Thank you for that, it doesn't look too promising for a refund for them then, but maybe this will have to be an expensive lesson learnt for him. Thank you x

Hi, My very naive 23yr old son in law took out a loan for £1000 then paid, via his Barclays Visa debit card, for a holiday for him and my daughter to Egypt in February as a surprise. He genuinely didn't realise he needed travel insurance. he booked it all online with onthebeach.co.uk. Since booking this my daughter has found out she is pregnant and was told by the GP that she will not be able to have all the necessary vaccinations to cover herself in Egypt because of the pregnancy, this made them decide not to go. But..... obviously not having travel insurance I am not sure if there is any possible way of retrieving this money as it is over £900..! I have rung onthebeach.co.uk today and they very kindly refunded the cost but cannot refund the flights which are £603.00. I have rung Monarch but they are not in until Monday, so I have written them an email in the hope I will get it for him. Whats the chances of getting a refund for the flights in reality? Thank you for your help. Jennifer

Morning everyone, Just thought I would update you all by letting you know that Ive not received anything from Bannatynes since December. I am quietly hoping they are not pursuing this any further, but another part of me is thinking - maybe a court letter will come through my door at any point Jen xx

Brilliant, thank you Slick, you are such a good help in this. I sent that reply 1st class recorded yesterday x

Morning everyone, I received another letter yesterday from Bannatynes saying that: Further to the recent "Notice Of Intention To Issue A County Court Claim" sent in relation to an outstanding balance held agaist your membership, as no payment has been received to settle the account we write to advise that our Courts Department may now seek to recover the balance through the County Court. We would prefer to resolve this matter prior to any further action being taken. Currently a balance of £435.00 (husbands letter says £653.27) is held outstanding against your membership. As a gesture of goodwill, we will offer a 20% discount reduction on this balance providing this is received in full in 14 days of this letter. As you know, I am not going to pay this due to the fact I strongly feel we were missold this, so shall I reply to this? Thank you Jen xx

.....Oh, maybe not then. It doesnt look as if Mr D is a very sympathetic man then so I wont bother wasting my time writing a letter directly to him. I will just wait and see if I do infact receive a court letter and if so, I would be really grateful if you could help me out with the defence Thank you xx

Hi, yes this is a "Letter Before Action" letter. I will follow it to court, I will be scared but its got to be done, Im not going to give in and pay this money. Thank you x

Well, here I am again..... Bannatynes still wont give up on this one, me and hubby have both received a "pre-court letter demanding payment within 7days due to us breaching the contract", if it is not receieved then court proceedings will begin. Do I respond to this? Thank you x

Hi, Bannatynes are still keeping up the fight and have responded to my last letter with: As previously advised we have answered the points raised and can find no evidence that your memberships were miss sold in anyway. Despite your contractual responsibilities you refuse payment and therefore we will continue our collection process as normal. your account details have now been passed to our Legal Department in order for the outstanding contractual fees to be pursued further. Do I now ignore this and await a letter from the collections dept? Also, all correspondence has been sent to OFT as advised Jennifer x

Hi, yes please, I would like the contact details please so I can let them know how Bannatynes are treating people. Thank you x

Good Morning, well, Bannatynes are still keeping up the fight. In reponse to the letter I sent the other day (the one I copied and pasted) I have now received a response already saying: As you are aware, the contract is signed to say that you have read, understood and agreed to all the terms and conditions set within which states that membership is for a minimum of 12months with all monthly subscription fees being due irrespective of use or change to personal circumstances, the reamining period of which you have been invoiced, as per @Section 5, Paragraph (b). Then they state that I owe £435.00 and my husband owes £653.27 (my husband and son on joint membership and this is the reason this amount is higher) both payable in the next 14days in order to prevent further action being taken. Please help as I dont know how to make them understand that I am not willing to pay for a gym that didnt provide the services promised? Thank you xx

Thank you SO much, that is so professional, i am really grateful for your help and will send that exact letter today recorded delivery. And yes, of course I will let you know what happens next x

Hello, Well, I was hoping not to have to retrun here but unfortuntely Bannatynes have sent us invoices for the total amounts payable for the year, despite all my letters explaining I feel we were mis sold the memberships. So can I please ask what I should do now? I am not willing to pay and really thought they had accepted this as Ive not heard from them for ages, but obviously not Thank you for your help Jen xx

Hi, Hope you dont mind me returning for some more of your valuable advice? Since writing to you last I have had another 2 letters from Bannatynes adamant that they dont feel any mis-selling is taking place and for that reason they want their money (as we now owe Augusts payment as direct debit was cancelled). I wrote back basically saying that I felt we would have to "agree to diagree" at this point but that I know what we were told before joining etc etc. So Im just wondering what I do now to be honest, if they do send me invoices for the total amount what do i do? Do I respond with another letter or just not pay them? Thank you x

I want out to be honest, I cant see how we will ever get to use the gym and would never have joined if we had been told the truth in the beginning xx

