My girlfriend and I went along to a trial session at a local fitness centre we had been told about. After the session, we sat down in the café and received a free (freshly ground) coffee as we discussed joining permanently with the trainer. The conversation was brief, 5 mins max. It involved an iPad on which she showed us the booking app they use and details of the different memberships. We opted for the couples membership at £88.20 per month (endorphin levels were sky high so this sounded like a great deal at the time) plus we get some free gear and a club-branded item of clothing of our choice, each. The club was only a few weeks old at the time, and it seemed like the trainer who was signing us up didn't know exactly how to navigate the sign-up procedure, but we got there in the end. We handed over personal details and my girlfriend gave her bank details for the direct debit to be taken out each month. We immediately had to pay a pro-rata fee of £67.62 for the first month (September), oh and a joining fee of £50 (!?). A few weeks later and reality hit, we were never going to get our moneys worth from this club and had only been a handful of times in the first couple of months (lets just blame it on our 'busy' lifestyle) We paid again at the beginning October but then my girlfriend finally rang up to cancel. This is when she gets told that actually she can't cancel the membership as (duh) we signed up to a 6-month contract. Instead, they suggested that 'we had joined for a reason why don't we just pop down and give it another go'. My girlfriend expressed her surprise at the fact that we were committed to anything, to which they told her all of the details were in her contract. She went on to ask for a copy of this contract, that she had never seen before. They did email her a copy of a black and white contract, which was filled in with her details and with all of the terms and conditions. It included our joining date and commitment period end date. At the bottom, there is an Application Declaration section, with signature boxes which were (obviously) blank, because this was the first time either of us had seen this contract. Page 2, there was a physical activity readiness questionnaire (blank with empty signature box) Page 3 was a copy of her direct debit (blank with empty signature boxes) She informed the club that she was cancelling her direct debit as these contracts they had sent were quite clearly unsigned by herself, and that she was never informed and/or agreed to the long-term contract. They never acknowledged this email. Fast forward a couple of months and she receives an email from a debt collection agency after a payment of £610.26. She rang this agency and told them the whole story. They agreed to put everything on hold and contact the club. The next day, she receives an email from the agency stating that they had contacted the club and they had been advised by their client, that we set up our membership via a tablet they handed to us, that we had agreed to tick and had agreed the terms and conditions in order to proceed. And that they had no written confirmation of us wishing to cancel our membership (bull****) Therefore they look forward to our payment (of which late fees had been added) Their t&c's actually say they may charge a fee of no more than £15 for failed direct debit payments and any unpaid fees referred to a debt collection agency will be subject to a charge of no more than £30? But that's besides the point. We/my gf were never told about the commitment period, and never signed anything. They sent us a copy of a completely blank contract. We're only 24/25 and have no experience of anything like this, do we just ride it out? Could we be caught out somewhere along the line, even with them having no signature? We've watched hours of Can't pay we'll take it away, should we expect to see ourselves on Channel 5 next year? Thanks in advance for any help. P.S. We never received our t-shirts.

Regulator finds significant failures at the Presidents Club Charitable Trust READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/regulator-finds-significant-failures-at-the-presidents-club-charitable-trust

A three-year-old boy has died after drowning in a swimming pool at a David Lloyd fitness club in Leeds. Police were called shortly before 9.45am on Saturday to the club on Tongue Lane after a report that a child had entered the pool and drowned. The boy was taken to Leeds General Infirmary where he was later pronounced dead. Although police are treating the incident as an accident, they are appealing for anyone who was in the pool at the time to make contact. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/boy-3-drowns-david-lloyd-fitness-club-swimming-120600253.html

Hi everyone, hoping this is a relatively straight-forward one. I am a member at Clifford Health Club (Nottinghamshire), which use Ashbourne Management for their membership payments. I emailed Ashbourne as I have moved house and I was wondering if I could end my membership as the gym is now a bit out of my way. Ashbourne replied saying I had to have moved 15 miles away, I haven't quite moved 15 miles away, fair enough I don't meet that requirement. It'll be a bit irritating but not the end of the world. The bit of the email that confused me was the opening sentence, "The contract that you signed and agreed to is for a period of twelve months, to date you have made three payments and we require a further nine payments in order to cancel." The contract I agreed to and signed was, indeed, for 12 months. However, it was part of a promotional offer - sign up (November) and pay nothing until 1st February. In my mind then, in April, I am six months into my 12 month contract, with 6 payments left to make, not the 9 that they have said I have left? That would surely make my contract 15 months long not 12? I was just wondering if I am able to argue the case with them about the 3 months they appear to have added on? Thanks for any help

