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    • One other point to note, the more I read, the more I study, the more proficient I feel I am becoming in this area. Make no mistake DBCL if you are reading this, when I win in court, if I have the grounds to make any claims against you, such as breach of GDPR, I shall be doing so.
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    • Regarding a driver, that HAS paid for parking but input an incorrect Vehicle Registration Number.   This is an easy mistake to make, especially if a driver has access to more than one vehicle. First of all, upon receiving an NTK/PCN it is important to check that the Notice fully complies with PoFA 2012 Schedule 4 before deciding how to respond of course. The general advice is NOT to appeal to the Private Parking Company as, for example, you may identify yourself as driver and in certain circumstances that could harm your defence at a later stage. However, after following a recent thread on this subject, I have come to the conclusion that, in the case of inputting an incorrect Vehicle Registration Number, which is covered by “de minimis” it may actually HARM your defence at a later stage if you have not appealed to the PPC at the first appeal stage and explained that you DID pay for parking and CAN provide proof of parking, it was just that an incorrect VRN was input in error. Now, we all know that the BPA Code of Practice are guidelines from one bunch of charlatans for another bunch of charlatans to follow, but my thoughts are that there could be problems in court if a judge decides that a motorist has not followed these guidelines and has not made an appeal at the first appeal stage, therefore attempting to resolve the situation before it reaches court. From BPA Code of Practice: Section 17:  Keying Errors B) Major Keying Errors Examples of a major keying error could include: • Motorist entered their spouse’s car registration • Motorist entered something completely unrelated to their registration • Motorist made multiple keying errors (beyond one character being entered incorrectly) • Motorist has only entered a small part of their VRM, for example the first three digits In these instances we would expect that such errors are dealt with appropriately at the first appeal stage, especially if it can be proven that the motorist has paid for the parking event or that the motorist attempted to enter their VRM or were a legitimate user of the car park (eg a hospital patient or a patron of a restaurant). It is appreciated that in issuing a PCN in these instances, the operator will have incurred charges including but not limited to the DVLA fee and other processing costs therefore we believe that it is reasonable to seek to recover some of these costs by making a modest charge to the motorist of no more than £20 for a 14-day period from when the keying error was identified before reverting to the charge amount at the point of appeal. Now, we know that the "modest charge" is unenforceable in law, however, it would be up to the individual if they wanted to pay and make the problem go away or in fact if they wanted to contest the issue in court. If the motorist DOES appeal to the PPC explaining the error and the PPC rejects the appeal and the appeal fails, the motorist can use that in his favour at court.   Defence: "I entered the wrong VRN by mistake Judge, I explained this and I also submitted proof of payment for the relevant parking period in my appeal but the PPC wouldn't accept that"   If the motorist DOES NOT appeal to the PPC in the first instance the judge may well use that as a reason to dismiss the case in the claimant's favour because they may decide that they had the opportunity to resolve the matter at a much earlier stage in the proceedings. It is my humble opinion that a motorist, having paid and having proof of payment but entering the wrong VRN, should make an appeal at the first appeal stage in order to prevent problems at a later stage. In this instance, I think there is nothing to be gained by concealing the identity of the driver, especially if at a later stage, perhaps in court, it is said: “I (the driver) entered the wrong VRN.” Whether you agree or not, it is up to the individual to decide …. but worth thinking about. Any feedback, especially if you can prove to the contrary, gratefully received.
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Gymbox 6 month contract scam


Nysia
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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.

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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.

 

:-)

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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 :)

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

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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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.

 

:-)

Edited by slick132

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Please give something if you can. We all give our time free of charge but the site has bills to pay.

 

Thanks !:-)

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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

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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.

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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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.

 

:-)

We could do with some help from you

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                                            Have we helped you ...?  Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

 

Please give something if you can. We all give our time free of charge but the site has bills to pay.

 

Thanks !:-)

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  • 5 weeks later...

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.

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Nope

please don't hit Quote...just type we know what we said earlier..

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight... 

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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 !

 

:-)

We could do with some help from you

                                                                PLEASE HELP US TO KEEP THIS SITE RUNNING

EVERY POUND DONATED WILL HELP US TO KEEP HELPING OTHERS

 

                                            Have we helped you ...?  Please Donate button to the Consumer Action Group

 

Please give something if you can. We all give our time free of charge but the site has bills to pay.

 

Thanks !:-)

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