David Lloyd memberships - worth it?

[ChiefWiggumsBoy]

Has anyone got one? I know they can be pricey, but of course the website you have to 'enquire' and I really don't want someone calling trying the hard sell, I'm just idly thinking of it as I'll have finished paying off my student loan soon and would like something for the whole family. Boys are young teens and the two adults of the family can definitely do with the fitness!

So - if you have a membership, what level, how much do you pay, how much do you use it?

Sunderland

I was a member for 10 years but my membership ended in November. I think since Covid DL has gone downhill terribly.

Ours was high cost, about £200 for me and two children including swimming classes. Just a membership for me alone was over £100.

The cost cutting was very evident. No staff in the gym. No Les Mills classes (and I didn’t like their alternatives). The yoga classes I liked were cut for their own thing, I think called Spirit or something but I really didn’t like them. The changing rooms were filthy and the pools impossibly crowded and noisy. Full of young kids during the day and then rowdy teenage boys in the evening dive bombing in. The cafe was also busy, noisy and it was impossible to find a clean table.

I used to go there to work out and relax but realised I’d stopped going as on the rare occasion I could get in I didn’t like the classes and I can swim in a busy pool crammed with kids or teenagers messing around elsewhere for a fraction of the price.

My kids only swam as they didn’t like the kids club, the lessons worked out expensive when you add on the membership. They have lessons elsewhere and I’ve realised the DL ones weren’t great actually as both children have progressed massively since leaving!

@ScrappyMoggy thats a shame because ours (East Midlands) is still pretty good. Not cheap though, so I make sure I use it!

@Coffeepot72 sadly I know others who felt exactly the same and have left.

It was okay charging premium prices when you got premium service and facilities but I’m not paying that amount to go to a dirty, rowdy and poorly staffed gym.

I think general consensus is that DL isn’t what it was!

The other issue I have with David Lloyd is that they are not very good at taking direct debits and it takes ages trying to get any issues resolved as it can only be done through the app

I have had different amounts taken for the last few months (since my husband left the membership) and this month they charged me for both of us again. An hour hanging on live chat finally got it sorted but it shouldn't have happened in the first place

Thankfully it is my last payment, like ScrappyMoggy I am leaving ours after a number of years because it feels like I'm paying the best part of £200 a month to go to the local leisure centre.

Sadly they spent a lot of money (and caused a lot of disruption) to put a spa in last year but the basic offering has become shockingly bad.

I've been a member with my 11 and 13 year old for the past 11 months. The kids hardly ever go anymore, I really don't think there is much fir their age group.
I was going to the classes about 4 times a week but they have got more and more difficult to book onto as fill up within seconds so if are not on the app first you've no chance. Fees have just gone up also, I pay £163 on a corporate membership for the 3 of us. I've emailed saying I don't want to renew at the end of the 12 months but nobody has even acknowledged the email. Anybody know how to best go about cancelling?
I'm going to join gymworks instead which has great reviews and is only £19.99 a month!

I used to pay £125 and I really wanted to love it but I got so infuriated with the rubbish service. It could have been brilliant but they were disorganised, they never repaired anything and the service in the restaurant was a joke. They couldn’t get their timetable straight. Also I wanted to put my kids in the crèche but it was just a room with two bored women in it that looked like they hated kids. They lied about the availability if everything when I booked it. I really wanted them to make it work and raise their game but they treated members with contempt and I left - which was almost impossible! Oh and the app doesn’t work! Avoid!

I used to be a member but recently left. They stopped the Les Mills classes which I really liked, our club needed investment and updating but nothing seemed to be on the cards, and it became increasingly crowded in the pool, partly caused by people/families on cheap initial membership deals. Vastly overpriced for what you get in my opinion.

I have a peloton now and I love it. I’d rather do that and shell out for the occasional spa day!

Good luck with cancelling! I ended up having an argument with my club about when I’d handed my notice in. They ignored my original message. Funnily enough, when I refused to pay my membership fee one month, they contacted me fairly sharpish! It got sorted eventually but was a pain.

Can you book just a day pass does anyone know? Would be looking at the Chigwell one. Too far to be a member but would like to pay occasionally to use facilities/spa

We paid about £250 for family of 5, been members for years. It was particularly good when my youngest was a toddler as he loved the crèche and I could have a swim or do a class. We felt it was worth it, our older two had tennis lessons and enjoyed the kids clubs and then did supervised gym. It’s been a treat and we’ve been grateful that we can afford it as for years it wasn’t an option.
we’ve left and rejoined a few times over the past 13 years, staff are amazing and ours is a lovely club , really well maintained . I now pay about £100 just for my membership with tennis use included . Like every gym you have to use it to make the cost worth it, go for it.

