Village Hotel Club

To Anthony Heskins
CC Sean Boyce Joel May Eric Resnick KSL Capital Coley Brenan
Mar 24 at 6:40 PM

Dear Anthony,

Thank you for your email which while I appreciate the gesture does not fully address my issues and would therefore appreciate a further email from you in particular acknowledging the core of my grievance:

That it was wrong and unacceptable for you to take the following actions

1. Without warning on 15 February 2016, locking out my Swansea-issued card which had been working perfectly in Elstree since November 2015

2. Without warning and unilaterally cancelling my scheduled gym induction with James

3. Not having the courtesy to email me or call me beforehand to advise that you had taken that action and then subjecting me to humiliation and degradation when I did arrive at 3pm and not even offering to call Swansea n my behalf to verify the status of memberships of both myself and my wife - despite my showing the Swansea email confirmation to you and giving you opportunity to take my iPhone and email yourself a copy of that confirmation email

4. Exacerbating things further by telling me I had to deal with Swansea directly despite the fact that Village Leisure is a "Group" and while Elstree may be one of the most profitable is by no means in a position to act unilaterally and independently of other clubs - especially where reciprocal use of facilities are in the contracts - thereby "directing" me to sort the problem out all by myself - and providing no assistance whatsoever in helping resolve this

5. Demanding that "from tomorrow you and your wife have to pay £750 to use Elstree" as a result of "a review" you had initiated of cheaper memberships and memberships sold by non-Elstree clubs - oblivious of my bringing to your attention the circumstances under which the memberships were sold to NHS members and myself

6. Telling me "I'll do you a favour and let you use Elstree today" - when in fact no favours were necessary from you thank you - because you had in your possession proof of valid contract by way of email copy

7. Using a cold, callous, smirky, aggressive, and overly confident demeanour with me - and blatant disregard for how people in this modern day and age should be treated and respected - which is a GROSS MISUSE of your privileged position of Trust within the Village Group and which you ABUSED in how you bullied me - so this was not some trivial "customer service" issue

8. When I brought your erratic and less than desired behaviour to the attention of Samantha and requested she ask you for an apology, she handled the matter in an exemplary fashion - very polite, courteous -a perfect example of high customer service attitude and behaviour - she told me " don't worry - this does not need to be escalated and I'll have an Informal chat with Anthony and I'm sure he will call to apologise"

9. To my dismay, when Samantha put in that call to you on 17 February to resolve things informally, you decided to hide behind policy about identifying a "loop hole" in memberships and mis-sold memberships etc and sought the protection of your immediate Sales Manager and his Area Manager - without informing them that the real issue was your demeanour, attitude, and how in a calculating fashion you had set a trap for me by unilaterally locking me out of elstree without warning and without informing me or Swansea and then ushering me into a "membership discussion" - in the most distasteful, manipulative and calculating fashion - thereby breaching the contract between Village leisure and myself as well as over-reaching your personal accountability.

10. You successfully hid from your bosses that the real reason all this had blown up was because you had used heavy handed and manipulative and intimidating and distasteful UNETHICAL belittling tactics to try to force me into submission. You diverted the attention of your bosses to policy about how memberships might be mis-sold or abused - so while you may have earned a few brownie points there - in the grand scheme of things the way things panned out - you have caused your employer huge trouble and embarrassment and put them into a huge legal wrangle because of your immature boyish egotistical behaviour and copies of all the correspondence have ended up with the press, the regulatory authorities and you have drawn KSL Capital Partners into all of this both in the US and the UK and everything that has transpired has been "gratefully received" and filed in the electronic databases of Trading Standards, Financial Conduct Authority, etc

11. Furthermore, in the internal investigation conducted by your People Director, you have misled him and perhaps others because the only reason why your Sales Manager and Area Manager were drawn into all this was because Samantha put in an informal telephone call to you to get you to informally apologise to me and close the matter but instead you decided to go into battle with me by immediately deflecting Samantha's wise counsel to you by again hiding behind policy and procedure and "escalating" to your bosses which then resulted in advice to Samantha being asked to call me to terminate the memberships of my wife and me - so let's be clear - the decision by the area manager to terminate those memberships was TRIGGERED indirectly as a result of you trying to cover up your appalling personal behaviour and deflecting attention to policy about mis-sold or abused memberships, obfuscating the truth with your bosses around what was really going on here - Samantha knew what was REALLY going on here and so did you - because it was a simple matter of putting your ego aside and apologising for your distasteful behaviour - rather than deceiving your rank and file into support you in your misguided thinking and ego..

