David lloyd gym membership.....prices??

furbix

My gym is £10.99 a month, no contract, pay as you go and has shower cubicles. Problem is it has become very popular and with that comes people who don't give a damn about a clean environment. I loved the david lloyd gym when I was there, amazing place with so much to do.

Nimitta

I was surprised first when I found out that at Lloyd they do not tell you the prices. I could not find them on the website, and the advisor who met me at the gym was evasive up to the last minute as to how much is the membership. He offered me a tour, gave me forms to fill in etc. He was obviously a nice guy, so, I have nothing against him personally, but I certainly do not appreciate the attitude of the Lloyd.

First I was surprised, then I simply got irritated. I smell swindling when a seller hides prices.

Can they charge different prices for the same service at all? Isn't it against the law? Maybe someone just have to file a claim?

yvonnemaus

This thread was set up to try and expose the prices as DL won't, but it's not doing very well. It needs many more people to submit information. What were you quoted for all the various membership options?

While it's not right for example that a couple might pay double for just daytime "health only" membership than a family pay for full day and evening membership with rackets, that's what happens. People get a good deal to join and then the price increases start happening.

You get 3% for a savings account and after a year it drops to 0.1%, so you have to move. A broadband provider (Virgin) is currently charging £28.50 per month just for broadband to it's very old customers, but as a new customer you can get broadband for less than £10 everywhere and in some cases down to about £2 per month for the first 6 months or so.

It's not illegal, it's just a con, and DL are the only gym that operate like this.

xxdeebeexx

Well, DH has been offered a free family membership trial, for a week, at our local David Lloyd centre.

We went to book our trial last week to start early next week.My two teenage boys have been offered free induction for the multi gym (Myself and DH not interested in the multi gym atm) and we have use of all the facilities for 1 week. This includes indoor and outdoor pool, classes and multi gym....... not sure what else.

There is no way that we could afford membership ...... but we are delighted to accept their kind offer for 1 week.

I will report back about joining fees.

dx

Charliezoo

yvonnemaus wrote: »

This thread was set up to try and expose the prices as DL won't, but it's not doing very well.

This isn't strictly true, when I joined DL 5 years ago I rang around all the clubs in my area and the membership advisor was always more than happy to tell me the prices over the phone. My friend is looking for a membership too in another area to me and he also found that the staff were happy to quote prices over the phone. You just have to phone and ask them directly, if you turn up they'll go through the whole tour and sales chat before giving you the prices which is ok if you've got time to spare but if not a phone call is the best option. I've personally never found the prices to be any great secret, I've never once been refused pricing information when I've called a club.

The prices vary due to the variation of facilities from club to club and also depending on demographic area. A Northern club can't charge the same fees as a club in Central London, it just wouldn't work as the cost of living and wages vary so greatly. Also the cost of rent and running the DL property in some areas will vary massively to others. Some clubs have tennis courts, outdoor pools etc which will be more expensive then the more basic gyms. Where I used to live there was a DL in a v.posh area with 2 big pools, spa, big gym and generally more going on. 5 miles down the road in a far less affluent area was another DL with a smaller gym, smaller pool and limited spa and this one was £10 per month cheaper which made sense. If you want to use all the clubs in the network you have to pay more for a Vantage membership. I have to admit that my membership has steadily risen over the years but this has only amounted to about £2 per year which is annoying but then everything seems to have gone up in price in the last 5 years.

DL clubs are notoriously expensive but I'm struggling to see what the con is here.

gymsalesjames

The reason DL wont quote you a straight up price is because there are about 40 different options and the membership advisor is not to know which would be best for you until they know a bit about you. Most common things they need to know are:

Age
Your Employer/Are you a student
Times you'd use the club
How many people are interested (Joint, 3+ you will get better deal)
What facilities you want to use
If you want a towel upon entry
If you want to use 1 club or all clubs
How long a membership you want
How you want to pay (DD or lump sum)

There's no way to give an accurite price without knowing all these things. Add to this, there are about 50 DL club all with different facilities and prices and you're never going to be able to get a definitive answer, even on here, as 40 prices x 50 clubs is over 2000 different rates.

The David Lloyd near me have prices ranging from ~70pcm-£160pcm.

yvonnemaus

Charliezoo,

1. I know someone who phoned DL for a price to upgrade to rackets about a year ago. They said they could not give prices over the phone and that a personal visit had to be made. This ended up with the potential member, who did not want the aggravation of hard sales, joining a different club to play squash while still using DL gym, as an interim solution.

2. My price increases have been over 10% for each of the last three years. And I know for fact that other people are paying less for more, and these are not people who are unemployed or students or in any way disadvantaged. They just joined more recently. This is the con.

gymsalesjames (presumably from DL staff?),

How do you get 40 options for a particular gym? Basically for a specific gym it's health only or health and rackets, off-peak or anytime, single or joint or family. And as applied to a normal working person who is going to pay monthly by DD indefinitely. Any add-ons, special options, or deals should be left out, otherwise they are just being used as a smokescreen to confuse and hide the con as mentioned above, that is that loyalty does not count.

Just as with the well-known ripoff insurance and savings accounts, the behaviour they will end up with is annual churn, i.e. everyone leaving after the first year.

yvonnemaus

...just to make sure it's explicit that the person who enquired about squash was an existing member, so there was nothing else to discuss about options, payment methods, etc.

LittleM

Don't join David Lloyd. I had been an off peak member for years, but had to have an operation last year. I took a letter from the consultant, (whilst I was on crutches) asking them to freeze my membership for three months. They took no action. At the end of the first month I was contacted to say I owed them a full month's membership instead of reduced membership. Despite explaining the above they were rude and very unhelpful. I cancelled my membership, but at the end of a further three months paying full membership they said I had to pay a further month, which I disagreed with. They then, without warning, passed this on to a debt collecting agency who wrote to me demanding £120! I paid this as I did not want to be involved with a debit collector and have never owed anyone anything. I have now joined my local leisure centre, much cheaper, better range of classes, no extra charges for "specialist" classes. Beware.

Charliezoo

yvonnemaus wrote: »

Charliezoo,

1. I know someone who phoned DL for a price to upgrade to rackets about a year ago. They said they could not give prices over the phone and that a personal visit had to be made. This ended up with the potential member, who did not want the aggravation of hard sales, joining a different club to play squash while still using DL gym, as an interim

That's crazy, they must have been unlucky and got a rubbish sales advisor because this has just never happened to me. My DH and 3 different friends have joined on my recommendation and for all of them most of the membership info was given over the phone and they just needed to visit to check they definitely wanted to join and sign the paperwork. No one I know has ever been refused a price over the phone. They were asked a few questions about their lifestyle so they were quoted for he correct membership but this seems to be a standard thing.

I've got no idea why an existing member couldn't upgrade over the phone, but if they're a member anyway why didn't they just sort it out when they visited the club? What made them think they'd have to go through a hard sell as an existing member in their own club? I know that potential new members can be subjected to a hard sell but I find it difficult to believe that a member enquiring about upgrading their membership would find this.