Fitness First UK Reviews 1,699

As a long-standing member of Fitness First Baker Street, I was disappointed by an incident involving the manager after I politely raised a hygiene concern, which left me feeling uncomfortable and led me to cancel my membership.

Like many other reviews seem to repeat (I wish I had checked first!), the salespeople here will mislead or lie to you to get you to sign up to a fixed 12 month contract.

After taking the tour, Umar put an iPad in front of me to sign a contract at the signature page. He was being very pushy for me to hurry up and I thought that instead of reading a lengthy contract, I would just ask him to make sure I was not committing to a 12 month fixed term contract. Umar directly lied to me when I asked this question and confirmed that I would be able to cancel after 3 months, as thereafter I would be on a rolling contract, so I signed. When it came around to cancelling low and behold, I was locked in.

Complaining goes nowhere. The Cottons desk team give you an email address that does not respond after multiple chasing and now I'm taking advice from citizens advice. I believe their business model is to essentially scam people, and then when it comes to complaints, just mess people around enough so that they just pay the extortionate cancellation fee instead of going through a deliberately exhausting process to challenge the fees.

I've reported them, and specifically Umar, to Trading Standards and encourage others with similar stories to do the same.

The gym itself is "ok", with a lot of equipment, but its sometimes quite a poor experience and rarely worth the fees they charge. Its usually very busy, with broken equipment and unclean changing room facilities.

Please avoid.

Easy to renew great value for money

All they care about is money , when you want to cancel your membership , you will be faced with so much fees , that you weren’t aware of , but according to them it’s in the terms and condition . Stupid company , do not go to this gym , avoid it like the plague

I had a very disappointing experience at Fitness First due to the behaviour of an instructor, Nicolas.
During a class, he spoke to me in a rude and dismissive manner in front of other members, which I found humiliating and unprofessional. He also treated my friend disrespectfully when she was simply trying to help me.
This is not the first time I’ve experienced this kind of attitude from him. As a paying member, I expect to be treated with basic respect.
Unfortunately, this experience has made me reconsider my membership. I hope management takes this issue seriously.

Umar from fitness first cottons quite possibly the most unprofessional and unhelpful person

Wasn’t interested in resolving issues, felt like I was going insane but happy to see the comments have had the same issues so feel less insane

Very aggressive on the phone, in absolute disbelief at this behaviour from a higher market gym

Long story. Currently disputing because of nefarious behaviour from fitness first onoff cottons.

Absolute joke. Sack him now.

Great membership renewal experience with Gemma. Made is easy and worthwhile to renew.

The Cottons branch is poorly managed

Issues are escalated to Umar, who wastes your time by attempting you to convince you he's resolved them, but he takes no action. He also says that he'd call you back, but he never does. He does not reply to the emails either

Loving every class!!! Excellent support from the staff and trainers!!! Always happy to be at Fitness First ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Worst gym I have ever been to. STAY CLEAR away from it. When they want to sign you up they find all the forms of communication to contact you but when there is something on your account that needs to be addressed no ones knows anything. Staff do not know the t&c and will give wrong information on memberships. Head office will take months to reply to your query so they can keep charging you while your account is inactive. I remember 15 years ago my Dad had issues with them and I obviously didn't learn my lesson to not sign up with them. He used to say it’s not fitness first it’s Money First and now I get what he meant back done. Hasn’t changed still the same scam company. Their facilities are same at puregym and half of the machines don't work so your better off paying a third of the price and at least you got the flexibility to cancel when you don't want to use it. They will make the mistake and ask you to honer the contract when they don't honer it themselves. Over charged me £346 and couldn’t even care less.

This has been one of the worst customer service experiences I’ve had at any gym. The swimming pool at Fitness First Thomas More Square has been freezing cold for weeks, to the point where it’s impossible to swim comfortably. This is supposed to be a basic facility, yet it’s consistently unusable.

What’s even worse is the complete lack of action. I have spoken to staff multiple times, raised the issue in person, and sent several emails — either no one replies, or absolutely nothing is done. It feels like the concerns of paying members are being completely ignored.

Other members are complaining too, so this is clearly not an isolated issue. For a company of this size, the lack of communication, accountability, and urgency is genuinely shocking.

Members deserve better than this. Right now, the service is unacceptable, and the refusal to address such a simple, essential problem is extremely poor.

!!!scammers scammers do not click even when it shows £0 pounds charge as it is an subscription of £29.99 per month without any contract or signature or any consent whatsoever they stay charging your account , costumer service number always busy with very annoying message , AVOID

Fitness First Milton Keynes is getting worse. Don't get me wrong decent enough gym. It started going downhill when all the machines from upstairs were brought downstairs and crammed into space that's not really there. The cardio machines, particularly treadmills, are out of order for months at a time. In January, the busiest time, there were 4 treadmills, a bike, a stairmaster and belt squat machine out of order. We're down to 3 treadmills out of order now. Would it not make sense to replace? As the same machines break down time after time. Try and complain and get a big standard response. Firm is waiting for parts. Well forget the parts and get a new machine. And while you're there move some machines back upstairs.

