Virgin Active and ARC!!! Please Help

[virginite]

I am aware that Virgin will not activley seek debt recovery in court, but use verbal pressure through ARC

 

 

I have a similar situation to many of these posts. What i want to know is has anyone actually been issued with county court summons by virgin active, or Trevor Munn Solicitors, or is it all talk?

[virginite]

Hi if you were actually in your 13th month (dont include your freeze period, this does not constitute as part of your contract) then you are enntitled to term in yoour 13th month as long as you pay the 13th month, they say this is at the discretion of the manager but it isn't.

 

If they refuse then they are discriminasting against you in favouritism of others. have fun with that one....

 

Just say "Do you never agree to termination requests in the 13th month"

 

 

 

:(First Posting.

I too have just fallen foul of Virgin & ARC & their 12 mth roll-over (lets not remind you its due) membership scheme. I was felled by rheumatoid arthritis and went in 13 months into my membership to tell them I was now severely disabled (quite obvious really). They (Sheffield Virgin) were very unhelpful, but told me I could suspend my membership until I 'felt better!' - this I did at the cost of 5 pounds per month for a whole year. I then decided they'd had enough 'free' money out of my disability allowance and cancelled it in January this year. Whoah - big mistake. Since Monday I have had 7 calls from ARC all with a degree of menace. Worst of all my 6 year old has been picking up the phone and being frightened by these monsters. Is there a way to stop the calls? Letters I can handle. My partner is telling me to pay the 389.55 as he doesn't want them coming round the house to take our stuff (is this likely?).

Just like other postees - I too feel very threatened, angry and irritated by these tactics and would like to expose Virgin for their disengenuous (can't spell) behaviour.

[Kendall]

So has anybody actually managed to get these clowns to go away?

 

I signed up to Virgin in January 2008 and in November of this year froze my contract and served notice (verbally, in person) to end it upon 12 month completion as I moved and joined a local gym which cost a lot less.

 

The re-adjusted direct debit of £7pm has not been taken from my account since and now I'm getting calls from ARC chasing up a debt (presumably they have been sending letters to my old address)

 

Any tips?

[virginite]

Hi Kendall did you complete 12 full months not including the freeze period, if you didnt you will need to complete them first.

[IT_Guy]

I too am being chased for my wife and I's 3 month gym membership. We were in the 3rd year of what i was sold as a 12 month contracted. I sent an email stating we no longer wnated to be members as my wife was having a hip replacement. We hadn't attended the gym for over 6 months. I cancelled my direct debit the month later. ARC want 3 months worth of money from each of us including costs. I have had letter upon letter and phone call after phone call. Told them to take me to court.

 

For me I was missold the goods (gym membership) in that i was told that i was tied in for 12 months but could cancel with 1 months notice after that. This is not the case with diamond memebership. How can you have a rolling 12 month contract where you do not resign every time it needs to be renenwwed?

 

I am a contarctor and have a rolling contract but my agency send me an amended contract out with the revised dtaes on whichi have to resign every time. The initial signature is for 12 months, if they roll you on they should inform you and ask you to resign.

 

I am happy to hear that the contract is not legally binding and after reading this forum will now ignore any firther contact from trevor munn ( is that really a solicitor?) and ARC.

[DebraZebra]

Me too, though it is consoling to learn from this site there are others like me! So I registered with this site straight away...

 

My story to date:-

 

 

I joined Virgin Active and their 'Diamond' membership on 29/04/2005 and paid a £50.00 joining fee together with a pro-rated fee of £38.66 and completed a monthly direct debit mandate for £39.95. I specifically asked if I could terminate the membership at any time after the 12 month 'commitment period' and was told 'yes'. At no time, was I told that the membership was an automated renewal scheme, effectively bound for life! My DD commenced on 01/06/2005 and I continued to pay this for 34 months but never attended the gym once. A fool, I know!

 

In February 2008, I telephoned Virgin asking to cancel my membership and was advised to place the membership on 'freeze' by paying £5.00 per month which I did. Then in April 2008 on the third anniversary of joining, I again telephoned Virgin requesting that the membership be cancelled. I was told that this was not possible and again to freeze for a further six months!?!

