Village Gym Reviews

My review echoes all the others, advertised as a flexible option and then charge a 3 month termination! The Basingstoke gym is overcapacity a lot of the time so getting through a work out is a trial of patience waiting for equipment. Absolutely not recommended, as others have said I'd give it 0 stars if I could

Thought I would share my google review of Village Gym Basingstoke here as well to stop people from signing up:

Used to be a decent gym but has been on a downward slope for a while.

Packed full at all times of day and you cannot have a workout that is enjoyable. (Just look at the popular times section on Google) Forget even having a workout plan because it's pure luck if you can use anything.

The gym is actually pretty small, you have a number of rooms for classes, but outside of those there is not much equipment (most of which is in poor condition) and there is also very little space.

You would have to be mental to pay the normal £65 a month for this gym. The swimming pool is also always full, and will also have hotel guests on top of the gym goers, as well as classes going on in what is a pretty small pool.

To add to this, you will also now have to sign up for a minimum of 3 months,. This is because if you ever want to leave you will have to give a 90 day notice. So unless you can see into the future you could be paying £195 to not use a gym (disgusting business practice which was previously hidden in small text and not mentioned anywhere, even when the memberships were advertised as "monthly") there is no option for a monthly membership, although this 90 day notice period is described as "flexible" membership ?

All this gym cared about is pumping people through the door and trapping people in bs contracts which are advertised as Monthly and flexible. When there are so many alternatives I can't understand why you would bother with this gym...

Update July 15th 22: I have now received threats from "debt collectors" Arc Europe for not paying the notice period. Actual joke of a company, why am I going to pay for 3 months of membership when I'm not going to use the gym? You even refused to cancel my membership, and when I asked for you to show me where in the terms and condition you can refuse to cancel I got no real response. When I initially signed up the membership was advertised as a monthly young persons membership, nothing was ever clearly stated talking about a notice period. Great to know that a business is so horrible and disgusting that they will bully people they failed to even provide a proper service to into trying to make them pay. I know how these "debt collectors" work, they have no actual powers and are just a limited company. Avoid this gym and Village Gym as a whole.

I cancelled my membership on February so the 90 days took it to may but they cancelled my direct debit so didn’t take my last payment but there is no one to contact, no phone number as it’s only the branches who can’t do anything but book a class. Then there’s an email option that gets you nowhere and takes a month to reply. They have an app that can manage your account but can’t either cause all you can do on that is book a class. Supposed to be a simple process of cancelling a membership yet I’ve went from 40.50 owed to 113 and still haven’t had any emails or letters to pay the bill. Hermes has better customer service than this company

Do not join this gym!
Horrendous customer service, you can’t speak to anyone over the phone regarding your membership, they hide behind emails!
No resolution offered to me after multiple complaints about their Cardiff Gym. They will brush off any complaints and just accuse you of lying
They cold call people to get more members and most of their gyms are overcrowded.
Gym equipment is extremely poor, most of the treadmills in Cardiff Gym are out of order.
The changing rooms are always dirty and smell of damp.
90 DAY NOTICE PERIOD TO CANCEL YOUR MEMBERSHIP is an absolute scam and hidden in the small print, it’s not even written in your welcome email they send you a link to a hidden page on their website where you can find this info right at the bottom.
This used to be a lovely gym but has very quickly gone down hill.
So so disappointing
As with most people who’ve left a review I would give no stars if I could. Definitely not worth the £40 per month membership fee

The Gyms are average, price should be more like £30 per month and not £50.50 for what they offer as it’s no better than your average council gyms, the Newcastle one desperately needs the swimming pool and it’s facilities upgrading to match competition in the area, great interaction with the manager about this topic, however 90 days cancellation notice is ludicrous so please be aware of that small print before opting for a 12 month contract!

In January myself and my partner were sold 12 month gym contracts on the basis that there was a promotional offer on at the time making it the most competitively priced option. We knew we would be moving during the 12 month period but were reassured we could “easily” cancel on that basis and would just need to “send an email” to confirm our new address, providing it was out with the 10 mile radius, cancellation would go through. This turned out to be a LIE. Emailed customer service to cancel, whilst confirm our new address (outwith the radius) to be told a week later they needed proof of the address before they could cancel!! & the cancellation period will only start from when the proof is received!! The result is we moved two months ago and are still being chased for payments for a club that we CANNOT use and haven’t used for three months! Customer service just ignore emails. Appalling. Don’t go near.

