Freedom Leisure Reviews 

I have been a Senior Active member of Applemore Health & Leisure Centre for nearly 20 years – mainly when it was run by Hampshire County Council under whose management it functioned very well. During that time I have been attending a weekly over 50s Fitness Class – now called ‘Low Intensity Circuits’ in its latest guise.
Since Freedom-Leisure took over Applemore, this class has been beset with difficulties as one instructor after another has left and classes are cancelled at short noticed. Just when the class seemed to have settled down with an enthusiastic and experienced instructor, the centre hit her with some bureaucratic nonsense that forced her to resign. Now we are told that the class has ceased and will no longer appear in the curriculum. The only way that the 20+ regular attendees could discover this fact was to call the centre because not one of us were informed of the class demise.
I have attempted to contact several of the ‘managers’ at Applemore to ask for an explanation and attempt to get the class reinstated, but two of my emails were returned with a note that these two managers were no longer with the company. I have been given the names of two more managers but my emails to them remain unanswered…

Charles White

Chard Freedom Leisure:
Leisure assistants try to do their best but having poor managers holds them back of their full potential.
I asked for the cancellation of my membership to manager face to face, she told that to send her an email. I sent the email on the same day. The next month I found out that the membership was not canceled and my account it being charged. I emailed several times and face-to-face to the center explaining the issue. Customer assistance tried to address the issue and sent an email to their manager but management was poor to deal with problems. I spoke with the manager face to face again, and she gave me a reason such as I gave the notice in 30 days and not 31 days they have to charge me which was fair enough. Guess what? I found out that the charges are ongoing in the following months as well. So all those emails and visits to the center was a waste of time. So I canceled the membership from the bank settings myself and asked for a refund. I emailed several times to deal with the refund and still, there is no response.
I would say stay away from Freedom Leisure and its associates. Apparently Freedom Leisure is a non-profit organization but they put managers with profit in mind. (Note that she was very good at helping customers and she might have been a good training coach but definitely, she should not be doing a management job, it was not fair to her and to the people working with her (and the public).
Mind you that my experience is about Chard Freedom Leisure, other centers might have better management.

Sadly, it is my experience that the gym do not truly respect their customers. Regular clients are being denied access to certain facilities for a number of reasons, including the private hire of the swimming pool and for cost cutting exercises (as informed by staff members). The classes are worthwhile, but frankly that is all. Other local gyms offer far better value for money in my opinion.

Pool temperatures have been lowered significantly, resulting in blue-lipped children shivering throughout lessons, struggling to focus and crying about the coldness after lessons! This really is unacceptable and will be escalated if not resolved urgently. The health and wellbeing of children should be a priority! Very disappointed and cannot recommend bringing children to swim here while this shocking stance is ongoing.

This company makes public safety a complete joke. The centre at Whittlesey is managed by incompetent staff who do not comprehend public safety in any way and this is carried on by the senior manager and area manager. To cut a long story short, at the start of Covid it was reported to the staff here that a large 20 foot long by 18 inch deep piece of rusted metal guttering had fallen from the building into an area where kids play, people walk their dogs etc etc. Despite numerous occasions of being told, this metal laid on the floor for over two years. Sharp metal edges and rusting away. Subsequently, they were told again and again about other sections of this guttering rotting away and near to falling. THEY DID NOTHING. Another piece fell and again they were told...to which, the centre manager said he knew about it....again, falling into a walked area by lots of people. And to make it worse, he just left it there...sharp rusty pieces of metal all over. It has been constantly raised with them and they do nothing. The centre manager even claimed he got onto the roof to make sure the metal was secure... when asked how he got up there...SILENCE. This company are a joke and have a complete disregard for public safety.

I joined a brand new centre close to me, I was happy to sign up and pay for the year after talking to the saleswoman, she assured me that they would look after me and I would have a tour and an induction into the gym before the centre opened. This never happened, I was never contacted and two days before the centre opened contacted them to be told it was too late for an induction but to just walk into the centre and someone would help. I did walk into the centre, no one gave me an induction, I chose to swim but was unable to as 32 people were crammed into two swim lanes to leave the rest of the pool for a swim club. I complained at reception as this was not on the timetable and was told someone would ring me the next day.... that never happened. I cannot log into my account and have requested over a dozen times for password reminder to be sent, it has not been. No one answers the telephone and emails are not replied to. Their motto should be 'No one matters'. I have contacted my bank and am taking a section 75 action to reverse the yearly payment I have paid as I have not received the services I have paid for. Absolute shambles of a company, I simply cannot see how they remain in business. Steer clear, shockingly bad.

Upon using the changing rooms the light went out due to having sensors that are supposed to pick up body movements. While using the shower the light went out leaving me in complete darkness, no windows. Walking from the shower area I walked into a chair which caused me to fall backwards causing me to injure my back/hip. I made a official complaint at the reception where it was acknowledged there is a issue. I have been offered no acknowledgment since from freedom leisure, just emails and texts pushing me sign up. It’s a very amateurish establishment

Absolutely nothing was good about this establishment. I would say the other members of staff, with the equally awful pay, but really it's just trauma bonding over how bad the experience is whilst nobody earns enough to pay their own bills.