 

Deciding that I had more than fulfilled my contractual obligations (to date an estimated £1516.00) and never having actually attended the gym as their records will show, I wrote cancelling my membership on 30/10/2008. As I received no reply to this letter I cancelled my direct debit. Only then did I receive a letter from Virgin informing me that fees were still due and that legal action would be taken if they were not met. I replied to this letter explaining my circumstances and requesting an end to the matter.

 

My final letter from Virgin on 12/02/2009 informed me that the matter was now being dealt with by Arc (Europe) Ltd - the 'notorious' credit management company.

 

Today I have received a letter indicating that I must pay a further £269.70 within ten days or legal proceedings will commence. I feel that I was mis-sold the membership and coerced into signing up to an agreement with unfair terms and conditions which I am unable to terminate without further expense. Furthermore, I have been subjected to intimidating tactics by Arc (Europe) Ltd to gain further payment.

 

I have lodged a complaint with the FOS but feel that they will be unable to help as it is not a credit agreement, and I have also complained to the consumer division of the OFT and BBC's Watchdog!

 

Any further advice would be greatly appreciated as the whole affair is also getting to me.

[twobeercans]

this thread is unbeleivable for goodness sake.

 

this contract is implying an automatic rollover if you don't tell them it is ended? In my view a cancellation of a DD is a very clear indication of a parties intention not to renew, never mind woops you have missed the date cos we didn't receive a cancellation letter.

 

In most of these other cases i would state catagorically that if they believe the contract will stand up in court then they should make the court claim! Dont start worrying about CCJ's i think you will find that if such a judgement is settled with a defined time frame then that CCJ will not be recorded. If you go to court prepared to lose but expecting you have a caseand the judge tells you, you have to pay these sums it just means pay them and thats the end of it, no recording CCJ's. If you don't pay up immediately then you would probs have problems with receiving a CCJ. If they lose claim your costs lol. I don't think people should be panicking over so called perpetual contracts, and certainly not a contract where they expect you to take actin by sending in a letter they can conveniently lose or not recieve.

Another very clear indication of your intent not to renew would be not going to the GYM for goodness sake. If it were me i would be telling them i want all the fee's the charged to me back after the first years membership since they clearly were aware by your failure to enter there establishment that you had no intention of renewing after your 1st period of membership you simply forgot to cancell your DD. TBH imho they aint got a leg to stand on if you never even entered one of there establishments. Are these contracts signed in blood by any chance lol, there seems something very evil in there nature hahaha

[Member16]

Hi,

 

Found this discussion so I copied my previous posting in another discussion to here for help and advice.

 

I had been a member of Holmes Place Gym since 2002. Virgin took over the club a few years ago.

 

- On May 27th, 2009, I asked the Virgin Staff to cancel my membership effectively from June 2009, but was refused and told that all cancellation should be made by 17th of the month.

 

- However I insisted to cancel my membership but the manager wrote on the cancellation form, the cancellation effectively date from 1st of July 2009 but I wrote beside her writing "June 2009" and I marked the form with initial instead of signed it actually and the gym manager signed the form.

 

Since then every month, I got a letter demanding payment of membership for:

in June for £ 66 (for June memebrship) plus £ 30 admin fee from virigin active

in July for £ 132 (for june and july membership) plus £ 30 admin fee from virigin active

 

Along with the letter saying that despite number of calls from Virgin Active, Virgin Active haven't received my payment. All letters from virigin active was asking me to call them to make payment over the phone but without any address for me to send back my reply via post. So I called virgin active about the letters and told them that I have asked to cancel my membership effectively from 1st of June 2009 but they said they are not aware of any request therefore the transferred the phone to my local virgin active club and the staff said over the phone that she is aware that I asked for cancellation??? I am a bit confused. I told the staff why virgin active said the called me many times when actually they never called me. Then they staff asked for my mobile number and on that day only the gym manager called and left a message on my mobile to call her back, but I didn't do that as I was so annoyed with the way they treated me.

