Placesleisure Avis 

The Hurst Pool in Molesey used to often be the place myself and my son would swim. Its where my son took his first ever swim and we had been going for the last 9 years+

Recently, they have changed their website. When booking, the type of pool (Learner or Main Pool) are not properly visible and much to our dismay, the session i booked was in the learner pool. I cancelled our session and instead booked a session a couple of hours later at the Walton Xcel, which was more expensive and was limited to a single lane.
I have now been sent a £4 late cancellation fee from the Hurst Pool.
This company is a money grab when they can. Despite paying extra for a pool owned at the same company, they have said i now owe them £4.
Its not a lot of money, but its money im paying due to them changing their website, making things less clear and then charging more for less at a pool a mile down the road.
Im not going to waste my money with this company anymore. Ive gone from a monthly paying member to someone who is now actively avoiding ever going and will advise others to stay clear if they can.

I’ve been a customer at Sparkhill Pool at the Fitness Center for quite some time now. Over the past three years, I’ve noticed a significant decline in customer service, a general decline in the cleanliness of the gym, and a severe lack of equipment in the ladies’ only section. This gym is poorly maintained and poorly managed. It’s incredibly difficult to reach the manager and discuss these issues.

To make matters worse, the staff members, particularly the receptionist, engage in gossip with other customers, which unnecessarily delays my visits. The receptionist, Saffa, is extremely rude and has an attitude and i made a complaint to the duty manager regarding this incident, they did not take any action to resolve the situation.

Furthermore, there have been several rat droppings scattered throughout the gym. Health and safety officers need to be informed about this, and a thorough investigation should be conducted.

Very poor member customer service at Places Leisure Head Office and Steyning Leisure Centre. My request for compensation following recent facility repairs was not acknowledged by the recipient at Head Office; a refund offer from Steyning Leisure Centre has not been honoured and my enquiry about membership cancellation with Places Leisure Customer Service and Steyning Leisure Centre was met with an email confirming cancellation that I did not make during either call.

Please be aware: I was advised that the cancellation policy requires 15 days notice before the date of a direct debit after which the account is closed and no further payments will be taken. However, if you cancel under 15 days before the date of a direct debit the next payment will be taken for a full month. In effect the cancellation period could be 2 weeks or it could be 5 depending on the date of your direct debit. In my case I was advised it would be 5 weeks if I cancelled. This is clearly unfair on members whose payment dates depend on when they join. I was not advised about this when joining.

In light of all this I have cancelled my membership with immediate effect as it appears to have no value to either organisation.

We've been attending Swimming lessons for over three years and want to say a huge thank you to our swimming teachers:
Jo Wake, Karen, Leo, Katy, Lewis

Each of these teachers work very hard, and each brings a unique perspective to learning. My son is very grateful to have been taught by such amazing teachers as you are.
Great luck to you all.

Noone answers the phone.

Be nice to be able to speak to a person.

Very bad customer service. Phone call never answered.
No information is given on website. Staff is very rude and they don’t have full information either

We have a great swimming community plus staff who care this has made exercising a joy and has impacted me in such a positive way

Be very careful if your using this company. Espically if you need to cancel membership on medical grounds. They want 15 days notice to cancel and will insis on you paying the following months sunscriotuins. They also demanded a medical letter from a doctor to say i was withdrawing on medical grounds.

Complete conning company. Be very careful if you sign up with them. All they want is your money

Awful leisure centre. My daughter left as she found it almost impossible to get parked in the evenings and the gym was so packed, I cancelled the DD and then they reinstalled it! Apparently this was a technical error. Trying to get hold of anyone to talk with is a nightmare. Eventually they paid back the money that they had taken. Then recently I booked out a badminton court online and the webpage pop up kept saying that payment had failed to be made. So I went into the leisure centre to book a court, only to find later that payment had been taken online! I have reached out to the company and despite my sending proof of payment being made twice, Head Office are saying it has only been taken once! I am now having to chase my money yet again. I would not recommend this leisure centre and I won’t be using it again.

I had an incident when taking my little girl swimming and a member of staff, Dave Matthews I believe (reception staff, tall, Curtain styled hair and between 20 and 30 years of age) spoke to me, in front of other people, like something on the bottom of his shoe. I advised him I couldn't hear him very well due to not having my hearing aid in yet he continued to try talking down at me. Since this incident, I've made a complaint and ironically, every time he's let me in, I get a penalty on my account saying I've not attended. This has now happened 3 times and its only when he let's me in. Clearly holds a grudge and needs to grow up.

I rung 11 times knowone ever picks up, so I walked over to center has I am literally 2 mins away, when I got there knowone was at reception just staff, just talking as always. I ask the receptionist does anyone pick the phone up was told yes then she said what can I do for you? I again said I rung 11 times she still dismissing me, I told her are dogs allowed to run on the running track has ive never seen anything like it in my life, she replied yes, she needs to retrain has she had no manners and was rude.

Pool was reduced length due to a technical problem, but no notice to that effect or an apology for any inconvenience.
This sort of thing happens too frequently.
Illustrates a lack of care for the members who have already paid for the service

Not only have facilities at The Triangle been unavailable/broken for months but I have been lied to by a manager. The attempt at apologising took no responsibility or accountability for lying. Honesty and integrity seem sorely lacking at The Triangle so I doubt this is something they are actually capable of doing.

Edit: I have already made a formal complaint. It seems the main goal of staff is to get me to "drop it" instead of actually addressing the issues. From how my complaint has been handled, I can only assume Place Leisure considers lying by management acceptable.

Random Facebook post saying reduced capacity in pool tomorrow due to ITV filming. No warning on booking app so tough luck if you don’t want to risk being caught on camera. Notice videos of exercise classes are also being uploaded to Facebook. Places Leisure ignoring their own ‘no photography’ rule!

Update - the footage of the filming in the pool has now been uploaded to Facebook and it shows the whole of the pool not just the area marked “private hire”.

Dover District Leisure Centre is a brilliant general fitness and health centre expertly run by Places Leisure. A pleasure to visit the centre, very well run, clean and lovely environment, well looked after, a very competitive monthly fee and a huge array of classes available with 1st rate instructors. Excellent value for money it really is a treat to use it.

This place must be managed by the Chuckle Brothers, think Brittas Empire. Disabled bays are regularly abused, often taken up by able bodied people who don’t have blue badges, seemingly because they know the management don’t ever bother to address the issue despite being asked repeatedly, it’s a public place surely they could organise something with the council? 14 bays were taken up by able bodied people without disabled badges last time I went there (I can understand one or 2 having forgotten to use their badges but 14? No). Swimming is next to impossible, they have fast medium and slow lanes however staff always indifferent to anyone asking them to move slow people out of the fast lanes, why they bother to have signs indicating which is which I don’t know, if you want to swim fast in the fast lane you simply can not. The health suite aught to be called the health hazard, it really isn’t cleaned properly.

No one answers the phone or returns calls, it's been 2 weeks!!

I have nothing bad to say about the staff on the front desk. It is all about the fees. Why does Kingston council think it is appropriate for a member who pays a monthly fee to have to pay an additional £17 for an hour of badminton? Often the hall is booked by outside groups, it is in use by the local school in the daytime and you need to be lucky to get a court at the weekends. £17 is excessive for an hour of play plus usual monthly membership. Sort it out Kingston council. This is a rip off.

Very disappointed with service in excel....communication is really bed and service even worse.

Fantastic gym, great atmosphere, great range of equipment and professional friendly staff.