Right, lots of people having problems with Ashbourne on here.

Fear not, this is what you need:

The MD of Ashbourne is a guy called JOHN WRIGHT.

I took Ashbourne to court a couple of years back and they were told their contracts are absolutely worthless on the grounds they are a payment collection agent for the gym, and as they do not give you direct access to the gym then they can't do anything like default your credit file without the express written permission/request of the gym itself.

What you will probably find is that the gym you belong to know absolutely nothing about what's going on with you and Ashbourne and in anycase will have been told by Ashbourne to keep out of it!

I took them to Cambridge County Court under claim 8QT09368. In the Judgement they were ordered to pay me costs, compensation and remove the default forthwith.

I filed this against them:

I claim against the Defendant for:

(a) a breach of contract by the Defendant under Clause 7 of the terms and conditions which they assert do apply to the contract;

(b) a breach of duty of care owed to myself in that knowing that the release of personal information to a credit reference agency would affect my financial standing. Releasing such information in breach of contract and/or confidence, such information being incorrect.

© the costs of bringing this claim to Court and for the Court to consider awarding damages for the breach.

(d) that I am entitled to an order requiring the Defendant to remove, at their own expense, any reference to my as being a bad debtor in any credit reference, or other agency, that they have named me to be registered.

They used Williamson & Soden solicitors based in Solihull. The guy acting for them was Stephen Rowe (a Partner of the firm). He is fully aware their contracts, in the eyes of the Cambridge County Court Judge, are worthless and unenforceable. If you are getting letters from this firm then write back and remind them of my case!

I wrote to him on August 2008 (after they sent me a settlement cheque) and in it I said:

"I hope that your client will address their business position on their current and future business relationships to endure they understand their 'contracts' are not valid in the guise understood by your client on the simple grounds that your client does not provide a gym service and is simply a payment collector on behalf of the gym (who provide the services to their member). This was made very clear in the Judgement made against your client and I trust your client shall make the necessary arrangements to ensure no other individuals have to face potential financial difficulties and take this course of action against them."

Obviously someone hasn't done their job somewhere along the line as it sounds things are exactly the same two years on!

You may also like to know that I managed to get a phone call with John Wright (the MD) pretenting to be a gym wanting them to manage the memberships for me. He confirmed that Ashbourne "work as an extension to the gyms customer service department" and Ashbournes purpose was to "act as the gyms agent" with the first point of contact for members to always by the gym itself.

He went on to say hi charges £1.35 per member per month as the admin fee to gyms, regardless of the number of members a gym has. I paid £94 at the outset as a joining fee to my gym for a joint membership which was equivalent to the £1.35 fee for them - ie they are paid upfront. [This is calculated as £1.35 x 2 people x 36 months = £97.20].

I hope this information helps someone. Best thing to do if I was in your situation arguing against them ... give Ashbourne a call, ask for John Wright by name pretending to be new business for them. You'll get straight to the man himself. Then let him know your true position and remind him he's lost in Court before over his 'contracts'.

Take it all the way to Court - refer to my case if needs be. I'll keep digging for the paperwork (which I think I may have thrown out now) but this is the info I found on my computer.

Any questions, please feel free to drop me a line!

great read.....and well done......i just had my membership cancelled...but i was lucky to get a letter form my decent g.p

Lol!! Thank you so much for this info, Fatdog.

Rest assured I shall be using it wisely! Mr Wright may not be so grateful though...

I am in a similar position with Ashbourne, I took out a membership at my local gym 12 months ago, however my job changed and I was finding that I was spending a lot of time away from home and couldn't use the gym. I wrote to Ashbourne asking to cancel but they point blank refused and have since defaulted me when I refused to pay the charges.

Am I being a bit optimistic in hoping I can use your argument to address this or should I pay up the remaing 2 years even though I can't use the gym membership.

Jotty

DON'T PAY!

Take them to Court. There's a few people on here all in the same boat. Get a few legal proceedings going against these jokers and get them out of business.

See other threads for details.

im paying ashbournr at the minuit. but havnt used the gym for months as i have been diagnosed with arthritus in my knees. i tried canceling but was told no so im paying for nowt...

Guys

I have been telling you for some time - tell Ashbourne where to go. Their business model is flawed - they cannot take money from you/be contracted to you if they are not providing you with a good or service. Their relationship is with the gym and the gym has a relationship with you - not directly!

A few years ago I took Ashbourne to court and it was ruled that their contracts were worthless pieces of paper and their business practices were unfair. They were instructed to change their business practices immediately and refrain from registering comments with credit reference agencies.

This obviously hasn't happened and earlier this year the Office of Fair Trading took Ashbourne to the High Court.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14590195

This BBC link tells you the result - enjoy the read!

I hope this is the end of your troubles with this stupid bunch of cowboys!

Hi Reorete,

Please start a thread in the Gym Forum for your case.

Give us a bit of background info like when you joined, how long you signed up for, when you cancelled, if you stopped paying them, and what has happened since.

Read this!!!

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?317405-Ashbourne-OFT-press-release-19th-August-2011