Menu
Login
Dear All,
I wish to inform you my unsatisfactory experience so far and of some anti-consumer practices followed at Fitness First Bahrain.
I have joined them during a "special offer" in August 2010. They pushed me to either pay at one time of commit without an exit clause to paying in 12 installments for a year membership. Looking at the location and the brand i understood it stood for, after brief inspection of the equipment, etc. i joined for a year membership.
At the time, i was not informed of any facilities not working, and the first day i went in, i found that the Sauna was not working. upon inquiry the staff told me it will be working in few days. Even after 2 weeks the case was the same. I wrote a complaint and was called by the General Manager, who told me it will take 5 days since the parts needed to be imported. I later found out that the Sauna had been in-operational since many months. WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED WHEN I JOINED ? i pointed this out to the manager and asked for some confirmed time frame or some form of compensation, which he promptly denied and said the club does not have any policy for compensation for non-functioning facilities.
After almost 2 months, the story was still the same and i wrote a formal letter complaining of the issue and demanding extension of my membership by a small duration. After handing this over to the staff, still i received no response.
My letter also indicated the basic other things that were wrong, some of which are:
1. Sauna not working
2. Shower area unclean (broken door rubbers, fungus in places, celing dripping water, etc.) and in need of repair
3. Quality of soap provided is horrible (compared to Adidas branded soap offered in Fitness First Dubai) - something i would expect a club charging so much to provide is good quality soap
4. Towels are torn / dirty at times
Although the sauna has been fixed recently, the problems continue:
5. Sauna door handle broken
6. Sauna Lights not working properly - like sitting in a dark room
7. Weighing Scale not working (removed) for long time
8. Some machines the Heart Rate monitors don't work (especially two of the cybex machines)
This is even after being taken over by the Landmark Group, which was supposed to improve things !
The small little things which cost almost no money to fix are also not done, like no one is interested at all.
My point is after charging for something supposed to be a Premium Service, the service provided is no better than the small gyms around Bahrain charging less than 1/4th the price.
I have been a member with Sheraton Fitness earlier and i have to say their service is comparatively top notch for a similar price and includes a Steam Room and a Jacuzzi.
Whenever i have tried to ask for an explanation, no one in the staff has been able to provide any comforting answers.
I tried to complain by email, but even their website for Bahrain is under construction for almost 4 years, and the contact us link on the UAE website is broken since at least 6 months !
My recommendation at this time is to anyone looking for a good fitness club in Bahrain, is to NOT opt for the Fitness First, its not worth it - and looks like they don' t care about customers or customer service.
For any queries or an update please write to [protected]@gmail.com
Best Regards,
Unsatisfied Customer of Fitness First Bahrain
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR SHARING YOUR EXPERINCE, I WAS A PHONE CALL AWAY FROM REGESTRING FOR ONE YEAR.
THANK YOU AGAIN :)
Thank you sir, i was about to enroll myself for an year's membership coz of many advantages like being close to my office and the brand name ofcourse..i will now instead opt for Regency..Thanks once again
I joined as a Platinum member 3 years ago. They told me with the membership I could use the soon to be ready ones at Bahrain Financial Harbour and another one at Amwaj Lagoon. What a lie.
I was a member in bahrain, I had the monthly installments contract for a year, I had a back injury & I couldn't attend the gym for two months & I had to travel to do my therapy, after I came back I went to stop my membership due to the injury. First of all they were so rude about me not paying the previous two months installments, when I explained my reasons & showed them my health report, they tried their best not to stop my membership and let me excercise with my injury, their way was obviously a money issue because when I told them that I made up my mind due to my doctors advice, they turned into an agressive attitude & told me that I need to pay my previous 2 months, when I tried to discuss the money issue they ignored me & went to the cashier to force me to pay without any discussions, I was really disappointed, they didn't care about their image in front of their customers, they made me feel terrible even though money is not a big deal to me, the general manager was terrible, her way of talking is not professional at all.. I'm really disappointed & I told her that I'll tell all my friends that "fitness first" won't understand your issues during your membership, and I'll never recommend this place because of the manager's way of dealing with the members.
