Fitness First Shepherd's Bush: what's the point?

No water, lots of mess and fighting cleaners are the three things this branch of the largest fitness chain in the UK seems to be good at, but precious little else. The question for me is whether this apparent total lack of customer service is related to the increasingly vacant and derelict W12 centre which seems to be dying a slow death since before the arrival of Westfield, or whether Fitness First in the Bush has given in to the strong challenge being mounted for custom by Gymbox over the road.

But let's have a look at some of the main challenges that our friends at Fitness First seem unable to overcome. Ever.

Water is a scarce commodity. They have wars over it in some parts of the world, but as I walked through the puddles this morning on the way to the gym it didn't dawn on me that west London has now run out. But yes, there was none - no hot, no cold in fact no running water at all in the gym today.Now this is bad enough but Fitness First Shepherd's Bush have lots of form here - freezing cold showers are a regular occurence and have been there for years. So they are either sitting on a desert or they don't fork out for decent plumbers.

And speaking of form, it is highly unusual for anyone to arrive in the weights area first thing in the morning to find the place not a complete mess with weights all over the place, jumbled up or sometimes not there at all. Tidying at the end of the night seems to be a bridge too far for this establishment, and the people on duty in the morning don't seem to be in much of a rush to put things right either.

And then there are the pugilistic cleaners who, a few weeks ago, had an outright fist fight in the reception area as people were arriving, apparently over a money dispute. You'd think that would be the last you might see of the amateur boxing champs with mops, but no the same people are still there.

So all in all I've just about lost my rag with them, as you might have guessed. Here's what some of you have tweeted to me this morning about them, in response to my news about the water:

• "Bet the sunbeds are working"
• "So its fitness first, customer service second then..."
• "crap, I was thinking of going back there today after taking the last 6 weeks off"
• "thats why I stopped going tot the H'Smith, well that and I am a lazy bastard"

What a happy bunch of customers. Did anyone say there was a recession on and people were looking at their expenditure?