Charity Commission calls for information about Presidents Club Charitable Trust READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/charity-commission-calls-for-information-about-presidents-club-charitable-trust

I bought a x-hose from a garden show and it was faulty, I managed to track the traders down ( Swissclub ) all I got was a contact who I think was the manager and they sent a replacement. This failed after 2 uses I called him again, no problem he said to call with my bank details and he would refund my money. I then could not contact him as he wasn't answering my calls even if I used a different phone. I then managed to get an address and e mail I contacted them and was told to send the hoses back, something which the manager never mentioned, but it woud be at my cost as they have a time limit on returning stuff. I've contacted Citizens advice and they told me I should expect a refund and not be charged postage and to send them a registered letter giving them 14 days to reply. I did this and I've not had a reply my complaint has been passed on to Trading standards and I have to wait to see what they will do. I was wondering if anyone else has heard of these traders or what I could do next. I could just send the hoes back and hope they refund me I feel that my consumer rights have been breached and theses traders sell at well known garden shows and there is nothing I can do to get my money back if Trading Standards decide not to do anything. Sorry if that all seems long winded. Regards. Steve.

Hi folks yet another idiot who has fallen for the high sale pressure from club La costa, we filled out the card to win a holiday and surprise we won, went along to the presentation, where we did go for the 3 year trial membership, I thought at that price it would just mean the next few years holidays are paid. Before we even got the chance to use it the calls started, and then the invite out to the main resort in Spain, which we went, and do have to admit the accommodation given to us was way out of this world at there malibu mansions, the first day of arriving we were plagued with calls and then invited to breakfast, then whisked off to the office on the resort, where we were stuck for several hours, filled with drink, and amazing deals and promises that now not true, we were both in good jobs and as we decided it was not for us at that time we walked away. Again once home a couple follow up calls, and again when we went out to the resort they harassed us yet again to attend another meeting with them, again same thing happened, high pressure sales, but a better offer if we traded in our trial membership which would be deducted from the price, and a further bonus off money knocked off, in the end we relented and signed up, after being informed that they would only go up in value should we wish to eventually sell. We then used some of our points to go out and have a break, again on arrival we were informed that a breakfast meeting had being arranged for us, and i thought what now, well this meeting was about us saying that we were interested in buying property abroad, and that they had an amazing deal for us, they had acquired knocked down points that would go towards the purchase of any club La costa property, and instead of £30 per point they were costing £18, but only these points could be used to secure a deposit if we wished to invest in a property, and as we were wanting to invest in a property and were a bit flush after the sale of a property we thought why not, i was still a bit apprehensive as now we had spent nearly 25k with club La costa. We then decided to go out and try the new resort they had out at turkey after an invite to invest in a property, was the week Jenny Bond was their, we were then whisked away again for the day taken away for breakfast and lunch, and up to their new mountain golf resort, where they then started the sales pitch on this amazing site that the were going to develop and only club La costa had the best development site away from the rest that was being developed, i did check out the prices of exactly the same apartments for sale that did not belong to club La costa on this development site and they were somewhat 30k cheaper, all the time while club La Costa were pushing that the golf was going to be a huge thing in turkey and no other site would compare to this development, so we decided as a paper to explore the costing, well club La costa were well ahead of us, they already knew about the points we bought for property, or as the sales rep called them property points, but instead of them being the same value as what we purchased them for, they were now worth £13 per point, so not only was there apartments 30k dearer our property points were also worth less than what we bought them for, which they sure as hell did not inform us off when we bought them. 2 years ago we were made redundant company sold out to someone else, we were both out of work and struggled to find work, needless to say we could not afford to pay the maintenance fees, we phoned club La costa as when we bought first points were informed people were always prepared to buy points cheaper as theirs always went up in value, surprise that this was not the case according to them, and as we were in arrears we could not sell them, and they would not buy them back, and our saved points where we had paid the maintenance on could also not be used as we were in arrears, we are now 25k out of pocket coming up to our 3 rd year of not being able to pay the high maintenance charges and just dont know what to do, as i have read they will cancel our membership and reclaim the points, which is all very well as they will be able to sell them again prob for another 25k while offering us nothing for them, does anyone know if we can do anything, if they even offered to scrap the maintenance charges we have not paid, claimed our points that would have being saved for themselves to sell and started us afresh it would not be half as bad, when we took this out they informed us people would snap the hand off us fora week at the resort and gave us a holiday book to offer to people that everyone taken would lower our maintenance charges, but we never could shift any, which they prob knew

