Help with Regal Credit demanding money for Total Fitness Membership

[Jojonno]

Hi , I am a new member and am really stressed out after a phone call from Regal Credit.. In June 2011 I joined my local Total Fitness (Wakefield) , I had been a member a few years before until I had ovarian cancer and had to have a Hysterectomy..

 

My son and I decided to return and rejoin and I was hastily taken to the membership suite to sign up.. The membership advisor filled out the forms and advised that it was too busy to look round and as I had been a member previously no tour would be needed.. I signed on the dotted line after being told I wouldnt have to pay a joining fee, and she would let my son train for £10 a month

Looking back this was my first error..

 

She then said that they had no members of staff available for both of us so she would book my son in and I would be fine on my own..

Second error.. I had just had a hysterectomy and was offered no fitness test..

 

When we got into the gym I was horrified that the standards had gone downhill so much , It was unclean, showers were cold and dirty and the hydro pool unclean..

Equipment was not working, dirty or broken..

 

I went a second time to make sure that I hadnt just been on a bad day but it was the same again..

I told one of the membership staff that I wanted to cancel my membership and she said that I would have to put an official complaint into the Head office and cancel through them..

 

I wrote to them via email in July 2011, which I have a copy explaining that the standards were not as required in a fitness centre of that calibre and of that price and I got a standard email reply to say someone would contact me within 7-10 days. I put on the email that I wanted to be contacted via email only as I tend to work better when I can see whats in front of me and thought that if I moved house ( which I did) I could continue to get correspondence.

 

I heard nothing from them and so cancelled my DD and thought nothing more about it..

 

In August 2012 I got a letter redirected to my new house from Regal Credit demanding £365 for Total Fitness membership..

 

I have written to Total Fitness and Regal Credit with copies of the email I sent and the standard email reply I got and I got a letter back saying people had tried to phone me from total Fitness on several occasions..I went up to see the Deputy Club manager in August and he said only one phone call had been tried from the club in 2011.. nothing after that..

 

even though I put no contact via phone noone had phoned me in that time and no letters had been recieved as I had stated email correspondence as I had moved house in November 2011..

 

I have now had another three letters from Regal credit and today I got a letter stating they would go to court to instruct bailiffs to seize my goods to the value and also a CCJ would be applied for..

 

They have also phoned my mobile several times bullying me to get money there and then and I have stated that I was not going to pay for an unsatisfactory service.. I would take it up with Total Fitness and they said that they will not speak to me as its Regal Credits debt now and total Fitness want to pursue it.. ?

 

I told them I have no extra money left at the end of the month, I work very hard and am a single parent my circumstances in 2011 were a lot different to now.. I was married with double the income when I joined in 2011..

 

Could someone please tell me how I go about sorting this or will I have to make token payments to get them to stop hassling me? and if I do is that admitting that I owe the money even though they are clearly not providing the service that I had signed up for?

 

This is really scaring me now as I am on my own and dont own anything.. I rent my house and my car is from the company I work for.. I had to go Bankrupt in 2009 follwing my illness and I was just getting myself back on track..

Thank you

[sir_gilmour]

Jojonno welcome to The Consumer Action Group community.

 

You haven't received any replies to your problem yet so you might be better off posting your story again directly in the sub-forum which deals with your kind of situation. You will get lots of support there.

 

Also, spend some time looking round the forum. Once you understand the layout, you will be able to get best use from this Consumer Community. It is a big forumm and may take some time. But it will be worth doing.

Good luck.

[postggj]

HAVE YOU A COPY OF THE CONTRACT YOU SIGNED

 

it is the cancelation rights i am interested in being signed on trade premises

[Jojonno]

Thank you southernjessy .. I did have it when I sent the original correspondence in 2011 but have since moved house so I will have a good look in amongst my paperwork .It has been something that i thought was finished and put to bed so hadnt given it a thought until I started getting the demand letters..

[andyask]

Hi

I had a friend in a similar situation with LA Fitness, In 2006 she was pressurised into signing into a 1yr agreement and the sales guy made several mistakes - the biggest one was that he said that a 1yr membership could be swapped for a 1 month deal. Next day this was denied. After sending the letter below, guess what, they cancelled the 1yr membership and only charged 1 month!

 

LA Fitness Club Manager

St. Paul’s

20 Little Britain

 

Dear Sir,

 

Consumer Credit Act 1974 Membership Number LBxxxxx.

 

I refer to the credit agreement signed at your premises on the 6 Nov 2006. Please note that I wish to withdraw from the agreement.

 

As the agreement has not been legally executed in accordance with the provisions of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, in that it is not signed or submitted by LA Fitness, I am entitled to withdraw from it and recover my deposit of £ 59.

