Appalling Customer Service

Let me tell you about my experience with Ignite Fitness Ferndale over the past 6 Months.

I joined the gym to help improve myself. Joining was not the issue, that was seamless and no problem at all. The problems started creeping up after that.

When I spoke to the person who helped me to join that I want to get help from a personal trainer and the Biokineticist to help improve. I was told that he gave my number to them, and they will contact me. After about 2 weeks of not hearing so much as a peep from either of them. I raised this with my consultant. I told him that its fine and I did not want their help as clearly, I was not worth their time. He then jumped and said no he will speak with them, and they will contact me but I reiterated my statement by telling him I was not interested anymore. He was still adamant and proceeded to get the Biokineticist to message me and he did. But by that time its all too forced and now I have to speak with them. I did but I lost interest after 2 days.

I then raised this issue as well as maintenance with the Area manger who clearly was not interested in dealing with customer complaints regarding the forceful way the consultant was dealing with the matter or about the power issue when loadshedding hits. Loadshedding is out of all our hands but im sure if you are a company with many members and you are in a shopping complex with a generator. You will try your best to get onto it for your clients, or at least just to keep the lights on. This was maybe just a bit too much for them as they could not even manage to keep lights on so that clients don’t injure themselves while training. I’m not sure how difficult it is to get lighting in a facility on, but this was also too much for them to do.

They had small battery powered lights like we have in our homes but that’s not enough to light up a facility for clients to use. I did not care that the electronic equipment was not working properly, I can understand that not working. But all we are talking about is lights.

Next was the poor maintenance on the rowing equipment that I was using most of the time as this was one of the only machines I knew how to work. Foot holders that have exposed pop rivet ends in the heel slot so that if your foot slips you could actually really injure yourself. I brought this issue up in February but nothing was done and I was told that maintenance takes time. Even when equipment was not working correctly there was no signage to inform clients not to use it. Yes, I made a mistake not keeping tabs on my enquiry and I left it for 2 month after to follow up. I told them not having power and basically kicking everyone out when loadshedding hits at night was poor management and that I felt they were in breach of contract. They then said loadshedding is a force majeure and that its not their issue so that is not a breach. The fact that they can’t even keep the lights on and they have plenty of members is a joke and a half. I was not the only one to complain about this issue, but everyone was just ignored.

I told them what I wanted them to do and that was terminate my contract as I did not want to be associated with that facility anymore because of the way they treat their clients. It has been about 2 months now and in the last 3 weeks I have had to beg and plead to get any form of answer from them. Today has been the last straw as the last time I received any form of feedback was 6+ days ago and every time it’s me who has to ask for an update or an answer as this is clear that the way they see clients is only as cash ***s.

If I did that at my place of work, I would not be working there anymore because I would be let go for not looking after my clients and I know from my retail experience and my current occupation that if you keep your clients happy you will never need to work a day in your life. Because a happy client does not complain but instead gives you helpful feedback on how to improve and what to do when they find a problem.

I hope this gives someone some form of realisation of what and how their company treats clients and their complaints. I have pictures and email trails of everything I have said in this review.

I hope this is treated as a serious matter and it is addressed accordingly.

Thank you for reading.

Regards