- Hired registered s&x offenders and people who openly bragged they lied about being qualified health and fitness professionals.
- Terrible pay, often underpaid. Even managers and higher-ups who showcased an unusual loyalty to the company had to moonlight as delivery drivers.
- Promoted individuals who failed s& xual harassment tests for them to then s& xually assault a minor and have it investigated by the police. Did they do anything about it? No, they covered it up, causing the majority of the staff to leave as they put the manager on leave until all the disgruntled employees left.
- Managers steal gym equipment to sell on facebook.
- High staff turnover...for obvious reasons.
- Other illegal practices such as a lack of data protection, lack of health and safety.
- Gym staff turned into cleaners to save money.

Worst place ever to work. Management has no idea what they are doing. Management bringing in small child and leaving with receptionist to look after, lot's off sharp things around. Don't pay you what is owed and pay is terrible. Overall do not work for Freedom leisure if you don't want stress levels.

Woking centre - The lane swimming has gotten progressively worse. For the last three weeks I haven’t been able to swim a full length without having to stop because of the person in front of me (and I am not a particularly fast swimmer). The slow lane is full of people NOT swimming so the medium lane becomes the slow lane. Absolutely waste of time and what is worse is that the management don’t care and don’t see a problem. It’s actually dangerous how many none swimmers are in the lanes with only one or two life guards trying to manage it, I feel very sorry for the pool side staff. Do not swim here if you want to actually swim for fitness purposes.

Useless cancelled tennis coaching… they can’t get a coach!

the swimming pool staff is very poor in customer services. This pool should be banned. very dirty place. AVOID sending your kids in Woking freedom leisure. complete waster of money and time. Risk to children safety is a separate issue. I am going to formally registered a complaint against Freedom Leisure Woking.

I attend a cardiac rehab class at Portslade Sports Centre which is managed by Freedom Leisure.
The class and instructor is excellent but the general cleanliness and facilities provided by Freedom Leisure are disgusting.
The sports hall is filthy, the equipment seems dirty, and the toilets are not fit for use.
There has been the same birds mess on the floor of the sports hall for the last 2 weeks !

I’ve emailed Freedom Leisure twice about an absolutely awful visit to Uckfield leisure Centre with my partner and 3 children. It’s been over 2 weeks and nobody has even bothered to respond to me with a holding email.

I’m not quite sure where to start ….but my issues include but are not limited to: blatant and deliberate mis selling of a swimming session, H and S concerns, a completely dilapidated pool and, now with no response to my comments, a seemingly obvious disdain for paying customers who look to feedback politely on their concerns.

Based upon this shocking lack of care for both my visit and my feedback I am left with no choice but to warn you against using Freedom Leisure facilities.

At the Sandwich Kent centre.
Changing room refurbishments was to take 6-8 weeks now several months. No showers in this time.
Floor in gym needs looking at by a structural engineer before new equipment due. Not happened ‘it’s expensive’ and so no progress.
It’s not particularly well cleaned.
Local staff seem glum as they cannot get meaningful answers on progress from head office.

Not sure how a company can be this terrible and allowed to operate! I signed up about 5weeks ago, for 2 weeks I visited the centre 3times and called a dozen times trying to get access online so I could plan and book sessions in advance. Gave up eventually and asked for cancellation. Was asked to request in an email. Did so. chased it up twice already. No acknowledgement of cancellation request or any information. On my last visit, the local manager said they had processed the cancellation and are surprised no one has emailed me and will follow up - a week later and still waiting, no acknowledgement, no refund. What is this shambles??!

I joined the gym and set up a direct debit. A few days later I received a letter generated overnight that accused me of cancelling my debit order and saying I owed my final payment and they were going to charge me an admin fee. This was strange since I had joined 2 weeks earlier. Phoned the gym who saif they would have the admin fee removed. I phoned my bank who said that the gym’s accounting company called Harlandshad cancelled the debit order. I phoned Harlands and they said there was a note on my file saying I had cancelled my debit order. I said that it wasn't true and challenged that. I asked if I could pay for my gym membership another way and they were very arrogant and said I wouldn't be able to find a gym who didn't deal with them so good luck. I got cut off 3 times. Phoned the gym who said I should phone Harlands and have the debit order reinstated. I phoned Harlands again who took my debit oder details again and then asked me to pay up front the first month's fees. I refused to give them my card details and they were rude and said there was no other way of paying. I said I would pay the first month's fees directly to the gym. Now I'm waiting to see what else they do to try and get my payment details. BE WARNED: Never give them your card deatils because then they can get into your account and take however much they want whenever they want.

This company has ruined our local leisure centre in ringwood. It should be noted that this is no fault of the staff who are faultless and are just following the directive of freedom leisure. It was previously ran by our council, cleanliness to a high standard and never any problem and was cheaper. The swim times offered have previously been limited and even though I’m a full member there have been times I can’t use the pool at all so I had to upgrade for a different membership. The prices are also being much steeper than before. The final straw was they’ve somehow wiped the entire computer system and we’ve now lost all of our kids swim lesson records.
Also disgusting when we spend over £200 a month between us on swim lessons and gym membership they freedom leisure feel the urge to charge us extra for a fun swim.. get real!!!!

It good place to keep fit , all staff are nice so far except that lady with short hair mid age l think she really hate doing that job not helpfull at all and shower water is really cold it would be greate if they could change it so far l enjoying going there having classes and playing badminton ,enjoying swiming pool water temp realy good and staff realy friendly special thank to them for their service and the lovely guy in reception they need medallion

Lively location good facilities and easy parking