danimal

ok guys here we go... lol
ive bee a self employed personal trainer with fitness first for 3 months
when u sign up your supposed to pay 200 pounds initial fee for business cards, profile boards, uniform and a training cuorse!
i now want to leave and i have not paid the 200 pounds yet but they are asking for it however i have not recieved anything with regards to business cards profile boards or training course and ive had half a uniform that was correct sie but i have never worn it and it is unopened and i had half a uniform that was the wrong size and i sent back! in the contract it says this

"the trainer shall pay an initial premium to fitness first of £200 at the commencement of this agreement to cover the cost of providing the trainer (the "initial premium") with a) the clothing reffered to in sub clause 10 b) business cards c)profile board and d) the initial training reffered to in sub case 10"

later in the contract it says this about terminating the contract

"on termination of the the trainer shall have no further liability for payments under clauses 3 and 4 hereof but he or she shall not be entitled to any refund in respect of the initial premium or any payments already made under clause 4"

i have spoken to head office and they said im supposed to pay the premium before i start work. i said i dont want to pay it as imleaving and i have not recieved any of the stuff the payment was for, and that as a direct result i couldnt get enough clients! also when i joined he said he was goin to get one more female personal trainer and that would be it however since i have joined he has got two more male personal trainers and none have left leaving the gym saturated with pts who dont have enough work! they are probably going to say to me that its my fault i havent had enough clients because i didnt want to do hours as a fitness instructor for them (i didnt pay 3 grand for a course to work cleaning machines for 5 quid an hour!) any advice welcome or helpful

megatron

1. You should have paid the fee initially, not when you felt like it. It sounds like you are pi55ed off because you didn't get all the uniform/business cards associated - even though you didn't pay for them.

2. that being said, if you have not used the uniforms and not recieved anything else. It's not like you are being unfair not to pay the £200 (IMO) at this stage. They loose nothing.

3. You may screw yourself over for getting a reference (if you want one).


My 2 pence ;)

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danimal

they didnt ask for the 200 pounds and they didnt use the direct debit i gave them to take it!! also they didnt take my rent ffor 6weeks leabving me to 2 days to pay them a lump sum of 175 pounds leaving me with cash flow prblems! they also emplyed 2 more male trainers after i joined when they said they would only have one more female trainer! so oviously without cards. uniform promotion and too much competition ive been ****ed royally lol!

megatron

heh well I wouldn't bother then mate. But do consider if you need the reference.

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Tinytom

Cancel the direct debit

Dont worry about the reference you were self employed so all you need is a reference from your clients, I'll give you a reference no probs as I know you personally mate.

I'd also not worry about any legal ramifications, it costs £250 to go to small claims court so they wont bother, plus they havent taken the money when offered so its not like you havent made payment available to them. If you leave before they take payment thats their tough luck.

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AussieMarc

mate, corporate gyms are a royal pain in the ****.. i used to work at a smaller (fitness first competitor) company called Zest.. same deal - something like 300 bucks to cover cards, profile, uniform and crap then another 250 a week to use the space.. after i signed the contract (luckily there is no duration so im not bound to it for 12 months) the general manager left (leaving no leadership when it came to membership sales - hence membership sales dropped - hence i got no leads).. when one came along - she was undertrained and not ready to me a manager - still no membership sales.. finally after having enough of paying them 250 bucks a week out of the $hit money i was getting cause i had no new leads - the old old old manager came back and sold heaps of memberships..

however you can blame yourself for not doing basic things - walking the floor, talking to current members and getting them keen for PT..

man it sounds so much like aussie PT to me! all systems are the same and they stuff the PT's around soooooo much.

thankfully i now work in a studio by myself earning a decent amount a week, getting new motivated clients on a week to week basis.. **** the gym off and go work in a studio i say!

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leeston

Hi mate,

IMO, the payment should have been deducted from your salary/account. I would suspect that if you are working yournotice then they are still entitled to take it.

If you have already left and you feal confident then lie low and see if they come after you for the money. Chances are, they will not be too bothered to chase you for £200.

The caveat here though is that contractually you are obliged to pay the £200 before getting the items. Technically there is a breach of contract but I would like to see them try and enforce it! I would stick to your guns and ignor them if I were you.

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samurai69

Sh1t a lot has happened since myfirst days as a PT for fitness first in tottenham...........they gave me 3 months rent free to build a portfollio of clients, then had to pay a rental fee. Didnt get cards and uniform and stuff thugh.......wouldnt have wanted it anyway.

MESSY_UK

Up until 1 month ago, i was a manager at a fitness first branch.

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SportDr

Screw em mate,

I was a FF PT for over a year and all they care about is money, I worked in a small gym in a small town that barely supported 3 full time PT's, the gym was supposed to have 6!!!

This showed how little FF cared for their staff and sure enough every PT that arrived, left weeks later with no clients, emptied of £80 per month rent and the £200 set up fee of course. They knew the gym couldn't support them, but advertised and took their money all the same. I remember walking into the fitness managers office and there was this pile of personality boards from PT's who had left before they had a chance to put them up in the gym even lol!

FF is a budget gym with budget customers, if they had enough money for a PT £25-£45 per hour depending on area, then they would have gone to David Lloyd.

Find a gym that will allow you to PT clients and allow them to pay per session and go private mate.

hth

SD

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tiptoe

exactly the same as you said sportsdr but my experience was with la fitness. cramming pt's into clubs that just can't sustain it and wanting 830 quid rent a month for the pleasure of it too!

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Conrad

my mate was a LAPT at LA Fitness...he thought that when he progressed from the initial gym instructor stage to the full PT post things would get better.. I.E his pay and his clientel base would expand and hed have more controll over his own work....however the rents and demands became increasingly demanding and he left to go solo. He much preferes it!

adzk469

Basically, you do not owe them a penny, the contract states the money is used for a purpose for you. None of this has been provided to you so therefore they can do nothing!!
If you had paid them the money and not recieved the stuff you could sue for breaching contract! Hope this has been of help

johnboy05

Did you manage to find a new gym to work in?

Jock

Fitness First are a bucn of w_ankers, I joined a branch in Sydney they refused to cancel my membership even when I told them my Dad was dying of cancer and I had to return home.

Money-grabbing corporate scumbags IMO.

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