In January 2012 the Office of Fair Trading launched an inquiry into all leading health and fitness clubs across the UK, following concerns that they had been breaking the law by tying members into lengthy contracts and making it very difficult for customers to get out of them. So, with an official investigation underway, surely the biggest gym chain in the country will be playing by the rules? Apparently not. Chris Hollins investigated for Watchdog.
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Around 190,000 people join Fitness First each year. We've been hearing from members who wish they hadn't. Charlotte Hill is one such person; she signed up to Fitness First when they were promoting a summer deal for four months as it suited her well due to the fact she was moving at the end of that period. She spoke originally spoke to Fitness First over the phone and then went in to her local branch and signed the paperwork. Charlie set up the direct debit in her savings account, which wasn't something she checked every day and it wasn't till a year later that she noticed Fitness First had taken almost £450 from her account.
Katia Bouznik also signed up on a four month contract where she was told that after the four months were up, her contract wouldn't continue. However four weeks after Katia's end date, another payment was taken from her account. What Katia wasn't told was that her contract would roll over afterwards; in fact, Katia was charged for two months after her original end date because she was subsequently told that she had to give one month's notice.
According to both Charlie and Katia, they were never shown the terms and conditions at any point. But aren't there rules about that?
Well, actually yes there are: the Guidance on Unfair Terms in Health and Fitness Club agreements published by the Office of Fair Trading in 2002. These make it quite clear that gyms should give their potential customers the opportunity to both read and understand their terms before they become bound by them.
Having heard from Charlie, Katia and many more Watchdog viewers we decided to go undercover to investigate the complaints we had received. We sent two researchers to ten branches of Fitness First around the UK to find out just how upfront Fitness First staff are about the contractual small print. In turns out they weren't very upfront at all.
None of the staff at any of the ten branches we visited offered to show us the terms and conditions. The only times we did see them were when we asked for them. At the Hammersmith branch in London we were even told by a Fitness First employee that the terms and conditions didn't exist, however, he did eventually produce them but only gave us 33 seconds to read 2,295 words.
Incredibly, in five of the branches we visited, staff even ticked the box on our behalf certifying that we had read the terms and conditions, even though we hadn't. In two branches they told us that they would send the contract to us - but only after we had signed up.
The OFT guidance also points out that gyms should make an effort to highlight and explain important contractual provisions; for example, if you have a direct debit with Fitness First, your membership will continue beyond the expiry date unless you contact them to cancel it. Plus, you need to get in touch with the gym a whole month before you want it to end. These would seem to be pretty important parts of the contract but not all staff seemed to agree. In fact, only five branches volunteered the fact that our membership would automatically rollover; a Cardiff branch failed to tell us at all and four branches only told us about the rollover once we'd asked.
Two branches didn't even mention anything about the month notice period we would need to give in order to cancel. Commercial and Contracts Lawyer, Mark Weston, points out that one of the things the consumer protection from unfair trading says is that: "You can't omit or hide any material information. Now, any terms are going to be material, key information...If the company doesn't show the terms and conditions or doesn't show the main important points verbally then what they are actually doing is deceiving in terms of the overall presentation."
Gym membership doesn't come cheap, so it's no surprise that some people have second thoughts when they sign up. The OFT says all gyms should provide a cooling off period where would-be members can change their mind. The Fitness First contract does allow you ten days to do that but two branches didn't tell us about it and one branch even told us that they weren't allowed to tell us!
Mark Weston concludes: "There are a lot of issues here, now the regulators, the OFT obviously looked at this about ten years ago. I think in light of all this footage they should be taking a look at this again ten years later... Some of the practices we've seen, seem to be very shoddy at best and potentially those are in breach of the Consumer protection from unfair Trading Regulations."
Statement to Watchdog viewers and Fitness First members
We sincerely regret that some of our members feel that they have been misled by employees of Fitness First. We apologise for any inconvenience or dissatisfaction that may have caused. This is not the level of service and transparency that we aspire to achieve, and clearly not up to the level of standard that our members should expect from us day by day.
Since February of this year, we have a new senior management team in place at Fitness First who are acutely aware of the need to ensure that customer service is at the top of our agenda. We consistently try to make Fitness First better for our members, and we take each complaint extremely seriously. We would ask any members with concerns regarding their membership to contact us at membershipservices@fitnessfirst.com. We pledge to respond to all emails as quickly as possible.
In the cases highlighted by Watchdog, we accept that the service some members received was not in line with our values. We have not had the opportunity to view all of the footage, rather the edited highlights shortly before the programme airing; however, we have begun to investigate each allegation case by case.
Over 190,000 new members decided to join Fitness First in the last 12 months and our internal surveys show that a large majority are satisfied with the administrative process of joining and leaving. Our membership consultants currently number 372 and each receives extensive training. Included in their training is specific guidance on the regulations that protect consumers; this is encouraged and expected to be followed by all Fitness First employees. We recognise that there may be selective instances where, due to human error, these guidelines may not have been followed.
