Oh my god - can someone please advise?

ahrimaniac

I took out an application for the gym several months ago, and pay £33 a month towards this, set up on what I thought was an automatic direct debit.

Now, I filled the form in and sent it away but I heard nothing back from them, and I assumed it was going fine.

I moved house nearly two months ago and I sent a letter off notifying them of change of address, like I did with my bank, my work, my Burtons card, everything else.

Again, nothing back - and more importantly, my landlord at my previous property did not tell me there was post waiting - and I did ask.

Anyway, I finally got a letter at my new address today saying I owe them £270 because it's gone to a creditors! !!!!!!! There is no way in absolute hell I can afford to pay that - I GAVE them notice that I was moving house but they're gonna say I didn't and I received not ONE phonecall or letter to my new address until this happened.

Can someone please advise?

ahrimaniac

If that isn't clear, my point is - my direct debit must not have reached them, and this has happened before where they said they'd set it up but apparently my bank denied it (which they didn't) - and when I changed address, they must not have bothered to get in touch to say it had failed

lynzpower

Did you not notice that NONE of your payments to the Gym had gone thorugh??

ahrimaniac

In all honesty, no - with moving house, everything has been higgedly piggedly, I've have lots of things coming on and off my credit card, and I've never used the gym for a month anyway as my work pattern changed. I know that's a lesson in checking your statements but surely they could have rang me? They have my mobile and my landline. I've always, always been more than happy to pay my side of things - I've never been so much as late with a bill before, and now I've got this hanging over me.

ahrimaniac

Plus, I had rung up in March and paid March's month, and then thats when I sent off the direct debit - so it's only two months that will have failed to get payment from 2 x 27 a month.

CosmoCat

why would they want to charge you £270 if you only missed 2 payments. sorry if i'm not getting this clearly.

ahrimaniac

Because it has 'defaulted'?

I'm really unsure

domestic_goddess

I think they will be asking for the full years worth of payments now if you defaulted on the last few months. Ring them and explain the situation and they should be able to help.

MrsTinks

I would start with finding out what details they have on record for you. Make sure they have correct details and ask them for copies of all letters sent to these addresses including sent dates and any proofs of postage. Also point out to them that you arranged for a DD to be set up and their claim of this having been set up and denied by your bank will be investigated as obviously a failure on your banks side to notify you of these details is very concerning. However they had your contact details so if there were any problems with setting it up then they had your contact numbers and no attempt has been made to try to contact you.

I would fight them on this one.

I'd say fair enough on paying for the 2 months they haven't recieved any payment for but £270? Uhmmmm NO!

sportbeth

Is there any leverage you can get on the whole banking law thing? IE, penalty charges for breach of contract? You have broken the contract by not paying, fair enough, but they have penalised you for breaching that contract which is against UK law.

Try looking at https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk to see if they have anything on there maybe

Old_No.7

Hi there, I had a similar thing with the water bill: for some reason their bills never reached me, but when they gave it to a creditor, I did get their mail. After speaking to the creditors (who were useless of course) I phoned the water people, and set up a DD and they withdrew the bill from the creditors (although this did take a while to filter through to the chasing firm). These things happen sometimes, and if the gym are half reasonable people (and they most likely will be) they'll try to sort it out amicable and keep you as a client. If the first person doesn't act on it, speak to someone higher up with more authority.