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COMPLAINTS PROCESS

We’re here to help if things get out of hand.

How to complain about an Exercise Facility, or Exercise Professional in New Zealand

The first step to make a complaint is directly to the facility or person concerned

If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, they do not reply, or you are not satisfied with their reply, then you lay a formal complaint with us below.

Laying a complaint with EXNZ

All formal complaints to EXNZ should be made in writing

The facility must be a member of EXNZ to be able to complain to us. Our facility members display an EXNZ logo and COE at the entrance. Feel free to email us to confirm if a facility is a member or not.

Once you have established that a club is a member, take a look at the EXNZ code of ethics to identify which part of the code they have breached. It is important that the complaint is made on the basis that a club has breached the code (not just done something you don’t like).

Complaint Contents

For us to be able to consider your complaint, please include:

Your details (Full name, incident and contact details)

What part of the EXNZ code of ethics is being breached?

When was your issue and what is your complaint about?

Facility name and address and or staff

What communication you have had with the club in the past about the issue, and what their response has been

What outcome you would like as a result

Acknowledgement that you agree to the process outline below on this page

Complaints should be made in writing to this address

Exercise New Zealand
PO Box 22114
Christchurch 8140

Laying a complaint with the NZ Register of Exercise Professionals

To complain to REPs, the facility or person must be registered with REPs.

REPs operate an online search engine, so it’s very easy to see if a facility or individual is registered. The search engine lists a lot of Personal Trainers, so if you can’t find an individual you also email REPs to check if an individual is registered. If a person or a facility is registered with REPs you can complain on one of two grounds:

(1) That an individual has broken the REPs Code of Ethical Conduct

You can then complain to REPs If your complaint is about an individual or a facility

(2) That a facility has unregistered staff (all registered facilities agree to only use registered staff in all exercise roles)

Complaint Contents

For us to be able to consider your complaint, please include:

Your details (full name, contact details)

What is the nature of the complaint (is it a breach of a code, or is it that the facility is using unregistered staff)

What outcome you would like as a result

Acknowledgement that you agree to the process outline below on this page

Complaints should be made in writing to this address

Exercise New Zealand
PO Box 22114
Christchurch 8140

Our process of complaints

All complaints received will be acknowledged and taken into consideration through the following process

To ensure there is a fair and transparent process, when a complaint is received, after checking that REPs or ExerciseNZ has jurisdiction (ie. they must be registered with REPs and/or a member of ExerciseNZ) then an investigation is started. As a part of this investigation details of the complaint, including the name of the complainant are disclosed. Complaints may be made anonymously, in such cases the complaint will be investigated, but the outcome will not be communicated to the complainant.

Where full details have been disclosed (permission will be obtained first), in most cases each party will then be given a right of reply to the other parties information. This means you will see what the facility/person replied, and the facility/person will see your full complaint.

If the complaint is related to an alleged breach of the law and there is a statutory body that deals with this, the we will refer the complainant to this body for determination first. Should that body uphold the complaint, then this will be used as a part of the investigation as evidence. eg a person alleges a trainer breached their privacy. This would be referred to the Privacy Commissioner’s Office. Should this complaint be upheld by the Privacy Commissioner then this would be used as evidence as a part of the complaint to REPs.

Neither REPs nor ExerciseNZ deals with matters of customer service, except where these lead to a specific breach of a relevant code. Where you think you have received bad service, contact the manager of the facility, or in the case of individuals, the individual concerned and communicate your dissatisfaction.

In most cases, where there is a complaint about a facility or person, we require you to first contact the facility/person concerned to outline your concern, and what you would like done about it (there are a few exceptions to this, where such a complaint would be unwise or unsafe). This contact, and the response from the facility/person should be included in any complaint.

Be clear about what you want as an outcome of any complaint. Some complainants simply want ExerciseNZ or REPs to know about certain behaviour, in other cases you may want a specific remedy to take place. Whatever outcomes you want, please outline this clearly.
Where the matter you wish to complain about is of a serious criminal nature, we recommend you contact the police directly.

Notes on the process of complaints

When a complaint is received this will be acknowledged, this communication will also outline the process to be followed (as outlined below):

To ensure there is a fair and transparent process, when a complaint is received, after checking that REPs or ExerciseNZ has jurisdiction (ie. they must be registered with REPs and/or a member of ExerciseNZ) then an investigation is started. As a part of this investigation details of the complaint, including the name of the complainant are disclosed. Complaints may be made anonymously, in such cases the complaint will be investigated, but the outcome will not be communicated to the complainant.

Where full details have been disclosed (permission will be obtained first), in most cases each party will then be given a right of reply to the other parties information. This means you will see what the facility/person replied, and the facility/person will see your full complaint.

If the complaint related to an alleged breach of the law and there is a statutory body that deals with this, the we will refer the complainant to this body for determination first. Should that body uphold the complaint, then this will be used as a part of the investigation as evidence. eg a person alleges a trainer breached their privacy. This would be referred to the Privacy Commissioner’s Office. Should this complaint be upheld by the Privacy Commissioner then this would be used as evidence as a part of the complaint to REPs.

Neither REPs nor ExerciseNZ deals with matters of customer service, except where these lead to a specific breach of a relevant code. Where you think you have received bad service, contact the manager of the facility, or in the case of individuals, the individual concerned and communicate your dissatisfaction.

In most cases, where there is a complaint about a facility or person, we require you to first contact the facility/person concerned to outline your concern, and what you would like done about it (there are a few exceptions to this, where such a complaint would be unwise or unsafe). This contact, and the response from the facility/person should be included in any complaint.

Be clear about what you want as an outcome of any complaint. Some complainants simple want ExerciseNZ or REPs to know about certain behaviour, in other cases you may want a specific remedy to take place. Whatever outcomes you want, please outline this clearly.

Where the matter you wish to complain about is of a serious criminal nature, we recommend you contact the police directly.