Fernwood Fitness

Fantastic experience: Wow new owners have made such a difference. Visited last week and it was great workout. Can’t recommend this gym enough.

Negative experience: The customer service here is terrible. They only give you half the information at the time of questioning. As a masculine woman I was looked at weirdly by other patrons for being in the gym and using the facilities. They only pick up the phone on the second ring.

Negative experience: Major issues with cleanliness. Black mold on all the ceilings and lack of cleaners. Most machines are broken and dirty. Way too expensive for what you get. This was a shock to me as I transferred from Tuggeranong which has excellent cleaning, facilities and customer service, which Belconnen does not have. They also made it extremely difficult to cancel.

Negative experience: If you are thinking about joining fernwood. Please read each and every lines of your contract before joining otherwise they will blame everything on you saying you have signed a contract. I had very bad experience with fernwood belconnen, specially the manager.Their customer service is very bad. As I was very new to gym and fitness, during my onboarding process I was very honest and asked them if there is anything I need to be aware of. But, they didnt explain me about exit fee, holding charges and the holding time thats get added at the end of term. They just focus on selling the product and dont inform about the fees and charges that comes along with it. They dont put their customer on priority. They didnt even reply to my membership cancellation email for almost 2 weeks.

Negative experience: Terrible gym! The male owner only cares about money and has no care for the welfare of his staff or members. Staff try to help but are obviously pulled thin given they are short staffed. The treatment of his staff is obvious given the high turnover he has. The amount of complaints this club receives is atrocious

Negative experience: Cancellation is a nightmare. I love the gym, so it pains me to leave a negative review. However, their contract terms and cancellation policy are misleading and predatory. I had been trying to initiate my cancellation via email for nearly a month but was continuously ignored. When I finally spoke with the manager on the phone, I was told that I could not cancel my contract on the end date, but instead had to give notice on that date, meaning that my 12 month contract has somehow attracted 13 months of payments. I've complained to Access Canberra and will be blocking payments from the contracted end date. Really disappointed that Fernwood would live up to the stereotype of gyms making cancellation as difficult as possible.

Negative experience: Please, please leave us alone at work. Going door to door only adds to peoples annoyance to you with your spam mails and messages.

Negative experience: Joined but had to cancel due to health reason, no have to pay just under $500 even though I never used the equipment or even entered the gym. There is one staff member who wasn’t the best, I went in to drop medication off to a staff member who I’m related to, I told the one of the other staff members and she screamed in front of the whole store saying “your drug dealers here” to my family member because I was dropping medication off to a family member who was working there at the time. I am now going to be putting in an official complaint as I didn’t want to risk any drama for my family member. Wouldn’t recommend going here as they are just going to make you pay $400 extra for canceling your membership when you’ve had medical issues.

Positive experience: Good

Fantastic experience: Such a welcoming friendly community and teachers are so inspiring. Thanks Andi for helping get me into alignment in Pilates reformer class last week. I could feel every muscle working in my gluten afterwards!

Negative experience: Requested to cancel membership due to medical reason. Multiple phone calls from staff not knowing what my cancellation enquire was about. Sent follow up emails to try and resolve. Despite medical certificate and inability to continue at the gym they continue to charge a further month of payments. Only way to contact head office to discuss is via post, with no email listed. Originally signed up to attend pilates classes, places are extremely limited and book out fast, can only be booked on the app which never works.

Positive experience: Great gym! Has pretty much everything a women/mother needs. Very helpful having a child care inside the gym. Only issue I have is the ridiculous cancellation fee of $106. I had a baby and no longer live on that side of town, so to find out I have to pay an excessive fee is really unnecessary. But otherwise great place!

Fantastic experience: A wonderful gym with lovely staff! From the moment I walked in, the team at Fernwood Belconnen was so welcoming and made me feel right at home. It's a safe, supportive environment for women to feel good about themselves. If you want to get fit and strong in a community of like-minded women, I can't recommend this place more.

Negative experience: No longer provides a creche service. Cancelled this with very short notice and I haven't been able to use the childcare vouchers I had to purchase. Cancelled my membership and they have lost the paperwork after I've paid their $200 cancellation fee. They have then continued billing me outside of the final two payments on the contract end clause. A really disappointing end to what was otherwise a good experience during my maternity leave.

Negative experience: Don't trap yourself in this Gym, the worst customer service experience ever! cancelling your contract, even after finishing the contract, is a pain and they don't stop charging your account!! You need to get a face-to-face time with the gym manager to convince them that you cannot continue any more, then they accept but they keep charging your account!!! I also filed a complaint with Access Canberra about them! I am thinking of cancelling my bank card after reading other reviews!

Negative experience: "The cancellation of the membership cannot be done until the expiration date. I have to extend it for another four weeks before I can cancel, which feels like an unfair clause. They have deducted from me for a continuous 6 weeks."

