I have been a member at Greens Health & Fitness club in Stoke for around about three years now, as it is convenient for me to use and close enough to work to use at lunchtime. I was previously a member at Total Fitness Gym but left as the membership fees were getting too high.

Greens has a good gym, with decent quality cardio machines (we have treadmills, exercise bikes, cross trainers, rowing machines, step machines and what we call 'wave' machines which give a similar motion to skiing), a weight room, two rooms for organised classes and a room with spinning bikes. There is a 25 metre pool with three jacuzzi's, a sauna and steam room, as well as an infra red sauna cabin, loungers and showers around the pool area.

There is a large car park with plenty of space, with entrance and exit controlled by a barrier. This is useful as Stoke City Football Club is very close and fans try to use the car park on match days.

There is a bar in the club and big screen tv for sporting events, which may be more of a distraction I don't know. I've only ever been in once and it was a nice meal.

You are given a 'fob' when you join which is used to scan in and out of the gym, to lock and unlock your locker and exit the car park. This cost me £15 to buy and is now £30 to replace if you lose it.

The fees are currently £49 per month for unlimited use of the gym and not tied to a contract. If you commit to 12 months at the gym the monthly fee is reduced to £45.
If you prefer the off peak plan, which restricts you to 9-5pm on weekdays and 8-close on weekends and bank holidays the fee is £34 per month. These are the so-called corporate rates which I currently qualify for. If you are over 55 there are further concessions.

That said, I wouldn't recommend Greens to any of my friends and family.

The reason being is that our Greens Gym has now been open for 11 years, and I feel that the standard has dropped somewhat in the three years that I have been a member.

The staff are ok, although I was told off when I joined because I didn't tell the personal trainer that I needed an induction and personal exercise plan. I was a little bit taken aback as I was the new member and HE should have told ME what the induction procedure was at the first meeting. I was also given a long and complicated personal plan which when I said I probably wouldn't have time to complete it all he said "so you haven't got time to spend an hour a day on exercise?"

Lockers are constantly broken, the showers are in desperate need of cosmetic repair as the walls are now nearly black with limescale and mould and it's hit and miss whether or not you get hot water. Vending machines break and take months to repair, as do the hand driers in the toilets. Every other week the jacuzzi's are out of action, and right now there is a notice on the changing room door stating that one of the boilers has broken so we will notice cold showers and the pool and jacuzzi's will be colder than normal. The sauna and steam room are very often 'out of order'.

I actually did recommend a friend to Greens several months ago under their 'Recommend a Friend and get £20' offer that is constantly running at the gym.

Unfortunately I was told that I wasn't eligible as the offer expires 60 days after the new member joins and because I hadn't gone to collect my £20 I couldn't have it. This would have been fine had there been ANY reference to this ridiculous rule on any of their literature or even had I been told this at any stage by a member of staff. After a very unhelpful conversation with a member of staff who basically said "I'm not passing the buck but it's probably your friends fault for not telling you that you need to request the reward" I compained to the manager and head office and was told that the £20 reward had been requisitioned and would be with me in 2 weeks. Eight weeks later I finally got the cheque. I would have probably given up earlier but since they had two new members paying £100 per month in fees I thought it was only fair that they honoured their promise.

After all that you're probably wondering why I'm still a member and it is mainly for two reasons

1) That it's £34 per month, which is a lot cheaper than other gyms in the area and I do try to use it at least four times per week in my lunch hour. The equipment is functional and it serves the purpose of exercising.

2) That it is a five minute trip from my workplace, which let's me fit in four visits per week in my lunch hour.

If you want a gym with decent equipment and a fairly cheap fee then Greens is not bad. I think it could stand to have some cosmetic upgrading and be a little more transparent about their referral reward scheme.