Rochester Health Club

This company shows utter contempt to every business that is closing with people losing their jobs, homes and everything they have worked for by trying to stay open during lock down! This proves they do not give a dam about anyone but themselves. Terrible greedy people putting their bank balance over people's health. Just lock down like other businesses. They get bad reviews removed? And definitely do not like the truth regarding their selfish attitude towards anyone who disagrees with them! The monthly cost to train here is astranomical when you can train elsewhere for a fair affordable price. Crayford Weights and Fitness offer better facilities for an affordable price.

I had a membership paid on a yearly basis of £500.00 all in for the year which renewed December 14th 2019 until the lock-down came in on 21st March 2020. Before the reopening after lock-down eased I realised that most of the things that i used at the gym were now not possible (boxing contact pads with other members, sparring, sauna and steam room) i contacted them to request the cancellation of the membership as the facilities had changed and I requested a refund of time unused. This was refused point blank on the grounds that they apparently don't offer refunds. I was offered to freeze my membership and then when questioned the owner stated that it is just the flu and things will be normal again soon. I pointed out that under consumer protection laws i am legally entitled to a refund, this prompted an outburst from the owner and he suggested he would give a refund and then stormed off swearing. Following the heated discussion i considered my side of things and wanting to remain as reasonable as possible decided in the short term to freeze the membership to see how quickly things would return to normal. As things have moved along and it has become clear that normality will not be here for the foreseeable future so i contacted the gym and instructed that i would in fact prefer the refund instead of just leaving the membership frozen for the next year or two until the things i use are available to use again. I even suggested that even though i had only used three months and six days that this could be rounded up to four months and if they charged me four months at £50.00 per month and refunded £300.00 i would consider this a reasonable resolution. A couple of days later i received a credit for £243.00? That's a £243.00 refund for 8 months and 24 days unused time and i have been charged £257.00 for 3 months and 6 days that i could use the gym under the terms i had signed up to. They changed my contract to a more expensive one that previously didn't even exist and costs £57.99 a month and charged me four months at this higher rate and for good measure added a £25.00 joining fee. The below is from the Gov.uk site, In some circumstances, due to lockdown laws, a contract cannot go ahead as agreed or at all, and is therefore ‘frustrated’. A contract will be frustrated as a matter of law if, due to no fault of the parties, something happens after the contract was entered into which means it can no longer be performed at all or performance would be radically different to what was agreed. As a result, the contract comes to an end and, where consumers have paid money in advance for services or goods that they have yet to receive, they will generally be entitled to obtain a refund. They will also not be required to make further payments. In the CMA’s view, for consumer contracts the above rights to a refund will usually apply even where the business says part of the payment is a non-refundable deposit or advance payment. This is because the contract will have been frustrated and terms which allow a business to provide no service but keep a consumer’s money (including deposits or advance payments) are likely to be unfair, and therefore unenforceable under Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Consumers can normally be offered credits, vouchers, re-booking or re-scheduling as an alternative to a refund, but they should not be misled or pressured into doing so. A refund should still be an option that is just as clearly and easily available. In particular, businesses should not give consumers the impression that they are not entitled to a cash refund where that is their legal right, and in the CMA’s view this would be likely to breach consumer protection law. When this was put to the management, I was advised that if i don't like it then i should take them to court. So anyone who is being offered a credit when you sign up next year you are legally entitled to a cash refund now, good luck getting it though from these greedy owners who think that the law doesn't apply to them and they can just make it up as they go along.

Been a returning member for a few years now and the customer service has never been the strong point or the over priced membership, however it is the most "equipped" gym local to me either by 5 min drive or 25 min walk. The above was forgivable until they decided to take 2 months of extra membership, mislead me to think I'd get a free month and then tell me I couldn't have my month I had unnecessarily needed to give them back as they had already previously agreed to take it as "reicpet" of time, even than this is no where stated in my contract that I need to pay 1-2 months upfront. No better than common thievery. All smiles and laughs to get you in and sign a ludacrisly expensive membership but god forbid you need some customer service post sign, they are not interested. Good thing they've invested more money on cardio now when there are machines on the bottom floor that have no business being in that building. And don't worry, if you don't buy their bottled water you can just go drink out of the warm toilet taps as they has and never will be a much needed and honestly very basic water fountain Do yourself a favour, don't sign away your hard earn money to them and make the little extra trip to one of the more honest gyms around here.