Dear Slick132I just wanted to send a quick thank you note. I followed your advice, contacted my bank to cancel the dd, and block the credit card, and followed it up with the letter detailing all accounts, also sent it recorded delivery as per your instructions. Fitness First in Cardiff rang me to say that they had received my letter and that my membership had been cancelled. I asked would I receive in writing they said no, only by email (i've not received an email as yet). They also did say they would be asking for one final payment but i've heard nothing since, so hopefully no news is good news.I have recommended CAG to all my friends and family, what a great service. Thanks!

There is no HTML option for me to edit and it just keeps adding it as one string of plain text. Seems to be ok if editing frm my phone.

Dear CAG, I hope someone can help/advise, last time CAG were such a great help! On Dec 24 I rang Vodafone to enquire as to why I kept receiving mesages to say i'd almost used my data allowance on both my mobile phone (1G) and on my mobile broadband (3G). The messages read for the mobile that i'd be charged an extra £5 for each extra 500MB used on my mobile and on my dongle an extra £15. This alarmed me, so I rang them to enquire. I was told I had not used the allowance, not to worry, that it was likely to be messages sent in error - scroll down to see the email confirming this sent 31 December 2011 by Vodafone Customer Care. As the messages continued to be sent to me I kept screen dumps of the ones online, and on my phone. I emailed the customer care team a number of times and was told to wait until my bill had generated but I had not used my data.I rang last night to be told that i had actually used over my data allowance on both my phone and dongle and that my bill was £118 - that's £65 extra in charges. I am at a loss as to what to do, I would not have used the internet had I thought when the bill was generated that i'd have the excess charges. I don't believe that I have used over my allowance and i'm angry to have been told two different stories. I can cancel my dongle with 30 days notice (14.5.12 the contract ends for a fee of just over £40) but my mobile contract isn't due until November. I'm extremely unhappy with the mis information and want them to provide an explanation of this. I don't feel i can trust the information within the Vodafone App either as this was entirely different to what they told me. I certainly don't think i've used this much data. The last bill was issued 10.1.12 Here is the email they sent me when i first enquired - they have since emailed to say i have used over but with no explanation how. ____________ Sent: Saturday, 31 December 2011, 7:14Subject: Re: Mobile Data complaint [#8168162 ]Natalie, I understand your concern and would like to inform you that you have not exceeded you data allowance for he number ***********. Till today you have used 0.13GB. For number *********** you have 1 GB data from which you have used 732MB till today. Hence, you have not exceeded your data allowances. However, I would request you to wait till the bill is generated. Once, the bill will generate we will be able to investigate it further.I trust the above information helps .Thank you for being a valued customer. Kind regards, Preeti Patel Vodafone Customer Services

Thanks so much for your detailed response. I have contacted the bank this morning. I wrote a letter ready to send but yours is way more structured. will let you know how things turn out and will also have a read up on the dd info. As I recall the conversation was that the monthy payment would only be around £2.50 but the first would have an admin charge sonid be interested in hearing the call!

Hi Slick132 thanks for your help, hope this reply makes sense as I don't appear to to have posting permissions to write in html so have usind the bb codes, here goes! Answers to a few of your queries below I'd cancel the DD immediately or they'll keep taking payments ad nauseum. If I cancel the DD immediately the t/cs i signed gave my cc details as alternative payment - shall i still contact my cc provider to tell them not to authorise payment? 1. What was the minimum term you signed up for. 12 Months, Joining date 9.12.10 membership start date 31.12.10 Direct debit start date 15.01.112. 2. Where did you sign up. at the gym itself 3. How did you sign up - eg using their on-line system in the gym; by filling in paperwork in the gym; etc. I filled in paper work 4. Do you have a copy of the m/ship Terms and Conditions. If so, what is said about freezing or postponing m/ship. Yes - I will attach them - nothing in there on freezing accounts - only arrears. Ask the instructor guy to please stop using your email address publicly. This will NOT provide you with any ammo. Done Also, they will probably NOT have a recording of the call and, if they do, they're unlikely to let you have a copy. They appear to know when I rang, this is their response: Thank you for your email. Your membership details have been escalated to me as a senior manager. You spoke to my colleague on the 23rd of June, and it was explained to you that your membership would be frozen until the end of October. It was also explained that if you wanted to extend the freeze you would have to get back in contact with us. Full payments have resumed, but we will be unable to refund the payments for November and December. If you know anyone that would like to take over your membership, we can transfer the membership to them for £10. We are also able to place the membership back on a freeze for £8.95. As previously mentioned this would extend the minimum term of your membership. If you would like to discuss the matter with me please call me back on 08444 122 661, or reply with a convenient time I can call you. As soon as they find the DD mandate has been cancelled, they'll be on to you pronto and you'll also be contacted by either ARC or CARS, both of whom are poorly-run DCA's. You can, and should, ignore contact from them regardless of their meaningless threats. Just keep a note of the time and date of any call which you get demanding money about this. I'm a bit worried about this sort of harassment, has anyone on here actually been taken to court/threatened with CCJ's etc - my credit rating is great and I don't want this to damage it. Fitness First TCs.pdf

Thanks acutetomato I'll have a read through those, much appreciated.

Hi ThereI'm new to this forum so hopefully i'm posting this in the right place! Ok this is my consumer problem. Last December I joined Fitness First Cardiff, unfortunately in June I lost my job due the company I worked for going into liquidation. I rang Fitness First head office who said they could drop my membership to £9.99 per month until my circumstances changed. I received no confirmation of this change, but I was told I would not be able to use the Gym whatsoever. I have since discovered that they debited £29.99 for both Nov and Dec, I had no prior notification that this would happen. When I rang to cancel my membership altogether they said very blatently that my account was only on a 'freeze' and by doing so I had extended my membership for another 5 months. I wrote a letter of complaint and attached the letter from the liquidators to prove I had lost my job... at the very least I would have expected notification that I could resume use of the gym again. I have threatened them with Trading Standards but I really don't think this makes any difference. I have also told them that i'm making a note of the length of time it is taking them to respond to my emails. I know that if i cancel my direct debt they'll take the funds from the credit card details i provided when I signed up. I have asked for a recording of the phonecall to see if they really did say my account would be 'frozen'.All I want now is for Nov & Dec to be credited to my account and for my membership to be cancelled. They refused this and said the only way of cancelling is if i pass my membership over to someone else, quite frankly i'd never recommend this company to anyone. On a data protection note - one of the instructors continually emails about his classes - however instead of blind copying everyone in he cc's everyone in the group, thus sharing my email with hundreds of others - i wouldn't want him in trouble personally but it's just another gripe I wondered if i could use as ammo. Any help much appreciated!