I was quoted 550 for a family of 4 in the summer. Too much for us!

I pay less than £25 a month for my local leisure centre. Pool, gym, sauna and large variety of Les Mills classes. Great value for money

Does anyone have any intel on Kings Hill? I was 99% convinced to join but having seen this thread I’m a bit nervous now

@QuebecBagnet that is absolutely shocking.

Does anyone have any intel on Kings Hill? I was 99% convinced to join but having seen this thread I’m a bit nervous now

@Startuplife David Lloyd are currently offering trial membership, I think it’s £14 for 14 days, so you could give it a try?

Yes, nobody is replying now to my emails or messages on the app regarding my cancellation. I'm going to go ahead and cancel my direct I think. I don't expect to pay the amount I am, not be able to book on classes, and experience terrible customer service.

It’s exactly what I did when they failed to reply to my messages - cancelled my direct debit. They’ll then phone/email you to chase for payment. It’s the only way you seem to be able to make contact with them!

I didn’t realise my thread had been resurrected! Good to see more views even if they’re…variable lol!

You’ve all reminded me I might be able to get a corporate discount so I’ll investigate that tomorrow at work. Haven’t looked at the site since before Xmas so don’t know if ours has gone up.

I’ve just rejoined DLs after trying OTHERS. Me, 11 year old and 8 year old.
We’ve tried a family synergy (I think that’s what it’s called) class which they absolutely loved, going to enrol then for tennis too.
We’ve been swimming a few times and I just do lengths while they piss about - everyone’s happy!

I know this makes me sound like a nob but I think investing in wellness (sorry I’m cringing as I type 😂) is worth it as a family. I go to the gym a lot, always have and realised I’d rather spend more so we can all go together rather than going to the Gym group for £20 a month on my own, surrounded by gym bros and girls talking photos of their bums.

Another advantage of DL is that it’s pricey and the clientele are old so the weights room is always empty which is a plus for me!

I’ll tell you something interesting about this. Apparently they have two weeks to reply to you and will often take two weeks. If you chase it before then it resets the clock and puts you to the bottom of the pile, so if you keep sending another message say every 13 days they may not get back to you.

so I have just had a reply tonight after sending them a message saying I was thinking of leaving due to the cost but was there any discount. I didn’t get a reply and ten days later sent a slightly snotty message saying if they didn’t respond I was just going to cancel my direct debit.

response tonight said sorry for the delay, we’ve processed your request to leave, last day is 1st of April. I haven’t actually asked to leave! But I really do think fuck them now.

my friend who asked about discount got offered two free months!

I was a member at DL for 14 years and loved it but left last year as they stopped doing body combat and I didn’t like the ignite alternative. They also stopped doing some of the later classes and as I work FT and have two small children, that was the only time I could go.

I now go to a local council owned gym which is not that much cheaper but they do combat and I hadn’t realised how much I’d missed it! They don’t do loads of later classes but they do enough for me to fit in the three classes a week that I aim
to do.

it’s such a shame as I did love DL but without the times and classes it just wasn’t working for me anymore.

Phew, well, I am currently trying to cancel my DL membership.

I joined because I thought it looked nice and clean, a bit more money but a bit classier - but it's full of kids when I go. I am a teacher!! Many of them are from my skool!!

I have a joint membership and our fees went up 12.3% this year. We thought it must be a mistake and have spent weeks trying to speak to someone but no one at the club seems to be the right person.

You get emails, and it takes ages. Well, in the original email they got their maths wrong. Our fees went from £138 to £155 - £17 is 12.3% of £138 but they've worked it out as a percentage of £155 which makes it 11%. Apparently you are only able to cancel immediately with no penalties if its more then 1% over inflation and as inflation is 10.6% or something they weren't going to let us.

So I have had to raise the query again which will take a further two weeks to respond to. And all the while if you actually do ever speak to someone they say they will call you back but I for one don't have huge chunks of time, whole afternoons, to spend waiting for a phone call.

So, my new years resolution is never to join a gym again. I am just going to take up running and buy some weights for infront of the telly.......

I have now cancelled my membership. After sending the email saying I would be canceling my direct debit as nobody was getting back to me, surprise surprise they replied immediately!