I like to refer to them as Fitness Farce. I just rang their East Riffa branch inquiring about membership. Apparently they do not open until 7.00 a.m. I asked the receptionist how that works for people who WORK, she replied "thank you for calling Fitness First by M'aam." Oh well that answers my question about joining then!
THEY ARE SOOOOOO RUDE+ THERE IS NO PROFISSIONAL TRAINER in East Riffa Branch.
I am really disappointed of being a member there!
I like to refer to them as Money First. The General Manager is a gold digger, She only cares about recruiting as many customers as she can without caring about the quality of services the gym has to offer.
I was a member in both the Sheraton branch and the East Riffa branch. No comparison whatsoever, the Sheraton branch was by far better in both customer care and facilities.
Very disappointing...
thank you very much. I was about to subscribe with my kids to this club at Rifaa. Hamdullah, you gave me enough clues and even checked them out with some friends enrolled in this club. I believe that the club 's administration is loosning more that way. And I encourage everyone to never give up and put his or her complaint on internet, that way those poeple are aware of the power of media before cutting budget over their customers back.
Thanks
will tell you my story to short:
When first ff gym was launched and opened a receive a call from them to come for 7 free trails days i was excited when i went there i remember the name of consultant is Pink, she said that we do not have that offer (7days trail for free) I told her when i left my number for you for the offwe reason! Then she said we have a better offer if you pay today you will get discount instead of paying 450 BD you will have to pay only 400BD and one month free training session. When she reconfirm that the day was the last day of offer and you are a valued customer.
The amount im telling about was more than 1 year and a half.
I suspected in the first place and then my friend got a call from them after a week saying the same thing about the 7 days trial and when she went there they told that the offer is over and we have new offer just today.
So i decided to call from other number and said to me come and try for 7 days trial and you will get special offer just today...
I told them thank you for lying at me every time you said every single day that the offer just for today?
Whoever was on the call hang up cuz they knew they were laying at customer.
Second thing they call me back apologizing and said please come will give you another offer, when i went there i talk to who was ever in charge he said: Today is the last day of offer i got pissed off.
i don't know they are cheaters or what?
Fitness first globally are a bunch of aggressive sales people who care very little for their paying members. All do yourself a favor never join a FF. I'm an Australian whom lived in Bahrain for three years. I'm talking from experience. FF in Australia and Bahrain.
Exactly, everything everyone said above is spot on... I was a member of fitness first in Australia for ten yrs prior to coming to Bahrain and was so excited to hear that it was opening a ladies only branch in Riffa...
The facilities are terrible, the class instructors hopeless, their hours are bad and when you ring to make an inquiry, if someone bothers to pick up the phone, when they can't answer your question which they inevitably never can, they just hang up.
In addition, they told me that they didn't offer monthly payments like they do everywhere else in the world and I had to pay 400bd up front.
I went once, and was so disgusted and disappointed I never went back. Most expensive gym visit of my life. STAY AWAY!
I have been facing problems with them for the last two months
Hello all ..I was about to check in at fitness first this month end. Now I am not too sure if I d wanna do that anymore. The above situations warrant action on behalf of the authorities concerned. Since I live close by to the fitness first gym in Riffa at the oasis center. It looked convenient. But I can sacrifice on the convenience for better service. Can anybody advise a good gym in the riffa area ?...Gibson
If you have a problem paying the $400 upfront then you are are at the wrong gym.
I had gone there and was given a tour by one of their salesreps. She seemed particularly keen on making a sale and didn't seem to have meaningful answers to most of my questions. Most of my comments were met with an aggressive laugh. This might work with the locals, but I know when I am trying to be funny. I think I would be really foolish to consider joining this place after reading so many ominous warnings.
The fact that the folks at Fitness First Bahrain haven't even taken the time to respond, confirm or deny these allegations makes me want to believe that they think that they can get away with this by staying quiet.
Caveat Emptor guys. Thank you for the input.