Problem with gym membership cancellation

[valtonia]

Hi all,

My wife recently decided to cancel her gym membership with fitn*ss f*rst - she'd been a member for about 18 months. As she couldn't lay her hands on any paperwork from when she signed up, she called them and asked how to go about cancelling her membership.


The member of staff told her to write a letter to the manager stating that she was cancelling, and that there was a one month notice period after which we could cancel the ddr. Job done.

OK, so she dutifully sent off the letter, and one month later cancelled the ddr.

Then we get a letter from fitn*ss f*rst saying that the June fees have not been paid and could we forward a cheque. So my wife calls them to explain that she cancelled yada yada yada - they say they will look into it.

Next thing we get is a demend from their accounts department saying that if we don't pay in seven days they'll pass the debt on to a collection agency - again we call them and explain that the membership was cancelled. They now claim they have no record of our letter and that we should have sent it 'recorded delivery' and that we should then have called them to make sure they'd gotten it. "it's all in your contract" was the snotty attitude of the person we spoke to.
When we offered to send a copy of the letter they said that "we could just be making it up" to which we replied that so could they be "making up" that they never received our letter - why are they necessarily more trustworthy than us?

We've called Citizens Advice who advised us to write to them explaining what had happened but said that as it was a case of proving we sent the letter we might have no choice but to pay the extra months fees.

This just seems so wrong to me - why after doing as we were told by this company should we have to pay more? Just imagine if they 'lose' everybodys cancellation letters how much extra cash they can get for nothing!

Does anybody have any advice or experience which might help us on this?

Thanks all.

[pmhread]

Well if it was me (and I'm a stubborn git so this might not be right for you!). I would tell them to stick their gym up their respective bottoms and if they want to get arsey then they can see me in court for their month fee. erm.... I imagine your missus hasn't used the gym in this time?

[barracad]

Did you keep a dated copy of the letter?

If so send them a copy of this. If the matter ever got to court then the court would deem this letter to have been delivered if you have kept a copy - there is no requirement for it to be sent Recorded Delivery.

[valtonia]

Actually my wife hadn't used the gym for some months, which is what lead to her wanting to cancel. To be honest I'm turning into a stubborn git - I'm getting sick of companies thinking they can just keep taking money off people.

Unfortunately, we only have the letter on the PC, and as the CAB people said, we could just type up a letter and put an old date on it. Not that we would do something so underhanded just to save a few quid!

[barracad]

If you have the dated letter saved then that will be fine - as I said if it ended up in court you could use that as evidence.

[valtonia]

Hi all,

For anyone who was following this - on the advice of the CAB we wrote to both the gym and the credit control department stating what had happened and that we were disputing their demand for an extra months subscription. Both of these letters were sent recorded. They were given 10 to respond.

When my wife originally spoke with the credit control people she had said that we would be contacting Trading Standards (and I've read something on these boards about TS being all over gyms about their contracts) and this seemed to unnerve the person on the phone. Anyway, we had a message left today from the gym manager saying that she'd been on to credit control and had asked them to write off or waive the extra charge. She said she'd contact us again once it was all sorted.

The thing that really winds me up about all this is that we, in good faith, called the gym for instructions on how to quit, and then followed those instructions. OK, so maybe the letter was never delivered, but once we'd had a letter asking for the next months subs and called and explained that should have been the end of it. The issue then seems to be one of trust. It goes like this:

Does the gym believe us when we say we wrote cancelling the contract?

If yes, then they have already received the subs they were expecting and had that been the end of it we might even have joined again in the future and would probably have recommended them to friends.

If no, then they are basically accusing us of lying in order to get out of paying £28 (hey, times are hard - but not THAT hard!). The result of this is that we will never deal with them again and we will actively warn other people away in order to save them from having to deal with crap like this in future.

If you were the gym and reading this, which way would you prefer things to go?