 

In mid August 2009, I got a letter from ARC (acting on behalf of Virgin Active) demanding payment for £ 228 (For June, July and August membership plus £ 30 admin fee), so I called ARC to inform them that I have cancelled my membersip effectively from June 2009. I was asked to send them a letter and copy of cancellation form. So I did send a letter to ARC to inform tham that I cancelled my membership along with copy fo cancellation form.

 

On 21st of September 2009 I received a letter from ARC to inform me that:

 

" Dear Sir,

 

We are writing in response to your recent correspondence.

 

We have checked with our client and they have confirmed that as you have now supplied them with proof of your request to cancel, they have reduced your outstanding balance to £ 66.00 which is the subcription payment due for June. Therefore, the above balance remains outstanding and must be paid.

 

Your payment should be sent directly to this office. Please ensure your payment is made payable to ARC (Europe) Ltd and clearly write your reference number XXXXX on the reverse or this may delay it being allocated to your account. Alternatively you can telephone us to make a payment by debit or credit card.

 

If we do not received your payment within the next 10 days, this account will be passed to our solicitors for further action.

 

Your faithully

 

XXXX

ARC (Europe) Ltd.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------

 

Do I need to pay for this £ 66 they requested? As previously ARC threaten to bring the case to court when they demanded £ 228 payment which is now reduced to £ 66.

 

I am in bad shape financially at this moment due to recession, so money is very tight in fact I am in debt management program for bank loans and credit cards due to my suffering small business. Therefore I prefer not to go to court.

 

many thank in advance for your help and advice.

[bsj]

Subbing,my daughter is in the same situation,i read through her contract.

 

After 3 months paid membership you have the right to cancel the contract in writing giving 30 day's notice.

Virgin active ignored the letter she sent and passed the debt of the remainder of the contract to ARC.

 

She has sent a copy of the cancellation letter to ARC and again to virgin active,both have been ignored.

 

I really want these muppets to take court action:-x

 

I have also told her to complain to trading standards,this is a disgraceful pratice.

 

Lets keep fighting the good fight:D

[Pushner]

Hi Member 16

 

Re yours of 28th September

 

I am very concerned at your account of terminating your membership of Holmes Place cum Virgin Active. I am stunned at what you say and the dreadful behaviour of Virgin Active as well as those, many, similar accounts related by other former members wishing to end their membership.

 

I am a current member of Virgin Active and will have to terminate my membership at some time in the future - not for some time god willing - but these accounts alarm me and would no doubt alarm many other current members who may be completely unaware of the difficulties and financial implications in simply leaving the "Club".

 

As this has not yet happened to me I question what action should one take to avoid crossing swords with ARC but still retaining membership until you want to exit gracefully?

 

Meanwhile I am sorry that I cannot help you with an answer to your dilema but sincerly thank you for drawing general attention to this dreadful problem.

 

My sympathy to all those caught up in this dispicable behaviour.

 

Why cannot they be straight forward and honest in their dealings as their members usually are and certainly should be?

 

Regards

Pushner

[Pedders78]

Hi everyone - i'm new the forum and have also been having problems with Virgin Active and ARC, so i thought i'd put my two-pence worth in.

 

I signed up for a gym membership with Virgin Active in Jan 08 for 12 months. In May 09 for a number of reasons i cancelled my direct debit as i thought i had already served the initial 12 months i had signed up to and could do this without fear of reprisal - big mistake!

I was called on a number of occasions by some rude Virgin Active gym employees telling me that i had in fact signed up for a "rolling contract" and that i was still liable for the remainder of the years payments. I said that i had only signed up for 12 months and was not told about any "rolling contract" and also that when the contract was due to roll over i should've been sent a clear reminder the same as you are with Car insurance policies etc. Whenever i told any of the numerous Virgin Actice callers this i was swiftly given the short sharp answer of "you should've checked your terms and condidtions" and the call was basically ended (by me usually!).

