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Bannantynes Gym taking me to court


JS10
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Hello

 

I joined Bannantynes Gym over a year ago and decided it wasnt for me, so spoke with the the receptionist and advised them that I would be cancelling within my 14days cooling off period. As advised I handed in a letter to them stating this and cancelled my direct debit.

A month later I received a letter advising that my direct debit had been cancelled and to set up a new one! I called them explaining the situation and conveniently they had no record of these events happening and I was now bound by contract!!!!! I explained that I had completed my part of the contract and that I would not be paying anything to them for services I have NEVER used... The lady in the finance department said she would look into this and get back to me....

In over a year I have not heard a thing and today I received a Intention to Issue a County Court Claim stating I owe them over £400....

Any ideas???? I have been told to tell them I will be counter claiming but I have no physical evidence to back me up.

Thanks

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Hi JS and welcome to CAG

 

Gyms in general seem to have a tendency to "lose" cancellation letters. :roll:

 

Did you keep a copy of your letter sent within the cooling-off period.

 

They may continue to harass you for a while but, without a signed contract, they are highly unlikely to take any court action.

 

Read through threads here to see what others are doing with their disputes.

 

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Thanks Slick 132...

 

Losing letters does seem to be the case after reading a few of the threads!!

 

The problem is I did sign the initial contract when joining as I had a 14 day cooling off period if I changed my mind... I do have a copy of the letter but no proof that I handed it in apart from my other half who was with me :|...

 

I dont know if I should reply to the intention to issue a county court claim as it is not official just a black and white print off... and there is no contact numbers just a payment slip attached.

 

Thanks :-)

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It doesn't matter that you signed the contract if you wrote cancelling within the time allowed by them.

 

Who did the court action threat come from.

 

I would not send them the copy letter just yet.

 

Also, I would not say your wife witnessed the cancellation letter being handed in - just say you handed it in at reception and you have a witness to this. If they lost the letter from there on, that is their problem.

 

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Hello

 

The letter was from Bannantynes... but with no contact details..:?:

 

Im not sure whether to just ignore it until something more formal arrives or to write to them explaining the situation again...

 

Thanks :-)

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I suggest a letter to the gym's Head Office:-

 

Dear sir or madam,

 

I refer to your demand for payment dated xxth May.

 

After signing up for membership in xxmonth 2010, I changed my mind and wrote a letter cancelling within the "cooling off" period which you allow.

 

The letter was handed in to reception at xx gym which is what the staff advised me to do.

 

When you wrote about a month later, I called to confirm that my cancellation letter had been handed in and I was told that you apparently never received it. Subsequent research suggests that you seem to lose a lot of cancellation correspondence.

 

I have no idea why you chose to wait a year before sending me a letter threatening court action.

 

I cancelled within the time allowed and, if you genuinely lost my letter, that is your problem. I owe you nothing and will pay you nothing.

 

Kindly ensure that you do not make further demands, or instruct any debt collector or solicitors to do so. If you pursue the matter further, reports will be made to the FOS and Trading Standards for clear breach of the OFT Debt Collection Guidelines.

 

I am aware of the High Court action brought by the OFT against Ashbourne Management in March 2011 concerning their unfair practices.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Send this by Recorded Delivery or get a free Certificate of Posting from the PO when you send this.

 

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Hello

 

Bannatynes have replied to the letter I sent them. there reply states the following:

#they do not offer a 14 day cooling off period

#they never received my cancellation letter and if they had this would have been advised

#offer of a goodwill gesture of 20% discount making the amount payable now £357 and is only valid for 14days.

 

Any further advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks:-)

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Hi JS,

 

Have you looked through the contract to see what is said about a cooling-off period. Let us know what is said there.

 

I suggest you wait until Friday when I expect the High Court judgement in the case of the OFT -v- Ashbourne Management Ltd to be handed down. See here - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?289465-Office-of-Fair-Trading-v-Ashbourne-Management-Services-9th.March-2011

 

This may have some relevance to your case.

 

Don't reply to their letter just yet.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Slick

 

There is nothing mentioned in the contract regarding a cooling off period but this was confirmed verbally by the membership salesman... now I believe he said this for me to sign the contract that day!

Has there been any further developments in the case you mentioned?

I did look at the thread but to be honest it did not seem all that clear:!:

 

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Hi JS,

 

If there's nothing in the T&C's of the contract about a cooling off period, then the salesman clearly made this up to make you feel comfortable about signing the contract at the time.

