Pure Gym administration fees

dontpetthecatthatway

(Reposted here from Health & Beauty as it's more about reclaiming charges etc... Apologies if this comes up twice for anyone)

Hello everyone!

In October I became a member of PureGym (the new Oval branch), as they're very cheap (relatively; I pay only 19.99 a month as I joined just before they opened) and have no contract, as such. Frustratingly, when setting up a direct debit for my membership (managed by their financial services company 'Harlands') they neglected to inform me in any of the emails they sent (it was all done online) on exactly what date my bank account would be debited.

Their exact wording was:
“…monthly payments of £19.99 will commence one month after the gym opens and continue on or just after the same say of each month thereafter…”"

(As is usual with gym contracts, my very first month's payment was taken up front, in advance, whilst the direct debit was being set up, so thefirst direct debit was actually around 6 weeks after I had joined, as expected.)
My first DD payment, then, was on the 28th of November. Fine, I thought… That’s when I’ll expect the money to be taken every month.
Sure enough, my next payment was taken on the 28th of December.
In January, however, the DD was requested on the 27th, and since I’d arranged for money to go into that account for the next day (which I use specifically for Direct Debits, so as not to get overdrawn or caught out by them) the payment bounced. Not only was I hit by Natwest’s charge of £6 for the bounced payment, Harlands charged me a £20 ‘administration fee’.
Naturally I wrote to them asking for the money back, providing proof of everything, but when they (eventually) replied, they said they would make no refund as the gym itself apparently opened on exactly the 27th of October, therefore I should have realised that THIS was the DD date, and that the 28th had always been the next day; that they had always been entitled to take it earlier.


Can I take them to court over this? I should probably mention that this has happened again since, so I’m now down £52 in fees…


If anyone can offer advice I’d be very grateful… My contention is that they never gave me a specific date at all for the direct debit, and if I am supposed to infer the date somehow (as they suggest), it’s perfectly reasonable to do so from the date I was charged for the 1st two months. After all, the gym itself had opened (for classes, at least) well before the 27th of October.


Thanks!


Paul