Generally the club is quite well run and the staff are friendly!
Late last year we all had an email saying new showers were going to be fitted so there would be no showering facilities for 2 weeks , no form of compensation was offered for this , a free guest pass would have been nice ?
In the end it took 3 weeks
They looked nice but mostly only had cold water coming out , I complained ,!others complained, I was then told some 6 weeks after installation that they were fixed
Got a few weeks that seemed to be the case unless you choose one of the first 3 showers out of approx 9 , then the water is still cold !
The ones with hotter water very rarely have soap , I presume because they are the only ones hot and no one refills the soap during the day
Surely after they spent so much getting new showers they should work ?
Additionally the poolside showers 3 in total only one works , this has been the case for over a year ! Come on fitness first Bangor get your act together!

I have been with fitness first for several years over 10 years in fact. The standards have on worsened and have reached a point of no return for me. The clubs are not really upto standard, machines have been out of order for weeks on end even months. They are happy to increase the prices with no change or worsening services. Spar areas badly neglected. Pegs missing , non labeled wash bottles in the shower areas. Gym equipment ripped, often multiple machines out of order.Just shows a clear disregard of the members. The worst part of it is the member service team. You can no longer speak to anyone directly over the phone. You have to send them an email to them members services then wait a WEEK for someone to email you back. Honestly, if the staff who respond to you in member services were trained in customer services, maybe things may have been different. Unfortunately they are not and are quite possibly the worst rudest staff I have come across in a longtime. They speak to you as if they are certain that there are no consequences to their actions or responses. Seriously stay clear. I would WARN everyone to stay clear. It's a shame because the gym staff are nice and hard working, but very poor management over the years and for me it's reached it's peak. I will be cancelling my membership and wont look back.

Genuinely loved the facilities and classes for a long time, but I won't be renewing after a long list of issues that never got resolved.

The biggest was a misleading renewal process - three ignored requests to update my home club, and a complaint that went nowhere. Renewed in February assuming my access hadn't changed. It had, but nobody told me. Their solution? Pay more for the upgrade or suck it up. Their response to my complaint was the same paragraph about contract terms, twice, followed by "this is our final stance."

On top of that, I've repeatedly been to classes where members show up to classes without booking, leaving them dangerously over capacity. For classes involving barbells this is a serious safety issue, which also was completely ignored by the teams.

Too many issues to ignore, try another gym!

The team at this gym are absolutely great.
The classes I've ben to have been really motivating and energetic. They have a steam room pool and a sauna.
I had an able session which shows you your body's bio age and how its performing and received a free training plan.
So far so good.

Have been really happy up until I found out they’ve changed their tiers. I use to be able to go both to the streatham gym classes and Balham. I’ve now moved closer to Balham and have discovered they’ve moved it to a higher tier even though the gym is much smaller than streatham. Cancelling because of this.

I joined the London Bridge Cottons branch in December after being verbally told I would receive three months at half price if I signed up that day. This was presented as a time-sensitive offer, and I felt pressured to proceed immediately in order to secure the deal.

However, when my third payment was taken, I was charged full price. On reviewing the confirmation email, it stated that the discount applied for two months, not three.

While I appreciate that the written terms reference two months, the issue is that the membership was sold to me on the basis of three months at half price. That representation directly influenced my decision to sign up.

I have contacted Membership Services several times to explain the situation and requested either the additional discounted month or a goodwill resolution.

Unfortunately, I have been told that because the written confirmation states two months, nothing further can be done.

The most disappointing part has been the refusal to acknowledge that the verbal representation at the point of sale may have been misleading. There is a real lack of accountability and zero apology.

I would advise anyone joining to ensure that any promotional offer discussed in person is clearly reflected in writing before signing.

I hope the company reviews its sales practices to ensure clearer communication for the future

Joined nearly 2 months ago as it was closer than the Nuffield health I used to go too. Used a referral but that didn't work. Had to prove student ID twice. Haven't been able to log into app since joining, can't book gym tour or personal trainer, so haven't used gym, as you also need QR code on app to go in, which means I have to go in and plan this faff into it everytime. Have to go on site with laptop or call over phone, so most things are booked out by time I check for classes. I can't cancel classes when I get sick (I'm recovering from an injury) as I can't get an app, had my account marked for missing classes. I explained I'm on oral morphine and other meds and can't keep calling. They said the forgot password part of the app is broke so now only option is to keep calling or just emailing until I get a reply until their IT fix the issue. However, I'm now totally locked out of my account after only getting back in a few days ago while they fix it, so I cannot book any classes unless I tell them specifically what I want to book. They won't refund or compensate for the 2 months this has been going on, blaming my injury and mobility for my lack of attendance, which granted impacted it, however, I signed up to a gym with ease of access for this reason, and the issues managing my account and classes is why a massive obstacle for someone with enough on their plate right now. My physio signed me back to the gym and is encouraging it, now I'm paying for a service I can only access if I call and hope the classes aren't booked out when I do as I can't manage it myself due to their IT issues. I'm looking to move providers now.