to step in if neccessary
Thanks for that.
I was down about it all and forgot to mention, they did repay me in the end.
So, apart from that, is there anything consumer affairs can do? Oh, do they record complaints about things like this?
From memory, if it was in their jurisdiction, they will take all your details, correspondence and they will follow it up with the offending company. Otherwise they will refer you to the appropriate department if they cannot help e.g ombudsman.
They do inform you though that if you want them to follow up, the process will be longer because they will need to investigate from the start.
However, you no longer deal with the offending company directly as they will negotiate everything based on what you want the end result to be e.g refunds, compensation etc within reason
They will also record the complain against the offending company so that they will have a record should another consumer call up to complain about the same offending company.
I am not sure whether the offending company gets fine or not with Consumer Affairs for every investigation that finds them at fault. I know that with ISP, every call you make to the ombudsman, they get a fine and it increases with every complain. Which is why when you threaten the ISP with ombudsman on a legit matter, they usually resolve it quickly.
I am thinking of joining http://www.fitnfast.com.au/ to use their weights on a daily basis
Any ozbargainers in here that's a member of this group? Reviews would be appreciated
haha wow a big read O.O
I am joining Anytime fitness mainly as they are 500M from my work in the city, so can go before/after/lunchtime :D
wow…things i did when I got got up at 2 am this morning…went to the toilet came back and told myself i am going to bed again….but decided to take a peek at ozbargain…..saw the colorado deal spend 30mins on my phone looking through all the items hoping not everything is sold out..then i see this gym discussion…wow….it took me over an hour to read this thing and i finally went to bed at 3:30am. anyway back to the story,
what a horrible gym! sorry to hear your story, I go to a gym in Chatswood called Crunch Gym. it costs me 5.95 a week no contract to use all their equipment. Been a new gym, all the stuff is relatively new and when they break..they are often fixed in a week.
The gym also use a 3rd party Debit Debit service…who decided a few months ago to charge everyone 50 cents more for reminding them that they will debit out of their bank soon( once a fortnight), it was a automatic subscription, all that came with this was a email(with a whole lot of other junk informaiton) to say ther have provided this extra service for your benefit. you have to PHYSICALLY reply back to cancel this useless service. I think these companies are abusing their authority to direct debit for services which clearly you havent signed up.
LOL you are a true ozbargainer :)
Hope you managed to get enough sleep.
Did you managed to get the 50 cents back? I consider it fraud. If you did not sign up for something, you should not be charged for it. They should not be charging you the amount first and then telling you that you need to cancel a extra service which you did not want in the first place.
What they did was as a good as a rogue accountant who decides to just take 0.01 cent out of every bank customer's account putting it into their own
Any feedback on the City Club Gym (at the Hyatt, Melbourne)?
It'll be interesting to see what sort of group buy deals come out in the new year.
To everyone looking to join gyms:
1) Avoid like the plague any gym that has a deal with DebitSuccess.
2) When looking to join, always go with a friend, a witness, yes guys you should have a witness because those guys have been trained on how to cheat you!
3) Always take note of everything it's told to you because you'll need these notes in order to fight for your rights as a consumer.
4) If you don't want to get in trouble, just don't commit any long term agreement with the gym and its companion DebitSuccess.For the first time in my life I decided to join a gym and it resulted as the worst thing I could ever done to myself.
The staff at the gym is well trained on how to divert and to dodgy your argumentation as well as DebitSuccess do by telling you their standard scripts.
Those guys will scam you in something you've no idea, you will start realising it when your bank account is charged with dishonor fees or other deceptive actions.
One example I found on Whirlpool, same case as mine, DebitSuccess and the gym "misunderstand" your bank details so to have the excuse to charge you $10 dishonor fees, how "poor" are these guys! http://tiny.cc/uxgiiI complained to my bank and an employee and its Manager told me that these cases are happening more and more, they told me to stay far away from DebitSuccess!
It does no matter if you go to YMCA or any other gym, the problem is to be aware of DebitSuccess, it seems by my negative experience that DebitSuccess is the one to blame for supporting those deceptive actions.