Hi All I hope I am posting in the corret thread here, if not can admin move it... I signed up for a deal with Holiday Club in Gran Canaria, and when I got home I started asking around forums if they were ligit. People PmD ME from the GC forum and told me not to touch them with a barge pole, as they never give you the dates that you ask for, when you want to take your holiday. Long story short. I used the 14 day cooling off period when I got home, and decided to cancel. In the contract put in front of me, it clearly said that I could cancel. But hidden in the back of the forms, was a clause that I could not cancel the second part of the dea,l as the deal was for 2 weeks world wide holiday and 3 weeks in GC or mainland Spain. I paid £600 deposit by CC with the option to pay another £600 in 14 days after I was home. I attempted to claim the initial 600 back under section 75, my bank Santander, said it was a forgone conclusion that I would get the money back. A week later they called me, after holiday club had contacted them, and changed their tune. Angry enough at that, I put it down to a bad experience. But ow they are pursuing me for the other £600 through a debt collection agency based in Dublin. What I would like to know is if they can take me to court if I refuse to pay ? any input greatly appreciated

What a load of politically correct rubbish, this woman it just out to make a name for herself, get a life, big ego trip, get her name on the front page in the press, nothing offensive in it these people will look to find fault in anything. Exeter Chiefs urged to change 'offensive' name by Native American expert Calls for Premiership rugby club Exeter Chiefs to scrap ‘Red Indian’ theme because fans dressing in headdresses with toy tomahawks is ‘offensive’ Calls for Premiership rugby club Exeter Chiefs to scrap 'Red Indian ... https://www.thesun.co.uk/.../calls-for-premiership-rugby-club-exeter-chiefs-to-scrap-r... 1. Cached 2 days ago - Exeter Chiefs premiership rugby team urged to ban fans dressing up as native ... Professor of early modern American History Rachel Herrmann has attacked their ... The Southampton University boffin said:”We need to remember that ... A campaign to get the Redskins to change their name has been going ... Exeter Chiefs urged to change 'offensive' name by Native American ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-36965975 1. Cached 2 days ago - Exeter Chiefs should change their name and stop "playing Indian" according ... She said it evoked "Britain's forgotten imperial American past".

Back in December last year I took out a two time subscription to the 'Discovery Club' which was supposed to deliver perfume samples every quarter. I only received one, and realized recently that they had never sent the second one and three months had definitely passed. I contacted them and they admitted they needed to refund me for one, but cannot because in the mean time I have gotten a new bank card so they cannot 'refund' the card. Instead, they have now sent me a new discovery club package which I've told them several times I don't want. In the meantime waiting for the promised refund I went over my overdraft and accrued fees and am now really ticked off. Seriously, people change bank cards all the time - how can they not have some system to deal with that? My account number/address remains the same. I am also really annoyed that they did not 'notice' the fact that they hadn't sent my order until I did some months later and would have happily kept my money for doing absolutely nothing had I not called them on it. What can I do? I quite fancy a bottle of the actual perfume I use, which I think would be an appropriate apology given the amount of emails/effort I've expended on this stupid thing with stupid people who clearly don't know what they're doing so far. Aaaarghhhh - someone help me!

My mum who is a pensioner signed up last year,20/06/12, for an annual subscription for docrafts club for £24. She did not read the fine print and the subscription auto renew's if she does not cancel on the website. She did not want to renew for the next 12 months but they have done this anyway. sent them an email last week to say she did not want this and basically they quoted the T&C's that the will auto renew was not cancelled. It should not of renewed until 20/06/13 if I understand 'annual' correctly? She went to the bank yesterday, Lloydstsb and they said monies had already been taken out and she cannot do anything. Is there anything she can do?

