Cancelling gym membership

AndyY

Hiya,

I took out an 18 month membership with a well known gym chain beginning with LA however at the time I wasn't sure if I'd want to do it for the long term and agreed with the person at the gym that I could leave in the first two months. They gave me a letter this effect saying that I had to cancel in writing with the gym.

A couple of months later, I decided to cancel - I wrote them a letter (enclosing a copy of their letter) and hand delivered it to the gym. I also sent a confirmation e-mail and cancelled the direct debit.

I've now had three letters / DD forms requesting money.

After the first I spoke to the central membership people who were going to contact the local gym to confirm but agreed that I'd done everything reasonable to let them know.

After the second I sent them a letter indicating how dissatisfied I was that they cannot resolve this and that the membership was cancelled as agreed with the club.

I've now received a third and would appreciate any advice.. can they send bailiffs round before taking me to court?

Thanks in advance for your help

andy

Doozergirl

You're supposed to phone head office to cancel. I know they told you they did in your letter, but they don't take letters! There is some evidence of sharp practice on this front although I've not heard of anyone else actually being given a letter saying they could cancel early, so that goes in your favour at least. If I were cynical I'd say they took the letter knowing that nothing would be cancelled within that two month timeframe!

My membership finishes at the end of this month and I had no problem doing it; the branch gave me the number and they sent me a confirmation email as soon as I asked (but I've been with them for two years so no wrangles over timescales). They couldn't have been more helpful.

They are like dogs with a bone though, I'm afraid. H gave them his details over the phone as he was planning to go in and sign up, but we then decided to cancel mine and take up family membership with David Lloyd (brilliant decision) but LA actually signed him up on DD without any contract at all! They refused to let him out of the contract so he had to go to his bank, who refunded everything they'd taken very quickly as there was no DD agreement.

Key is to get proper acknowledgement of the cancellation from them in the first place. I'd speak to the people on the cancellation line and offer to email them the letter from your club, plus a copy of your emails and initial letter. And try and get your membership cancelled properly as it still seems that they haven't cancelled you. I think speaking to their collections department doesn't get you anywhere as far as cancelling goes. I suspect that they'd still want a full calendar month's notice within the timescale that you wanted to cancel, so expect to pay for some membership beyond the date of your letter.

Bitr pointless joinging the gym thinking you were going to cancel though - you might as well payg somewhere if you didn't really go in with the full intention of using it