A gym owner who was under fire for abusing a potential customer has been caught leaving an abusive voicemail to a former customer. Source: Supplied
A former member of BTS Gym has come forward revealing he received an incredibly hostile and nasty voicemail from the owner of the Mt Eden gym nearly two years ago.
Sam, who didn't wish to reveal his last name, came forward after a story on Thursday exposed an abusive personal message sent by the BTS Gym owner to a potential customer wanting a free trial.
In an incident dating back to late 2016, Sam said he was trying to get out of his gym contract after suffering a nasty and long-term injury to his shoulder and feeling uncomfortable with the way staff were dealing with his situation.
After trying to leave the gym and halt his membership payment, he received a nasty voice mail where the gym owner told Sam to go "f**k himself" before calling him a piece of "f**king s**t".
In a recording obtained by the Herald, this is what the gym owner said.
RECORDING: "Sam, John from BTS Gym. I see you're obviously getting our messages and phone calls, yet you don't want to return our calls or come in to have a chat to us. You'd rather have a chat to a solicitor, which is absolutely fine. You're well within your rights to.
"But, you know. After putting your membership on hold for various holidays that you've had, which we didn't have to, and obviously for your shoulder injury, and to help out with membership for your wife and transferring things across and so on and so forth, uh.
"You know, Pretty douche move mate. But I expected something like this. You don't have the balls, or the common decency or the respect to fill your end of the bargain as per the contract you have signed to.
"You can go f*** yourself and I hope Baycorp pursue you for debt recovery. Alright, goodbye you piece of f***ing s**t."
BTS Gym has come under fire again after sending a vile voice message to a former gym member.
Upon hearing the voicemail, Sam told the Herald he was felt intimidated and said the voicemail was evidence the backed up how he felt about the service he received at the gym during his two years of membership.
"He's quite an aggressive dude, he's not very approachable and makes you uncomfortable.
"After I suffered a pretty drastic shoulder injury I couldn't lift weights so there were medical reasons why I wanted to get out of there, along with their terrible attitude and customer service.
"I was pretty disappointed with their management and approach. I didn't feel comfortable approaching them so I just called my bank to stop giving them the money."
The tension between Sam and the owner intensified when Sam alleged the gym discussed his own private financial situation with other members of the gym.
"The phone calls started and I got a couple of emails. Then my friend who trained at the same gym messaged me asking 'what's going on, they've been talking to me and other people about you and your financial state'. That's clearly a breach of privacy and so I engaged the lawyer then and she sent them an email telling them to cease and desist immediately. The lawyer tried to get out of the contract for me but that didn't fly.
"Ignoring it probably wasn't the right thing to do but I felt very uncomfortable dealing with them. They were very short and abrupt with me."
Sam said that during his two years he found the majority of staff were welcoming but felt the owner and his wife were awkward towards him following his injury and made the environment very uncomfortable.
Sam alleges that he used the gym's chiropractor services, run by the owner's wife, and said that he felt the service he received was poor.
"I was using his wife as a chiropractor and her service was shocking. Every time I went to see her about my back, I think it was $60 I was paying, I'd spend no more than five minutes in the office and she'd just say 'you need to stretch it out more'.
"That amount of money for a five-minute consult is not acceptable. I didn't feel comfortable mentioning it to anyone there because of the aggressive tone they had."
Following lawyers letters and Sam's refusal to pay out his contract, BTS Gym took Sam to Baycorp to recoup the cost of the outstanding contract.
Sam told the Herald he had to pay the money back to BTS Gym and revealed he had trouble refinancing his home, paying the $1000 to the gym so the bank would allow him to remortgage his home.
Nearly two years on, Sam said he's glad to see the back of BTS Gym, but felt compelled to share his story following the latest outcry over the gym's message to customer Jed Misa.
"The whole thing was pretty uncomfortable and pretty shit. When I saw the article yesterday I thought, 'oh he's back to his usual tricks'.
"Some people have a great experience with BTS, but I had a s**t one and I don't think it's right for someone to treat members and customers like dog s**t."
The Herald has made numerous phone calls and left emails with BTS Gym, however, there has been no response.
On Thursday the Herald also attempted to contact BTS Gym on numerous occasions after a customer revealed he was told to "eat s**t c**k sucker".
Auckland resident Jed Misa messaged BTS Gym in Mt Eden this week, asking if he could look around the gym before deciding if he wanted a casual trial.
After initial interest in Misa's request, the gym lashed out at him, when he was puzzled at their trial rate.
In images obtained by the Herald, the gym told Misa to "eat s**t" and called him a "c**k sucker".
He told the Herald he realises his back-handed comment may have triggered such response, but he believes the issue is the gym owner, not the employees.
"I work close to BTS so thought I'd see if the gym was appropriate for me. But the response I got was crazy," Misa said. "It went from zero to 100 pretty quickly.
"I've heard from other people that the issue is the owner. He seems to carry some type of ego. Many of the staff are lovely but others I've spoken to think the root of the poor customer service experience comes from the owner.
"All I want is an apology and for them to think about how they treat customers and potential gym users."
