Debt collection help!

MissDVL

Hi all, I don't know if this is the right place to post this but I am very new to this so here goes...

I am currently struggling with a 'debt' that I am being chased about, which I am disputing. Here's the deal...I enquired (note I say 'enquired' at this stage...) about a gym membership at David Lloyd in February, long story short I was invited in for a 'no obligation viewing of the facilities'. I was shown around the club and had a contract thrust in my face and asked to sign up asap, 'special deal since I was a new member but ONLY if I joined today yada yada yada'. Anyway, I reluctantly signed up to a £46/pm membership (!) and was happily using the gym for a month.

At the beginning of March my mum moved to Kent, some 120 miles away from where I live in Ipswich. I have worked for her on and off for the past four years (she is a landlady and now has a hotel in Canterbury) but also work at my local pub in Ipswich, where I live with my dad. Given these new circumstances I am now based in Ipswich but regularly (and by regularly, I mean at least once or twice a week) travel down to Canterbury to work at my mum's.

Having done this for a couple of weeks and not once visiting the gym in question, I decided to write to David Lloyd and explain the new situation and tell them I would be cancelling my membership with them, due to the fact I no longer had the time or the finances (500 miles a week in petrol is not good for the bank balance!) to use their facilities. I hand delivered the letter to DL and was assured by the receptionist it would be passed on to the relevant department. I heard nothing from them so assumed all was done and dusted, and cancelled my Direct Debit.

Next thing I know, two weeks ago I get a phone call from a company called ARC Europe, telling me they are chasing me for a debt of £558 I owe to David Lloyd Leisure!! After disputing this for a while over the phone, I gave up and paid £46.25 to 'get my account out of arrears'. I then wrote a letter to David Lloyd head office, asking what the hell was going on. They then rang me and said I was in no position to cancel my membership, that it was a 'legally binding 12 month contract which I would have been told at the time I signed up' (I wasn't) and that there was nothing they could do except reinstate my DD and carry on using the gym. I then AGAIN explained that I couldn't, didn't have the time or quite frankly the energy to use a gym that half the time I was 120 miles away from. They had no interest whatsoever in my predicament and told me they would not be calling off ARC and they would continue to chase me for the money. (I think at that point I got quite angry and told her to take me to court then!)

I have had several phone calls from ARC over the past few days, and a letter on Monday stating that if I did not make a full payment within the next ten days they would be passing my details on to their solicitor to deal with. If I'm honest I would happily take it to court to defend myself, as in my opinion a debt is only a debt if you have borrowed money from someone in exchange for a service or product. Considering I have paid in full (plus a fair bit over) for what I actually DID use of the gym, I would say I owe them nothing! I have not even set foot inside that building since delivering the letter stating my intent to cancel my membership.

My worry is that they will say the 12-month minimum membership is stated in my contract and also in the member's handbook (which I was never given), but considering my contract signing was done in the bar of the gym, with the 'sales representative' yakking away at me with all his 'special deals' and 'half price signing up fee', I wasn't given the time to thoroughly read through the contract and was told I HAD to sign up today or I would have to pay full price. I wasn't even given time to go away and think about it!

Having dealt with selling credit agreements in the past, I know all about the regulations and specific procedures when selling finance. You must give the client pre-contract information BEFORE they sign ANYTHING to ensure they understand exactly what they are paying for, a breakdown of any interest shown and monthly repayments. At this point the client is under no obligation whatsoever to continue with the application. I was never given this information, so was under the impression that it was not a credit agreement in any form. As mentioned before I was also never given a member's handbook. The only paperwork I ever received when signing up, or for the duration of my membership, were the membership agreement itself and terms and conditions of the membership.

Hopefully with all this information someone can give me an idea as to what I can do about this problem before it goes to court! I feel I have been dealt with in an appalling manner from start to finish, I should have smelled a rat!

Sorry about the long post. I will try and keep it short and sweet in future

Any help would be much appreciated.

Danni x

P.S. Forgot to mention, I'm 18! Hopefully this will help you fully appreciate the stress this is causing me! I don't tend to make a habit of leaving myself open to CCJs....

Spanish898

Just tell them to f**k off if they phone you again,
and instruct your bank to block any payment requests from them.

Simple, and it will work.

MissDVL

Bump.........

phil80

They are very unlikely to take you to court it is just a threat to get you to pay up if they call you just tell them that you are not in. They will get fed up of chasing you.

alenax

I had the same happen to me with Fitness First, they pressured me into signing a contract with them when I was about 16, then when I signed it (like an idiot, without being told any T&C's etc), they kept calling me up demanding payment or threatening to take me to court, in the end my mum answered one of their calls and told them that it's ridiculous to demand crazy money off a schoolgirl and if they carried on calling or insisted on the payment then she would be writing to the national newspapers telling them all about their frankly unethical and unorthodox ways. It seemed to work as they haven't called since!

MissDVL

Hi guys, just an update on this.

I have received a letter today from their solicitors, Trevor Munn, stating that if the outstanding debt or a substantial payment isn't made in the next ten days the will begin proceedings with the county court! After doing a bit of research on the internet I can't seem to find a single person who has actually been taken to court by these muppets. I am tempted to write back telling them to stick their legal proceedings where the sun don't shine! Their solicitor's address also appears to be the EXACT address where ARC are based as well...

Any tips on what you think I should do now?
Danni x

MissDVL

Fairly urgent bump....!

worried_jim

Its just scare tactics Danni regarding court action and it would cost them more than the £500 to take any action. make sure you cancel the dd, if they threaten further action advise them you will be writing to bbc whatchdog, local paper and member of parliament. stick to your guns- dont be bullied and good luck !

MissDVL

Thanks Jim, I am now in the process of writing a reply to them using a template found on another site. Hopefully they will see I am not scared to take this to court!

On another note...got a parking ticket today. Lady luck is clearly not on my side at the moment! I will still be buying a Euromillions ticket for Friday though...£110 million would shut these idiots up :-)

angelicmary85

Even if you won...don't pay it out of principle haha!!!

worried_jim

did you get the parking ticket on private land- eg supermarket car park ? you may be able to ignore it.