You won't be able to find much on internet about DebitSuccess because they just recently changed name.Be aware guys, no long term commitments, even just a 3 months contract and you're done!
As someone who works as a membership consultant in a gym, I wouldn't say avoid DebitSuccess associated gyms all together, rather pay for your membership upfront via EFTPOS/credit. Not only does this stop you from having any potential issues, you won't get charged an admin fee by DS and the membership works out to be considerably cheaper on a week-by-week basis.
Membership consultant, it's a big word! Why the hell people looking to do some gym would need a financial assistant? Yet that is your role!
I only gave one example regarding the dishonor fees "scam" because right now I can't give more details cause my complaint is being investigated, who knows maybe DebitSuccess is reading here.
Your suggestion won't work and I cannot say more right now.
You seems to imply that gyms and DebitSuccess do misleading common practices (you must know it) so you give your personal suggestions but we still have to deal with these scammers, why??No, I don't 'know it'. As I've only been in the job for a couple of weeks and have only heard of a couple of instances of people having problems, such as the ones I read on here. I wouldn't willing work for a company that was out to scam people.
I was just offering a solution for concerned OzBargainers, being a long-time one myself.
As someone who went to a gym that used DebitSuccess, my experience is different to both the consultant (JimJim) and that other gym member (dealhunt).
First, I went to a gym that used DebitSuccess. I paid a week early. The gym meanwhile, had set up a request with DebitSuccess to collect from me. I asked the gym to ring DebitSuccess and cancel that amount owing. I was told okay, by the person who took the payment.
Instead, I got double billed AND charged an admin fee. So I paid in the gym, then the gym left DebitSuccess to bill me 2 weeks later the same amount + admin fee.
I then was lied to by management about being repaid, sent a letter by DebitSuccess saying my membership is cancelled (apparently a standard letter written very poorly and they don't care about customers enough to rewrite it to just say, I will no longer be charged any more amounts for this current membership period), ended up having to find an extra $900 to pay my credit card bill because the gym couldn't be bothered to pay me inside a week (they'd sat on the money for about 3-4 weeks by then) … and that was Genesis Fitness in Doncaster. I then left a message for head office to contact me about the incident … they never bothered to contact me.
Based on further information I could suss out I'd say, if ANY debit company is used by the gym, if the gym sets up a debt with the debit company, do NOT rely on the gym consultants to do their job and call the debit company. If you pay the bill, get them to call DebitSuccess or whomever, while you wait, to cancel the amount owing and then have the consultant pass the phone to you and get the company to email you confirmation that they've cancelled.
If you pay outside of usual working hours, you'll have to call the debit company yourself, the next day.
While I've dealt with some good membership consultants and gym staff, my experience at Genesis Doncaster shows that the gym has a couple of untrustworthy staff working there.
As for JimJim, regrettably, once a long time ago, I had to sort something else out and it turned out in that case that again, there had been someone at the gym who didn't bother ringing up DebitSuccess. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten about ringing up DebitSuccess, when I made the payment this year.
I appreciated you telling your position but as I said your tricks didn't work or in other instances it doesn't apply.
Remember, these guys are professional and they always find a new way on how to scam honest people.
I went for healthy gym and found myself in a financial scam!Interesting thread on gyms, and very informative posts from foundit, especially on Genesis which I'm planning to join!!
I recently took up a 10-day free trial at a Genesis near my office, location wise it's really convenient as I can do the classes during lunch break- I anticipate to do the classes 4 times a week to make it worthwhile. In terms of membership Genesis has a deal with my company- month to month membership at $39/month, with a $40 one-off admin fee. During the trial I've done mostly classes: Bodypump, bodycombat, bodystep and bodybalance which I quite liked. I haven't tried the equipments yet but during the tour it seemed to be pretty basic equipments- treadmills, cross trainers, bikes and free weights. I'd say it's a slightly smaller gym than your average one. I also had a personal assessment done and the trainer was going to plan out a program for me based on my commitment to work out 4 days/week.
How does the overall package sound? My main goal is to lose some weight and improve my overall fitness (I also jog and play badminton regularly) but I'm torn between Genesis and my local gym that has a pool.
Are gyms for you? What do you want from a gym?