Laneshealthclubs Avis 

I would be very wary of setting up a direct debit with this company! My mother set up a 3-month-only membership as a gift for me via Direct Debit at Lanes Rustington, with the advice that we/she could cancel within 30 days of the 3 months being up, which she did. And yet, although her bank had cancelled the instruction, Lanes did not choose to send an email requesting permission to take a payment; they just went ahead and reinstated the DD without any consent or approval from myself or my mother. Be warned!

We signed up for a three month trial of a Movement is Medicine program at Lanes. At the end of the 3 months we cancelled our DD and told reception we would not be coming again.
Five months later Lanes say we didn’t give written confirmation and therefore they run a rolling membership meaning we now owe them about £1200 even though we have not been to the club after the three month trial. Which incidentally gave no more movement in my wife’s leg than she had before the trial.

Lanes initially said they had been sending emails to us with software showing the emails had been opened.
We were able to prove that we never received any of these so called emails. They did finally apologise and admit it was their software error, but insisted the debt was still accumulating.

When looking at the 2 existing reviews it is notable that the current 5 star review was written by Nayim Ali which is the same name of the debt recovery manager at Lanes. Hopefully Trust Pilot will look closely at their fraudulent review and delete it.

There are some reasonable facilities and people at Lanes but they are no better than at the much cheaper fitness centre in Littelhampton.

Be aware if you sign up for a three month trial you have to give WRITTEN notice one month BEFORE the end of the trial to avoid rolling debt

I think the gym is wonderful and the classes are fantastic. It’s a lovely location with a really nice calming and welcoming feel to it.
The staff are always welcoming and have been helpful in a handful of occasions. The facilities that come with it also are excellent.

The administrative side of this club is woeful, prompting both my wife and I to leave. They show little regard for data protection, financial transparency, and basic customer care. My experience has been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office, and I sincerely hope others read this before signing up.

Upon leaving, their admin staff demonstrated gross incompetence in the following ways:

• Switched payment processor without informing members, effectively handing confidential financial information to a third party without consent. — Violates UK GDPR Article 14

• Violated their own stated cancellation policy by demanding an extra month's payment, even though I was well within their cancellation window. — Contravenes UK Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

• Conflated opt-in marketing communications with essential contractual information. — Violates UK GDPR Article 6

• Failed to provide an opt-out link in their email newsletters. When this was pointed out, an opt-out link was swiftly added to their newsletters, written, for some reason, in French. — Violates PECR Regulation 23

• When challenged, they blamed me for not receiving the email, falsely stating that I had unsubscribed from their marketing communications. A change of payment processor is a data and financial governance issue, not marketing. — Fails under UK GDPR transparency and accountability principles

• I was forced to recover the payment through my bank using a Direct Debit Indemnity. — Breach of the Direct Debit Guarantee

• Even after requesting full removal from marketing lists, I continued receiving promotional emails. — Violates PECR and UK GDPR Article 21

• I submitted a formal complaint. Their response was dismissive, flippant, and offered no resolution whatsoever.

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You may enjoy the facilities, but the moment you encounter a problem, expect indifference, excuses, and policy inconsistencies used against you.