All is not well at the The Riverside Club in Northwood
This past weekend I paid a pre-arranged visit to The Riverside Club in Northwood. It’s health and fitness centre operated by Esporta. Having driven past it for years, it’s always looked pretty good, and on the recommendation of a friend, I decided to take a look inside.
Having pre-arranged with a chap called Adam to visit on Saturday morning for a guided tour, and having asked about and been told the peak-rate membership costs (I was very clear to specify peak over off-peak or any other kind of limited membership) before walking through the door, I set off for the club.
Having been kept waiting for a good 10-15 minutes on arrival, a woman who’s name I simply cannot remember (it was a foreign name, that’s as memorable as it gets alas) appears, and tells me Adam is on the phone and won’t be able to do the tour as arranged, but that she will do it instead. Rather crap on the part of Adam, but we get on with the tour nonetheless. Facilities were very very impressive.
Having done the tour, we return to their coffee shop to discuss membership options. The rate card is produced, and I immediately see that Adam has lied about the peak rate membership costs, under quoting by some £50+ pounds a month. I’m not happy about this, but given how impressed I was with the facilities, this wasn’t necessarily a deal-breaker.
Unfortunately, the incredibly rude woman deputising for Adam was a deal-breaker, her attitude absolutely stunk. She became very abrupt and rude when I said I’d have to consider my options before signing a 12-month membership contract committing me to £1,600+ in fees (as would any sensible person), questioned my intelligence, chipped in with the line that only an idiot would sign up straight away, and that it was clear I didn’t care about my health and fitness.
I left. If that is how The Riverside Club treats people before they become members, I dread to think what they are like once you are locked-in for a year’s membership.
Two days later I got a call from Adam. I told him about what happened and how disgusted I was. He didn’t seem particularly bothered.
As readers of this blog will know, I’m a stickler for good customer service and basic courtesy. Therefore, I’ll be forwarding a copy of this blog post to Esporta’s head office. As for The Riverside Club, Adam and his colleagues, in particular the vile individual who wasted my time and insulted me this part Saturday morning should be ashamed of themselves – it’s nothing more than pathetic and I’m sure there are plenty of hard-working people out there that could do their jobs properly. Maybe Esporta should consider paying closer attention to this establishment and making some staff changes.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Hi Chris. Unfortunately I am one of the people who was taken in by Esporta’s hard sell and signed the Terms and Conditions and Credit Agreement without reading them…thought I was sensible but I placed my trust in the rep to my detriment. I was told to read the conditions at home, which I did and was not happy about one bit so I wrote to the General Manager at Esporta Norwich to terminate membership. Now I am being chased by ARC Europe Ltd for the full amount plus their fees. I am disgusted with myself for signing without reading and feel my consumer rights have been violated and totally abused by the trust I put in their people. I have contacted Watchdog, the OFT, Consumer Direct and my local paper to take up the case/story. People should be warned about the underhanded technqiues employed by Esporta’s reps. Trust nobody. Dont sign anything before reading everything. Chris, you did the right thing…something I would normally have done. Well, I have a fight on my hands now. Regards, Andy
January 24th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Hi Chris and Andy,
Wish I’d had a review like this back in January last year when I was duped into signing up for Esporta membership and told that I would be able cancel within the twelve month period by giving 3 months notice. So when I gave 3 months notice I was then told that this was not the case!
Andy, if you’re reading this - how did you get on with them? What was the outcome?
I’m absolutely not impressed by the false sales tactics and poor customer service. Definitely don’t join anyone thinking they like Esporta - I’m not convinced it is a health club, certainly didn’t impress me when I was there and especially not when I gave notice of cancellation in good faith! They’ve lost my custom for good.
Fran
April 21st, 2008 at 12:48 am
Hi
I am also another victim of Esporta Northwood. To be honest i think i could take up a good few pages with all the complaints i have about the way the club is sold. Unfortunately i have also committed to a 12 month contract but only because of the facilities the club offers.
