Hi All,

New to the forums and felt i have to share what I'm currently dealing with as it may help others or could even lead to potential CC claim depending on what happens next.

Sept' '17 I enrolled my 3 Children for swimming lessons in a Council run Leisure Centre and paid 3 separate £18.99pm by DD. To cut a long story short I followed their "TsnCs" and cancelled their lessons in person filling in 3 separate forms on the 16th of November '17.

Looking at my bank account later on, I realised DD payments were still going out to "Serco Leisure" for Dec', Jan', March and what became April (after ringing to complain in Feb).

I spoke with my Bank and they advised to cancel DD there and then and that they would start an "Indemnity Claim" and also to speak to BCC leisure centre to investigate their end.

I popped back down to the centre on the 6.4.18 and a chap dealt with me and gave me a written receipt of my complaint saying he would deal with all of this and refund me where necessary (I'd have expected refunds back to Jan).

He also informed me that i should have had a receipt for my forms when i originally cancelled - my biggest problem is that the member of staff who i gave my original forms to on the 16th of November didn't say this and just said thank you etc and put the forms in a folder on a cupboard shelf in reception. So i assumed all this would be taken care of - seems not!!

Early April I got 3 letters (one for each membership) to confirm that the DD Indem' claim was received and that the matter would be closed if i didn't hear anything in 30 days or if they felt was invalid would seek any debts. Then thankfully in my account a few days later I had 9 refunds which i take as being 3 x Jan/Mar/Aprils DDs so i now see the matter has closed.

However, I have since had 2 phone calls from Serco exactly 29 days after their early April letter saying there are debts on some of the memberships.

I called back and explained the above story and they are going to contact the centre however it looks like someone somewhere has not done their job properly and I feel that Serco are going to keep chasing me and go down the CC Claim road...

My major concern is the lack of evidence from when i went into the centre and cancelled filling in 3 forms but got no receipt - There is CCTV covering the reception but whats my chance of requesting that

Am i just being paranoid or should I prepare for more bombardment from Serco?

Cheers

John

Ignore them

Gyms don't do court now

If the clowns ring, simply laugh and hang up, whatever they wish to convey can be committed in writing.

Log all of their calls for any future legal action you may wish to take against them for harassment.

Hi Supa and welcome to CAG

Please reply to the PM I've sent you.

You refer to T&C's but you don't say if you signed the kids up for a year's m/ship in Sept '17 or a rolling monthly m/ship.

Even if it was the latter, you may have needed to give a month's notice to cancel.

If we think you overpaid by DD, we'll tell you to reclaim under the DD Guarantee Scheme. The bank really has little say in the matter and should refund you without question.

Don't worry about "proof" or a "receipt" for the cancellations. Gyms have such a reputation for "LOSING" cancellations, you have nothing to fear.

Please confirm :-

1. The actual gym concerned.

2. If this was 3 x 12 month gym m/ships for the kids; or 3 x monthly rolling m/ships.

3. When you said you wanted to cancel, do you recall what the gym staff told you to do.

Hi All thanks for the replies - appreciate it.

Yep - Slick just replied to your PM, thanks for the heads up!

1. It's one of Birmingham City Council's. I believe they outsourced all their leisure centre "admin" duties to Serco years ago.

2. It was 3 x Level 1 "swimming lessons", signed no paperwork, "memberships" bank account and address details etc were all done over the phone by a member of their staff and we simply turned up. The cancellation forms said they had to have 30 days notice and i was perfectly fine with this and as i went in person and filled the forms in on the 16th November i was perfectly happy to pay Decembers fees..

3. On Nov 16th I went in person and filled in 3 forms, "Diane" took receivership, said thank you very much and took forms off me and understood why i was cancelling the swimming lessons. Never said anything about giving a receipt. I remember the day well took leave to take mother in law shopping and it was a a window of opportunity to go and cancel as they hadn't been since end of Sept (their records show this as their electronically registered at each lesson). It was just proving to hard to take two 4yr old twins their 5yr old Brother to a public swimming pool where numerous things are just not setup or working there so i though sod this and decided to cancel to make my life slightly easier on Saturday mornings

The number they have for me is my Skype number which thankfully i can record so lets see how things go but I'm well prepared to stand my ground and them tell them where to go, it's their incompetence!