Hi all, After some advice regarding LA Fitness and cancelling my gym membership with them. I am sorry upfront but this is going to be rather long as I want to give all the information. I joined an LA Fitness gym in Bedford on 11/06/2014. This was under a rolling 1 month contract. I paid monthly via a direct debit which comes out of my account the 31st of every month. I received an email from LA Fitness on 29th October 2014 to inform me that my gym was closing on 14th November 2014. LA Fitness informed me in the email that: LA Fitness had 2 gym's in my town, they shut the one I went to and transferred the membership to the other one. The gym's are not that far apart, only about 2 miles at most. I called the membership line on the 30th October 2014 to ask a few questions. I was worried as I biked to the gym, about where I could leave my bike at the new gym and whether the gym would be suitable for my needs, and about the cost of the new gym. I was told the cost would stay the same and the re-assured me over the bike situation. I went up to the new gym on Saturday 15th November and it seemed okay, nice and clean etc. The problem came when I went to go last night, Tuesday 18th November. Although the gym's are not far apart (and as I said I bike there on my way home from work), it is quite a bit out of my way for biking home. It took me about 20 mins longer to get to the new gym, different route and much more traffic. And, when I got in the gym at about 6.45pm, it was very, very busy (as you might expect I guess). I had to wait up to 20 minutes to get on some pieces of equipment, and I generally did not like it. Which comes to me phoning up the membership services helpline today to cancel my membership (as my terms and conditions state I should). I explained to the lady on the phone that I had nowhere to leave my bike when I got to the gym (there is a bike rack, but it was full), it is not convenient for me (the sole reason I joined the original LA gym was that it was on my bike route to and from work) and I generally didn't get on well there last night. She said that I could cancel but I need to give 30 calendar days notice and therefore my membership would not end until December 31st 2015. Again, my terms and conditions state that notice on the first day of the month following receipt of notice of termination, so again, they are right. However, do I have any rights here as they have shut my 'Home' gym? I have no wish to go up there again. They only gave me 2 days notice that they were going to shut my 'Home' gym before they took a full months payment (the gym didn't shut for another 2 weeks so had use of my home gym for 2 weeks). I tried to argue that giving notice was irrelevant as I no longer had a home gym. She said in the terms and conditions it allows them to move me to another gym. The only bit I can see that possibly refers to this is: But, not sure if that is what she is referring to? Sorry this is rather long winded, but wanted to give as much info as possible. can I get out of giving them the notice they say I owe as the transfer isn't suitable for me. Many Thanks.

I have been using this site for a while for information and advice given to others and have found it very valuable, so first of all well done to all involved helping consumers. thought i would post my issue as seems i need some specific advice on what to do at the moment... I moved down to London last year and signed up for a gym membership on a corporate rate through my work. I didn't actually involve my work, but when i went down to discuss the membership i mentioned i worked for the company i did and negotiated a deal with them. when negotiating i specifically asked (because my work contract was only 10 months and wasn't sure how long i may stay in london) if i move house or leave my current employment am i able to cancel early, i was told most definitely that wouldn't be a problem. and that was it.... the contract i was on in their T&Cs meant my monthly fee dropped from £100 to £75 a month. low and behold in the summer i decided to leave as my employment had finished and although i would be staying in london, i had found a closer gym to me, but i had left my job and was freelancing or as far as the gym were concerned 'unemployed' i called up to cancel and was told that, if i was to cancel early, i would have to give 3 months notice, but also my membership would have to be upgraded back to a full membership and pay the back dated £25 for the months i had had it discounted, as well as 3 further months at £100, as you can imagine i kicked off with them big time. The gym advisor had not detailed any of these charges when i confronted him about the process of cancelling early, and i said this basically amounts to mis-selling a contract or product which of course is illegal(it?). I played hardball and told them i had sought legal advice from my solicitor (which i hadn't) and that was told to demand them to release me from my contract i told them the advisor that had mis-sold me the contract had intentionally done this to get my to sign up. i was told as a 'gesture of goodwill (ha!)' they would 'waive' the back dated payments and i could cancel for the remaining £100 each month. i told them this was not acceptable, i said i wanted to be released from the contract and that i would serve a months notice as a fair compromise. i didn't hear anything back. so as a compromise i decided to just pay the remaining 3 months and then cancelled my standing order with them. shortly after the standing order had ceased, i received letters telling them that i had missed payments and still had a contract with them, they basically ignored my letters and continued to try and take the payments as normal. i sent them another email saying that back in march we had had the discussion to cancel, you had told me it was 3 months. i paid april may and june's payments and now i consider myself no longer a member. please cancel down my membership. i didn't receive a reply. i called and the account managers' argument was that i hadn't paid the full membership 3 months notice, i had only paid the £75 a month. so therefore i still owe £75. On the phone she had confirmed that £75 would cancel down the account... i wish i had got this in writing!! hindsight... FYI the advisor that sold me the contract has ceased working with them. either he left or more likely he was let go for using this technique (probably more than once?) i received standard letters with requests to pay from the gym and then finally good old CRS got in touch. i haven't made contact since. from looking at forum threads, i made the decision to ignore them. the balance now apparently stands at £434.20?!? i receive a weekly or fortnightly letter from them with new ways of saying i should pay, and i could be in big big trouble if i don't pay. i receive regular text messages telling me to contact them .i have not made contact the latest letter says... 'We regret that despite out attempts to reach an amicable resolution on your account (haven't made contact yet??) you remain in arrears to ROKO We must therefore give notice that failing to reply to this letter within the next 10 days will result in your account balance being passed to Zinc Group, one of the UK's leading providers of debt recovery solutions WE WOULD STILL LIKE TO RESOLVE THIS MATTER (oh yes I'm sure you would lol...) We're still happy to listen to your reasons for not paying (are you really?) and will do whatever we can to reach an acceptable resolution for both parties (lol)/ all that is required for you to call us on NUMBER so we can discuss the matter further (thanks for making it so easy for me..)" anyway, aside from the sarcasm, it seems they are either giving up on the dept and selling it on? or moving it to Zinc Group to pursue having looked at the forum it seems Zinc are the same type of jokers as CRS so what do you think I should do? quite happy ignoring the letters and messages but wondering if that is the best resolution To be honest i would probably pay the £75 just to get them to go away . but then i think, no why should i? they have taken the mickey and mis-sold me the contract. i acted very reasonably considering what i was led in too so is there a more legal and legitimate way to approach this or should i just ignore them. excuse the essay, but its a complicated one... any help is GREATLY appreciated in advance! thanks