To begin with I had a look around on Friday afternoon, after which i was bombarded by calls from Nathanial-the second hand car salesman, the club rep. These calls continued into Saturday, all of these were ignored until his colleague rang from a private number which i answered! Anyway I signed up and went in to collect my guest passes and Esporta bag plus goodies. To my horror Nathanial explained that i was not entitled to the goodies as i had joined on the reduced rate membership (£40 instead of £80). This was not explained to us when we had our initial meet and were told that this was an offer that he was doing for us to join. He also had a speacial “for today only offer” of 3 personal training sessions which i later found out were offered to every new member!! I hate the underhand sales techniquies used by this apparently “exclusive” health club. If theyre so exclusive and elite, why are they so desperate for me to join?
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:34 am
Hello
Searching through the web as my experience with Esporta is now in full flow.
All I would advise people is if you decide to join the Esporta Group be aware of what you are letting yourself in for. Read the contract carefully. And ask the sales people to explain honestly the cancellation policy.
I have been one on the “fools” to have been stung by this company in that having received my renewal of membership letter (with the increase of £61 to £63 a month) I phoned several times, left messages (none replied), wrote to the “General Manager” (who sent me the letter) stating I would not be renewing my contract only to be hit with the 3 months notice and subsequent charges. The letter I had sent 1 month earlier to the head office I was told this was unacceptable as I hadn’t informed the actual club. I was immediately threatened with “if you don’t pay it we’ll hand it over to our debt recovery agency”.
I tried to talk to them face to face about this kind of intimidation tactic and the fact that surely this cannot be good business practice (they’ll lose more than they recruit) but this fell on deaf ears. They want the money and that’s it. You’ll never join again. You’ll tell all your friends and family about it (and hopefully theirs as well). They don’t care. Obviously all these 3 month penalties add up.
Yeah I should have read the contract. Yeah I signed it. Yeah I didn’t use the club as much as I hoped I would but does that give them the right to treat their members this way?
One year cost me £750+ and 3 months notice £180 with an additional 1 month at £63 for not letting the actual club I was with know. Obviously Head Office doesn’t communicate with their branches unless it’s to see how many leavers they have to bump up the bank balance. Over a grand to go swimming 3 times a week.
Reading various news items it appears that Esporta are in considerable debt and have to sell. Well I hope they get stung with a large penalty for not reading the small print.
Esporta? Ha! You did well to avoid them Chris but I hope word is out ….. LOUD!
June 19th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Hi all,
My experience with Esporta is slightly different but just as dirty. Knowing that I would potentially be moving out of the country within 12 months, I called Esporta in Enfield to ask if they did memberships of less than a year. They said no but that I would be entitled to a 3 month break so I’d only have to pay for 9 months. On this info, I went to the club, did the tour and carefully reiterated what I had been told and was assured that yes, this was the case, before I signed. If I’d been told no, pen would not have touched paper. When it comes to near the 9 month point(and the move abroad is about to happen) I email membership telling them I want to cancel and take the 3 month break in lieu of the notice period. They tell me that I can’t do that, that the contract requires that I pay for a full 12 months. Feeling very peeved, I met with the membership admin bod who tells me that under their relocation policy I could have given 3 months notice after 6 months membership! This relocation policy is not written anywhere on any of their paperwork and they are refusing to reduce my notice period even though their staff (now resigned) misadvised me- twice! I got the impression from the membership admin bod that this occurs all the time (”I wish they’d ask if they’re not sure of something”) and have discovered that they are now asking new members to read and sign a letter to indicate their understanding of the relocation policy. I have to say that this admin bod was actually extremely understanding/sympathetic and went to see the general manager. She came back saying that the manager could not make the decision on this and that it had to be made by central membership and handed me the complaints procedure. I’ve now found out that the manager does have the authority to reduce the notice period and she refused to do so. I wonder if ‘must excel in bad customer service’ and ‘excellent at telling porkies’ is a requirement to work there?
Well, I don’t hold out much hope, save to say that any decent gym business in the country will suffer from the experience people have with the likes of Esporta and all these other corporate gyms that don’t give a rat’s **** about the customer.
August 14th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
I am being even worse treated. I have never visited Esporta, but they are claiming that someone with my name has signed up to their credi deal and they have now set their debt collectors on me. THe matter is with my solicoitor. It would be a good idea if you all wrote to the Office of Fair Trading asking them to cancel Esporta’s consumer credit licence.