Hi,

I'm hoping for a bit of advice in regards to an issue I've had with Gymbox and now ARC.

I joined Gymbox at the end of January'16. I was chased by the 'sales guru' to pay in Jan to qualify for the no joining fee offer in that month only. However, I was unable to get to the gym until Feb 11th to sign the contract. Verbally (stupidly!) I was assured that this wouldn't impact the terms of my membership.

According to Gymbox's terms and conditions the minimum term of all monthly memberships starts as of the 1st day of the first full calendar month, so therefore I believed my membership should start on 1st February and last to 31st July, if I gave notice by the end of June.

However when I gave notice I received an email saying that my contract start date was the 2nd of February and 'As per our terms and conditions the minimum term of all Monthly Memberships starts as of the 1st day of the first full calendar month. For example: Your membership starts on 2nd February 2016, the minimum term would begin as of 1st March 2016'.

When I looked at my contract I did find the start date had been captured as 2nd February, despite having email communication to confirm I was able to use the gym from 28th Jan. To me this is a total [problem] to increase the membership period, but clearly I have signed a contract and not noticed the start date.

Gymbox have now referred this to ARC, who require £112 (the £77 monthly charge plus their admin). I have sent them the initial emails confirming I was joining on a January offer and that I was able to use the gym prior to Feb 2nd, however they have just sent me a copy of my contract and threatened me with court.

I understand from reading other threads that they have no power to do this and I'm happy to ignore them, but I really don't want to negatively effect my credit rating. This also seems incredibly unfair and underhand of Gymbox, but are they legally in the right?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me on how I should handle this situation.

Hi Nysia,

Reply to the gym by letter offering to pay the £77 gym fee but refuse to pay any admin fee which is an unenforceable penalty.

Tell them the offer is valid for 14 days only, after which it'll bee withdrawn.

Let us know how they reply and ignore all comm'ns from ARC completely, despite their silly threats.

Thanks for your quick reply Slick. So you do think I will need to pay the £77 to Gymbox then?

I have only been communicating via email, but I've seen you advise postal letters. Will it be adequate to write to the person who I was in communication with prior to the referral to ARC via email?

Thanks

Offer it, doesn't mean they'll take it as they greedy beggars.

Hi Nysia,

Write to the gym as advised. ARC will be uninterested in anything other than getting money from you. That's why I suggest a written letter to the gym.

Make the offer as suggested and let us know how the gym replies.

Based on what we've seen of other gyms and admin Co's, £77 would be a cheap get-out for you but they'll probably turn it down, being too greedy.

Hi,

I understand the logic of writing to Gymbox and not ARC, however I do not feel that I owe the additional £77.

I joined Gymbox,

paid the first installment and had access to the gym, from 28th Jan.

I chose a 6 month contract for a reason,

however Gymbox purposefully changed the date on the contract to 2nd Feb as according to their T&Cs this means my membership started on 1st March

- over a month after I actually joined and my membership was a January offer!

This effectively creates a 7 month contract, which seems both unfair and false advertising.

Clearly I did sign the contract though,

do you think it would be acceptable to offer to pay half the months' fee, as a compromise?

Also if I was to ignore them what is the worst that can happen?

Thanks again

if you ignore you'll get scary letters from a fake/tame solicitor

then eventually it will go dead.

no gym has done court in +5yrs

they wont accept the offer anyway.

Hi Nysia,

Our advice is based on many years of experience dealing with these clowns.

Follow our advice, or not, It's really up to you.

Hi,

I wrote to gymbox and offered to pay 50% of the months fee, however they emailed back saying I need to pay the full amount (£77) excluding ARC fees.

dx100uk - you have recommended ignoring them, which I am happy to do, as I do not believe I owe this money. You have said no one has ever gone to court, but can it affect my credit rating?

Thanks for all if your advice, I really appreciate it.

Nope

Gym cases have not been reported on CRA files since 2011 when The OFT took AMSL to court and AMSL lost.

If you offered to pay anything, you should have offered £77 to settle the matter and you can still do this by writing one last time to the gym.

Or simply ignore all demands from now on. No successful court action has been taken by ARC in many years, at least not a CAG case !