Advice to construct letter of complaint to Leisure Centre

JasonP

Hi Guys,
My local leisure centre customer service is increasingly getting worse.
I play badminton with some friends and have been a loyal member for nearly 10 years. We have always paid the rate and paid on time even when the price has been raised.
Here is the problem.
Although we are good customers, their customer service is getting worse.
Regularly the lights are broken and we can sometimes not play properly.
The courts are dusty that can cause slipping and we have to ask to get it cleaned or cleaned ourselved.
The court is not set up properly and we have to set it up.
To rub salt in wounds now they are upping the price and saying we will have to pay more to play.
The leisure centre is in a convenient location so we have stuck with it and there is no other one with badminton facilities near by. We may just leave and not play anymore if it comes to it.

What I'd like to try is a series of maybe letter complaints to the top manager as our verbal complaints fall on deaf ears.

I'd like to be able to negotiate that they'd have to have the lights in working order and courts cleaned (as this is not only a health hazard but bad customer service) in order to take full payment from us.
There must be some leisure centre health and safety codes for this?!

Has anyone had any experience in this and had success, I realise there is a small chance but its worth a try! Any tips on what to write or any suggestions, much appreciated.

Thank You
Jason

Azari

Just say what you have said above. Be polite, concise, and avoid repeating yourself.

Does the leisure centre appear to be failing generally or is it just the courts that you use? If it is failing generally there is probably not much chance of improvement. If it is generally successful it may be that there is comparatively little interest in badminton and you run the risk of them closing down that facility rather than spend money on something that is underused.

Good luck.

lincroft1710

If it is a council run/owned facility, then the "cuts" are probably to blame and I would doubt there would be much improvement. It may be loss making, so they could be trying to run it down so no-one goes there, so they are "forced" to close it.

Lavendyr

It doesn't sound as though you have said anything as yet and therefore they may think they are just getting away with it. So I'd definitely write to them advising them of your concerns and explaining what resolution you would like.

If it is an independent centre there will only be so far you can take your complaint (i.e. the centre manager), but if it's a chain and your first letter yields no joy, you could escalate to the chain headquarters. Likewise if it's council-owned you could try writing to the council as well.

However as other posters have noted, if the problem seems to be affecting the leisure centre across all of its amenities and not just the badminton courts, it may simply be that they have run out of money or are having to cut costs to keep operating. The question then becomes - are you prepared to accept higher costs & lower service in order for the centre to remain in operation, or will you look elsewhere?

ses6jwg

If it is council owned, ours is exactly the same.

The whole place is absolutely filthy, from the badminton courts, to the gym, to the cafeteria.

It is woefully understaffed. There was a poor girl today in the canteen trying to simultaneously clear tables, order food, serve food and drinks all the same time. The kitchen was also not serving hot food and they ran out of tuna so no tuna sandwiches or baguettes.

The lighting on the bowling alley was inadequate, there were about 10 bowling balls to share between 25 people and the machines that arrange the pins kept breaking down. However the staff member was split between about 3 different places so you had to wait 5 minutes for them to come and fix it each time.

A window was smashed on the mens toilets and replaced with a piece of MDF.

I looked into one of the halls where they do judo etc and there were empty bottles of water strewn all over the place.

I can remember going there about 10 years ago and it was always a buzzing vibrant place and very well run.

Today it like a run down ghost town.

brightonman123

have you approached any local school/college/churches, seeing if they would hire out their sprt/assemply hallls?

maybe start a league, subs could go towards buying/renting equipment..

brightonman123

.. how long before a council goes bankrupt / gets sued for not providing what 'promised' in council tax bill etc..?

JasonP

thanks guys for the advice guys, sorry for delay,

I think the first point of call will be a letter to the manager of this branch.

It is a chain of leisure centres: DC Leisure Ltd.

I wonder if any of their staff are on here! I could moan at them!

Anyway will draft a letter up and put it on here for comment, hopefully I'll get some good feedback again.

Thank You.

Jason