 

I also draw reference to my list of complaints on the attached sheet.

 

I look forward to receiving your confirmation that the agreement has been terminated together with the refund of deposit, within the next ten days to conclude this matter.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

 

 

This is potentially covered under the consumer credit act. You should write to Total Fitness explaining the situation , potentially you are not receiving the goods/services you have paid for (cleanliness/hygiene) - also include some pictures of the poor hygiene (close ups of muck/messiness, will require one off visit) , you then have the evidence. Give them a clear deadline to send you your refund/cancellation and ask for details of their legal department. Use signed for delivery. Consider the Small Claims Court/Trading Standards for services not supplied as advertised.

Andy

[Jojonno]

Thank you so much Andy, I really appreciate your reply.. I will be definatley going with this approach .. I cannot seem to get any sense out of Regal Credit and what really annoys me is when they dont get any money from you they put the phone down without even telling you so you are explaining your situation or reason for not paying and the line just goes dead...

Many Thanks again

Jo

[slick132]

Hi Jojonno,

 

Before you do anything along the lines suggested in post #5 above, it was decided by the High Court in 2011 that gym m/ship agreements are NOT credit agreements so the Consumer Credit Act 1974 cannot be quoted or used in your favour.

 

1. I assume you joined and your son was able to use the gym, as part of your m/ship, for an additional £10 pm. Is that right.

 

2. What was the monthly gym fee for you and YS.

 

3. Was there a mail redirection in place and was that how you rec'd the letter from Regal in August 2012.

 

To summarise, you :-

 

Joined in June 2011.

Complained in person at the gym in July 2011 about unacceptable conditions.

Complained by email in July 2011 to the gym's HO and were told they'd respond within 7 - 10 days, which they didn't.

Cancelled the DD mandate in July 2011 due to their failure to reply to your email.

Moved home in November 2011.

Had a letter from RC in August 2012 demanding £365 for the balance owed (I assume m/ship for 1 year plus any admin fees added).

Had 3 letters since.

Had a letter on 26th September 2012 demanding payment or you'll face all sorts of nasty things.

 

Is that about right - if not, please correct me on anything important.

 

You have to understand that Regal Credit will do or say virtually anything to get you to pay. They have no interest in your complaints about the gym conditions or about any dealings you had with the gym.

 

As far as they're concerned, you signed an agreement and, because you failed to pay the agreed monthly DD's, they are now chasing for the balance outstanding for the year's m/ship plus any admin fees that they choose to add.

 

However, you were within your rights to complain to the gym and you had the right to expect a reply from them in the manner you chose, email.

 

If HO failed to respond to you as they promised, then I think you had the right to cancel the DD.

 

It doesn't matter if the gym staff tried to call you (which I doubt). It was for HO to respond to your complaint and to respond by email as requested.

 

Just to reassure you, it's highly unlikely that any court action will be taken by RC as you had good grounds to do what you did.

 

Without court action, all they can do is ask you to pay. And you will quite rightly refuse to pay and/or ignore them. There will be no Bankruptcy as a result of this !!

 

You'll need to keep an eye on your credit rating files, to ensure no adverse data has been posted, or is posted in the next few months.

 

Give us replies to my Q's above and we'll help you respond to RC.

[andyask]

Very good advice from slick132, but there is no harm in mentioning the consumer credit act - I bet the Admin backoffice people have no clue about recent changes and may still respond positively to its mentioning.

If the letters are going to your old address, let it be, CCJ will be registered there and you could sit tight and hope they don't find you - just need to ensure you don't use that address for future credit refs.

[Jojonno]

Thankyou so much for your reply answering your questions :

1. I assume you joined and your son was able to use the gym, as part of your m/ship, for an additional £10 pm. Is that right.

 

Yes my son was 14 and was able to use the gym when I was with him for an extra £10 He had previously been going with my Dad who kept getting colds and infections so didn't rejoin (My Dad has been fine since stopping the gym!! He didn't think at the time it was related to cleanliness)

 

2. What was the monthly gym fee for you and YS.

 

It was £45 a month

 

3. Was there a mail redirection in place and was that how you rec'd the letter from Regal in August 2012.

 

My husband and I had split up and he stayed in the house and my son and I moved into a rented house.. He gives me the post that goes to the old house. I was up front when I wrote to Regal Credit about my address change so they now write to my new house address.

To summarise, you :-

 

Joined in June 2011.

Complained in person at the gym in July 2011 about unacceptable conditions.

Complained by email in July 2011 to the gym's HO and were told they'd respond within 7 - 10 days, which they didn't.

Cancelled the DD mandate in July 2011 due to their failure to reply to your email.