I need some advice please. I had to cancel the healthy pet club scheme in my vets after a number of problems. I suffered poor service, increase in prices, I was forced to purchase a blood glucose kit costing me £120, they charged me £15 consultation fee when its a free health club check, then they refused me insulin as my cat is a diabetic. I reported the vets to the British Veterinary Association, whom have yet to reply to my complaint back in August. I cancelled at the healthy pets club direct a couple of months ago; why demand money now? Today I got a letter from the vets demanding a payment of £167 as I had cancelled out of contract on the scheme. Upon reading the terms and conditions on their website, it clearly states you can cancel at any time, and doesn't mention about being charged anything!! Also when I canceled with them direct, they never said anything about being charged either!! I thought that the monthly fee of £9.99 was collected by the healthy pet club people not the vets direct? I fail to see why I should pay this because I had been forced to take my cat elsewhere as they had put his health at risk not just once but twice. I also cannot understand how they claim I owe £167 when the monthly fee is £9.99 this does not add up!!?? In a pickle and dont know what to do! All this vets wants off me is money!!

I have worked in various clubs over the time I have worked as a lap dancer. Most clubs (here and abroad) don't have a contract in place, you just get given your rota, and pay 20-50% (depending on the night) of what you earn, to the club. You are self employed. There has never been much paperwork, but I do mock invoices for my tax return. I have started working at a new club in Manchester now I have started back at Uni, and they want to pay me £10 per hour as an employee (including employment contract!) and the cash from stage and private dancers is pooled and allegedly split. Obviously I am worried about my earnings etc and how my dance money will be paid. Would it be considered a 'bonus' - and is that taxable? I suppose this way I won't have to do my own books and pay tax?

Good morning I was hoping some valued advice regarding a situation I am in. I had a taster session with a local running/activity club. After this we were told of we joined within 24 hours we wouldn't have to pay the joining fee. I didn't join but was contacted a few days later by phone to ask why not and was persuaded into joining over the telephone. I wasn't informed at that time of any specific terms or conditions or what the monthly fee was because the guy wasn't sure. I was only able to see t&c's after a direct debit had been set up and I received a welcome email at which point the fee would be confirmed. I have not attended the club at all since joining. The truth is I'm facing redundancy at work and suffer from a back condition since a car accident which is sometimes fine sometimes painful. At no point was I told that I was signing up to a rolling 6 month contract. I cancelled my direct debit and received several emails threatening dca involvement and small claims court process. I re-set the direct debit but again cancelled it when my salary wasn't paid. I am now in correspondence with daniels silverman who have said they have their clients instructions to commence court proceeding and that I signed up to all this when I joined. But I didn't. I didn't join via the website whereby you click to confirm you accept t&c's and none were given over the phone. Can anyone advise where I stand on this. Am I likely to end up with a ccj here when in reality I feel like I've been taken for a bit of a mug. Should this company have furnished me with such important t&c's before confirming my direct debit??

