Virgin Active - unfair contracts

amelia1

I just want to warn people to steer clear of the Virgin Active Diamond membership. I've been a member of my local VA gym for 15 months now. I've just moved house so called them to cancel the membership. I assumed that this would be easy enough as I was over the standard 12 month contract period . Unfortunately Virgin has a very unfair policy where they automatically sign people up to another 12 month contact if you don't call them to cancel on the 17th day of the 12th month of your contract!! Unbelievable really. Of course they don't contact you to remind you of this date, policy or renewal.

Typically, like most contracts this policy is hidden away in the small print of their terms and conditions, but it certainly wasn't pointed out to me when I signed up. Surely it would be simply, good customer service to remind people when they were being put forward for a contact renewal.

I'm pursusing this now through legal routes as I don't think it'll stand up as a fair and reasonable policy.

With more and more people losing their jobs at the moment, I think Virgin is behaving irresponsibly.

My advice would be to steer clear of this membership - please don't fall into the same trap I'm in. I now have a new membership for a gym I can't use and have no way of cancelling it. It's put me off the whole of the Virgin brand, who have proved themselves to be ruthless and unreasonable.

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

amelia1 wrote: »

I just want to warn people to steer clear of the Virgin Active Diamond membership. I've been a member of my local VA gym for 15 months now. I've just moved house so called them to cancel the membership. I assumed that this would be easy enough as I was over the standard 12 month contract period . Unfortunately Virgin has a very unfair policy where they automatically sign people up to another 12 month contact if you don't call them to cancel on the 17th day of the 12th month of your contract!! Unbelievable really. Of course they don't contact you to remind you of this date, policy or renewal.

Typically, like most contracts this policy is hidden away in the small print of their terms and conditions, but it certainly wasn't pointed out to me when I signed up. Surely it would be simply, good customer service to remind people when they were being put forward for a contact renewal.

I'm pursusing this now through legal routes as I don't think it'll stand up as a fair and reasonable policy.

With more and more people losing their jobs at the moment, I think Virgin is behaving irresponsibly.

My advice would be to steer clear of this membership - please don't fall into the same trap I'm in. I now have a new membership for a gym I can't use and have no way of cancelling it. It's put me off the whole of the Virgin brand, who have proved themselves to be ruthless and unreasonable.

So you dont read a contract and that is virgins fault.

A judge will quite rightly laugh you out of court, and hopefully hold you liable for virgins court costs.

Ste_C

amelia1 wrote: »

Typically, like most contracts this policy is hidden away in the small print of their terms and conditions, but it certainly wasn't pointed out to me when I signed up. Surely it would be simply, good customer service to remind people when they were being put forward for a contact renewal.

So typical that you couldn't be bothered to read it before you signed? Why should they point it out? It's all there for YOU to read.

It would be good customer service for them to remind you, but they aren't obliged to. It would also be good customer service if they offered to send someone round to teach me how to use a new phone, but they don't, because they don't have to.

Tozer

LinasPilibaitisisbatman wrote: »

So you dont read a contract and that is virgins fault.

A judge will quite rightly laugh you out of court, and hopefully hold you liable for virgins court costs.

Is every post you write some sort of proforma response about reading contracts?

There is a very good chance that an automatically renewable contract ("Evergreen") for 12 months will be regarded as unfair.

Tozer

Ste_C wrote: »

It would be good customer service for them to remind you, but they aren't obliged to. It would also be good customer service if they offered to send someone round to teach me how to use a new phone, but they don't, because they don't have to.

Why would you expect a gym to send someone round to teach you how to use a phone?????

jolly_roger_3

im having the same grief - faxed them cancellation with 3 months to go and they kept charging me after this then they now want me to "buy out of contract" - Im kicking off big time

dhughes23a

I implore you all to write to BBC’s Watchdog and it could feature in an upcoming programme, particularly at the moment in the ‘fitness season’.

Go to bbc.co.uk/watchdog/gotastory/

Click on Subject “Sport, Leisure and Entertainment”, then sub category “Health clubs and leisure centres”.

This is what I wrote:

Virgin Active gyms partake in a very unfair practice in the membership contracts. One of their membership packages the “Diamond Membership” requires that you sign a 12 month rolling contract. Therefore if you do not cancel the membership by "the seventeenth day of the twelfth month”, then you are automatically entered into another 12 month contact. Virgin Active do not send a reminder at the end of each 12 month period. The cancellation fee is the remainder of your 12 month contact. Therefore I am in a situation where I have been a member of Virgin Active Health Club for nearly 7 years and will need to pay in excess of £700 to cancel my contract. Do watchdog feel this is fair or acceptable? I am not alone on this issue, a quick Google search brings up many forums, e.g. [I gave them a load or links]

Hintza

dhughes23a wrote: »

I implore you all to write to BBC’s Watchdog

Gyms and unfair contracts have been the norm for years.

As for Watchdog the programme in general just sets out as sensationalist witch hunters in most cases (infrequently they do some good work).

hollydays

Their contact details on their site are impossible to use.How do you get that roundabout to slow down so you can select an option,or am I being thick?
When you put your cursor on it it speeds up!

http://www.virginactive.co.uk/TalkToUs/Selector.aspx

Optimist

hollydays wrote: »

Their contact details on their site are impossible to use.How do you get that roundabout to slow down so you can select an option,or am I being thick?
When you put your cursor on it it speeds up!

http://www.virginactive.co.uk/TalkToUs/Selector.aspx

The mouse controls it. Point your cursor at the screen then slight movements control the speed and direction

foogirl1983

It should have been pointed out to you when you took out your Diamond membership.

It is rubbish of them to not tell you when your contract is up for renewal, but ultimately if you signed a contract stating you had read the terms and conditions of the membership then you will have a hard time trying to argue it as "unfair".

I have exactly the same membership, as does my husband. I asked last night when the contracts were up. My husband is in the 12th month of his (so will be cancelling) and I am in the 2nd month of another contract. The girl I spoke to also said they treat the 11th and 13th months as "grace" periods (I am assuming this means that if you cancel in either of those months then they let you go without a fuss).

I have accepted that it was my fault that I hadn't found out my cancellation date before now and have to pay until October.