placesforpeopleleisure.org Avis 

Poor hygiene, poorly maintained and not worth the money

I've tried to give this place the benefit of the doubt, but I'm now at the point where I'm ready to leave.

The biggest issue is the cleanliness. The upstairs changing rooms, toilets, sauna and steam room are absolutely disgusting. Female toilets stink,often fulled with urine/poo,they do not flush and havnt for as long as ive been a member there. The female changing rooms often smell unpleasant, don't feel hygienic and are in desperate need of proper cleaning and maintenance. The downstairs swimming pool changing area isn't much better either.you can smell it from the reception moat if the time. Feels and looks grimy.

The upstairs sauna and steam room are gross, I dont even attempt too use them. The sauna is currently broken anyway. But tbh its so grim at times with rubbish on the floor/spit,it's put me right off. Using the steam room is a dice with diseases, dont know if you'll.end up sick half the time with flu when you leave.

The gym itself doesn't smell, but it's poorly maintained. Equipment is regularly missing parts, particularly on the cable machines, meaning you can't always complete a proper workout. Staff are constantly informed of missing parts and still,nothing. I even had to bring my own D handles and other bits to be able to work out, unfortunately now i cant even clip my own D ring to the cable as its missing a main metal bit to click anything to on one of them.
For a centre charging around £40 a month, I'd expect the equipment to be complete and in good working order.

There have also been ongoing concerns about thefts from the changing rooms, otehr service users are tlakig about how they dont feel its safe to leave items in the changing area due to breaking into the lockers, particularly in the men's changing area, which is worrying for members.

The most frustrating part is that these issues have been raised repeatedly by members, for a long period of time by the sounds of it, yet very little seems to change. People are leaving because they're fed up with paying for facilities that are dirty, poorly maintained and not fit for purpose.

I appreciate this is one of the more affordable leisure centres, but that shouldn't mean members have to accept poor hygiene or inadequate facilities. Everyone deserves a clean, safe and well-maintained place to exercise, regardless of how much they pay.

Sadly, I can no longer recommend this centre in Wolverhampton, Bently Bridge and will be looking elsewhere.

Who ever runs this place should be ashamed of themselves.
Only good thing aboit the place is the classes they have,and its just bog standard classes you can get anywhere. Big up to the yoga instructors there.only thing thays kept me there so long.
Places for people...lol..the irony.

The staff are really helpful and polite the facilities are ok but often the changing rooms are dirty and smell of urine (this is no fault of the cleaners they're amazing) due to customers not cleaning up after themselves and not using the overshoes provided
There was a dirty nappy left in the changing room ....why ?? Laziness I'm guessing
I am surprised Fairfield actually agreed to use ce parking as it's causing all sorts of problems often no Internet causing long queues and stressing reception staff as they're in the firing line
Lots of people trying to keep healthy n fit are getting hefty fines
Due to the greedy cowboy company they decided to employ.
This is going to have impact of membership cancellations costing
Your company
This needs to be addressed asap it's a shambles

As I’m sure you are aware, the use of the Gym by non-members and non-paying customers continues. Many just walk straight into the Gym and use the facilities indiscriminately. I’m aware that some members have cancelled their membership but continue to use the Gym. I worry about this as the centre has no record of who is using the facilities…and when young people attend, then safe guarding may become an issue, as well as a fire and safety concern.

Membership card scanner didn't work - now have charged me £5 for "non-attendance" of two sessions

Money-grabbing

Tooting leisure swimming pool
Very poor customer service at the desk.
Disinterested in serving swiftly in spite of several staff chatting to each other.
In the pool an extremely loud machine was run the whole hour of my swim. The man using it wore noise cancelling earplugs and all fellow swimmers were unhappy that I spoke to
The staff and I spoke to four of them were unwilling to listen or do anything seeing customers as a problem to be disrespected. This centre has deteriorated considerably and the contract should be urgently reviewed by Wandsworth council.

Opening hours in Waltham Abbey are awful, close early on weekends when people are off to actually work out. Swimming classes are now being disturbed by free swimming just to make more money and squeeze as many people into the pool as possible. I am intending to change as too expensive for what you actually get! Benefit of having monopol as the only one in Waltham Abbey. Easy to sign up, nearly impossible to cancel and then did breach of GDPR sending me someone else’s query!

Costs as much as a private gym for "local authority" standards.
Charges you an extra 2.50 when the app fails to cancel a class which is so glitchy it's utterly impossible to use. I'm just hoping someone local starts to do the les mills classes so that I can go somewhere else.

RIPLEY
Popular classes are always full so you have to have a membership to get anywhere near and there isn't enough equipment to go around for body pump to have flexibility and choice in the weights. Instructors are excellent TBF but the rest is just poor. Too many barely attended classes and not enough of the more popular ones.

Far too many treadmills and not enough of the popular weights equipment, multiple pieces broken for so long I no longer go I just use classes.

Pool is taken up with schools and lessons most of the time. Swim teachers completely unable to cope with children with additional needs and no flexibility in classes so that disabled children are able to access lessons. I'm absolutely dreading him going with school 🤦🏻‍♀️

Raised a concern about a man filming in the changing room and pool and did not follow recommended safeguarding practices of calling the police so that footage could be reviewed. Who knows who he is or what footage 🤷🏻‍♀️

ALFRETON
facilities are better, terrible experience with trampolining on a Wednesday for my little boy6, felt like I was talking to one of his peers rather than a coach! Would recommend Saturday mornings, Leo was absolutely super with him but this girl clearly didn't like him at all from the very start and the culmination was him struggling with a move someone else was teaching him and her calling out to him that his ears must be as broken as his brain (he has ASD and ADHD). I thought this was an oddly childish thing to say so I checked with one of the other kids and they confirmed it. Spent half an hour telling him off for swinging on a bar the other children were swinging on. Targeted and unpleasant. Receptionist insisted I could drop and leave him to sort parking permits and would not take no for an answer, had to get very firm in public to get her to hand over the permit so I could run back with him to the car! Don't expect to have to explain that he's 6 and autistic and therefore no I would not be leaving him for even half minute let alone 10! Very glad I stuck to my guns and took him with me now that I've seen the quality of supervision and kindness the coaches were able to muster.

Parking is a huge issue, also gets extremely busy. Managers/ staff not responding or dealing with customers complaints, ignoring communications yet increasing membership prices, faulty showers, holes in ceiling above ladies showers, chasing for over 2years with no resolve or response. Some staff are friendly and nice, others rather rude. Booking system is hit and miss and the reception system isn’t the best as only 2 machines often not working or loading. I used to love this gym but not so much over the last year. Very disappointed.

This review is for Fairfield Leisure Centre in Dartford. Abysmal service with enquiries not being addressed, phones never answered. Ignorant and rude attitude. Note, if you have an event coming up and need to book the Hall I would advise you to do so months ahead!