B T.
Good Classes, Terrible Business Approach – Feels Like a Money Trap, Stay Away (London Chiswick Studio)
I enjoyed the workouts and the coaches, so my frustration is not with the training itself. It is with the business approach and the way membership is managed. Throughout my membership, I repeatedly felt that offers and policies were presented in a way that sounded better or simpler initially, only for the actual terms to be different later. For example, cancelling a class for a reasonable reason can result in an immediate £10 charge. Or another wrong advertisement. Referral offers can be advertised as 50% off, only for this to later be clarified as only £50 discount. Premium membership benefits can also sound quite attractive when explained, but when you actually try to use them, the conditions can be much more restrictive than you expected. For example, the premium membership is presented as allowing you to bring a guest twice a month, but in reality, it is not as straightforward as it sounds. You cannot simply bring the same person regularly, such as your wife or partner, twice a month as you might reasonably expect from the way the benefit is advertised. Basically it is different person to invite as a guest. Communication is another frustration. When you have an issue, it can be difficult to get a direct response from the Studio Manager, and you are often redirected to a generic email address, resulting in email only communication. The founder of the F45 also posted in the WhatsApp group encouraging members to contact him directly if they had any issues. However, when I actually tried to contact him regarding my concerns, I received no response. The biggest trap came when I decided to cancel. I signed up for a 6-month minimum commitment and was told that once the 6 months were completed, I could give notice. However, when I actually gave notice, I was told that there was then another 30-day notice period with a further payment. Because of the way the 4-week payment cycle works, the “6-month commitment” effectively turned into almost 8 months of payments. This was not how I understood the commitment when I signed up, and the way it was explained afterwards felt very misleading. This is why I would strongly recommend anyone considering F45 to read the cancellation terms extremely carefully and get everything confirmed in writing before signing up. The workouts may be good, but in my experience, the overall membership model feels designed to keep generating additional payments and make leaving more difficult than expected. For me, that ultimately outweighed the positives of the training, and I would not recommend it.