Gym Membership - Am I being unreasonable

vinegardisaster

Hi,

Can I please ask for your opinion: I decided to cancel my Esporta family membership (after a few years) and emailed the club as advised, at the end of Feb 2011. Two months and three emails later still no confirmation they received my notification, despite me asking them to acknowledge it and no answer to my questions about when my last payment will be. So in May I decided to cancel my direct debit and two days later they were in touch giving me all sort of excuses as to why they did not reply to my emails but eventually accepted they received them but I still need to pay for May, as I need to give 3 months notice.
I told them I was not prepared to because they ignored my requests to cancel and I consider them 'in breach' of contract. Am I being unreasonable?

rachbc

yes you are sorry - the 3 months would have been the same had the acknowledged your email...not replying to an email hardly constitutes breech of contract

melancholly

gyms do get very aggressive about this, so it may not be whether you're unreasonable, it may be how likely they are to back down (chances are slim going by other threads on here).

did your contract/T&Cs say you needed to give 3 months notice or 2 months? i'd go with whatever that says.

vinegardisaster

thanks for your replies, it does say 3 months on the contract (which seems a very long time but ok, that's another problem and I signed for it!)

Ok, might not be breech of contract but very bad customer service. Oh well, I might have to pay then

soup

never mind, gyms are rubbish anyway, full of self preening luvvies admiring themselves in the mirrors or huge fatties attempting to gain their first heart attack on the rowing machines. Add to that the stuffy air full or other folks sweaty odours and germs...yuk. Get yourself a bike and get fit in the fresh british countryside.....for free.

vinegardisaster

Thanks Soup, you are right, that is what I started doing, riding my bike or going for a jog with my dog and it is so much better!

I have tried to post on the consumer rights forum too, just in case:p

mountainofdebt

Yeap I'm another one in the 'you need to pay may's membership' camp.

What I would have done though is to write a letter and sent it recorded delivery - that way, if they had tried to deny receiving the letter I would have independant proof that it had been sent.

helliesin

I used to work for Esporta, and the general 'unofficial' policy was that they wouldnt take legal action against unpaid fees providing:

1. you havent used the club during the time that you havent paid
2. you dont owe money for any 'items' you have paid for on your membership card, such as food/drinks from the bar, equipment from the sports shop, beauty treatments etc.

We were always told that it wasnt worth the cost of legal fees for just a broken contract. Also, if you can find a couple of complaints (should be easy enough at an Esporta club!) as to why you are cancelling, they are more likely to waive the cancellation period- eg, pool/jacuzzi closed, no clean towels, no hot water in showers, gym equpiment out of order.

I hope this helps!

markelock

this is odd. esporta stoke near us is closing. they've given us one months notice (although I#ve not received a confirmation letter yet) I have a three month cancellation period, I am assuming they should also give 3 months notice, and will be asking for the two months payments!