 

You need to read the Sticky thread now that the high Court ruling has been handed down. It's linked in post #10 above.

 

Follow the link to the OFT summary of the case, which sums things up nicely and in layman's terms.

 

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Hi Slick

 

I am going to respond to the letter sent from Bannatynes:

 

Thank you for your letter dated 24/05/11.

I would like you to clarify a couple of things stated in your letter.

If Bannatyne Fitness do not offer a "coolong off " period, why did the membership salesman offer this to me? or is it common practice for your employees to say what is needed in order to gain a sale? As it is now apparant that many of his statements proved to be falsified.

Also why would your receptionist accept my letter knowing full well the content and reason behind my cancellation?

Your offer of a 20% discount seems a bit of an insult and an exceptional high charge for 5 gym sessions.

I will not be accepting this offer.

Kind regards

Do you think this letter is acceptable?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

:-)

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Hi JS,

 

Personally, I would not mention the number of times you used the gym - it's irrelevant. I'd finish like this:-

 

Your offer of a 20% reduction is noted but is totally unacceptable. I cancelled the membership in the manner, and within the time, specified by your representative. The cancellation letter was accepted by your representative and I have a witness to this - whether they passed it on is not my problem.

 

I owe you nothing further and, bearing in mind the High Court ruling last month against Ashbourne Management Services Ltd concerning Unfair Practices, I trust you will now desist from making further demands.

 

If you continue to pursue this matter, I will make formal complaints to Trading Standards and to the OFT.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

8-)

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Hi Slick

 

Yet another reply :!:

 

Stating again that they do not offer a cooling off period, but again they mention nothing about their staff?

Also they say the OFT approve their terms and conditions.

And the 20% discount is available for a further 7 days!!!

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks :-)

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Dear sir or madam,

 

I refer to your letter of xxdate.

 

If you felt you had a claim against me, you should have pursued the matter a year ago. I spoke to a member of your staff over a year ago explaining why I would not reinstate my Direct Debit. She said she would look into the matter and come back to me - she never called or wrote again and I reasonably assumed that was an end to the matter.

 

I heard nothing more from you until your letter of xxth May 2011 demanding money.

 

I have already explained clearly why I owe you nothing and will not correspond with you further.

 

If you wish to pursue the matter now by litigating, the courts will not look favourably upon the delay between our contact last year and your recent demands over a year later.

 

Any court action taken by you will be vigorously defended.

 

I will take action against you if you register any adverse credit markers for any alleged debt.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

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Hi Slick

 

Thanks for your help... Im worried that by mentioning court action they might just take me straight to court???

I will send the letter anyway and see what comes from it.

 

Thanks

 

JS

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Hi JS,

 

As I said in the letter, if they were going to take you to court, they'd have done so sooner.

 

Only write what you're comfortable with but don't worry - you're not doing anything to prejudice yourself.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Slick

 

Another reply!!!!

 

Saying they have investigated with the club and can confirm that they never received my letter! and that all staff know that there is no cooling off period and this option is not available.

The agreement I signed was for 12 months irrespective of attendance or change of circumstance.

They also state that their records show that I was sent letters in August and September 2010 and an invoice was sent in Jan 2011 (these I never received).

They also confirm that they will pursue for the outstanding amount and the next correspondance I receive will be a claim via the court. If I wish to dispute I must complete the defence section and return it to the court where a hearing will proceed for a judge to determine the outcome.

 

Again any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

They still have failed to answer my question as to why the option of cancelling was offered to me and also it seems ok that they never received my cancellation letter but not ok that I never received their letters!

 

Thanks again

 

JS:-)

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Hi JS,

 

I've already said what I think about your case:-

 

1. You were told by the club's rep that you had a cooling off period.

 

2. You gave them a letter confirming your wish to cancel within the 14 days which you were told applied.

 

3. They have not acted in a timely manner in pursuing for payment.

 

In these circumstances, I think it unlikely they'll take court action. However, if they do, I think you every chance of defending successfully, especially since the High Court ruling in the OFT case against Ashbourne Management Ltd.

 

So I'd advise that you write one more letter confirming the above points one last time. Add that you'll not correspond with them further in the matter and you look forward to the opportunity to vigorously defend any court action they choose to take.

 

Then see what they do. If they decide to register any adverse credit data with the CRA's, you can contest it and apply to have it removed.

 

:wink:

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