If I had the option I wouldn’t even given them a one star… the pool is freezing, they have upped the charges for guests coming to the pool and for some reason have charged me a random amount for my gym membership this month, despite having cancelled the membership last month. I phoned head office to speak with them, the women called sharron, was rude, spoke over the top of me and when I asked to speak with her manager, she transferred me to the reception desk in the Eastleigh branch…. My sister cancelled at the same time and has had the same problem… they also charged her a random fee this month and is still awaiting a refund from last month when they charged her more than they should have… I had this problem with the village gym in Cardiff about 10 years ago and they assured me that this would not happen again… they are currently saying that we have to continue to pay for 3 months after we cancel, despite the fact I tried to cancel a few months ago and was told I couldn’t because my contact wasn’t up… now I am being screwed over again… tried to call head office again but they are not answering my calls…

Do NOT join this gym as you too will be screwed over!!! You have been warned!!!

Rubbish gym, rubbish prices, rubbish staff.

I’ve been a member of the gym for nearly a year and a few members of staff in the gym are so unprofessional and rude I’ve had many experiences were I’ve felt unwelcome in the village gym one example is my shoes got stolen and expensive pair of shoes. I told James minto and Jamie March and they thought it would be funny to make a joke and say did you mate steal them I find this disgusting the way I was treated especially considering I am a young adult by asking for assistance regarding my stolen shoes I’ve had further issues it has lead to certain members of staff treating me with disrespect. I came into the gym one day after the shoe issue I asked for my card back as they don’t have locks in the locker room I always use a lock due to my shoes being taken but the member of staff wasn’t bothered by this. 5 minutes later James minto approached me and asked to speak to me apparently I was being rude to a member of staff which James minto was not present for I didn’t agree with his views and he walked off in anger and said ‘fine then’ the next day (28th may) I came into the gym a £49.50 gym membership charge was added to my account even though the money came out of my account on the 1st of may which I proved the transaction to a staff member an additional £5 and £2.5 charge was added for a lock and a card I returned the lock the previous day due to the incompetence of the staff my card was behind the desk because they have a policy where you leave your card as a deposit for a lock and conveniently my had gone missing this took at least 10 minutes of my time due to a very childish member of staff who goes by the name of James minto I would like to make a suggestion due to the gym prices being high compared to other gyms the locks should be included especially because of my shoes being stolen I would’ve thought the staff would have been more helpful knowing my shoes had been stolen showing nothing but disrespect

Poky little dance studio for classes. Often express classes rather then full Les Mills releases. There are some. Crammed in like sardines. Yoga with someone’s feet is your face is never pleasant. Often classes run in the dark with strobes ..and screw you if you are epileptic or have poor vision! This has been the basis of my complaint ongoing for over a year now and still unresolved. Now the majority of staff members are lovely and will pop the blinds up and check in on you. However.. one staff member tries to turn my expensive gym membership into a dodgy nightclub experience. Dancing in the dark, deafening music, strobes, the works! Inadequate lighting in the studio. Rude instructor does not want to change this despite lots of feedback. It all seems very unregulated and I feel (on this occasion) staff should have policies/standards in place IE numbers of participants, acceptable volume levels, adequate lighting in a class, plus the customer care skills to deal with complaints positively and to action and resolve them in a timely manner!

Village gym walsall, please can we get the steamroom sorted as very intermittent, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't, nothing but complaints from all member that use it, if you don't want to put your hand in your pocket to fix us members are all willing to chip in to cover cost to fix it???

I go to the village gym in Bournemouth and always welcomed with a friendly greeting whether it be a receptionist or one of the managers. Clean premises with plenty to choose from with equipment as I vary my visits. I would highly recommend great price and well worth a visit.

Cardiff Village Gym.
Having moved house I too felt completely stung by the 90 day cancellation period which although was buried in the small print I received no one communicated to me when I originally did the 30 day trial. There was no way to reduce your monthly payments during this either, so having added towels on top of the base package I originally started to, I was then told I had to pay not to use them for three months when I moved house.

At Cardiff the gym equipment was good, I liked particularly the Technogym equipment with the through real countryside cycling. But the standard of maintenance and attention of staff was bad. The wifi was so congested a lot of the machines would drop connection or lag on the richer video experiences, and despite asking a number of times for them to be plugged into the ethernet point that was next to them they never were. I'd regularly have to complain about broken items in the mens changing rooms, shower heads, shower doors, locker doors. Staff seemed uninterested, and I'd come back next week and they wouldn't be fixed. Just didn't feel like the premium experience they were charging for.

The trainers who take my classes are great but unfortunately the customer service when you have an issue is not. Perhaps this is because it no longer sits in the club but in Warrington and responses are either very slow or don’t arrive at all.

great space to work out, eat, swim and sleep!