When i initially signed up for the gym membership the rolling contract rule was not made clear to me and incidentally i wasn't actually given a copy of the signed contract so i could even check the terms and conditions should i have wanted to. One of the overiding reasons for cancelling my gym membership was on the advice of my doctor as i have a long term shoulder injury - and also because i basically couldn't afford it anymore. To cut a long story short a number of phone calls were banded about almost on a daily basis and i would end up hanging up on every Virgin Active employee when they called because they were basically just a bunch of unhelpful morons!

 

The case is now in the hands of a credit collection agency called ARC Europe who are also unhelpful morons (probably more-so) and are threatening to take me to court if i do not pay up £350 in unpaid fees immediately - even though i have offered to provide proof of my shoulder injury in the form of a letter from my GP. Needless to say i beleive this to be wholly unfair - and i think my rights as a consumer and a human being are being violated by these people.

 

Basically - i refuse to pay these people a penny! I had a gym membership for 17 months and they made alot of money out of me. You would think that they would see this and just let it go, but of course these people are just robots and do not see my reasoning - they keep replying with "terms & conditions" all the time!

 

Any advice on where i actually legally stand would be helpful. And also if anyone has ever actually been taken to court of had debt collectors come to the house etc.

 

Thank You

Edited October 19, 2009 by Pedders78

[PGH7447]

Hi everyone

 

Just a word if you are being pursued by ARC for fees after you legally cancelled your membership then simply write to these fools and state "This account is in dispute due to the fact that the membershipwas legally cancelled on Date. and that you will not be dealing with any third party until virgin provide proof that the membership was not cancelled as per their T&C's"

 

This rolling contract is a load of bullsh*t and they should I believe send out reminders to see if you actually want to continue using their facilities.

[Pedders78]

Hi everyone

 

Just a word if you are being pursued by ARC for fees after you legally cancelled your membership then simply write to these fools and state "This account is in dispute due to the fact that the membershipwas legally cancelled on Date. and that you will not be dealing with any third party until virgin provide proof that the membership was not cancelled as per their T&C's"

 

This rolling contract is a load of bullsh*t and they should I believe send out reminders to see if you actually want to continue using their facilities.[/quote]

 

Is this just your opinion, or is this stipulated in any legal,....stuff?

[PGH7447]

you are disputing the membership therefore it is in dispute therefore they can not legally pass it to a third party for collection

[Pedders78]

you are disputing the membership therefore it is in dispute therefore they can not legally pass it to a third party for collection

 

Thanks but what i mean is - is the fact they have a "rolling contract" without sending out reminders legally suspect?

[PGH7447]

need to check, will get back to you on this

[Pedders78]

need to check, will get back to you on this

 

Much appreciated!

[PGH7447]

From the OFT guidelines - read it as you will

 

 

Notice Periods for Cancellation in Rolling Membership Agreements

vi

We have seen that members often mistakenly associate the notice period for cancellation with the length of the contract. But members are generally tied-in for the whole of the minimum period.

Rolling membership agreements, however, allow cancellation on notice at any point and do not stipulate a minimum membership period

 

------------------

 

Exclusion of rights to refunds where the member cancels

 

4.2

Terms that deprive members of prepayments when they cancel should recognise their basic right to cancel the contract if the club is in serious default. Terms that do not recognise this are likely to be considered unfair. Where the member cancels with justification, i.e when the club is at serious fault and the member has not received anything of value, he may well be entitled to a full refund of any prepayments and

compensation as well.

A term penalising member cancellations in any circumstances,

whether by loss of deposit or other means, is open to objection on this basis.

 

Potential right to some refund even where the member has cancelled without cause

 

4.3

Where members cancel without any such justification, and the club suffers loss as a result, they cannot expect a full refund of all prepayments. But a term under which they always lose everything they have paid in advance, regardless of the amount of any costs and losses caused by the cancellation, is at risk of being considered an

unfair penalty. It is important to note the comments on penalty clauses generally in the section that follows, in particular the discussion of the club’s duty to mitigate and where the member has to cancel for reasons beyond his control. The discussion of Minimum Membership Periods and Notice Periods for Cancellation in Part III are also relevant.

