KAL Leisure Centres Reviews 

Absolute con artists. The sports centre which I was signed up to has been closed since September. They are refusing to cancel my membership and are still taking money by direct debit for a service that they aren't providing. Contracts work both ways and why should I pay for something I am not receiving? I might as well walk down a dark alley and hand over my money to a mugger. This is theft by any other definition and I will be seeking legal advice to get the money back that they have stolen from me and prevent them from stealing any more with their veiled threats.

Rubbish customer service. I booked a squash court and realised instantly that I'd put the wrong day. I called the leisure centre straight away to explain and ask if they could just switch the days, only to be told they wouldn't change the booking. Surely it can't be that hard. you'd think with centers closing they'd want to keep regular customers.

2 weeks after joining they closed the centre I wanted to use. I continued to pay the membership thinking it was a temporary measure for repairs. 3 months later I cancelled the Direct Debit as the centre is closing permanently and explained that the membership is of no use to me if I can't use that centre. I am now getting threatening emails that continuously spout the legal consequences of breaking the contract. They can't give me what I signed up for so they're trying to tie me up in small print to recover the membership fee for a gym I cant use. Do yourselves a huge favour and stay away from these gyms. It's a failed organisation and is having to close Its center's because it has been very poorly managed. Instead of aggressively managing the centers to peform, they are aggressively pursuing monies for memberships owed to them for reducing the service initially offered. The organisation is a discrace and needs to close asap so someone with better business acumen can take it over and offer a legitimate service and run it properly at a profit.

Shambolic admin/accounts dept; read all the other reviews below and you will begin to see the picture.
I gave the Stadium gym 5 weeks notice that I was leaving, this is more than the minimum required. After my final direct debit came out of my bank account, I cancelled the DD because I knew there would be no more payments required. This final DD entitled me to use the gym for a further 4 weeks. When I arrived at the gym this week, they refused me entry. When I challenged the customer service dept over this, they said it was because I had cancelled my DD! I said, 'of course I have, it's not required and you won't be taking out any more direct debits. I have a right to use the gym for 4 weeks after my final monthly payment.' I sent a complaint email to KAL, but the response was the same; completely unwilling to be flexible and unable to acknowledge that I had the right to use the gym for a further 4 weeks because I had paid for it! I have paid £30 to use this gym for the final 4 weeks of my membership and they have refused me access, surely this is illegal isn't it?? The organisation should be ashamed of itself.

What a joke of a place. Shut the local fitness centre I used but still take out the annual payment.
The same day after payment was taken out I requested the refund and cancellation of the membership.
Cancelled but won't refund the money.

My wife wanted to cancel her membership after 12 months and 12 payments. She asked how to do it at the local leisure centre and they said online via a webform message (which she did there and then with the help of a member of staff). She then cancelled the direct debit after the 12th payment was taken. Today she rang them to check that it had all gone through OK and they said that they hadn't received the message and that she would have to set up a new direct debit today, because they couldn't cancel the membership if an active direct debit wasn't in place. They said that today was the last day that they could do this and if she didn't do it they would try and take the money and it would fail because of the cancelled direct debit. They added that penalty charges would then be added to the account. They also said that the webform was not a valid way to cancel membership (even though on their website it is the only way mentioned under "All you need to know about memberships" - "Cancellation"). They said that as per their terms and conditions you have to email them and this is the only way to cancel. My wife asked to speak with a manager and this request was refused, she asked to speak with Alasdair Brown - Chief Executive - KAL Leisure Trust or Hazel Francis - General Manager - Kirklees Active Leisure, both requests were refused. She asked if she could lodge a complaint, but they told her not on the telephone only via email.

I called to add an extra person to a swimming booking witch isn't a hard task surely only to be told they can't make a booking over the phone and to be told I will have to just turn up on the day and hope that there is a slot for the other person. Then the lady on the phone just hung up.

What an absolute joke. Also once you've made a booking you can't cancel or amend that booking and as for a refund you have no chance. Stay away from KAL it has no customer service at all. It's all about the money.

Today, holly at the front desk really helped me with useful information with regards getting into a badminton club. She was very kind with her words and patient as well! Thank you Holly!

I usually refrain from writing reviews, especially negative ones, but my recent experience at KAL Fitness has been so bad, I created an account just to leave one.

I joined KAL Fitness with high hopes, but I soon found myself embroiled in a time-consuming and exhausting back-and-forth with the gym's customer service.

My primary grievance is with the membership cancellation process. Within a week of signing up, my partner and I requested to cancel our memberships. This was within the 14-day cooling-off period, a right granted to consumers under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013. Despite this, our requests were repeatedly ignored and met with resistance, both from the gym's customer service representatives and management.

While the gym did respond to our emails, their responses were generally unhelpful and seemed more focused on circumventing our rights rather than acknowledging and respecting them. Even when I pointed out our legal right to cancel, they continued to insist that this was not applicable to our month-to-month membership. After seeking advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau, it became clear that KAL Fitness was indeed ignoring our rights as consumers.

To add to the frustration, our requests were continually passed around, with no individual or department taking responsibility for addressing our concerns. The delay in response from the local office was also disappointing. It's been almost a week since our cancellation request, and we're still awaiting resolution.

The lack of customer-oriented service and disregard for consumer rights is concerning. Given these experiences, I can't help but feel that KAL Fitness is more focused on retaining members at any cost than ensuring their satisfaction and respecting their rights.

My aim with this review is to inform potential members of these issues and suggest that they consider other options that might offer more flexibility and respect for their rights as consumers.

Appalling customer service, they are a joke. Having to pay two months payment just to cancel and the gym closed before I could use it even once! The people on the phone tell you one thing and via the email, when they eventually reply (which is rare), they tell you something completely different. Gyms might be good, I wouldnt know. Havent even had an apology for the useless service!

Disgusting. Do not use. There are better gyms out there.

Customer service is about as stupid as they get, constantly just send template emails back, and have absolutely no idea how to handle queries, nor do they have any legal knowledge not even basic legal knowledge.

They try to force you to pay even though they legally cannot (at least for my situation) and if you don't they ad £15 per 7 days it is late. I am pretty sure there is suppose to be a cap on this type of *.

The clubs when I attended where terrible, classes where terrible and god the parking, atrocious. Though the worst part is their customer service, their call centres, don't have a clue how to do their job.

This is about the stadium KAL centre. Been a member for a number of months now. My observations and conclusions are that it’s just a money grab. Tried out various classes and most are garbage. I liked the aqua fit but too many people for the size of the partial split pool they call the pod. You can hardly move never mind being able to do the aqua fit moves. The instructor is good and she’s asked to move it to the large pool but they won’t accommodate it. So I won’t be going no more. Just a waste of money. Furthermore they closed just before Christmas to refurbish the members changing rooms and after several weeks. They look exactly the same. Not even as much as a new lick of paint. Also they look for any excuse the close the facilities even as much as if someone lets off a fart they want to close. Absolute shambles, poorly managed and run. Over staffed too they just walk around doing bugger all. Don’t waste you money with KAL.

Cancel my gym membership as per terms and conditions got email confirmation of cancellation and final payment took the money from my bank and then got a phone call to say they had made a mistake and wouldn't honour the cancellation. Terrible customer service and gross misconduct of management

Absolutely terrible. Do not sign a contract with this company, they tried to take a direct debit but due to an unforeseen hospital visit for 2 weeks it wasn't in the account. The day after they sent it to a debt collection agency instead of contacting. This now means a fine and extra payments due to them not being able to wait a day.