Nuffield Bristol Pool, Sauna/Steam Room Closure for 9 Weeks

Helen224488

My partner & I joined Nuffiled Bristol in July. We joined mainly due to the fact the swimming pool is child free. Yesterday we visited to use the pool & sauna to find it closed. The site is undergoing refurbishment which means the pool, sauna & steam room will be shut for 9 weeks. We received no email or letter to inform us. Obviously we are very upset as we pay £126 per month for couple & now we will only be able to use gym. I feel this is unaceptable & when we asked to speak to manager today they said that the work needed to be done & that all they can offer is to freeze our membership, which we don't want to do as we are trying to get fit or free personal training sessions. We want to swim so we want to be compensated by reducing our monthly membership so we can go else where to swim.

We have left our numbers for area manager to phone us. We asked for terms & conditions which states you can cancel by giving 1 months notice if one of the following happens: If Nuffield change location, if they close whole site for more than 1 month or they reduce opening hours or facilities unless temp or for health & safety/maintenance etc. Ifthis happens they will offer you alternative facilities or freeze your agreement. They will give you 1 months calendar notice of any of the above & it will be displayed on clubs info board.

The boards have only been up 2 weeks, we don't want to freeze our membership as this means we will have no where to go as other places have minimum contracts & charge joining fees. We already paid £59 joining fee. Do we have the right the cancel as they didn't give us 1 months notice of this refurb. They said we didn't receive an email as we ticked the box saying we did not want info from other 3rd parties but we said we wanted info from Nuffield suely a refurb closure of facilities would come from Nuffield not 3rd Party.

Does anyone know where we stand on cancelling? Just don't wanna pay £126 a month for gym only for 9 weeks. Any advice welcome.

Fire_Fox

Push in writing for a substantial reduction or a load of free PT sessions and quote their own terms and conditions - the pool is by far the most the expensive part of the day to day running of a fitness centre, so if it's out of action they have much reduced costs. £126 a month is incredibly expensive for gym and pool, it's daylight robbery for just a gym. Ask about their in house complaints procedure, then go to Trading Standards if that is ineffective.

Helen224488

Just wanted to give an update, we never got a call back from manager so we wrote a letter & sent it recorded asking for a reduction in cost or allow us to cancel as they had breached the terms & conditions. They did not give us 1 months notice informing us of refurb. The stand in manager called us & gave us the opportunity to cancel. They would obviously rather loose us as customers paying £126 per month rather than give us a discount whilst pool & sauna/steam room out of action.

Anyway we cancelled & they sent us a cheque for our Nov membership as direct debit was going out 1st Nov & we decided to cancel very end Oct. Not sure if we are gonna join another gym or not. Thinking about Bannantynes but heard horror stories about having to give 3 months notice to cancel. Maybe just re-start jogging around the Downs!

Fire_Fox

Helen224488 wrote: »

Anyway we cancelled & they sent us a cheque for our Nov membership as direct debit was going out 1st Nov & we decided to cancel very end Oct. Not sure if we are gonna join another gym or not. Thinking about Bannantynes but heard horror stories about having to give 3 months notice to cancel. Maybe just re-start jogging around the Downs!

Glad to hear this got resolved. You might investigate your local council gym, YMCA, college, school or university all of whom often take members of the public. Not being a business they don't have staff on sales targets and don't have unfair cancellation policies. It's a good time of year to join, most places are quieter and quieter towards Christmas.

Savvy_Sue

Helen224488 wrote: »

Thinking about Bannantynes but heard horror stories about having to give 3 months notice to cancel. Maybe just re-start jogging around the Downs!

True, and their customer service is astonishingly bad at Head Office (although the local staff are lovely). But their pool is child free except for a few hours on Sat and Sun afternoons. It is much cheaper than Nuffield, however.

What about the Brit Mil Fit classes on the Downs?

Or look at Clifton College and the University, I think they both have pools which outsiders can use.

Helen224488

We visited Bannantynes and although we were happy with facilities the prices are not that much cheaper than Nuffield. We were quoted £15 admin fee, no joining fee & rest Nov for free if sign up before 15th Nov, £99 per month for couple on a 12 month contract, £112 on a 6 month contract, £55 individual 12 month contract, £60 on a 6 month contract, off peak membership 7am-4pm Mon-Fri £40 on a 12 month contract, £46 on a 6 month & off peak 7am-4pm Mon-Sun £46 on a 12 month contract ,£52 on a 6 month contract.

