Health & Sports Fitness Club — Local services in Albert-Eden

This gym has harassed me online on other sites, hidden billing details from me so that I was overcharged, and sent me illegal unsolicited spam two years after I left them to join Snap Fitness. Here is the timeline of events:

I joined in late 2012. At the time they told me that their billing is done through an outside company so that if I quit, I would need to contact the debit company to stop the payments because the gym would not do so.

About a year later (give or take a few months) I quit and asked the receptionist for the details of the debit company so that I could stop the payments. She claimed to have "lost" the debit company's details (including their name so I couldn't even Google it) and told me she would call me back ASAP once she had the answer. She never did. I had to go back in later and demand the details or else I wouldn't leave. I was still charged for my gym membership during this time (whats more, the debit company requires a months notice during which the customer is still charged so I was still paying them 30 days after I was finally given the information that I had to fight for) and they never gave me an apology for the money, time and gas wasted.

Around May 2015, someone on Reddit asked for gym recommendations in the St Lukes area. I told them to avoid this place because of this. A worker from the gym (who gave a full name, contact phone number and introduced himself as the person who could help resolve issues) posted a very long, sarcastic, defensive and hostile comment accusing me of lying. The few parts where he offered "help" were very passive aggressive. It was an extremely unprofessional comment and when I replied calling him out on it, he posted another comment vehemently defending his staff because he thought they could do no wrong. His comments were downvoted and he only deleted them when someone else pointed out how bad he looked. He even blamed me for leaving when the receptionist initially wouldn't give me any details (while heavily implying the whole incident never happened and I was lying) - did this guy want me to spend hours harassing his employees and miss work while repeatedly insisting they provide me with information they've said they don't have? There's clearly no winning with him. I only got the information the second time because there was someone else working.

Today, I received an unsolicited spam email from them trying to get me back. The email was quite short, yet had 11 spelling/grammar mistakes that a spellchecker would have instantly picked up on. I usually don't care about spelling mistakes in informal situations but if you're representing a business then you should get it together. I'm finally writing this review because I'm sick of how lazy and unprofessional this gym is and I'm especially pissed off at how they think it's appropriate to keep my contact details and still send me spam two years after I quit.

Small Update: after the above incident, the gym stated that they had removed me from their mailing list so I would no longer receive any spam. They also claimed that email wasn't spam and was just a community newsletter sort of deal (while passively implying that I didn't want to help out the community) which is total rubbish because it was actually a "receive a discount if you come along" promotion... like it said in the subject line. Then they sent me more misspelled spam after this, which is another outright breach of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act (2007). For those unaware, NZ has some pretty great laws around spam which this gym has repeatedly broken. Multiple infringements can lead to some hefty fines so if you're reading this review because they're spamming you too,...

Positives: The equipment in the gym is excellent, the front staff are usually very freindly. The pool is usually very clean. The cafe is amazing. Lovely healthy food, though a bit pricey. Certainly a great community vibe as soon as you enter. I usually enjoy arriving and the recently added car parks has been welcome. Negatives: I find it revealing that the management claim they are unable to find membership accounts for those people who gave a critical review below. Seriously? A lack of compassion and business ethics during Lockdowns when we all were still charged for the weeks we could not use the gym. No other gyms that I know of in Auckland did this, so I am very disheartened by this profit-before-people, Draconian mentality in an age where the world needs compassion and heart. The owner should take on this burden as a matter of business ethics. Furthermore, I was recently accosted by one of the trainers in the car park. The staff should be trained to have a more professional attitude to the customers. I was quite upset by her angry and abusive attitude towards me. It is not acceptable to pay such a high weekly fee and then be abused in the car park by a trainer! I have also found that on the weekends, especially on Sunday, the level of cleanliness in the ladies' toilets in the gym and pool areas is not where it should be for a supposedly 'first class' fitness centre. The fees are higher than most other gyms so one would expect the facilities to always be spotless. But this is not the case. The hygiene wipes at the stations in the gym are often empty too. Also, I find that not all patrons wipe down their equipment after use, probably only 50 percent of people, which forces me to clean the equipment before and after I use it. This is not expected at such a gym. Also, the availability of pool lanes is becoming increasingly restricted due to the continual and constant use of 2 of the 4 lanes for the swim school. There are also a few trip hazards via the matting placed around the pool. The pool changing cubicles are often littered with used band aids and toilet paper. Gross to say the least. Perhaps small rubbish bins could be placed in these? I know you have no control over the dirty habits of your patrons, but it is beginning to put me off. I am considering closing my membership when it is due for renewal. I really only have time to workout and swim on the weekends and have no time to use the gym through the week so $30 a week is expensive. I would rather have a system whereby I pay for what I use such as a swipe card at a machine where I can pay for a gym and swim, or just a swim (pay as you go). This is the model that is used by the Paraparaumu public swimming pool on Kapiti Coast and it works very well. Most YMCAs work in a similar way. Perhaps this or something similar should be implemented for those members like myself who are not able to workout every day, thus making it expensive if only using the facilities 1-2 times a week. I would appreciate some feedback on this suggestion if possible. I trust the manager will be mature enough to see this as healthy criticism and not take offence as he did in the review below. Maintain a professional standard please. It certainly put me off reading the way he reacted so aggressively to the review below. This does...

I joined this Gym for a year and half with one year membership and it was still on going without my permission after my membership was expired. It was okay cuz I didn’t have not too bad experience at the moment.

BUT I wanted to pause my membership to visit my country for some reasons I thought this is for free by the contract because when I was sigining up I was able to put membership on-hold for free so when I was pausing my membership in first year there was no extra fee. But this year they wanted to charge pausing fee which I couldn’t get it why they suddenly made rulesssss and charge that I didn’t sign? -well, which is understandable because corona virus was ‘just’ spreading but the point is I tried to pause membership before PANDEMIC and when government didn’t even announce lockdown. well It was quite annoying that they suddenly made rule and charge. so I wanted to cancel membership. while I was cancelling my membership it was also not that simple like other big chains.

few days later, government announced Lock down and they had to close it. The gym emailed to people and they made three titles to give it to people who will be still paying fully or pay half or just pausing fee during lock down. but In my memory, government also announced subsidy plan when they emailed about three titles for their gym people.

well it didn’t seem like just humorous asking.. at least it was not humorous to me. why they were trying to give titles by MONEY..???? It looked really wrong and arrogant. people who help them with just few dollars is also nice things. because bluntly that is not their responsibility but they love their gym and wanna help.

ANYWAY my point is I didn’t like they just changed the rule which was not exist when I was sigining up and they had never noticed me about the changed rules I think if they change some rules they had to notice to people and get agreement. I saw how they treat gym people by this pandemic.

and cancelling is really hassle system. they cannot cancel by their own system. they only do through other company and it took ages because of that system.

I am pretty sure some people would be happy with that email and procedures but It didn’t work for me and my partner. I decided to go the gym which has well organized plans and system.

my partner is KiWi and he knows new zealand culture and atmosphere but he also couldn’t agree about that and I compared with my friends who use other gym. I think forming classes by the money is just this gym’s culture 😅

group classes and staff are lovely and nice. tidy and clean...