@anytimefitnessUK Refuse to refund membership paid over Lockdown period **WON**

[rich_p]

Should I bother notifying them of the cancellation of my membership & DD or is this pointless?

 

Breach of contract - by making my membership inactive despite this months fee being paid) should be plenty enough?

From what I've seen on other threads, I need not worry about bailiffs etc? I can see Anytime Fitness chasing me further on down the line claiming I never cancelled my membership. 

 

Looking at my membership profile online, it seems they have entered me in to a new contract on the 4th of May, without my signature. As when I go to cancel online it says I am still within my 12 month contract.

 

I am not within my 12 month contract, as that was originally signed back in 2019!

[dx100uk]

On 19/05/2021 at 21:49, rich_p said:

as the agreement between yourself and Anytime Fitness/Clubwise was still active, even though the gym was not.

and how did they find that out?

On 27/05/2021 at 23:38, rich_p said:

I need not worry about bailiffs etc?

correct, bailiffs can only ever be involved unless you lose in court

and as gyms don't do court...

as for any DCA.

a DCA is NOT a bailiff

and have 

ZERO legal powers on any debt , no matter what it's type

dx

 

[rich_p]

dx is this something I can pull my bank up about? 

 

I told Starling I believed the gyms had no to right to continue to charge by default simply because I failed to freeze or cancel my membership. Maybe this is where they are assuming the agreement is 'live'.

[dx100uk]

On 19/05/2021 at 21:49, rich_p said:

“Unfortunately we are unable to raise a Direct Debit Indemnity claim for this, as the agreement between yourself and Anytime Fitness/Clubwise was still active, even though the gym was not.

 

to starling 

 

dear starling.

 

i make ref to your above comment, can i please ask you to carefully explain where you have written evidence of such a signed agreement to make your assumption that my agreement with Anytime Fitness/Clubwise is still active? this is not the case. A 12mts agreement was entered into from xxx 2019

[rich_p]

Starlings reply;

 

I do apologise but we do not have written evidence that the subscription was active. Direct debit disputes under the direct debit guarantee can only exist when there has been a technical error, not when a contract is being disputed.

Retail disputes (which this is) via direct debits isn't something that the direct debit guarantee offers i'm afraid.

You will need to speak to the merchant to dispute this further i'm afraid.

[BankFodder]

According to the direct debit guarantee, the guarantee applies to all direct debits.

I suggest that you open a dispute with starling and tell them that you want it to go to the ombudsman

Actually, I have just looked again at the direct debit guarantee and they might be right

[rich_p]

Do you think I am stuck with trying to reconcile with both gyms?

 

I have tried to email the retail Ombudsman (retail ADR) as Virgin Active is one of their members, so I am hoping they will have something to say about another gym at least.

 

For now I have cancelled my DD, and an email will go out before the 1st of June telling them I am cancelling my contract, so at least I cover myself there. 

[slick132]

Hi Rich,

 

Forget reconciling anything with either gym - a waste of your time ........... UNLESS you can get them to agree to refund (or allow you free months now) for the closed months IF you agree to join for a further 12 month period.

 

If that's not an option, I suggest your only choice is to drop it, or to take court action to recover the amounts taken by DD while the gym was closed.

[rich_p]

I have had some success with reclaiming ONE payment from Lewisham branch.

 

I found an email from 03/11/20;

 

"November's membership payment for those that pay on the 1st of the month had already been submitted to the banks to be collected and we were unable to stop this payment.

 

We will therefore, in December reduce your payment to £0 for November's successful payment-"

I sent the above clip to my bank Starling this morning and they have just refunded December's payment.

 

How can I now get them to refund payments from the other months? I have already tried 3 times with no success, but unfortunately I do not have anything in writing from Anytime Fitness declaring that they would NOT take payments during months of closure. 

 

As I cancelled June's DD, they are now of course sending automatic emails and text's asking for payment.

 

[slick132]

Hi Rich and well done for getting that payment back.

 

In my last post I said what you could do to negotiate with the gym about remaining a member if they agreed to refund for the months the gym was closed. Did you do this ?

 

As I also said, court action to reclaim any DD's taken when the gym was not open to you would be your only other option now, IMHO.

[rich_p]

Hi Slick,

 

One email to Aldgate cites a lot of information from the Government’s webpage regarding contracts and advice from the CMA. 
 

It centres around them not being able to fulfil the contract due to lockdown.

 

I doubt a full refund (totalling £106) will appear because that webpage is just advice, but at the very least I expect them to honour the equivalent months membership for me to use up.

 

Email two to Lewisham cites a breach of contract, allowing my immediate termination, and also points to a failure to fulfil the contract due to restrictions. 
 

Lewisham immediately called me to offer a refund on the outstanding, provided I rejoined. 
 
I reiterated all points in the email; I seek a refund and do not wish to rejoin. They will get back to me. 

 

Shall of course keep you updated.

[slick132]

Thanks Rich,

 

Clearly you don't want to remain a member so you can't try to bargain/negotiate using that angle.

 

If they have taken DD's from you when the gym was closed for any reason, you can take court action to recover those DD's.

 

Can you let us know, taking into account any refunds or allowances they've already made, what amount in total have they taken in DD's when the gyms were closed to you.

[rich_p]

Aldgate owe me £106.91 in fees/membership.

 

Lewisham, simply I do not know exactly. When I transferred there my rate for some reason remained the same rate I paid at Aldgate.

Membership switches automatically, I did not know the rate at Lewisham was £24.95 until I spoke to their membership team in March. (At Aldgate it was £39.95).

 

It is a bit disingenuous of them to keep me on an old higher rate when they offer new local members a cheaper one. Mind you I 'spose that is just the tip of the iceberg in hindsight. 

 

I have calculated that Lewisham also owe around £100. But this is approximate due to the above unknown. 

 

 

[slick132]

Hi Rich,

 

There are many examples of best deals only being offered to new customers - memberships, insurances, investments, etc. This is changing in some sectors but businesses have relied on customer complacency for years.

 

If you want to reclaim the DD's taken by court action, you need to nail a specific figure which you can robustly justify.

 

If you can't do this, you may need to put it all down to experience and not ignore emails from gym admin companies in the future.

[rich_p]

Further update, after whinging over email and phone to Lewisham they have since refunded January to March's payments. 

I have the option to rejoin, but of course I have told them to park that idea for now. I am hoping their automated system does not try to bill me for June, if so I shall just ignore as advised.

 

Nothing back from Aldgate yet, but at the VERY minimum I shall just use up that credit as membership and yes, put this all down to experience. Never trust a gym chain ever again, no matter how small or large. It is rather unfortunate as this is an industry I want to transition into.

 

There were no emails or stipulations in the contract advising me of what would happen to my payments, especially if I switched home gyms during the pandemic. Of course nobody saw this coming.

 

I have made a donation to the page, thank you all for your help.

[slick132]

Hi Rich and thanks for your Site Donation 

 

Well done for getting the further refund from Lewisham. Let us know when they actually refund to you. 

 

Try to keep negotiations in writing or email so you have proof of what's been agreed. Good advice for the future.

 

 

[rich_p]

They refunded it yesterday afternoon directly after a phone call. I was going to post on here but I didn't want to count my chickens. The funds are still there this morning so I guess that's done.

 

I have a feeling Aldgate are probably working out how to avoid refunding me. For the sake of £106 I will probably just take a few months membership to use it up. I will of course let you know the outcome of that either way. 

[slick132]

Ah, so you already have "your chickens" back in the bank - excellent !!

 

Keep us posted about progress with the Aldgate branch.

[slick132]

Hi Rich,

 

Donation received and much appreciated, thanks.