Note by forum administrator:- This problem was very quickly resolved by the owner/admin of the martial arts academy in Chester - to their great credit. Read through this thread for a general understanding of gym clubs - but do understand that some gym clubs can act very decently and responsbily and clearly this is an example of one of them. 2nd May 2014 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Hi, I went to an induction at Family Martial Arts and at the end I had expected a 30 day free trial like it says on the website but instead told I have to sign up to a 6 month contract and if I didn't sign up today then it would be £200 more and I wouldn't get the free extras. I felt pretty pressured into signing up and part of the reason I went to try with then was because it said free 30day trial, no risk, no pressure. I even said I'd rather try real lessons first and he kept saying I'll be fine and can just take them as private lessons if I don't like it and didn't offer this trial that it mentions on his website. It was also a lump sum and I couldn't do 1 lesson a week without paying for 2 and I got pretty confused about it all and was really tired and started to feel stressed from the pressure which isn't good with my Autism so I paid but now I am home and have calmly thought about it like I wanted to and decided I don't want to spend that amount of money when I'm meant to be paying off debt, especially for something I've not even tried properly. So does anyone know if it is possible to give him the free items back and have a refund even though he said it can't be refunded? I know with gyms you get a certain amount of days to decide and then cancel with a full refund so does the same law imply here? If the same law applies, how do I go about approaching him with it? Or is the another way out? Thanks in advance for any advice, it's greatly appreciated.

Hi, I've had a read through the forum on here but couldn't see anything quite the same as my wee problem. So I joined a local martial arts club a year ago and no longer wish to attend. I was surprised to be then told by the instructor that I had committed to a 24 month contract that I couldn't cancel. At no point has he ever mentioned this to me before. He has since sent me a copy of the contract (below) which states I can't cancel except for reasons such as relocation, injury or unemployment. None of which apply - I just no longer wish to attend. I feel somewhat conned in this as I was unaware that I was tied to a 24 month period and also he had agreed with me that I didn't have to pay monthly fees by direct debit and could instead pay up front for several months at a time - with a discount. This again gave me the impression I wasn't tied to a certain period. Any advice on where I could take this would be welcome. Am I truly tied to paying this or is the fact that he has misled me and kept this hidden in small print of any value? [ATTACH=CONFIG]49451[/ATTACH]

Hiya Guys, Can anyone help with a question regarding private club membership ?? Here's the deal... in feb 2013, I made an appplication to join as a probationary member of a target shooting club. At the time of applying , I was informed that I was to be a " probationary member " and that full membership would not be offered until I had been a probationer for at least three months and I had also completed a minimum of 12 supervised visits. After that I could apply for full membership. The club official at the time of signing me up as a probationary member took £104.00 in cash and outlined the above " membership " requirements. Since that time I managed to attend on 2 ocassions and have not been able to fulfill either joining criteria. The club agm was held recently and I asked for a refund of my membership fee as I had not attended suffiecient times to qualify for as a member and could not envisage me being able to join on a full time basis due to outside work, family, and other commitments. I sent an email to the club secretary at the time of the club agm and have received a reply that says - tough - we are not prepared to refund any fee as I was a member and my membership is in place.... errmm I am not a member, I am still classed by club rules as a " probationer member ".... So for over 100 quid and 1 recorded visit I get fobbed off for a refund due to " club rules " .... Any Ideas guys... ?????

I am a new member (12 month subscription) at a sports club that I have recently learnt is soon to run out of money and is no loger able to pay it's debts to the bank (just under 1 million in total). This is a members club, not a Ltd business. The general consensus is that the bank will take over the running of the club, and eventually it will be sold to a buyer and current members will not really be affected either way. I am not so confident. Would there be any legal requirement for the new owners to honor existing members? Or would the bank even continue running the club and not simply shut it down.

