Fitness First Cancellation

Meercat86_2

Hi,

I joined Fitness First on a three month membership in September 2008. In late October i handed a letter in to the reception desk of my local club stating that i wished to hand in my one month's notice for cancellation of my membership. At the time i asked whether i needed to fill anything else in but i was assured that the leter was sufficient. Folllowing this on subsequent visits to the club i asked them to confirm that the cancellation notice had indeed been acted on. However i was told that the letter needed to go to head office and that they would not be able to tell me anything about the cancellation at the club. I wasn't very happy with this and decided that the best thing would be to cancel my direct debit just in case. Following this in December, by which point my membership should have been cancelled i received a call from the club telling me there was a problem with my direct debit - to which i replied that i had cancelled my membership. After trying to persuade me to stay with the club, with me refusing, the call ended.
However when i received my January card statements i find that Fitness First has taken a payment out of another account on 4th December. I called my local club to fnd out what exactly was going on, but could not get through to the manager. I was promised that the manager woukd get back to me in three working days but she did not. So i called head office and they looked into the matter and said that they could not find the cancellation letter at the club - very convenient for them! They also said that i should have filled in a "departure notice", which i have never heard about previously.

I am extremly fustrated. I am somewhat resigned to the loss of the money that they took out in December but i want to make sure that they don't turn around in a couple of months and say that they can't find the cancellation notice and hence i owe them x amount of money. Is there anything i can do. I don't trust them at all when they say the membership is cancelled now.

Many thanks for any advice!

RAS

Hi

Fitness First and other companies have been the subject of a roasting by the OFT recently. Might be a good idea to check their web-site and take advice from Consumer Direct.

Starlett

Did you take a copy of your original cancellation notice by any chance?

Sunny_Donny

Hi
There are a number of contracts available with fitness first - the three month ones are Student and Gold. A Lifestyle Contract is for one year. You will need to check on your contract. The Lifestyle contract cannot be cancelled in club and needs to be referred to head office. Reasons for accepting cancellation within the one year period are illness, relocation, loss of earnings etc. Ask for a letter of confirmation that the membership has been cancelled. I received one and I took a letter in to the club and asked for a receipt when I handed it to reception. Friend sent hers by recorded delivery to ensure she had a receipt.

Coombsiegirl

Hi, I have just rang fitness first - my job role changed soon after I joined - I couldn't have predicted that and I spend most of my time out of the country - I have 8 months left of the 12 month contract and they said I need a letter from the company about the relocation (not a problem) but I have to pay £150 cancellation fee... can they do that? surely that isn't fair... I couldn't have predicted that I would be out of the country 90% of the time... is there anyway round this, as I hate to pay for something I just can't use.