The Gym Group

[DarkHorse]

Has any here got any views on The Gym Group ( www.thegymgroup.com )?

They are opening a gym in Guildford in January 2009, and are advertising membership at £14.99 per month, which is a lot less than the cost of my current gym, and is therefore very tempting. Also the fact that they are open 24/7 is a major bonus as I like to go to the gym before work, and as I sometimes have very early starts I am unable to get any exercise as my gym is closed.

I see that they have already got a gym in Hounslow, and would be grateful on any feedback from the people who use this gym, to see if the deal really is as good as it seems.

Ta

[DarkHorse]

Just thought that I would update this, as despite the lack of replies, I decided to join this gym at a cost of £15.00 per month, and it is turned out to be a good move from the local (more expensive) leisure centers facilities.

The Gym is open 24 hours a day, everything is brand new, and the facilities are first class. The facilities are huge and all equipment is supplied in abundance.

I would strongly recommend The Gym Groups new facility in Guildford to anyone who wants to join a gym.

[RayAlgar]

Pleased to read that you are enjoying The Gym at Guildford. I visited this new club yesterday as part of some research for my blog and was very impressed.

Some of these new 'budget' clubs can look tired, but the Guildford club is situated in a new, light and airy building. The members I spoke to were really enjoying the club.

The Gym Group also do not sell 12-month contracts; it is a rolling month-by-month agreement.

If you are thinking of joining, please remember that at £15 per month there is very limited staff support (salaried staff have been virtually eliminated which is why the price is lower than other clubs). You have to purchase personal training, if you need specialist advice and encouragement.

Hope this helps.

[ciare]

Thank you x1000000000000000000 Dark Horse.

I decided to look up the gym group, after what you said about it, and am so glad I did.

I looked up their website, and they are opening a gym in Vauxhall in June, for only £15 per month, bargain.

Thanks Again.

[DarkHorse]

If its anything like the Guildford set-up then you should not be disappointed.

As RayAlgar says as long as you want the gym without all of the instructors, and flashy swimming pools and sauna I don't see how you can go wrong. If you need instruction and enchoragement then you can ourchase time with a personal trainer. All of the fitness equipment is brand new and there is lots of it (there must be 30 treadmills, 30 cross trainers, 30 bikes, and loads of resistance equipment, and weights).

I have been going since the Guildford gym opened, and have save a small fortune on my previous gym membership, and got fitter as a result!

I dont want to sing their praises too much or I will be accused of working for them, so I shall stop now!

[patrick0]

The Vauxhall one is behind the Tesco Express in St George's Wharf (the riverside apartment complex next to MI6/SIS).

I just called them to enquire: it's £14.99 a month and opens on 1 June. If you signup now via their website they take £14.99 in 2 weeks time to cover your first month. If you don't like it in the first 2 weeks then you can get a refund of your £14.99. The next payment is taken a month after it opens.

There aren't any classes - it's just a 24 hour gym. It's staffed normal gym hours and card access at other times.

My only concern is to make up for the cheap membership they'll sign up a lot of people and the gym will get too busy.

[mapcr77]

Pity they're only in London! :-( I have gym envy now!
I should suggest they turn the local ex-woolies into a gym!

[moomoo27]

I am thinking of joining the gym group's Plymouth branch, but I have a couple of queries.
Firstly,do any of you know how much the personal trainers cost per hour? Also, how is the cleanliness/staff presence/ customer service at the gym?
Thank you!

[jenniewb]

Originally Posted by moomoo27

I am thinking of joining the gym group's Plymouth branch, but I have a couple of queries.
Firstly,do any of you know how much the personal trainers cost per hour? Also, how is the cleanliness/staff presence/ customer service at the gym?
Thank you!

I'm not a member of this gym (they don't have any near enough for me to get to and from home without some difficulty). I have seen others post about these gyms with mixed reviews, some rave about the chain being clean and with friendly staff, others claim its not at all clean, staff are AWOL and (quote) "you can buy anything in the changing rooms if you catch my drift" (end quote). I don't have a clue what the thread was called but I think at the end of the day it matters which of these gyms you use rather then how they are as a chain.

Maybe see if they have any trial offers?

[p83]

This gym may be cheaper than the others but the catch to this is it gets overcrowded. If you are serious about your training and really want to improve your body this will be a massive hindrance.

I have been a member of the West Hampstead branch and after a few weeks got fed up and decided to pay the extra money and go back to my old gym.

Another thing I don't like is the fact there is no receptionist. No human around to manage any problems or to do registrations. They direct you to a computer for you to register yourself. This can take ages even if you are fast. The trainers that work there aren't helpful and the best they can do is direct you to these machines.

If you are not to concerned then by all means go for it. In my opinion although it is cheap you will still be wasting your money as you wont get to do a proper training session. If you are into treadmills etc you are fine. If you are into weight training find another gym unless you dont mind waiting to use the weights.

Most common phrase you will use here is: 'Er how long are you gonna be mate?'

[Sammyscout]

Just an additional word of warning on these clubs. I recently joined the Kingston gym and I have to say that whilst cheap the service is terrible. The staff are unhelpful in the extreme both onsite and offsite. I had two issues with this gym in the short time I was a member.

These gyms have a PIN entry code to allow you to use the facilities when there are no staff there - you need to input your 8 digit code to gain access at all times of the day. After my second visit I received an email telling me that there had been PIN abuse on my account and that if it happened again my membership would be terminated. I called them straight up to ask what had happened as I had not shared my PIN with anyone else. Their response was that their system had detected unusual PIN activity and that they could not give me more details than this. I asked if I could change my PIN in case someone had somehow obtained my details but they responded that the PIN could not be changed. I asked what happens if someone has my PIN and uses it again and they said that my membership would be terminated.

Sure enough a few days later I received another email to say that further PIN abuse had been detected and now my membership was terminated. I sent several emails and had calls with the customer services team to understand more about why this had happened and trying to reinstate my membership but their response was their standard policy response. The most I got from them was that PIN abuse has been detected, they use an outside firm to monitor PINs and no further information could be provided. The did concede that they could not be sure whether I was at fault but in these circumstances they terminate memberships. No refunds, no further explanation.

Having searched around on some internet forums I can see that this has happened to a few other people. I do not think it is a scam but they presumably either have a problem with keeping people's PINs safe on their system or that their montioring system is flawed (though I do not know how it works and they would not explain). The fact that you cannot change your PIN and the general customer service just compounds these poor controls.

The second issue was minor but illustrates how poor the service is on-site too. I purchased a lock from the vending machine as you need your own padlock to use the lockers - after all it is a no frills gym. Just to note as well that the padlock was not cheap at £3 and is presumably another of their ways to pay for the lower membership costs. Unfortunately the lock I purchased was faulty and would not open. I went to find a staff member to help and explained the problem. He virtually accused me of breaking the padlock myself and only after 10 minutes of explaining did he agree to replace it. I had to wait another 15 minutes while they tried to find the key to the vending machine and give me a new one. No apologies from them just the impression that I was either wasting their time or trying to get one over on them.

The facilities are reasonable for the money but, as the poster above says, the gym gets very busy at peak times. If you want a cheap gym, can go at non-peak times and do not mind awful customer service or potentially getting barred then go for it. If not then I would certainly reccomend avoiding these gyms at all costs.

[bex2002]

the idea in principle sounds great having a cheap 24/7 gym would be great to go before/after work but i would miss having a swimming pool at the gym.