Broken Promises & Billing Chaos at Planet Fitness

I signed up with Planet Fitness in November (This was part of a promotion of a new gym opening at Irene Link).

I started the process with the first sales person. The agreement of my contract was the I signed up with a Vitality Contract at R999 pm and after my Vitality discount it would be R249,75.

As me and my husband went to the gym for the first time 2 weeks later our tags did not work and on the system it said that we cancelled our contract the week before. Which already did not make sense as we literally just signed up.

Apparently this was due to the Vitality benefit not being active. The benefit was then activated at the 1st of December and we could at least get into the gym.

With this activation, a new contract was sent to us by Salesperson 1 and the new contract had an increased rate on it which was a R1 149.

I then on WhatsApp confirmed about 5 times with Saleperson 1 that the amount we agreed on will be the R249,75 pm and he assured me that I do not have to worry that will be the amount which will be deducted. After approving the debicheck a message came through where he apologised that this is their annual increase and the new amount will be R287,25 pm. And all that Salesperson 1 said to me was that they can't do anything about it - Message from the manager "You're going to have to tell them the price has increased for Partner Members (R287.28) and I am not able to get National approvals for either of them. They are going to have to pay that price".

Immediately I was furious and wanted to cancel my contract. As I tried to cancel my contract, customer service said that I had to pay a cancellation fee as I was not yet past the probation period. I was livid but I then decided I actually like the facilities so I am just going to keep my membership even though I did not get what was promised to me.

On the first of Jan an amount of R450 was deducted from my account which was once again not the agreed amount. I then when to the gym and spoke to Salesperson 2. It then came out that I was never signed on a Vitality contract. I had to phone Vitality twice just for them to tell me that my benefit is active with Planet Fitness and tickets to be logged that after 2 weeks there was still no progress. Salesperson 2 forgot about my case when I went into the gym to ask again on what the progress was of my case and then Salesperson 3 got involved. Another query was logged and I had to go back the next day to fill in some form which they only receive a certain amount of daily just to get to the gym the next day and Salesperson 2 and 3 not to being at the gym.

So the first of Feb came and the full R1149.00 to be deducted from my account. I went back to the gym and met up with Salesperson 4. Salesperson 4 immediately changed my contract and 24 hours later I had signed a Vitality contract. 2 weeks later I followed up on my refund and still no progress was made to refund the extra money that was taken from my account.

Today I was phoned by Planet fitness call center just to stay online for 10 minutes that the lady can tell me that she logged another query and someone will call me back on refunding my money.

My experience is that the gym facilities are great, but I did not get what was promised and almost 4 months later I am still struggling. I would honestly not recommend anyone to join Planet Fitness as the Sales Process is horrible and I felt helpless through out the process. Once you passed the all the admin the gym facilities are great.

I was several difference PFQ reference number which at this point honestly does not mean anything.