Hi I am a regular user of of Club Card, but after see a few TV programmes and reading articles on consumer data I am concerned what this data is being used for. Does anyone know what the Tesco Data Protection notice allow them to use my shopping habits to assess me fo Credit in Tesco Bank for instance, and do they sell my data to anyone else. I love my Club Card vouchers but at what cost am I receiving them ?

Hi i am looking for some advice regarding my daughters holiday club, i will try to keep it brief. I booked a place on-line at a holiday club for my daughter as her friend was going and they wanted to spend the day together. We then found out her friend was going pony riding with the club so we went back on-line to add this for our daughter but was unable to do it as the system would not allow it even though there was some spaces left.I then phoned the provider and was told they will look at it and get back to us.They emailed me back on Monday night and told me there are no more spaces left for the riding, i emailed them back to explain that the only reason my daughter was going was to spend the day with her friend as she would not be able to do this now can we cancel the day and have a refund. A day later they replied only to say they do not give refunds. My question is Do i have any rights , cooling of period etc this was booked on-line on Thursday 28/4 for a space on Wed 10/5 if they had told me on the Thursday the riding was full i would have tried to cancel it then but i had to Waite over the weekend for them to come back to me on Monday night. Any help or advice would be much appreciated thanks

my debitcard recently got refused when paying for shopping obv on a tight budget, but i knew i had money left got back home looked at my online portal found a payment called Amazon prime for £49 debited 28/1/13 at xmas i got given a £50 amazon gift card/voucher as a thank you by someone i looked back at the emails/order details when i used the giftcard on 2.12.12 it had bit right at the bottom about auto sign-up to amazon prime scheme if i did not cancel in 30days. bit cheeky. but had info to cancel membership etc straight on the website to amazon unticked and cancelled it, however gave no indication about the return of the money taken. on the phone to amazon explained the scenario operator on a very poor IP phone sounding like a dalek stated that because i had purchased previously [2011!!] and paid by the debitcard [even though that item was super saver free postage] i had enrolled myself in the prime scheme. any subsequent orders activated the prime scheme and thus the card give almost 2 yrs before was debited with the £50 [incidently the £50 item i just order was free postage too on the ad] stated i was none to pleased about this, a bit of a sharp practice after a wee bit of to'n'fro, where i was told there is nothing that can be done i needed to read the small print!! i said ok i'll goto my bank and get it back under the chargeback scheme 'we won't allow that' said the bod.. i said you've no choice, you can't just decide almost 2yrs later to debit a card without any notification. said email was sent on the 3rd jan i said no nothing received etc etc went over again how can you charge me £50 for this prime scheme about instant express postage when both the items i've had from them were FREE POSTAGE. eventually got somewhere when i said i was going to terminate the call and expose them on their twitter feed and do a chargeback. told the money had been recredited there and then. i'll wait and see if it appears if not watchout amazon..incoming!! after all that i did a quick look around and found lots of people have had this problem so if you've ever used amazon and given them your card number and then ordered again check your bank statement carefully. DX

Hi all got a bit of a problem at my local cricket club, i am chairman and our access to the club house has been banned ie locks changed by the sports and social club, mainly football club members, who feel that because we have had a bad season, weather, we have not contributed to the finance of the club house. we have passed all our income to the sports and social club for the season 2012. we have been playing at the ground since 1946, the same amount of time as the football club. The sports and socail club was set up 6 yrs ago by both cricket and football clubs. all the members of the SSC represent football. what im asking is what could anybody do if we replaced the locks again but gave them a key to gain access to the club house, would this be a police matter or civil matter. where do we stand. thanks for any advice or if you have questions please ask me .

Good afternoon. I wonder if anybody can help please? I am a member of a sports club which is run by a management committee made up of individuals from the membership who get voted in at an AGM. The club premises are also hired out to members of the public for functions. The committee decided that due to a few break-ins to the club premises that they would install a cctv system. The system is accessed by the chairman and the club secretary only. There is, as far as I know, one small sign next to the front entrance of the club informing people that cctv is in operation. This is fine apart from the fact that members are increasingly concerned that they are being watched (and possibly listened to) by these two committee members. Again not really a problem as nothing really goes on. The problem is at the moment there is a club dispute going on with the two aforementioned committee members. Basically what are the rules, if any. It is understandable that the footage is looked at if a burglary has occurred, but what about general viewing of members whilst they are socialising in the bar? Thank you for any help.