Terms and Conditions are an important part of the sign-up process. In fact, the key points of our membership agreement are highlighted to make them more visible and this, along with other recommendations from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Plain English Society, has formed part of our membership agreement evolution over the last few years. It is the duty of our staff to clearly explain the terms and conditions that appear on our membership agreements; however, part of the onus is on the consumer to make sure that they are familiar with these.
These are just some of the ways that we are putting our members first:
A spokesperson for the Fitness Industry Association (FIA) said:
Our vision, to get more people, more active, more often, is shared by our members who want their customers to have a positive experience, to enjoy physical activity through their provision and to regularly return because they feel motivated to lead an active lifestyle.
UK health clubs and leisure centres offer a wide variety of membership options to suit individual budgets and training needs. When joining in person at the facility or over the telephone, membership services teams should be trained to advise customers of all possible joining options and the terms and conditions related to each. When joining through online channels, all terms and conditions must be clearly communicated. Staff should also be on hand to advise customers throughout their membership term.
We advise all customers to thoroughly read and understand contractual terms and conditions before signing an agreement. Many of our members now offer various ways for potential customers to have an experience at their facility before buying, so if you are joining a gym for the first time, David Stalker, CEO, FIA advises you to: "take them up on one of their offers and try before you buy".
The FIA believe in following the rulings drawn up by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), and following the 2011 OFT v Ashbourne Management Services ruling, issued key recommendations relating to contracts. These included guidance on adequate and reasonable provision for a consumer to end or pause a contract before the minimum term in certain circumstances, on the provision of evidence. With the recent OFT investigation to reconcile outstanding issues from the Ashbourne Management Services Limited case, the FIA have continued to play an advisory role working with the OFT case team.
Gym memberships: Fitness First
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
Around 190,000 people join Fitness First each year. We've been hearing from members who wish they hadn't. Charlotte Hill is one such person; she signed up to Fitness First when they were promoting a summer deal for four months as it suited her well due to the fact she was moving at the end of that period. She spoke originally spoke to Fitness First over the phone and then went in to her local branch and signed the paperwork. Charlie set up the direct debit in her savings account, which wasn't something she checked every day and it wasn't till a year later that she noticed Fitness First had taken almost £450 from her account.
Katia Bouznik also signed up on a four month contract where she was told that after the four months were up, her contract wouldn't continue. However four weeks after Katia's end date, another payment was taken from her account. What Katia wasn't told was that her contract would roll over afterwards; in fact, Katia was charged for two months after her original end date because she was subsequently told that she had to give one month's notice.
According to both Charlie and Katia, they were never shown the terms and conditions at any point. But aren't there rules about that?
Well, actually yes there are: the Guidance on Unfair Terms in Health and Fitness Club agreements published by the Office of Fair Trading in 2002. These make it quite clear that gyms should give their potential customers the opportunity to both read and understand their terms before they become bound by them.
Having heard from Charlie, Katia and many more Watchdog viewers we decided to go undercover to investigate the complaints we had received. We sent two researchers to ten branches of Fitness First around the UK to find out just how upfront Fitness First staff are about the contractual small print. In turns out they weren't very upfront at all.
None of the staff at any of the ten branches we visited offered to show us the terms and conditions. The only times we did see them were when we asked for them. At the Hammersmith branch in London we were even told by a Fitness First employee that the terms and conditions didn't exist, however, he did eventually produce them but only gave us 33 seconds to read 2,295 words.
Incredibly, in five of the branches we visited, staff even ticked the box on our behalf certifying that we had read the terms and conditions, even though we hadn't. In two branches they told us that they would send the contract to us - but only after we had signed up.
The OFT guidance also points out that gyms should make an effort to highlight and explain important contractual provisions; for example, if you have a direct debit with Fitness First, your membership will continue beyond the expiry date unless you contact them to cancel it. Plus, you need to get in touch with the gym a whole month before you want it to end. These would seem to be pretty important parts of the contract but not all staff seemed to agree. In fact, only five branches volunteered the fact that our membership would automatically rollover; a Cardiff branch failed to tell us at all and four branches only told us about the rollover once we'd asked.
Two branches didn't even mention anything about the month notice period we would need to give in order to cancel. Commercial and Contracts Lawyer, Mark Weston, points out that one of the things the consumer protection from unfair trading says is that: "You can't omit or hide any material information. Now, any terms are going to be material, key information...If the company doesn't show the terms and conditions or doesn't show the main important points verbally then what they are actually doing is deceiving in terms of the overall presentation."
Gym membership doesn't come cheap, so it's no surprise that some people have second thoughts when they sign up. The OFT says all gyms should provide a cooling off period where would-be members can change their mind. The Fitness First contract does allow you ten days to do that but two branches didn't tell us about it and one branch even told us that they weren't allowed to tell us!
