Emigrtaed and still can't get out of Esporta contract

hereformydailydose

I know that Esporta contracts are notoriously difficult to get out of but i have been in communication for months with them to cancel my contract before i emigrated to Canada. I have moved with my husbands job and didn't have any official documents in my name until we arrived in Canada and the work permit / visa was put in my passport. Esporta have asked for a copy of this which i have sent to them. Then they said it wasn't actually proof that i was in Canada so they asked for flight tickets or a lease agreement. I sent them both but they have come back to me this morning and said that the flight ticket does not prove that i actually flew and the lease agreement is only until end of August. They are now asking for a longer lease agreement which i won't have until we find a permanent place to live - which is a work in progress. In the meantime i am still paying for a service which i cannot use. Does anyone have any advice? I am tempted to cancel my DD but as i am tied in until november i am worried about repercussions.

Takoda

Well I wouldn't think a bailiff would be prepared to go all the way to Canada to knock on your door so as long as you are staying there you'll be safe.

sarahg1969

Takoda wrote: »

Well I wouldn't think a bailiff would be prepared to go all the way to Canada to knock on your door so as long as you are staying there you'll be safe.

I agree. And in any event, you've told them you've gone. That's good enough. You do not have to provide them with a piece of paper. Who do they think they are?

montyrebel

tell them to come over and get proof, see what they say then

1475369

Takoda wrote: »

Well I wouldn't think a bailiff would be prepared to go all the way to Canada to knock on your door so as long as you are staying there you'll be safe.

WRONG! During my time as a General Manager with them one of our members decided that they no longer needed to fulfill their contract as they were going away. Two weeks later his brother rang desperate to pay the remainder of his contract since the "debt control" company had found him on a research vessel in the middle of the Atlantic. It was costing him a fortune to answer the calls from the debt control company who had acquired his new mobile number from somewhere. I was aware of a Brazilian and a Polish person getting a knock from local debt agencies in their home countries - I could scarcely believe it myself.

The "company line" here would be that if your husband is relocating, then you would expect his company to take care of relocation costs such as, e.g. remaining rent due under contract, moving costs. Esporta would consider their agreement to fall under that area that his company should pay. If you had purchased a washing machine on credit, you would still be expected to pay for it even though you could get no use from it because you'd emigrated. (Unless you took it with you or sold it but you'd probably realise a significant loss).

In reality, there were many instances where the club staff (including me!) felt that the strict application of these contracts were inappropriate. In the most severe cases I would review the case for the member and identify what they needed to do/say in order to release themselves from the contract.

In the great majority of cases, it was the paperwork that wasn't up to scratch. If they have made an error, particularly with the financial calculations then the credit agreement (i.e. your contract) is not enforceable. Imagine what would happen with banks if they made mistakes on their loan agreements, would a court uphold them? NO!

Your first course of action is to contact your club's Member Relations Manager. E-mail them. You'll find their contact details at Esporta.com>>>Find your club>>>e.g. Cardiff>>>contact.

Next most important thing: Be nice to them and under no circumstances get sh*tty with them. They have no obligation to assist you as you are with "debt control" (an outsourced company) and will usually be quite skilled in dealing with these types of calls anyway.

Ask for a copy of your membership agreement to be faxed/e-mailed to you. And now for a really quick summary of what to look for:

Any amendments should be initialled by the sales consultant.
The figures must be perfect, i.e. everything should add up correctly and what you actually paid should be detailed on the paperwork.
There shouldn't be any bits missed out, full completion, no blanks
It should all be completed be the same consultant, i.e. no back-filling bits by their manager who's realised they made a mistake
A killer blow would be if you still have your copy of the agreement that they are obliged to give you. Check your copy against theirs, if there are ANY "after-the-fact" amendments the contract is void.

There's more but I'd need to see the contract to assist any further.

Aside from what I've written, Esporta was one of the best companies I've ever worked for and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. The staff and members were great and I'm sorry to see the situation Esporta and their staff find themselves in. It is indeed unfortunate that such contracts have to be written and enforced so aggressively, although I can also see Esporta's point of view that they had to protect their business from people feeling they could break an agreement as they saw fit. I'm not referring to you there.

Some of the policies and procedures may have changed since I was there but they won't be massively different.

PM me if you have any more direct questions.

olly300

OP if you are not coming back to the UK for about 10 years and have no property, then even if they chase you they can't do much as you can choose to ignore them.

However the proper way to deal with these companies is to take no !!!!.

I suggest you try and get Esporta some bad publicity try writing to [EMAIL="troubleshooter@thetimes.co.uk"]troubleshooter@thetimes.co.uk[/EMAIL] and see if they publish your problem.

Otherwise:

1. Write a letter to head office telling them that you are going to cancel your contract because you are in Canada, give a list of evidence that proves you are in Canada for a long time and enclose photocopies of the documents. (The more documents the better.) Then state that you are going to cancel your direct debit in 14 days as forcing you to stay in the contract is a breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. State that you expect to receive a letter from them stating that your contract has been cancelled within 28 days. Also state that if they try to chase you or credit black list you, you will take further action against them and are now going to report them to Trading Standards.

If there is a way to send the letter by registered post then do so and state this at the bottom of the letter. Otherwise send it by normal post and fax/email making sure you have put the two ways you have sent the letter and documents to them.

2. Report them to Trading Standards - http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/ (Put in the postcode of their head office and report them by email.)

Trading standards are fed up of gyms as a lot of the contracts have clauses that are unreasonable under The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999.

3. If after you cancel the contract they take direct debits out of your UK bank account contact the bank in writing ( if you have online banking it's much easier) stating that direct debits have been wrongly taken from your account by Esporta. Give them a list of the dates and payment amounts, and ask for them to be refunded under the Direct Debit Guarantee.

Whatever you do don't go into the fact you had a contract with them etc etc otherwise the bank will try and wiggle out of the Direct Debit Guarantee.

4. If Esporta or their debt collectors try and chase you then write to a national UK newspaper for example: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/series/capitalletters, or Jessica, Your Money, Telegraph Media Group, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT with all the details. Again the aim is to make them look stupid.