HELP !!! ARC + LA Fitness + Trevor Munn Solicitors Trouble

[ashley90]

Received a letter from Trevor Munn LLB Solicitors saying that unless a payment of £528.00 was made they would be forced to take legal action. Even though the letter comes from Trevor Munn it says the ARC needs to be contacted and not Trevor Munn themselves which seems dubious. Also as per the contract I owe LA Fitness £440 not £528. I am presuming the rest of the charge was added by those ARC thugs.

 

 

Now to clarify my side of the equation, I had gone to the local LA Fitness, on the 20th of August 2007. I was advised that they do not provide one month trail memberships however if I wanted to try out the club facilities I should pay by cash £40(one month’s fee) + £25 (admin charges) equalling £66 and try the club for a month. I was asked to sign a contract and give them the bank details for direct debit later on after the month if I liked the club. In my defence I havent been in the country long and therefore was not sure that this would lead to such hassles.

 

 

 

I started using the club the very next day and have factually used the facilities for just 4-5 days in the week of 20th of August. I went to the club and found that there were no qualified full time trainers there for the safety of the members. The trainers were part timers who used to sit behind their desks and while their time away, while members were supposed to struggle with the equipment themselves. This I believe was intentionally done to make the members pay for ‘special’ one on one sessions with trainers for which they charged £20 / hour.

 

As it happened, on one of the occasions I while doing an exercise I hurt my lower back severely. Due to which I had to take a week off from college and had make multiple trips to my GP, and attend physiotherapy sessions. On explaining the cause to my doctor, he advised me not to continue with the gym.

 

 

 

I contacted the gym on phone saying I cant attend coz of the back problem. I was told it was alright as I had not given the bank details it meant the contract can be cancelled.

 

Since then I have not received any intimation of any sort barring a phone call from the gym sometime in October, when I had clearly stated the reason for me not coming to the club. My only mistake was that I had not asked for a letter stating/confirming the end of my membership as I took the man’s word and presumed that without the bank details the document stands void.

 

 

It is only now after about a year that I have received any communication regarding the membership and that has been in these really intimidating phone calls and letters from the ARC. This seems to be intentionally done to let the claim go as far as possible and then threaten the me with legal action if all of it was not paid.

 

After receiving the ARC letters, I decided to talk directly to LA Fitness branch who were unwilling to talk to me about the case citing thier lack of authority. They gave me their head office phone number which was characteristically unreachable / unwilling to discuss the case.

 

Therefore my only option was to deal with the ARC. The person from the ARC assured me that all I needed to do was pay £120 to close the case along with a letter from my GP. He gave me a week on the 29th of August 2008 to send him the details, which I did along with a payment of £120 which I made on the 29/08/2008.Since I thought it better to finish off the case I decided to pay them the money and sent them my medical certificate. A few days ago I started receiving calls from the ARC again demanding a sum of £40 to close the case citing some legal reason to do so.

 

 

So I contacted and somehow after a long wait managed to get LA Fitness on their premium number 08447707700. Now I know its not legally correct to ask the customer to call up a premium number to discuss a misunderstanding. Nevertheless LA Fitness confirmed that they had no idea about the £120 paid by me to the ARC and that in their records I still owe them £440.

 

I am unwilling to submit to such badgering where it is no fault of mine. I was subject to injury and pain due to the abject disregard of duty by the club and now it seems they have audacity to ask for compensation citing an incomplete and incongruous contract.

 

Please help me deal with these useless people. Any ideas how I should operate. Currently the ARC says that I need to cough up £40 to finish off the case but I doubt it coz he said the same while asking for the initial £120. Will a contract with just my name address and signature on it without the bank details stand in the court of law? Also do you think they will actually proceed to the dubious 'Northampton County Court' to get their settlement?

 

I have 2 more days to respond else the ARC has promised legal action against me ... Please HELP !!!

[huggys boss]

bump - just moving you to the top of the queue

[MONX]

I am not sure how you would pursue this, but my gut instinct would be to ask ARC to provide all information to how this sum has been arrived at, normally I would say CCA them but I think that is just for loans and credit cards, but you definately want to see something to prove where and how this supposed sum has been arrived at. I wouldnt worry too much about the "taking legal action" threat as I believe that that is added into DCA letters as standard, like the date!

 

Someone will be along soon who will be able to give you more detailed information.

[IdaInFife]

most gyms are goveren by the cca and its basically a locan for the year paid over 12 months

 

 

send then this:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/welcome-consumer-forums/123390-consumerwiki-z-index.html

 

 

Ida x

[ashley90]

Should I send a CCA to LA Fitness or the ARC or both. Another thing LA Fitness might have a record of me claiming a copy of our signed agreement although there is nothing in writing. I did go to the club personally to sort things out and they provided me with the copy of the agreement.

 

Does that mean a CCA is void / cannot be enforced.

[ashley90]

Oh and one more thing. How am I supposed to send in the £1 fee, can it be in cash or does it have to be a postal order payable to LA Fitness / ARC ???

 

Thanks

[huggys boss]

Send a postal order and send it recorded delivery.

[ashley90]

Thanks huggy boss. I will do that just to make sure should I send the CCA to LA Fitness or the ARC or both, I am a little confused.

[ScarletPimpernel]

Send it to ARC. They are under an obligation to pass it to their client.

[ashley90]

Thanks everyone. I shall do as advised by you guys and keep u updated.

 

Thanks again for helping. I was getting worried about this.

 

Cheers

[KER]

Thanks everyone. I shall do as advised by you guys and keep u updated.

 

Thanks again for helping. I was getting worried about this.

 

Cheers

 

Yup, there are some great people on this site

 

It's just as well they do stay after they've had their problems too, or else there would be no one here to help others when they come on with problems