Residents have been making their views known about Everyone Active, the company that runs Westminster’s Leisure Centres, on Trustpilot and directly to councillors. They particularly raise problems with the online booking system and with wider customer service problems. Some of the issues raised were as follows:
‘I’m a member of the Porchester Centre, which is pretty basic as a gym but fine if you just want to use a treadmill or weights. However, I’m a member of the gym in order to go to classes. I log into the app every night at 10pm (when the following week’s classes become available) to book into classes for the following week. Most days, the app either times out when I’m trying to book a class, or the class is already full (mainly Bodypump).
I recently found out that EA allows people with spa memberships to book 2 weeks in advance, but they should surely cap that at 50% of the class capacity. It’s not fair that they can book up the entire class every week so that people with a regular membership don’t even get a chance.
Secondly, the waiting list notifications don’t work in the app. When a spot becomes available, I immediately click on the link to book but it tells me the spot has been taken, which isn’t possible as I literally click on it the moment it becomes available every time.
It’s ridiculous to pay for a membership where you can’t book classes because they’re fully booked by preferential members before they even become available to regular members, and you can’t get a booking from the waiting list because the app is broken. Take your money elsewhere when choosing a gym membership!’
‘It should be simple a thing to go online or telephone to find out when I can swim in my local swimming pool, Porchester Centre, Bayswater W2. But Everyone Active have made it a hell on earth to find out. Doubtlessly they will blame Covid. However, their online and telephone service has always been very bad. No one will ever answer the phone. Now I will have to go there in person, just to find out what swimming options might be available, and suffer whatever orgy of paperwork they are demanding these days before I can swim’
‘Customer services at Paddington Recreation is far below basic acceptable standards. Talking on the phone rather than serving customers. Refuse to book activities, instead, they force online booking. Website is the worst I have experienced. They do not reply to emails and never return phone calls as they claimed through their automated answer machine???!!!!! No Supervisors or Managers to supervise their customer service staff??!!! It is a Jungle..’
The online booking system is completely…
‘The online booking system is completely unusable. It won’t accept my direct debit mandate for swimming lessons even though my bank says there is no issue. No other payment option is given. I will be looking elsewhere for lessons for my daughter.’
Unbelievable what I’ve just experienced…
‘Unbelievable what I’ve just experienced with the reception staff at Marshall st central London.
I was treated like I was mentally impaired. I was lied to. I was not listened to. So unprofessional it was like a tyrant child that was in control. How unbelievably dysfunctional and unprofessional.’
An abysmally badly managed business
‘If I could, I would give zero points. Some of the staff at the “front end” do their best to be helpful – others couldn’t care less. The company is shockingly badly run – their IT is completely useless and not fit for purpose. Booking is a nightmare, and more often than not, all slots (for tennis, for example) are solidly booked for days. However, a stroll to the courts shows you that a third of them are empty. One of the problems is that tennis is free for gym members, so there is no incentive to cancel a court if you can’t turn up. The company could not care less about customers – staff come higher in the hierarchy – for example, on bank holidays, when customers want long hours, they operate much shorter hours than normal. Ask for lights to be replaced, or nets to be repaired – either nothing happens or it takes weeks to get a result. Westminster should fire them and put the service up for auction.’
Labour Shadow Cabinet Member for Communities Cllr Hamza Taouzzale said
“I’m appalled by the failure of Everyone Active to get their customer service and user experience right. We hear regular criticisms from residents about the service with just a few examples shown publically on Trustpilot. Westminster Council needs to get a grip of the leisure centres they own and make sure that local people using the council’s leisure centres are able to book online and get the service they deserve.”