DW Sports Contract problem

[Naval]

Hi everyone,

 

Me and my mate had gone to this DW Fitness sports center in Newport. One of their employees at the center told us to fill the contracts up with all the info and he sat with us while we filled it. While filling the contract we specifically asked him if we could cancel the membership anytime as we were not sure whether we would want to stay in this gym. He told us by giving us an example that if we wanted to cancel the membership we could do it by giving a 30 days notice, for example if we wanted to cancel the membership in February we could do that by telling them a month before in January. We trusted him and decided not to read the contract conditions as they were long and written in very small letters. We gave our account number for direct debit etc. 2 days later we went to cancel our gym membership as we found another gym which was much closer and would make it easier for us to commute.When we asked them to cancel our membership they said that we cant do it as the contract says you cant cancel the membership for at least 6 months and only after those 6 months you can cancel it by giving us a months notice in advance. We told them that your employee had told us that we could cancel it whenever we wanted but the manager said that its not possible now as we have signed the contract. She even said that she had asked the person who helped us sign the contract and he never said such a thing. Moreover we also found that in the contract they had not specified any cost or price for the gym membership ( which is a consideration required for any contract in UK if I am right). The manager in the end said that she would get back to us in 2 days but she hasn't for over a week now.We have tried calling them repeatedly but to no avail.

 

My question is should we go ahead and ask our banks to cancel the direct debit as we have been fooled into signing the contract. Please advice as I don't want to do anything which is illegal but also don't want to be bullied around. Ill give any more info if required.

 

Also regarding what their employee said about the cancellation of the contract anytime by giving a months notice, counts as a verbal contract?

 

Your help will be very much appreciated

Kind regards

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I think the guys on the gyms and fitness clubs forum should be able to help you. I'll move your thread there and leave a short term redirect here.

 

My best, HB

[slick132]

Hi Naval,

 

By signing the m/ship agreement, you are bound by it's T&C's, including any terms about minimum m/ship period. As you signed IN the gym, you have no cooling off period.

 

However, as you specifically asked about cancelling and you were assured it was easy and you only had to give a month's notice, I would say you were misled by the sign-up staff.

 

This doesn't alter the fact that you are bound by the agreement. But it does mean that, if you refuse to pay by cancelling the DD mandate, it's down to the gym to take action to recover what they say you owe.

 

They tend not to take court action because their agreements are often not well drawn up. If they DID take any court action, you would have the chance to defend and you could refer to the misleading advice given when you signed.

 

Take some time to read other threads here and then decide how to proceed.

 

Forget about the gym manager calling you back as that's not going to happen. Once they sign you up, they're totally disinterested and leave any dispute to be handled by their Head Office or their admin company, probably ARC Europe.

 

If you want out of this, you'll have to cancel the DD and then deal with the flack. Reading other threads will prepare you about what to expect and how to deal with ARC.

 

[Naval]

Hi slick132,

 

Thankyou for your reply. Really appreciate it.

 

If the decide to go ahead with a court action will it be possible for us to use the fact that they have not put any CONSIDERATION on the contract (i.e no cost or price of the contract for the gym or the payment that we need to make for using the gym) as I think it makes that contract invalid according to the UK law.

 

Also will it affect our credit rating if we cancel the direct debit.

 

I am willing to post the copy of the contract if you require (with my personal details hidden of course)

 

Thanks in advance

[slick132]

Hi Naval,

 

If they dared take court action, I'd want to see your agreement so it could be gone through with a fine-toothed comb, looking for any weaknesses. No need to post a copy of the agreement at this stage though.

 

It sounds odd that no mention of the monthly fee is made although this may be referred to in the DD mandate section on the forms.

 

If you cancel the DD mandate, ARC will threaten all sorts of stuff but most of what they say is hot air. Our experience over the past few years is that your credit files will NOT be affected at all.

 

[Naval]

Thanks mate for your reply... sounds good.... ill let you know what happens. We are going to the bank to get our direct debit canceled and also send DW sports a letter throguh bank giving them a reason why.... Also we would send a letter separately to cancel our membership stating the reason why. Ive checked the contract again and I can assure you there is no mention of the amount for direct debit (membership fees) anywhere in the contract... There is a space for putting the membership fees by hand but its been left blank... they probably forgot to put any cost there.

 

Kind regards

[slick132]

Hi Naval,

 

and also send DW sports a letter throguh bank giving them a reason why

 

I'm not sure how or why the bank would be involved in contacting the gym. Just cancel the DD mandate at the bank.

 

All you need do then is write to the gym saying very briefly what you were told when you signed up and that you are now cancelling.

 

You can put a copy of the letter here if you want.