We have a friend who just cancelled his off peak Mon-Sun contract & was only paying £37 a month which is weird. Also if you add towel hire at £5 per person per month it equals £109 per month, Nuffield was £126, not a huge difference.

We looked at Clifton College which has a small gym, 25m pool, badminton, tennis (seasonal) but the times are restricted as college students use facilities at certain times of the day. Membership is £67.50 per month for a couple with a joining fee of £55 but only a 3 month minimum contract but they have no parking.

Just phoned Bristol Uni & their universal membership (gym & pool) is £525 per year or £145 per quarter (every 3 months) per person, forgot to ask about joint/couple membership & their pool is based on a different site.

Military fittness sessions on The Downs or any type fittness session there is aprox £5 per session so that would add up in ££££££££££ I just think that because of the area we live in Redland/Clifton we are not gonna find an affordable gym except for anytime fitness on Whiteladies Rd but we really wanted parking & a pool.

We used to live in Brislington & loved D W Sports & Fitness so cheap & clean & amazing. I suppose we just have to pay Cliftonian prices or go jogging around the Downs & sort out a medicine ball routine in our tiny 1st floor flat. Not rushing in to anything will weigh up alternatives.:o

Savvy_Sue

What about Next Generation / David Lloyd? Not sure what they call it these days. They say it's Westbury, I'd say Southmead ...

rogueylawyer

David Lloyd's even more expensive again, it's around £70 per month for an individual membership. Plus it is definitely Southmead

Helen224488

That is true we took a tour of David Lloyd, Westbury just before we joined Nuffield around 4 months ago, the salesman who continuously chewed gum so we could see it! quoted us £130 ish for a couple. Too far to drive with traffic too. I am thinking of the 12 days for £12 thou. Shame they don't offer 30 days for £30. Still debating which Bristol health club to join.

Savvy_Sue

Well, the only other places I know of with pools are:

Otium, pool is tiny and difficult to predict when there will be children in, although there are some child-free times - never at the weekend however, and I don't know if they are enforced during the week. Also they have swimming lessons every morning in term time. No free parking - but you can get it for £1 per hour in the hotel car park if you get your ticket stamped in the gym, and after 6 pm there's a very small amount of free on street parking.

Marriotts - I can't remember what shape the pool is in the one by College Green, but the one near Cabot is an odd shape, difficult to do lengths in. I think College Green lets you park for free, there's definitely a charge at the Cabot one.

Ramada, not been there, but no free parking again.

I am trying to remember if there is another hotel with a pool in the city centre, but if there is I haven't been there and it doesn't have free parking.

The most MSE solution is probably council run facilities, and there are some child free times at Easton and Horfield, but I really dislike the lack of private showers and the mixed changing facilities. Also I found that the swim times were quite limited once you'd taken out school swimming lessons, other swimming lessons, swimming clubs, over 50s swimming, ladies only swimming (which OK I could have gone to, but not with DH) and so on and so forth.

There's the Lido, of course! No parking, but maybe you can walk (or jog) there?

DH goes to Bannatynes, because he's usually driving and squeezing a visit into a busy day so needs the convenience of parking, and I fell out with them when I had to cancel - what I wanted to do was freeze my membership, and if they'd let me do that I'd still be a member. But they don't, and Head Office were appalling. For us, it's all about location, and we can get to Bannatynes from work or home on the train as well as by car.

I now go to Otium, because I can walk there from work, or get there and back on the bus if I'm going from home. It only really works for me because even if it's too busy to swim, I can stand in a corner of the pool and do my exercises, and then I can sit in the jacuzzi or steam room and waggle my ankles around. :rotfl:

Helen224488

Savvy Sue - thanks for your input. Do you mind me asking what you paid for Bannantynes, was it a joint membership, peak or off peak.

The guy at Bannantynes phoned today & I tried to get a 6 month membership for the same monthly amount as a 12 month, I told him our budget was £99 & we didn't want to pay £112 per month for 6 months. He said there are no negotiations or reductions the current offer is join now get next month for 1/2 price.

We are weighing up the costs. It is so local, we live on Redland Rd so perfect. I would like to pay no more than £100 for a couple membership per month for a 6 month contract & i'd like towel hire thrown in instead of paying another £10 for both of us.

Would be interested in what other people pay for Bristol Bannantynes memberships.