Moved home in November 2011.

Had a letter from RC in August 2012 demanding £365 for the balance owed (I assume m/ship for 1 year plus any admin fees added).

Had 3 letters since.

Had a letter on 26th September 2012 demanding payment or you'll face all sorts of nasty things.

 

Yes all that is correct, also RC offered to let me pay £100 in August 2012 to "get out" of the contract.

 

Also throughout 2011/2012 I have been receiving texts from total fitness asking me to rejoin so that somehow clarified to me that they had cancelled my membership so I was more shocked when the letter came through from Regal Credit.

Total Fitness Head office have said in a separate letter that they made phone calls to me and sent letters but I never received any of them and apparently were sent prior to me moving in Nov 2011, they never responded by email which I had requested.

 

Kind Regards

Jo

[slick132]

Very good advice from slick132, but there is no harm in mentioning the consumer credit act - I bet the Admin backoffice people have no clue about recent changes and may still respond positively to its mentioning.

If the letters are going to your old address, let it be, CCJ will be registered there and you could sit tight and hope they don't find you - just need to ensure you don't use that address for future credit refs.

 

THE ADVICE ABOVE IS BOTH RECKLESS AND WRONG !

 

Why on earth would anyone let the gym company win a CCJ Judgement - it would be registered against your name for the next 6 years and affect your credit rating terribly.

 

Also, this has nothing to do with the CCA 1974 and referring to it may suggest to the gym or admin company that they're dealing with someone who doesn't know about gym m/ships.

Edited October 1, 2012 by slick132

[slick132]

Hi Jojo and thanks for the info.

 

The key point here is that you cancelled due to the poor conditions at the gym and the gym failed to reply to your cancellation.

 

If they had a problem about you cancelling, they should have notified you promptly and, in any event, within the 7-10 days as promised.

 

Given the gym's failure to respond, you had good grounds to assume the cancellation was accepted at the time and that you owed them nothing more.

 

Now, regarding Regal Credit, ignore them just now apart from sending them a copy of the letter I'll draft later. They'll threaten all sorts but will probably do very little as they have no power or authority.

 

I'll be back later when I have more time.

[slick132]

Hi again,

 

Letter to the gym's HO by Rec'd Del'y. Also a copy to Regal Credit by ordinary mail :-

 

Total Fitness Head Office

Wilmslow Way,

Handforth,

Wilmslow,

Cheshire

SK9 3PE

 

Dear sir or madam,

 

Wakefield Gym Membership

 

I am being threatened and harassed by Regal Credit with regard to membership fees for the Wakefield gym.

 

I joined in June 2011 and complained soon after that the facilities had deteriorated badly since I was last there as a member. After visiting a second time, it was clear that the problems were not a "one off" and they were ongoing.

 

I wrote to you about this in July 2011 and was promised a reply within 7-10 days. I said I needed a reply by email (as I wanted to consider your response carefully) but you failed to respond at all. I therefore assumed you accepted my complaints were valid and cancelled the DD mandate in July 2011.

 

I heard nothing from you by email or letter and assumed that was the end of the matter.

 

I then received a redirected letter from Regal Credit in August 2012 demanding money in respect of unpaid membership fees totalling £365. I replied to you and to Regal Credit enclosing copies of my email to you and your response. You replied saying the gym had tried to call me on several occasions but, when I went to the gym to check on this, I was told only one call had been made according to their records.

 

Regal Credit are now calling and writing to me in a manner that constitutes harassment and I hold Total Fitness responsible for this.

 

If you had any reason to challenge my cancellation, you should have replied to me by email or letter back in July 2011, as you promised and the matter could have been resolved at that time. As far as I am concerned, I owe nothing to you or to Regal Credit and I will pay nothing further.

 

I will not tolerate any further harassment from Regal Credit and, if it continues, complaints will be made to the OFT who are taking a keen interest in the collection activities of gym and their admin companies.

 

I may also exercise my right to take court action to stop the threats and harassment. In this event, I will take action against Total Fitness as you are responsible for instructing Regal Credit.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

If I've said anything wrong, correct it before sending off the letter to TF's HO and Regal.

 

If Regal call you again, tell them to put anything they have to say in writing, then hang up. You have no need or obligation to talk to anyone on the phone about this.

 

Any admin fees that Regal have added are penalty charges and cannot be enforced. Court action is extremely unlikely as the gym has no real case against you after failing to deal with the matter properly at the time.

 

Let us know what response, or further contact, you get.

 

[slick132]

Hi Jojonno,

 

Any update on this case please.

 

I've moved the post made by user Misterwint into a new thread, so your's is not hijacked.