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A Perth gym that had its building repossessed has now been banned from local council facilities for attempting to host unauthorised pop-up classes, all while allegedly ghosting clients about the gym’s future and continuing to charge their bank accounts.
The consumer watchdog has launched an inquiry into the abrupt shutdown of former Perth Hills fitness centre Gym Tonic, which was forced to close in April after its building was repossessed.
Members of the Kalamunda gym claim they were left out of pocket following months of unreturned communications, and Consumer Protection Commissioner Trish Blake has since confirmed the authority was aware of the business.
“Consumer Protection confirms that complaints have been received about Gym Tonic,” she said.
“Efforts to work with the business owner to resolve the issues have not been successful and we strongly encourage any other affected consumers to lodge a formal complaint so the matter can be further assessed.”
This masthead does not suggest the allegations made about the business have been substantiated. They are being investigated.
“There was never any sign anything was wrong,” one client told this masthead.
While it is not known why the gym was repossessed in April, clients said the first sign anything had gone awry was when they were greeted with a sign on the front door about its repossession.
The gym organised a stopgap solution after the repossession, and began to hold classes at local council facilities around the City of Kalamunda.
Timetables posted by the gym show they hosted classes at Gooseberry Hill Multi-Use Facility and Hartfield Park Recreation Centre.
However, several sources told this masthead they were eventually banned from the facilities for using the council halls without booking or paying for their use.
Instead, the gym began to host classes at a local park and claimed there were no other “suitable locations”.
All the while, locals observed the repossessed building being gradually stripped of its equipment, with no formal notice that Gym Tonic was permanently closing its doors.
Instead, Gym Tonic took to social media in May to notify members it would simply not be running classes for “the next few weeks”.
It has not posted since, and members say they are no clearer on the future of the gym as the owners continue to argue on social media it is a “temporary closure” for maintenance issues. They also claim the building was repossessed without “any court order”.
One member said she still had no information, months on from the gym closing its doors.
“I had been a member for [years], yet never even had an email to say they were closed,” she said.
“When I emailed them, they replied saying they were ‘temporarily closed while we take care of some important internal maintenance’.”
All the while, a number of clients claimed their weekly membership fee – $30 – continued to be deducted from their accounts.
One woman said she had purchased her son a year-long membership to the tune of about $500 weeks before the gym’s building was repossessed. Another said she and her husband had a number of personal training sessions, about $150 worth, paid for, and claims she never heard back about a potential refund.
The former members asked to remain anonymous, fearing they would not get their money returned if they spoke out publicly.
Emails seen by this masthead show the gym saying they had reached out to their automatic payment providers and asked them to cancel the upcoming direct debits
However, when the debits continued, at least two clients said they were forced to reach out to the automatic payment providers themselves to stop the payments.
It was then, they said, they realised the gym had not notified its providers it was closed.
One payment provider, who was unable to comment publicly about clients, said they were disappointed with the gym’s conduct.
“[Our service] was not notified of the gym’s closure by the business,” they said.
“We became aware of the situation on 15 April through members who contacted us directly. We were very disappointed that the business did not inform us directly, and we conveyed that to the business.
“Upon learning of the closure via member reports, we disabled the gym’s account on our platform and ceased all membership billing the same day. The gym’s account and membership billing have been inactive since then.”
The only information members have received to date about the issues with the gym’s old building have come in the form of social media comments from April, where the owners said ongoing maintenance issues still hadn’t been resolved.
They said they had purchased the gym while it was “running in red by significance” and said they had obtained “legal representation”. It is not clear if legal action has commenced against the building’s owner.
The gym claimed a number of faults with the building had impacted their ability to run the business at the premises, including a blown-up hot water tank, air conditioning units showing signs of smoke and fire and even “falling from the roof”.
A real estate advertisement for the building does not list any defects, and instead states it has been subject to “functional improvements”.
Blake said regardless of the future of the business, the rules for gym owners were clear.
“Gyms and other fitness providers in WA must follow the Fair Trading (Fitness Industry Code of Practice) Regulations 2020 (WA),” she said.
“This means if a person wants to cancel their membership, they do not need to attend in-person and they are not required to use a specific form.
“Cancellations can be requested by a simple email, with the membership to finish no more than 30-days from the date the person gave notice.
“The gym must provide written confirmation of the request to cancel within seven days, also stating the amount and date of the last payment, which could include a reasonable termination fee.
“After this, any direct debits should automatically stop.”
Blake said it was up to the gym to contact payment providers directly, and it was prohibited for a gym to keep accepting direct debit payments after the cancellation of a membership.
She said it was also not up to the customer to contact payment providers themselves.
“Consumers who are having problems cancelling a direct debit payment should contact their bank immediately,” Blake said.
“If the membership is paid on credit card, consider seeking a chargeback from the bank as soon as possible as time limits apply.”
Gym Tonic did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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