Negative experience: Majority of my experience with Fernwood in Belconnen is great, I have been a member for over ten years. However, trying to cancel the membership is extremely difficult. In Feb 2023, I sent them an email asking them how I cancel my membership to which they responded saying that I had to do an exit interview. Unfortunately due to work, I could not make an exit interview work and I did not attend the gym since then. Fast forward to June, I read their T&Cs which state that memberships can be cancelled in writing via email so emailed them on 30 June 2023 cancelling my membership. I received no response, a direct debit payment was taken on 30 June and then again on 13 July 2023 so I contacted them again on 14 July following up. They said that I had to fill in a form and two direct debits were required, one being 13/07 and another payment needed on 27/07/2023 even though two payments have been taken since I formally cancelled my membership in writing on 30 June 2023. A shame to finish off my experience this way.

Negative experience: It feels awful to write a bad review. However, the cancellation process is really hopeless. You have to schedule in a time to discuss your reasons with management, then management encourage you to stay on. I can appreciate/understand that, however I have paid the membership for years without any encouragement before trying to cancel. I was told no one knows the correct procedure as it frequently changes? Also that I need to follow up as it’s my responsibility that payments don’t continue to be deducted.

Fantastic experience: This is a warm and friendly gym, and whether it's Cathy the manager offering to make you a cup of tea on the way to her own, or the ladies at the desk welcoming you with a smile, you feel it from the moment you walk in the door. The creche was a huge logistical drawcard for me after having a baby, and I couldn't recommend them highly enough for other Mums wanting to take time for themselves and feel great. The gym is clean and has a great vibe about it, and it's easy to see that they've fostered a place for ladies to create friendships inside and outside the gym floor or classes.

Negative experience: Don't ever come to this fuxxing gym cause the manager wouldn't let you go when you want to cancel the membership and says that you signed the 1 year of membership when you actually haven't. She nagged me why I have to cancel it with really rude attitude. And they also stole my money over few months after the cancellation. Because they "forgot". It happened to me twice as well.

Negative experience: I sent a single message to enquire about a class I was interested in. It turns out they no longer run it (their website is out of date about it) but that hasn’t stopped them from spamming me ever since with “helpful” (sometimes daily!) phone calls and texts about all the other deals they offer. Even after I told them to remove my number from their system and stop contacting me, I’m still getting occasional promotional texts. At this point you couldn’t pay me to attend this gym and I regret the day I ever considered it.

Fantastic experience: The ladies who work here are lovely. Adele in the Creche is wonderful with the kids. It’s great positive environment. Can’t recommend enough.

Negative experience: Not the biggest gym in Canberra. Most manual equipment is broken, dirty & needs updating. Staff were working out on equipment when I needed them to help me on my first visit. I told staff in my induction session that I was not into fast paced aerobics classes. I was advised to go to the Zumba class because the instructor was so fun. I had to walk out after less than 3 minutes. I couldn't keep up & was so embarrassed. I would join Club Lime in the future.

Fantastic experience: Best support Great team of ladies No pressure in classes Love it !! Creche is awesome kids love it too x

Negative experience: Worst membership policy ever. I wasted hundreds of money on them. I haven't used their gym for many months now and getting billed for nothing. They won't let you cancel membership in any circumstances. What's even more ridiculous is how hard it is to exit even when contract is finish. I am unable to go in person to sign the membership termination form so I asked the staff to email me it to me, unfortunately she said they can't do it that way. My contract was finished on 10 February, so until I can't sign the form in person I am still getting billed. What a terrible service. This company is all about money rather than helping with people's health and wellbeing.

Negative experience: The worst place ever , unprofessional at all and very bad management!!! People Be careful from the Hidden fees they will never tell you about until you join them and after that you start discovering the fees and simply they will say it’s not their problem!!! What a shame

Fantastic experience: Love the team and ambiance provided

Fantastic experience: My Mum gave me membership to Fernwood for my 40th birthday present. Best present ever love it very much

Negative experience: Absolutely disgusted with fernwood at Belconnen. The manager is really nasty. I cancelled my membership months ago and they are still charging me membership fees. I have called them multiple times and gone in in person but still they try to stop me from canceling my membership. They call me to harass me about fees when I have not even used their gym since May 2022! I have emailed them and informed them they are are still charging me for a membership that I cancelled months ago, no reply. I’ve now had to distribute these fees with my bank. Fernwood is poorly managed and pathetic. I Would never recommend such a disgraceful gym.

Negative experience: Expensive learning experience ($450). Was talked in to a 12 month membership, unfortunately my 2yr old hated the creche (even with perseverance) and I needed to cancel the membership. It was like pulling teeth to get to cancel, my parenting was criticised, not professional at all.

