Gym'll fix it, but for different prices in different branches

A reader from Dublin decided to join his local gym but was frustrated by its policy of charging different amounts in the three branches it operates throughout the city.

The gym he wanted to join, Total Fitness, has branches in Sandyford, Castleknock and Malahide. Our reader's brother-in-law had recently joined the gym and after two visits on a guest pass our reader decided that he would sign up. "I went to the Sandyford branch where I was quoted €637 for an individual membership. I queried this as I knew my brother-in-law had only paid €580, he writes.

It turns out that the difference in price was because his brother-in-law joined in Castleknock, which has a reduced membership rate. "The membership officer I was dealing with verified this price with the Castleknock branch, but said that his hands were tied and he couldn't offer me that price in Sandyford.

"This verges on the ridiculous as Total Fitness operates a policy of 'member of one, member of all' even going so far as to print words to the effect on its membership cards. Although polite and completely professional the membership officer was at a loss to explain the price difference, even though the cheaper membership gives me the same entitlements as the dearer one," our reader says. "I did join in the end; I spent €3.60 and took a return trip to Castleknock on the M50, but saved the best part of €54. Had I passed a Ben Dunne outlet on the way I might not have carried on, such was my annoyance with this pricing policy. If I'd carried on to the Malahide branch, I might have made even further savings - who knows? I can't understand how Total Fitness justifies this and even lets potential customers walk out their doors when it is found out."

We contacted Total Fitness in Dublin but like many gyms it refused to give details of its membership rates over the phone. It pointed us in the direction of the Total Fitness headquarters in England. A spokeswoman confirmed that Total Fitness operates a different price structure in Sandyford to the two other centres in Dublin. "The reason for this is down to the difference in facilities and the offering as a whole. If you visit the facilities the differences are clear to see," the spokeswoman said. "The policy we operate is that when a member joins a club, they can use any of the Total Fitness group including any of the 21 sites located throughout England. However, all of their membership privileges are based at the centre they join, including health assessments, fitness programme reviews and various member offers."

The spokeswoman went on to say that Total Fitness attempts wherever possible to ensure members join the club that they will be using as their "home" club "as we do state they must join the club that they will be mainly using. Should someone wish to take the 10-mile route to use a different club the inconvenience would usually outweigh the saving".

Texting the UK with 3

Last week, Cathal O'Gara, a 3 mobile phone network subscriber, wrote to say he could not text his children - both Vodafone customers - in Australia. Since then, two readers have been in touch by e-mail with similar complaints about sending texts from their 3 phones to the UK and to Northern Ireland.

Before signing up to 3, Conor McKeating of Rathmines, Dublin, says he asked the company: "Can you text the UK? to which they answered 'Yes'. I then found out after I had signed up that you can only actually text to Orange and 3UK, two of the six networks . . . I was told that answering 'Yes' to my question accurately summed up their network policy." He goes on to say "3 assured me that talks with the remaining UK networks were ongoing".

Another reader, who is from Northern Ireland and living in the Republic, e-mailed to say that when her husband subscribed to 3, "because of its superior roaming rates when in Northern Ireland", the company "conveniently 'forgot' to tell [ him] that although he can make calls more cheaply to Northern Ireland, he is unable to text any family or friends there. This is, quite frankly, ridiculous. It's one thing not to be able to text Australia - it's quite another when it's two hours' drive up the road."

The 3 spokeswoman explained in this column last week: "We are a relatively new network in Ireland and therefore we have a large number of networks around the world with whom we are currently negotiating roaming agrements, in order to expand our roaming services for our customers who travel abroad but also to expand the available destinations and networks to whom our customers are able to send and receive SMS messages to/from."

In the meantime, a Galway reader has a suggestion for Cathal O'Gara: "Would he not just get a prepaid mobile for the purposes of texting Australia? Surely this would be easier than switching back to Vodafone? It's not as if [ he] can be in constant contact by text with his family or anything in Oz (due to the time difference), so [ if he pays] €20 for a SIM card he can send and receive texts no prob."