David Lloyd Leisure Health Club Review

Overall Rating

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David LLoyd Corporate attitude to customers, otherwise known as wage payers!

When I found out that I was pregnant, I went in to our local David Lloyd club (Leicester) to enquire about freezing my membership later in my pregnancy as I guessed I would struggle to attend. I was told that this was not possible and all I could do was cancel my membership but would have to pay if I rejoined more than 3 months later. Obviously, I do not feel a financial penalty should be paid for being pregnant, partcularly when David Lloyd charge handsomely for family membership!
I sent in my cancellation in good time for the end of the month and giving one month's notice, as required and received a confirmation but which stated I owed a further month. I didn't agree and cancelled my Direct Debit.
I then received a letter saying I owed £46.00 for the month that I disputed. When I tried to call the Head Office to discuss, all there was was an automated message, explaining that there is a procedure for complaints and then it cut off. That made me think. Never before have I called a company who automatically assumes all you want to do is complain!!
As I couldn't speak with anyone, I did nothing else, until I received another letter. This time, I got through and the very rude person said that it was sent because I had a three month cancellation period, which was not true and then he said that it was because they had not received a cancellation from me. I told him that I had confirmation and called Leicester to confirm with them. They said that they hadn't received the letter until the following month (stating 5 days after I posted it) and that they were not responsible for the Royal Mail. Clearly, this was a ploy to get another month's payment. I then went on holiday and came back to a letter from ARC Debt Collectors for £142.00!! They said that I owed two month's charges plus £50.00 admin fees! Clearly nobody knows what they are doing here! Nowhere can I find that this is part of the deal when signing up with David Lloyd. They finally admitted that the 2 month's owed was incorrect and as I am now 6 months pregnant and do not need this stress, I paid £96.00 for them to go away.
The most annoying points are that everyone seemed to have a different reason as to why I was being charged and all that I spoke to were very rude and clearly couldn't care less about Customer Service. It baffles me that this attitude is prevalent in a recession and that all I wanted to do was freeze my membership for a few months, which was more than likely to be followed with upgrading to a family one (i.e more money). Needless to say, my partner has now cancelled too!
Well Done David Lloyd!!

Members' Comments onGuest's Review

• Smolly on 26th May 2009

  I found this review helpful because...I am so glad I not on my own - DL are without doubt one of the worst companies in the UK. They have an arrogance that is unrivaled - they obviously have a one size fits all policy to any complaint, 'Ignore it & by the way pay up!'. The senior management team are obviously transported in daily from planet zog as they just cannot live in the same world as we do!