Positive experience: Good environment, lots of space and classes, not as many machines as other gyms tho

Fantastic experience: Very quiet, but excellent vibe and equipment.

Fantastic experience: Lovely and very welcoming. Nice and clean!

Negative experience: Went for an orientation and won’t go back there again. Waste of my money and feeling

Negative experience: Fernwood belconnen, worst fitness management and service, the manger don’t care if the members happy and comfortable with the service or not. Head office need to follow the management in Belconnen fernwood

Negative experience: The women who run the classes are AMAZING, but communication was terrible and ended up costing me $135 and hours of time and stress. Two month story short, it took around 25 phone calls and 15 emails to find out someone put my email address in wrong, which lead to $135 charged with no gym access. I gave up and tried to cancel my membership (I'd been going there around 10 months I think?), and finally got through to someone who tried to charge me $135, "waive" a $200 fee that didn't apply to me (I signed up during a no cancellation fees deal) and refused to refund the the weeks I had no access. It was horrible, and they still ended up charging me $135.

Fantastic experience: I'm really happy with Fernwood Belconnen. My kids love going to the creche, the staff and trainers are friendly and helpful, and there is a good variety of classes and times.

Fantastic experience: Love love love Fernwood Belconnen. I rave to everyone about how amazing this gym is. Staff are amazing and such a beautiful community. If I could give it 10 stars I would. Email responses are always quick and I love that they have creche. My son loves it ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Fantastic experience: I have been apart of Fernwood for just over a year, the longest amount of time I have ever held a membership for, Everyone is SUPER lovely the classes are super fun especially FIT30!!!! can't wait too return after I recover from my injury.

Fantastic experience: Enjoy going to fernwood belconnen friendly welcoming staff had stopped going to gym for a while so was worried about returning but have not felt anything but support thankyou

Fantastic experience: Have just joined. Lovely!

Negative experience: I have a very bad experience with Fernwood Fitness, Belconnen. They misused my spouse direct debt details she provided to them. When she got the membership transferred to Woden, the Belconnen center continued to charge after transferring. When I raised this with the Manager Mia, she told us upfront that no money will be refunded. The systems are new and everyone needs to be patient. I guess this is there pretext to grab money from every customer. I am not hopeful of refund but to prevent further misuse I have got them blocked on my bank account. On another occasion also they charged us without any information and told us they are suffering from Covid-19 loses so they will only refund partial amount.

Negative experience: Falsely represented conditions of my contract. I joined fernwood belconnen in 2016 on a 12 month contract. I decided in June 2020 that I no longer needed a gym membership, as the 12 month contract was over I did not think any fees etc. would be involved with the cancellation. Fernwood belconnen told me I had to give one months notice to cancel and therefore would have to pay 2 further direct debits, I asked for a copy of my contract to confirm. They did not initially send it to me just reasserted that they needed on months notice. They finally sent me the contract and it actually states that after the contract term I had to give 14 days notice of cancellation. I reasserted that I wanted to cancel and that I would only pay one further direct debit (membership is debited fortnightly) as stated in my contract. Fernwood has not since responded to my cancellation request despite the contract stating that they must do so within 7 days. TLDR - will happily lie about contract terms and conditions to scam extra money out of you. Beware of entering into a contract with this company as it literally means nothing to them.

Negative experience: The staff Mia in Fernwood Belconnen is disgusting. Always poker face. When you ask her to do something, she always did the other way. For example, I ask her whether I can reschedule my appointment, she just cancelled my appointment. Did not even say sorry to me. Also did the same for body scan. Don’t know what is her work ethic is. Will definitely complain to the head office.

Negative experience: This Belconnen gym damages the name of the Fernwood franchise! Very poorly managed. Experienced a terrible ordeal after transferring my membership from an amazing Fernwood in NSW. My advice, go find another Fernwood.

Fantastic experience: Best gym in town!

Negative experience: Don't update there website hours which is so frustrating

Fantastic experience: I'm happy to travel from southside to northside because I adore this gym. Lynn and her girls are so accommodating and genuinely care. I understand the companies contract structure can be frustrating for some, but the actual Belconnen gym itself goes above and behond. ❤️

Negative experience: I have a very bad experience with the Fernwood Gym in Westfield Belconnen. Excellent receptionist but a terrible customer service from the manager. I don’t worry about my the $44 after 7 days cancelation the point I want to let you know is they don’t want to hear your feedback and she doesn’t allowed me to say what I want to say as she just told me in a very cold voice that she is happy to cancel my membership as she doesn’t like customer feedback about their services. I thought I want to share this to you if you are thinking to joining to this club in Westfield Belconnen.

Negative experience: Well, all they need is money, not member hapiness. Make sure you don't cancel your contract after you sign with them, they won't let you do it easily.

Positive experience: Big fan of this gym. Draw card for me is they have child minding