PruHealth ripping-off and misleading their LA Fitness customers

Prudent_Scotsman

Background:
Having PruHealth medical insurance entitles the holder to "50% off at LA Fitness" gym -pruhealth.co.uk/insurance/vitality/vitality_partners/la_fitness . It’s called a PruHealth Vitality benefit. I have Platinum Vitality; Platinum status is maintained via points accrued by going regularly to the gym, and swiping your card on arrival.

Reality:

• gym-via-PruHealth prices were increased 50% in only six months, charged in arrears, from £41/month (until Dec 2010), to £46.50/month (until May 2011) to £61/month (from July 2011 onwards)!
• meanwhile, a new lower-cost PruHealth gym promotion was stealthy introduced which was advertised to attract new customers, yet existing gym-via-PruHealth customers [despite being entitled to apply for it] never received a letter or e-mail advising them of the new lower-cost promotion. (it is a substantially lower cost for an identical gym product)

I contacted PruHealth immediately upon receiving a "Notice of Direct Debit fee collection" letter which stated the following:
biller: PruHealth
amount: £61

Unfortunately, PruHealth bill for LA Fitness gym in monthly ARREARS, so they could up the fees to any arbitrarily high amount and legally you would be forced to pay it at least for the previous month until you cancelled. I cancelled my gym product immediately (which I have had via PruHealth for three years; indeed, three years ago it was FREE in the first year, as reported at moneysavingexpert.com/news/family/2010/01/final-nail-in-prus-free-gym-offer.

Falsehoods:
On two phone calls to PruHealth and in one e-mailed letter, I was repeatedly told false information:

• Call centre staff told me that I was on the 50% off price, and that 50% off was actually £61/month, that "prices are fixed" (Sarah) and the whole business has NOTHING to do with PruHealth, that you have to contact LA Fitness
  • Funnily enough, upon contacting LA Fitness, they said the opposite – it’s only PruHealth who can sort it, as they are the ones billing you.
  • This was after being given the run-around by LA Fitness (spoke to club manager, was referred to an 0844 phone line which states on business card, "Our Member Services department will fulfil ALL your customer needs and cancellation requests".
  • Of course, upon calling them, the LA Fitness department which claims to handle "ALL" such needs referred me to some other 0845 phoneline!
• Jennifer Pentland of PruHealth sent me a letter with falsehoods: "We entered a Flexi contract with LA Fitness and the new retail gym rate for a membership at that branch (*) is 123 pounds each month.Once we apply the 50% discount to this amount, the monthly gym membership fee is 61.50 pounds". A PruHealth manager later admitted that the letter was not true.
• Meanwhile, my LA Fitness club stated the most expensive product they offer bar none is priced at £82/month for a flexible month-to-month cancellation membership. 50% off that product is £41/month. There is no product priced at remotely near £123/month. I took photographic evidence of all these prices.

* I am in a ‘regular’ London branch of LA Fitness which is not the ‘premium’ priced South Kensington one.

Outcome:
The 50% off is available only on the £82/month product. Bills at £41/month. That lower price is only available by:

a) Cancelling the rip-off product that was billed via PruHealth.
b) Instead, joining the gym directly with a LA Fitness, having LA Fitness doing your billing directly, is needed.
c) In the gym, show your PruHealth membership card when signing up for this PruHeath “50% off the £82/month product, giving £41/month” offer.

Throughout the process,

• I had twelve days without any access to a gym (I normally go three times a week) due to the cancellation
• Four different PruHealth staff stated falsehoods to me, did not help me, created a stressful situation: Jennifer Pentland and her cronies need significant training as the current PruHealth situation around is a shambles. Totally unprofessional and they haven’t apologised for their lies – hence get slated! Consumer beware!
• I hope this post helps the existing gym-via-PruHealth customers save money (a huge £20/month gym saving)!

experience08

Go to Pure Gym, this offers reasonable joining fee and no contract monthly fee :money:

Prudent_Scotsman

The premiums for the PruHealth private medical insurance product are reduced as a function of the number of LA Fitness gym visits over the previous policy year. This is called the Vitality points scheme.

The difference this can make is many hundreds of pounds that you pay for the policy.


PruHealth claims:

the gym records your visits every time you swipe your gym card at the turnstiles. The gym automatically sends us confirmation of your visits

However, these two partners (LA Fitness and PruHealth) are withholding Vitality points from numerous gym visits over many months, claiming that the visit never took place despite all procedure (gym card being swiped by gym staff, I verified with them that the barcode reader was not broken).


Raising a challenge consists of an having to spend time and effort cross-checking Vitality points awarded versus the dates on my personal fitness training calendar records, then completing the PruHealth query form with all required details.

A) On some occasions when I have challenged the missing points, the points have been immediately awarded; such a challenge should not be needed. Also, this indicates their guilt.

On other occasions when I have challenged the missing points, the points are still withheld. I have a fitness calendar with my training sessions detailed, and I followed all procedure (gym card being swiped by gym staff, I verified with them that the barcode reader was not broken).

These two partners (LA Fitness and PruHealth) have financial interests to behave this way, as this increases the private medical insurance product's premiums.


It is effectively a form of fraud.


I advise potential PruHealth customers that this is another form of smoke and mirrors in the PruHealth scheme. All is not what it seems (see also my first post in this thread). Think twice then twice again before joining PruHealth.