 

--------------------------------

Termination on member’s default

 

5.2

Terms which allow a club to terminate the contract of a member who is in default in some way, and require the balance of the annual subscription to be paid immediately are potentially unfair penalty clauses under the Regulations. Such terms can be used unfairly to force the member either to continue the contract, or to pay an excessive amount to bring it to an end. See also Part III for our views on Minimum Membership Periods.

Mitigation

5.3

Such terms are open to challenge because they take no account of the club’s duty to mitigate its loss. In law, the club has a legal duty to do so, for example by seeking replacement business. If the club has a closed membership with a waiting list of potential new members, each new member could count as a replacement. This would not necessarily be the case where the club’s membership is not full.

 

----------------

 

Excessive notice periods for cancellation by the member

Paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 states that terms may be unfair if they have the object or effect of:

(h): automatically extending a contract of fixed duration where the consumer does not indicate otherwise, when the deadline fixed for the consumer to express this desire not to extend the contract is unreasonably early.

 

Length of the contract may be a ‘core’ term

8.1

A term which clearly stipulates the length of a contract is likely to be a ‘core’ term, see paragraphs iv and v of Part III. However, other terms which affect the length of a contract do not necessarily amount to ‘core’ terms. An example would be a term that automatically extended the contract period and relied on the member’s inertia or ignorance to be achieve the extension. Such a term is unlikely to be regarded as a

core term, and so could be assessed for unfairness.

Automatic renewals

8.2

A term in a fixed period contract which automatically commits the member to a renewed fixed term unless early notice to cancel is given is likely to be considered unfair by OFT.

---------------

 

[Pedders78]

Good work PGH7447, that is extremely helpful and has eased my worries quite a bit.

 

I got a letter from this "Trevor Munn Solicitors" yesterday demanding payment - but i was told that all correspondance must be directed to ARC (am i to assume that ARC and Trevor Munn are in fact one and the same??) I have also requested a true and signed copy of my original contract to add a bit of time to the whole debacle. I wasn't going to pay these clowns a penny anyway but admittedly i was still a tad worried about it. Now i am not!

 

Thanks again PGH7447!

[PGH7447]

ARC and trevor munn are linked and they tend to do gym membership stuff, there are several threads on the forums regarding them

 

did you see the piece I posted here

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/gyms-health-clubs/227109-cancelling-virgin-rolling-contracts.html

[Pedders78]

Haha - nice!

[PGH7447]

Pedders78 see the response in this thread

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/gyms-health-clubs/226934-virgin-active-[problem].html

[dhughes23a]

I implore you all to write to BBC’s Watchdog and it could feature in an upcoming programme, particularly at the moment in the ‘fitness season’.

Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/

Click on Subject “Sport, Leisure and Entertainment”, then sub category “Health clubs and leisure centres”.

This is what I wrote:

Virgin Active gyms partake in a very unfair practice in the membership contracts. One of their membership packages the “Diamond Membership” requires that you sign a 12 month rolling contract. Therefore if you do not cancel the membership by "the seventeenth day of the twelfth month”, then you are automatically entered into another 12 month contact. Virgin Active do not send a reminder at the end of each 12 month period. The cancellation fee is the remainder of your 12 month contact. Therefore I am in a situation where I have been a member of Virgin Active Health Club for nearly 7 years and will need to pay in excess of £700 to cancel my contract. Do watchdog feel this is fair or acceptable? I am not alone on this issue, a quick Google search brings up many forums, e.g.

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/virgin-active-c158480.html

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=603247

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1863703

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/gyms-health-clubs/221603-virgin-active-membership.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/gyms-health-clubs/63342-virgin-active-la-fitness.html

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/gyms-health-clubs/198470-virgin-active-health-club.html

[Pedders78]

Done!