Mark Weston concludes: "There are a lot of issues here, now the regulators, the OFT obviously looked at this about ten years ago. I think in light of all this footage they should be taking a look at this again ten years later... Some of the practices we've seen, seem to be very shoddy at best and potentially those are in breach of the Consumer protection from unfair Trading Regulations."
COMPANY RESPONSE
Statement to Watchdog viewers and Fitness First members
We sincerely regret that some of our members feel that they have been misled by employees of Fitness First. We apologise for any inconvenience or dissatisfaction that may have caused. This is not the level of service and transparency that we aspire to achieve, and clearly not up to the level of standard that our members should expect from us day by day.
Since February of this year, we have a new senior management team in place at Fitness First who are acutely aware of the need to ensure that customer service is at the top of our agenda. We consistently try to make Fitness First better for our members, and we take each complaint extremely seriously. We would ask any members with concerns regarding their membership to contact us at membershipservices@fitnessfirst.com. We pledge to respond to all emails as quickly as possible.
In the cases highlighted by Watchdog, we accept that the service some members received was not in line with our values. We have not had the opportunity to view all of the footage, rather the edited highlights shortly before the programme airing; however, we have begun to investigate each allegation case by case.
Over 190,000 new members decided to join Fitness First in the last 12 months and our internal surveys show that a large majority are satisfied with the administrative process of joining and leaving. Our membership consultants currently number 372 and each receives extensive training. Included in their training is specific guidance on the regulations that protect consumers; this is encouraged and expected to be followed by all Fitness First employees. We recognise that there may be selective instances where, due to human error, these guidelines may not have been followed.
Terms and Conditions are an important part of the sign-up process. In fact, the key points of our membership agreement are highlighted to make them more visible and this, along with other recommendations from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Plain English Society, has formed part of our membership agreement evolution over the last few years. It is the duty of our staff to clearly explain the terms and conditions that appear on our membership agreements; however, part of the onus is on the consumer to make sure that they are familiar with these.
These are just some of the ways that we are putting our members first:
- We have worked with 'The Plain English' society to re-write our contracts and have also changed our terms and conditions in consultation with the OFT to make sure that all communications are clear and not misleading. For example, we reduced the complexity of the terms and conditions and also highlighted the key points including contract length and billing processes which are now in bold on all membership application forms.
- Every membership sold includes a 10 day "cooling off" period.
- In February 2011, we introduced a new certification process consisting of training & development programmes and assessment process to ensure our thousands of staff are equipped with the required skills, knowledge and behaviours to meet our requirements.
- Action is taken when staff have not followed our code of conduct and have acted outside company policy.
- Over the last year we have called over 10,000 members as part of a structured programme of gathering member feedback. We now regularly host secret shopper activity as a precautionary measure in our clubs to identify where we are not working in line with our mission and values. We feel that inconsistencies are not a trend, but are isolated instances. We are working hard to eliminate these instances completely.
- In December 2011, we launched 'The Fitness First Promise' as a statement of our intent to put members' needs first. This is something we feel very passionate about upholding. We take instances where this is not being followed very seriously and have adhered to the Promise since its introduction. Fitness First are in the process of incorporating the Promise into the terms and conditions.
- In March 2012, we introduced month-by-month rolling contracts. With these new agreements, all we ask for is one calendar month's notice to cancel at any time, allowing members even greater flexibility should they require it.
A spokesperson for the Fitness Industry Association (FIA) said:
Our vision, to get more people, more active, more often, is shared by our members who want their customers to have a positive experience, to enjoy physical activity through their provision and to regularly return because they feel motivated to lead an active lifestyle.
UK health clubs and leisure centres offer a wide variety of membership options to suit individual budgets and training needs. When joining in person at the facility or over the telephone, membership services teams should be trained to advise customers of all possible joining options and the terms and conditions related to each. When joining through online channels, all terms and conditions must be clearly communicated. Staff should also be on hand to advise customers throughout their membership term.
We advise all customers to thoroughly read and understand contractual terms and conditions before signing an agreement. Many of our members now offer various ways for potential customers to have an experience at their facility before buying, so if you are joining a gym for the first time, David Stalker, CEO, FIA advises you to: "take them up on one of their offers and try before you buy".
The FIA believe in following the rulings drawn up by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), and following the 2011 OFT v Ashbourne Management Services ruling, issued key recommendations relating to contracts. These included guidance on adequate and reasonable provision for a consumer to end or pause a contract before the minimum term in certain circumstances, on the provision of evidence. With the recent OFT investigation to reconcile outstanding issues from the Ashbourne Management Services Limited case, the FIA have continued to play an advisory role working with the OFT case team.
Gym memberships: Fitness First