12. By you invoking policy and procedure and slyly and deceptively getting your bosses to play to your tune you then made it a policy issue around "Bait & Switch" - which led to my complaint to KSL Capital Partners and Sean Boyce and others about whether they condoned your behaviour or whether it was corporate policy to bully customers who pay money in GOOD FAITH to your company into switching to higher priced contracts, etc.

You have probably got away with this type of sub-standard behaviour all your life and you are hugely unlucky in this instance that you got caught out by some Indian sod who put his foot down and knows the difference between Right and Wrong and how people at the level of their basic human rights irrespective of whether or not they are customers, whether they are right or wrong, whether they are "trying it on" or not - all deserve to have their basic human dignities respected - and perhaps you want to reflect on whether you would be happy with your mother or father or wife or girlfriend or brother or sister or son or daughter or your closest friends to be subjected to such distasteful behaviour in the way in which you dealt with me? Do you have a conscience? Do you have a soul? Do you believe in Win/Win? Do you hold the belief that customers are there to be "screwed" and every drop of blood to be squeezed out of them? Do you see customers and people as "human" beings or do you see them as faceless "objects" to be milked?

I was demanding to Sean Boyce that you be dismissed for such unconscionable behaviour - and you are bloody bloody lucky that he has stood by you. It is no secret in Centennial Park that Gym Memberships in Elstree sell themselves effortlessly - and to be honest it doesn't require much selling in Elstree - you are simply an "order taker". The real selling happens with Village Leisure in other parts of the country which are not as fortunate as Elstree in their location and in having a captive high net worth catchment. Perhaps you should try being a sales manager in Swansea or other place - in those places you need to use finesse and elegance and real potential customer TRUST to land memberships. You have got by in Elstree largely by using manipulative, heavy handed intimidatory tactics to "sign-up" members - but a business that has to rely on such unconscionable behaviour to land memberships is a business that does NOT DESERVE to be in business let alone make a profit !!!

I therefore request that you put in a revised apology that sincerely ACKNOWLEDGES ALL your shortcomings, shows genuine remorse and apologises "properly" confirming that you have fully taken on board ALL the Learnings from this saga.

I suggest you also put in a call to Samantha and apologise to her directly for dragging her and her team into this egotistical game of yours when of all the people I have dealt with at Village, She and Dawn are the benchmarks for what courtesy and customer service really means !!! And you can learn stacks from their attitude to life, and the healthy beliefs and value-system they hold - they have souls. they are human. They know what GENUINE Empathy means. They know how to stop matters escalating using "informal" channels !!!

Kind regards,

______________________________

On Thursday, February 18, 2016, 15:36, wrote:

Dear Sam,

At the call yesterday you indicated that Velocity would like to terminate the memberships of my wife and myself because you required us to join Village Elstree to use the facilities there. You also indicated that the complementary Upper Deck that was activated on Monday 15th February 2016 was being cancelled after your discussion with upper management.

Please can you confirm that you wish to terminate our memberships and the complementary Upper Deck?

Also, as per my complaint which I originally lodged with Dawn on Monday and followed-up with you yesterday, please can you confirm whether or not Anthony Heskins will be apologising for deliberately cancelling my scheduled gym induction booked for 3pm Monday 15th February at Village Elstree with James - without notifying me, and for deliberately locking my card to prevent my access to Village Velocity Elstree, and lying "in wait for me at 3pm" so I could be ushered into a "let's sit down for a membership chat" where he proceeded to state clearly that I would have to pay £750 to access Village Velocity Elstree and that as far as he was concerned, Village Velocity Swansea is a "separate organisation" to Village Velocity Elstree - and any issues would have to be taken up with Swansea.

Furthermore he told me "I'll do you a favour and let you use the gym today but from tomorrow, it's £750".

At our discussion yesterday, I explained to you that I found it distasteful, psychologically manipulative, and intimidating to be treated in this manner by Anthony because if there was any issue, it should have been discussed with me over the phone or by email before the cancellation of my induction with James and before locking my card to prevent me access - so the issue could have been discussed over the phone prior to my making a trip where I was belittled and humiliated.

Furthermore, you told me that upper management had decided they wanted to terminate my wife's membership as well - and I mentioned that you would have to contact her directly as well as all the other NHS staff because their memberships are separate from mine.

While writing, I also wish to confirm that the staff at Village Velocity Swansea - Dawn and yourself included, have always treated me with the highest respect and professional standards and that it is people like you that make it a joy to be members of Village Velocity - because you are genuine and I have "felt" that in the several discussions I have had with yourselves.

So in summary, please can you confirm:

1. Status of the Memberships
2. Whether or not Anthony will be issuing a full unreserved apology for his despicable behaviour.

Kind regards,

______________________________