Wakefield Total Fitness had been promoted earlier this year as having been through a full refurbishment, which I have now discovered at my cost to be a complete fabrication.

I joined the gym a couple of days ago, and when I enquired over the phone about a monthly ongoing membership, I asked if it was possible to avoid the usual £25 joining fee which I felt was excessive. I was told that my timing was very fortunate because head office had earlier that same day introduced an offer which meant there was no joining fee up until the end of October.

I therefore travelled to the gym and we then completed an online registration because the membership team said their in house system wasn't responding, but when it came to the card payment I was asked for the £25 fee. I queried this and was told that the offer didn't include the monthly membership package, which was not what I had been told over the phone. Rather than feel embarrassed by the circumstances, I felt that I had no option other than to continue and pay this extra charge. So a total of £79 for one month.

I have now subsequently attended the gym on 2 occasions, and I am extremely shocked and very disappointed with the condition of the gym as a whole. Almost without exception, all the machines are extremely rusty and the free weights racking system is also terribly rusty. There is no excuse for this. Even budget gyms are presented in a much better state. The equipment must all be in excess of 20 yrs old and certainly not to the standard I would expect from a national group such as Total Fitness. This is certainly not the standard that I was led to believe. Maybe the cardio equipment was replaced earlier in the year, but I don't know how they can possibly refer to this as an extensive refit.

Additionally, I am not happy with the standard of the men's changing rooms and shower areas. Once again this is all very dated and urgently in need of a professional refit. I have spent the last 20+ yrs as a member of their various competitors gyms, and all of these have been far superior in both standards and value for money.

I feel cheated by the whole process from start to finish , and have sent an email to their head office with my comments, to which there has been no reply.

I could not recommend this gym to anyone, and I just wish I'd looked at all the very damning reviews before I gave this terrible business my hard earned money.