Just one other thing about the 2pm admission times.... Following us joining the gym, my 16yr old daughter and 5yr old daughter went to the gym one Saturday at 1pm to go swimming (surely if we had been told they are not allowed in until 2pm prior to joining they wouldnt have made the effort to go there at that time on that particular day) and were told "They are not allowed on the premises before 2pm Thank you so much for your help on this matter, its really annoying me that they are blatantly denying everfything they said now and making it out that we are lying when there simply is no way we wouldve joined if the correct terms had been explained to us in the neginning. Thank you, you are a star xx

Hi, ok, Ive had a reply from Bannatynes, its quite long so I will copy it word for word: We can confirm a thorough investigation has been completed in relation to your complaints and can confirm the following: Prior to yourself and Rosie joining our Crewe health Club, you were invited to attend a childrens' swim session on Wed 11th April 2012. During the visit you made us aware that floats and games would be involved but during your visit, it was made clear that this was not the case. (not the case, yes, we did go for a swim before we joined but we were definetely not told we could not have inflatables and toys until after we joined) We can also confirm that the supervised swim sessions are just that, swimming sessions which are supervised and chuildren are unable to swim should not attend for thier own safety. We do offer swimming lessons at our Crewe Health Club which you have previously been made aware of, which could help in resolving this situation (again, when we had our chat with the sales adviser, he did not tell us that the child would need to be able to swim when we mentioned it. I was told after we had joined and asked where the person was to supervise her in the pool on a particular day) Joining members are provided with an avtivity timetable which clearly shows that children may only access the swimming area between 2pm and 7pm each day, this information was also provided to Derek Walker with the Kids Clubs times before he joined Rosie. We also confirmed this information with you on your first visit to our Crewe Health Club on 9th April 2012. Unfortunately after questioning each member involved in the sale of the memberships no one claims to ahve advised that the childrens sessions are always full. (This I definetely dispute as this was definetely asked prior to joining as this is a huge issue for us) As our staff are aware, we have no way of confirming when a session will be full or empty as members book their children into these sessions as and when they require. (Children are requested to "book in" when they attend the classes so they wouldve know they are not well attended) In conclusion we have answered the issues that you have raised against your claims that the membership was mis-sold and proved this is not the case. Your memberships will not be cancelled as you were legally and contrctually responsible for your membership fees each month for the minimum term of the membership agreement. Therefore please make a manual payment for Aug 2012 and reinstate your direct debits as soon as possible. If payments continue not to be made then we will have no option but to raise invoices for the remaining contractual amounts and if need be persue this matter through the County Courts. And thats that........ I hope you can help. Jen x

wow, what can I say..... that is absolutely excellent. I have copied and pasted that, word for word, thank you so so much for taking the time to do that for me. Jen xx

Hi, Can someone please help me with cancelling memberships with Bannatynes which I feel I have been mis-sold. The reason I feel this is because when we went in for the intial chat and look around, I specifically asked: 1. Are the childrens clubs full ? (this is a huge thing for me as I didnt want to be paying £12.50 per month for my 5yr old daughter is going to be alone) I was told "yes, they are really popular" 2. Are there any inflatables in the pool for my child? I was told.... "no, but you are more than welcome to bring your own" 3. So, we can attend anytime at the weekends and bring my daughter swimming?... "yes, of course you can" 4. The supervised swim sessions which run twice a week, does this mean I can leave my 5yr old daughter there to be supervised while I work out?....... "yes, thats correct" So, I agree to memberships for myself, my husband, my 16yr old daughter and my 5yr old daughter. Since then it has become apparent that: 1. My 5yr old daughter is nearly alone in the kids classes 95% of the time. 2. No inflatables are allowed in the pool so all my 5yr old can do is hold onto the side for the whole time we are in the pool as its too deep for her to stand up and she cant swim. 3. No children are allowed in the gym before 2pm anyday of the week. My daughters went there one Sat morning and were told they are not allowed in. 4. Supervised swim means the child has to be accompanied with an adult if they cannot swim. This does not mean that there will be someone in the pool with them, it simply means there will be a personal trainer walking aorund the pool at these times. I really feel I have been mis-sold these memberships, so I wrote a letter to Head Office explaining this and had a reply saying that "as a goodwill gesture" they will cancel my two daughters memberships but not mine and my husbands. I replied stating that I only joined due to the childrens facitlites and that I was led to beleive that we could work out every day for an hour while my child was in the "popular" kids clubs which run for one hour per day and also we were of the opinion we could swim all day everyday at weekends if we wanted. They have today replied saying that "members are given the opportunity to ask questions relating to the contract until they feel comfortable to the obligations that they are about to commit themselves. It is ultimately the responsibility of the member to ensure that they understand all terms relating to the membership" So basically, I am determined to reply, but I need to word it correctly and would appreciate any help please. Thank you Jen xx