Cheers

J

Thanks for the info.

Your case is simple. After giving notice to cancel, you had to pay one further fee (per individual m/ship) during the next 30 days.

Anything taken by DD after that, you reclaim via your bank citing the DD Guarantee Scheme. They should make the refund back to your a/c quickly and without questions or arguments.

You have all the info you need like dates, names, etc about cancelling. You need no further proof or evidence.

Waste no further time talking to the gym or the admin Co. If Serco call you, hang up ! There's nothing you need to discuss with them for now.

Let us know how you get on with the refund from the bank ........

Hi All,

Well well, just when i thought all this was resolved

- I did get my DD refunds for the right amounts owed ages ago

imagine my surprise today when I get two letters (for two of the 3 kids) saying we (kids) owe them outstanding payments!

Letters aren't from SERCO but ARC EUROPE LTD.

References match what Serco and Erdington Leisure centre have.

Giving me 14 days to reply or they will go to their solicitors.

What's strange is that the fines don't match £119.95/£157.93

there's only two when originally there was 3 kids having lessons going and 3 cancellations made!

So glad i made this post and saved all the other letters and details.

What do you think i should do next?

Cheers

Coops

A DCA nor their fake/tame paper sols have zero legal powers

Can you tell us where any of the recent paperwork says FINE? Please?

Hi Supa,

If the bank refunded to you the right amount after you paid the final fee(s) due, you owe nothing more and I suggest you simply ignore the demands from ARC for now.

Keep us posted though ........

Hi Everyone.

First of thank you for the replies after my last update and apologies for not replying sooner - I searched a little and ARC EU ltd and saw all the other posts about them and thought "ha simply trying their luck". I got the impression that either ARC EU ltd have taken over Serco or the false debt has been transferred etc.

Well post man has just been and there are now two letters from Major Law Solicitors based in Guildford acting on behalf of Erdington Leisure Centre saying they are owed those two debt balances (again different totals) with additional fees of court fees and solicitor costs.

I have 14 days to respond or they will seek a CC claim from Northampton CC..

So what is the next step - reply or are they trying their luck again?

Really start to get nervous about this now so any advise would be really appreciated. How does one make all this and them go away?

Just read some other posts about M.L.S and can see lots of other posts and comments about ignoring so that sounds promising. However the letters don't say "May" but "seek"

Unless we hear from you within 14 days we will SEEK our clients instructions regarding issuing a CC Claim against in N.C.C for the recovery with addtional costs etc..

So I've took a scan of the letters (attached) and edited them in Jpg format to hide our details etc. So what do you think of their letters?

Part of me is really annoyed with Brum City council and the staff at the L.C Would this be a good case to counter claim against them all?

Cheers

SupaCupa

As post 8

Instructed...i can instruct my dog to sit

If it does is totally a diff matter

Dx

Woof! Okay Cheers Dx I'll see what happens after 14-21 days and see if i get anything else through the post.

I'll tell you what will happen after the 21st day...................it'll be the 22nd day!

They do love banding about their arbitrary timescales...

Major Law ....... take court action ........ Oh no they won't !!!

In fact they don't say you, " .......... have 14 days to respond or they will seek a CC claim from Northampton CC. "

They say " ........ we will SEEK our clients instructions regarding issuing a CC Claim. "

And the instructions will be, " Don't try taking court action because we'll fail miserably again, just like we did last time a few years back. "

Ignore ....... but keep us updated.

Don't bother posting further jpeg's of letters - we don't need to see them at all.

Cheers Slick! Amazing what walking away and coming back to the letter the next day can do. Must have been my boiling blood that failed to spot the obvs parts. Just focused on the "Seek".. Oops.

Thanks for replies guys. Will update if they come back.

Cheers

Coops