 

Although i had wanted to post all of the following - but i had to omit the highligted area due to it apparently being too long! (Such is the nature of my complaint;))

 

After having signed up for an initial 12 months contract in January 2008, and then subsequently being misinformed by Virgin Active staff as to the nature of their contract, I was surprised to see that in July 2009 after cancelling my direct debit to Virgin Active due to a medical complaint and money troubles, and after more than 18 months of loyal custom - I was not allowed to cancel for another 6 months and that I would have to pay close to £400 to buy out the remainder of the contract!

When I first joined Virgin Active I was led to believe that the contract rolled over on a monthly basis after the first year - not for another 12 months! Of course, I would have been able to check this information for myself if I had been given a copy of my contract to begin with but Virgin Active never provided me with one despite me requesting it, and although I never chased it up, I see this as being very poor customer care.

Virgin Active have also never sent out any communications at all with regards to the membership (or anything else for that matter), including what I would consider to be important information like renewal reminder's, price increases and the afore mentioned copy of my contract! Basically their customer relations leaves alot to be desired - and that is an understatement!

 

Also, Virgin Active are actually in breach of their own terms and conditions of the Diamond Membership as they state that one of the (acceptable) reasons for early termination by the customer is that of a price increase - and due to the VAT decrease in Dec 08 from 17.5% to 15%, and subsequent non adjustment of the net cost - that constitutes a price increase. Of course Virgin Active are disputing this and are saying they were referring to the gross cost of the membership (even though it doesn't state that in the contract), which if it were the case is pretty silly as they clearly have no say in VAT or any other government imposed taxes whatsoever. That aside though, the main reason I feel aggreived is because the "rolling contract" is in my opinion unfair, vague and perhaps most importantly - not explained properly by Virgin Active staff when initially being signed.

Despite repeated correspondances explaining my situation and requesting that they stop harrassing me - Virgin Active are adament that they are in the right and that I owe them for 6 months worth of membership (which of course I never used after the date of cancellation, and which I clearly cannot afford) and at no point during this whole saga have Virgin Active even attempted address my circumstances or to mitigate their claims. It is apparent to me that Virgin Active are forgetting that all that is being signed up for here is a Gym Membership, as they seem to think it is one of a military nature and that it has dire implications should the contract be cancelled at a time that they consider to be early - I think you would agree that Vigin Active need to get a little perspective and start treating their customers with respect!

[luciftian]

Having been a member of Virgin Active on a monthly contract since August 2004 with a £50 fee, as my membership fee had increased in January 2005 to £55 and then to £56 in January 2006, in December 2005, after a lot of consideration, perusal of the contract and several conversation with Virgin Active's Sales representatives, I signed a new contract to transfer to the newly launched Diamond Membership which cost £51.95 per month, with an effective starting date of February 2006. [i can demonstrate the above using my bank statements.]

 

In December 2005, before signing the new contract, I had clearly explained to the sales representative that I did not want to be tied into a 12 month contract, which is why I was reluctant to become a Diamond Member, which required an initial 12 month commitment; but the sales representative explained time and again that IT WOULD only be for an initial 12 months to show commitment, then it would go back to be a monthly contract with a one month notice as my previous contract. So "commit to 12 months then back to where you are now but with the advantage of paying a few pounds less a month and the guarantee that the price would not increase for life."

 

I took a contract home with me prior to signing it (double sided A4 sheet), read it carefully and did not find anything to dispute what the sales representative had told me. So I signed up. As I was doing this they pulled out another single sided A4 sheet, a Transfer form, to process the £10 fee to transfer from my current membership to the Diamond one.

 

I read this form carefully (which oddly had only 8 sentences on it, each of which required that I initialled it as acknowledgment), I clearly remember finding one sentence in particular unclear and going against what I had been told "Diamond Membership will automatically renew for a further twelve months at the end of the commitment period". I queried this and the sales representative explained that referred to the type of membership, i.e. Diamond, which had a fixed price for the life (i.e. the length of the membership) and unless I were to cancel my contract, I would continue being on a Diamond membership at the same monthly price. She laughed and again reassured me that it was definitely an initial 12 month commitment, after which it would return to a 30 days notice contract, like my old one, and that the contract was definitely NOT on a permanent 12 month basis. I was reassured and I signed (I would like to point out that two of us were actually signing up).

