Gym Membership with Energie

manjit_2

Hi,

Myself and my wife visited local Enrgie health club branch on 04th Feb, 2011 to enquire about the membership. We were more than welcomed by the front of house team there and given a very luring offer of 1st month free and thereafter 39.95 GBP per month for a 4 month period. They also offered a 6 weeks results guaranteed program which comes with money back guaranty if the results are not achieved. They also advertise heavily 'no contract, no joining fee'.

We did insist on coming back to them next after going through the contract. They fooled us saying that the said offer was only available till that evening. We never realized that they were simply tying us into a contract.

After coming back home, we went through the contract details and realized that it was not for us.

We asked them for the cancellation of the membership via following means:


1. An SMS dated 07-02-2011 saying No2fit to 84433 in response to 'Manjit thank u 4 joining energie Croydon we look 4ward 2 helping u achieve ur goals Calum C.Ross & Matthew Russell. 2opt out txt NO2FIT to 84433'. They claimed that this option was to opt out from the text messages and not from the membership as such.

2. An email dated 16-02-2011 to cancel the direct debit instruction.
3. On a personal visit to the club on 17-02-2011.

We didn't utilize the gym services even for a single day. They sent few letters for outstanding amount owed to them by ourselves and then handed over the case to a debt collection agency called 'Daniels Silverman'.

They agency is now bombarding us with threat letters with the debt amount increased with every letter. The latest letter (Notice of Court Action) demands 309.01 GBP from each of us and hence a total of 618.02 GBP without utilizing any of their services even for a single day.

Could you please help with this? What are our legal rights? What is the best way out of the situation?

Regards,
Manjit

Butti

I would go and see Citizen Advice. Contracts now have a 14 day cool off period and I don't see how they will be able to get round that.

Might be worth you doing a search (top right hand corner) on gym membership and search the forum as this has come up a lot, particularly for a gym set up by a certain scottish man.

B

Culex

Butti wrote: »

I would go and see Citizen Advice. Contracts now have a 14 day cool off period and I don't see how they will be able to get round that.

Even before more recent legislation, the untruths apparently used as inducements to get the punters to sign up would have been such that the Misrepresentation Act 1967 could be used to rescind the contract ab initio.

Might be worth you doing a search (top right hand corner) on gym membership and search the forum as this has come up a lot, particularly for a gym set up by a certain scottish man.

Is he the one with breath like a dragon?