The Gym Group West Hampstead

legalfreak22

For anyone thinking of joining,I thought I might share my experience with you about the above gym, and a nasty one it is.

In order to enter the gym you need a PIN to gain access. The PIN is linked to your Direct Debit and so, say the company, you cannot change it once it is doled out to you.

You enter the gym by keying in the code, either upstairs at street level. Once you have entered from the street entrance, there is a further barrier door downstairs. The problem is that there is no privacy as there are always people standing around you and coming in and out. When you are at street level it is pretty obvious for people to see what you are keying. Also, there is the possibility of people perhaps seeing the first part of your PIN (your birthday) and perhaps randomly guessing the rest. The gym is incredibly busy. If you wanted complete privacy you would be waiting for a very long time! In addition, there is no way to see if someone is not looking at what you are doing at the basement door whether outside or inside the gym.

If your PIN is used in a way that the company determine is 'abuse' you receive an email warning you of PIN abuse/misuse. The email is aggressive and automatically assumes that you have 'abused' the PIN. They also use the word 'misuse' which is bad enough if you are innocent of this, but the word 'abuse' is used prominently. You are warned that if it happens again your membership is terminated. There is no further information in the email of the nature of the abuse/misuse. If you call CS you are told (by apathetic staff) that you can only terminate membership and rejoin if you want to. In my case it is true, the gym was used by 3rd parties unknown to me.

What is more galling is that their systems allow one PIN user to be in the gym even though someone else is on the gym at the same time! If you haven't exited (using your PIN) then you shouldn't be allowed to enter with that PIN.

There are many other posts on other websites with people reporting the same problem. There is nothing you can do about it. In effect, if you have this problem you would have to terminate and pay the rejoining fee if you wanted to rejoin.

I fully understand that the company have a right to prevent unauthorised entry to the gym but the problem is that their wn security is at fault due to lack of privacy. Also, they have all the evidence and it could also be down to fraud. I'm not saying that I have evidence of this, but it can't be ruled out.

Hope this helps people trying to decide whether to join or not.

olly300

They claim the entrance barriers have a camera on them.

I have no idea if this is true.

In the gym I'm a member of there are no people standing around to view your PIN, and like with ATM machines I would use your other hand to shield your PIN.

legalfreak22

Regarding shielding the PIN, it's impossible to do this at all times. Even when you are at an ATM people can see what you are keying in sometimes. When you at the entrance to the gym or waiting to leave you need to spend a long time before you can be sure that someone is not looking at what you are keying in. It's utterly unrealistic when contemplating the logistics at this particular gym.

happyasmuck

I'm surprised you can even get into the Gym. The one in Brighton is usually closed for "Routine Maintenance" !

zzzt

Does anyone else have any thoughts about The Gym Group? Apart from the key entry problems how is it?

I was thinking of joining because it's half the price of all other gyms in my area, it's open 24/7 when most of the others are not, and it has no contract when all of the other gyms have a 12 month minimum contract. They also promise never to increase the price if you stay with them. It seems far too good to be true, which sets alarms bells ringing in my brain (I can't help thinking "what's the catch"?). In fact, they have that as a question in their FAQ. The answer they give is "There is no catch!".

I suppose if it is bad then I can just cancel after a month. But I'm still interested in opinions of the gym.

zzzt

Hmm on second thoughts after reading some reviews on yelp.co.uk it seems my local The Gym has massive overcrowding problems to the point of being unusable at peak hours. I guess that's the catch of a gym that's too good to be true: a victim of its own popularity.

dealer_wins

Im a member here, and gurading your PIN entry is the same as at an ATM.

Although in the 3 months I have been going I have never once felt anyone trying to shoulder surf me, in fact its rare I am passing through the "pod" with someone behind me as there are 2 pods.