 

In April 2007 we cancelled our membership and cancelled the Direct Debit mandate.

 

We subsequently received an undated account overdue letter; as advised in it we contacted them: at that point it was explained to us that we had not completed our 12 month commitment . We understood from that that we must not have completed the initial 12 months we had committed to (no details of when the 12 months they were referring to started and finished were given to us, verbally or in writing). We therefore re-instated the direct debit.

 

A few weeks later we received and undated letter stating "it has been a while now since you decided to cancel your membership with us here at Virgin Active [...] until 20th July all ex members can take advantage of our fantastic half price joining offers!"

 

From a letter from Virgin Active dated 26th July 2007 it is clear that:

1) we must have contacted them to query why we had received that letter, since, although we had not used the facilities for months (certainly not between April and July or we would have noticed that our membership had in fact been cancelled) to the best of our knowledge we were still paying them as we had been previously told we had to since our contract had not terminated;

 

2) arrears for April to July and a continuation to our contract were demanded of us even though Virgin Active was clearly under the impression that we had cancelled our membership and up to the point when we contacted them they were not after any further payments from us or held us under any further contractual obligations;

 

3) we wrote to them explaining point 2 above and asking that the contract remain terminated and that no arrears were due as per point 2 above.

 

The above mentioned letter dated 26th July, explains that we had in fact set up a direct debit mandate in May (as they had demanded of us in May) but that no moneys had actually been paid because of a problem with the type of account used. The letter which is long and confusing, and which never mentions any actual contractual start or end dates, states:

"Unfortunately as you are diamond members you have a 12 month rolling commitment period to which you have only made 5 payments to your current commitment period including the arrears in question. This amount was owing to us and therefore there will be no refund".

 

All we understood from that was that Virgin Active was refusing to waive the fees between May 2007 and July 2007 (explained in point 2 above) and that we were still obliged to make payments as somehow we had still not fulfilled our contractual requirements.

As the whole situation seemed grossly unfair, and as the conversations we had had with the sales representatives prior to and whilst joining were so impressed in our minds, we completely missed and not understood the significance of the words "12-month rolling contract", which had never been used before, in paperwork or verbally, and we still remained of the understanding that our contract stipulated that after an initial 12 months period we would be on a monthly rolling contract. The whole situation was utterly confusing.

 

We ended up remaining members even though we hardly ever used the service.

 

[i would however like to point out that I now understand in retrospect that, given that Virgin Active had acknowledged that we wished to cancel our Diamond membership in April 2007, but told us we had only made five payments, Virgin Active should have stopped taking payments after a further seven payments, as we had terminated our contract according to the terms and conditions they stipulated, well within the 17th day of the last month – they’d had in fact had a full 10 months notice!!!!!!.

The fact of the matter is that Virgin Active did not stop taking payments at the end of the contractual 12 month rolling period in early 2008, but just ignored our request to cancel our membership and once again renewed the contract by a further twelve months, once again without giving us any notice!]

 

In May 2009 I once again cancelled my membership and stopped the Direct Payment Mandate with effect from June 2009 (I had been working about 90 hours a week for months and had not used the gym at least since November 2008 ) and this is when, as they demanded that I keep paying them moneys and I explained to them the terms of the contract I had agreed to back in December 2005, they started insisting that I had actually agreed to a 12 month contract which automatically renewed itself for another 12 months without any warning required from them.

 

I explained several times (verbally and in writing) that those were most definitely not the terms of the contract that were described to me by Virgin Active’s Sales Representative nor the terms that I had agreed to when I had joined; I explained that if they had actually got me on a 12 month rolling contract they had mis-sold me said contract. I therefore requested they send me a copy of my contract (twice) as I remembered going through it meticulously prior to signing it, as well as having the various in depth discussions with their sales representative.

All Virgin Active sent to me was a copy of the Transfer Form (twice).