As it is, they haven't lost any money, but unfortunately for them they have definitely lost two potential future customers. I own a shop and I know that the way to keep customers coming back is to be nice to them - any company which starts threatening or suing its customers doesn't deserve to stay in business (music industry take note!).

[gordonhall]

How very, very strange.

EXACTLY the same thing has happened to me this week! Same gym, same response etc.

I shall ring up thier account department tomorrow morning and mention Trading Standards - see if that un-nerves them.

Just as aside, if you right click your letter that you wrote to them and go to properties it will give you the dates when the document was created, last modified, and last read. It may well be worth doing a screen print of this as well. It's got more chance
of standing up in court rather than just a date at the top of the letter.

Anyway, well done. Its great when us little guys stand up to the big boys.

Fancy them calling us liars!!

[valtonia]

Just had a message from said gym - the manager has spoken to the general manager (of the whole company?) who says that as this kind of thing doesn't happen very often they will write the amount off. Yippee!

It does seem like the magic words "trading standards" did the trick though.

[barracad]

Congratulations!!

[gordonhall]

Tried to phone them several times today and their number wasn't working - a fault on the line it said. Maybe they need my £20 to fix it????

[gordonhall]

Unforunately, I've rang them again today, and they are sticking by their guns.

I've told them that the letter was sent on the 15th March, that legally, it is classed as delivered 2 days after that.

I have mentioned trading standards to them, but they will not budge. On top of that, I haven't used the gym for over a year, and that surely as a good will gesture they can see that and just stop this.

They refused.

I shall put it all in writing to them and see what happens from there.

[Bookworm]

Cool.

Gordonhall, if you haven't yet, might be a good idea to start your own thread on this, just in case you need help further down the line. If you have already, I apologise!

[gordonhall]

will do bookworm!!

Thanks

[Cyrano]

Object: I need legal advices because I feel really stolen and I would like to know if I can win this in court.

Please let me explain my problem.
My wife suscribed a gym in june 2005. She benefited from an offer for 3 month I think, or anyway she onlly wanted to register for 3 months.
She filled in all the paper BUT DID NOT SIGN the accept terms and conditions box. On my side, as she asked me, I SIGNED the direct debit.
We have not been told the it was for an automatic renewal, neither that we have to write them a letter to cancel the subscription (after the 3 months).
Basically, they did not explained to us the way it works and we did not agree with the terms and conditions but I signed a direct debit form.
My wife then went in the gym for those 3 month. ( just to be exact she posponed the august month to september as she was entitled to as we were away for that month... Anyway, I don't think it makes any diference for our case.)
And, after september she never went back to the gym.
BUT GUESS WHAT ??? they have been debiting me for all that time ( till this month: june 2007... ie 20 months @ 46£).

I went to see them twice, trying to see the general manager who never accept to receive me. And the Manager just tells me that I have sign the direct debit and that I will be contacted by the general manager soon( when? who knows) by post or by phone...

On a matter of good faith as well, when I came , they checked on the computer and saw that my wife never came after september 2005. they did not offer to sort out the situation as I have been paying for something I never wanted and never used. As it did not cost them anything, a refund would have seem completely logical to me...

THEN I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF I CAN WIN THIS CASE IN COURT. Effectively, I just would like the 20 months (that I have NOT USED and never intended to) which have been charged to be refunded to me.
Could you also please tell me where I need to go to do it.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH IN ADVANCE OR YOUR HELP!

	The Direct Debit Guarantee • The Guarantee is offered by all Banks and Building Societies that take part in the Direct Debit Scheme. The efficiency and security of the Scheme is monitored and protected by your own Bank or Building Society. • If the amounts to be paid or the payment dates change, we will notify you three working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed. • If an error is made by us or by your Bank or Building Society, you are guaranteed a full and immediate refund from your branch of the amount paid. • You can cancel a Direct Debit at any time by writing your Bank or Building Society. Please also send a copy of your letter to us. This is a term of your banking contract and you can sue on it.