 

The form itself is confusing as it was signed on 27/12/05, but an effective date for the transfer is not stated; however the date 1/2/06 is hand-written at the top of the form.

 

As I read this document for the first time in three years, in the light of what they were telling me now I could see that that paragraph (point 4) I had originally questioned before joining was what they were referring to (even though it does not actually use the words 12-month rolling contract, that is effectively what it is describing, whilst using the word “membership” instead of contract). I was utterly shocked and appalled and so very angry as I had been simply conned.

 

It is indicative that Virgin Active will not send me a copy of the double sided A4 contract that I had originally perused and signed. Although it is clear that this contract must exist (as this is the bit of paper which actually contains all of the terms and conditions about behaviours, right to cancellation, right to freeze the membership and so on - none of these things are indicated in the Transfer Form-), in spite of having been asked for it twice (once in writing once verbally) Virgin Active insist in only providing me with the Transfer Form.

 

It is also clear from the correspondence I received from Virgin Active that they themselves both in 2007 and more recently in 2009 are not clear about the terms of my contract and the effective dates of my contract:

 

- a letter from Virgin Active dated 18th June 2009 states "So far you have completed 38 months membership and so you have a further 10 months to complete before your membership is cancelled." This would have been a liability of £519.50 and would place the start of the 12 month rolling period in April (the last payment made was in May 09; if 10 further payments are due to the end of the 12 months rolling period, this must mean that only two had been made).

 

- However in a subsequent letter from Virgin Active dated 26th June 2009 they state "There are 7 months of your membership to complete before we cancel your contract"…This would have been a liability of £363.65 and would place the start of the 12 month rolling period in January.

 

- further still a letter from ARC dated 14th August 2009 puts the total liability to end of contract to £445.60. Even accounting for a £30 collection administration fee (which is not mentioned in this letter, but is mentioned in yet a different letter sent from Virgin Active on 22nd June 2009) that would imply liability for 8 months at £51.95, thus placing the start of the 12 month rolling period in February.

 

I am currently waiting for them to take me to a small claims court, but they haven't yet done so.

 

It is worth pointing out that Virgin Active NEVER sent me any notification that the membership was due for renewal, or that it had been renewed; not even in January 2008 which was actually the legal end of the contract I had signed as I had given notice in April 2007 that I wished to cancel my contract, and had been obliged to fulfil payments in full for the entire contractual 12 month period.

 

How could I be expected to remember when my contract was supposedly due for automatic renewal given that:

 

• I had signed this new contract several years before (a contract which I had been mis-sold in the first instance by Virgin Active’s Sales Representatives, and which ,I was therefore certain all along, had been a monthly one after an initial 12 month period, and was therefore not aware of an automatic renewal of the initial 12 month commitment [in fact what is the relevance of using the word initial at all?];
  
• Virgin Active never sent out reminder notices of the contract being up for automatic renewal or any notifications whatsoever that they had in fact automatically renewed said contract for a further 12 months.
  
• Virgin Active generated confusion throughout my dealings with them;
  
• It is evident from their correspondence that they themselves are not clear on the term dates of my contract;
  
• The only shred of paperwork I have from Virgin Active does not state a clear effective start date of the Diamond Membership contract.
  
• In all of my years of membership with Virgin Active they never sent to me ANY correspondence which stated the date terms of my contract, their correspondence would simply quote how many months were still outstanding on the commitment, and in practically all instances current analysis reveals that these were incorrect.
  

Investigations on the Web have revealed that I am not the only one to have had problems with Virgin Active and their Diamond Membership; complaints are varied and include several reported instances of mis-sold contracts just like mine was. Complaints are not limited to the UK, just today I came across an Italian group ( #http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?v=wall&ref=ts&gid=63246205928# ) incredibly similar experiences; the group is trying to guide individuals in dealing with Virgin Active and their techniques of persecution through various agencies, and advising they lodge formal complaints with [email protected] (consumer protection)

 

Quite frankly I am stunned that it is legal in this country for a company to have a silent yearly renewal policy which does not require any notification or reminder of any kind.

Edited February 5, 2010 by luciftian