LA FITNESS and ARC europe

smithers1981

hi last September me and my wife joined LA fitness on a 1 year contract.

one of main reasons for joining was to take my then 2 year old daughter swimming regularly during the week as i work shifts. i was told by salesman that there was a family swim session everyday between 10.00am and 11am perfect, as well as a weekend family swim.

As i was spending over £25 a month taking daughter to a council pool once a week the saving of taking her gym almost covered the membership cost.

However when i went to pool with daughter there was no family swim during week so i had been told a lie in order to get me to sign up.

As well when i went to my induction i was measured and weighed and then just abandoned in the gym without being shown a single piece of equipment, i was left standing there looking a complete lemon and had to try and figure out how things worked.

i was told there was a family changing room but this turned out to be a disabled toilet. And all the so called classes were oversubscribed making it near impossible to get in any.

So after all the above i wrote to LA Fitness and asked to terminate my contract as i was very unsatisfied and had clearly been missold, in my letter i stated that if i didn't hear back within 2 weeks i would cancel direct debit.

i didn't hear back so cancelled direct debit.

i then started getting letters from LA fitness, chasing the money 'owed' my access to club was also withdrawn.

I now have a company called ARC Europe chasing me and threatening to take me to court, i would actually welcome an opportunity to get an impartial verdict as to whether or i am in the right or the wrong.

Is it likely they will pursue the matter to court i have written letters to them refusing to pay, stating my reasons why, and asking them to take me to court, since that letter i haven't had anything in the post for approx 2 months.

i am determined not to pay for a service i was promised and have not received it seems ridiculous that gyms seem to operate outside the law, what is the likely outcome, if a court does find in their favour then i will pay but by then will my credit rating be KAPUT?

paulmapp8306

Did you keep copies of your letters? Particularly the one laying down your grievencies (primarily the family swimming, and family changing facilities as this was your main reason for joining) and the request for a response in 2 weeks, or the DD would be cancelled?

As long as you have that, I dont think you have an issue. You were clearly mis-sold the membership AND gave them a change to explain/respond before your cancelled your payment method. They refused to respond. Id have done the same thing in truth.

Id also now write to their UK head office, to a compaints department - with a copy to the managing director AND to the manager of your local gym (show in the letter than copies have been sent to those people). State the flow of events: what you were told before signing up, what your experience was when you actually went to the gym, what you did about it (the initial letter), what their response was (nil) and what has happened since (letters from collections). Tell them your VERY unhappy with the whole situation, and want an official response within 28 days. Tell them if no response is received you will forward all correspondance to the OFT (i think that would be the right agency - might need to look it up, and if theres more than one agency tell them int he letter). You can also threaten them with watchdog, and you local press. The local gym will know head office is in the loop, and head office wont want the exposure.

billinghamfan

It's a breach under the Sale of Goods Act 1979.

You brought the goods (in this case a service) on the promise of family swim time during the week as this wasn't a service they offered they are in breach of contract and you are able to end the contact and receive any monies you have paid. ie joining fees, first month's fees etc.

I can't quite remember the section and paragraph of the sale of goods act but you can get the information from any liberay just look for sale of goods act for dummies it is the easiest way to get the relevant section of the act.

The write a letter to LA fitness not Arch demanding any money you have paid etc. I would right to the head office not the branch as you will get a quicker response if you know the name of the sales person that will be helpful.

Once you have written this letter, write another one to Arch saying that this is an ongoing disput with LA fitness due to them braking the Sale of goods act and they should suspend all action until this is resolved this might get them off your back for a bit.

mildredalien

I'd also make sure that any further letters you send are by recorded delivery - then they can't claim that they never received them.

smithers1981

i will write another letter to the cowboys, does LA FITNESS have the power to call off debt collectors or is my 'debt' already sold on down the river so to speak?

billinghamfan

Well as LA Fitness is in Breach they shouldn't have sold the debt on as there isn't a debt.

Not sure what they will do but it's their problem not yours but I would include in your letter that you want Arc to stop letters etc.

Also check your credit reports as they may have put late payments or defaults on them.

at_a_loss_3

Useful LA Fitness contacts -

I have recently had an on going battle with them. Im from the Midlands area, but after failing to find any contact numbers/addresses useful to me, I went on google maps and typed in LA Fitness Head Office, it came up with this addres:
LA Fitness Corporate Office
Kirk Sandall Industrial Estate
Sandall Stones Road
Barnby Dun
Doncaster
DN3 1QR
Telephone - 01302 892 310
Later I discovered their Members Team work from there, so maybe direct your correspondance to this address, send recorded delivery too for proof. I made a 'paper trial' of all the letters and emails sent. Also a call log, this way if you need to prove anything its all there.
Not many must know about this, but I think its very useful when they are known for fobbing people off!!
Hope all this helps.
Other contacts are [EMAIL="member.relations@lafitness.co.uk"]member.relations@lafitness.co.uk[/EMAIL] and 0844 770 7700, but I think a direct approach is always better. Dont give up either!! I had 4 months before anything was actually done.

ofloinn

Hi all,
Please read my story and advise where possible. I’ve found this forum very useful so far, hoping to get some advice with a similar issue.



I moved to london working on contract in October 2012.



In November, a colleague and I went into an LA fitness branch and expressed our interest in joining, we explained that we didn’t know how long our contract would last, and asked if they provided a monthly membership instead of signing up to a whole year. The staff member we were dealing with explained that we could sign up to the membership anyway and if our work in London ended and we had to move away, we could call up and cancel there would be no charge as long as we cancelled before 31st December. Our work contracts did end in December and we had to move back to Glasgow on the 20th.


Towards the end of December, possibly 27th-28th, I called the branch of La fitness and explained that id moved away and id like to cancel as discussed. I was told that it wasn’t a matter for them to deal with and they gave me a number to call the head office. I tried to call the head office that day but couldn’t get through to them, I figured they had finished for the holidays and I would be able to get through to them after new year.


I called them again in the first week of the new year(2013) and the person I dealt with explained that I had to provide proof that I had moved away, he also explained that I had to pay the £90 for December and a further £90 for January (despite me moving away on the 20th). I forwarded on a gas bill (in my father’s name, he owns the apartment) and I sent it using my work email which ends in the signature of my Glasgow office, email went as follows:

“Just got your voicemail, thanks for getting back to me.

Ive attached the latest Gas bill for my apartment, its in my dads name, ******, as you can see from my email signature im back in our studio in Glasgow. Did (staff member) at LA-F (branch) agree that there shouldn’t be a charge for January as he never mentioned any ‘cooling off period’ on cancelling the membership.

It was all too easy to sign up to the service in (branch) and (staff member) was very accommodating, but he also assured that there would be no charge if i had to move away because of work. Taking £90 out of my account for December is frustrating, but i can see past that as it wasn’t cancelled in time. Taking a further £90 out for January is just unacceptable, im in another country and have been since the 20th December. I understand that your procedure is to charge the user for the remainder of the month they cancel in, but can you see past this given the circumstances?

Thanks for your time.”


After this I presumed that was it taken care of and that was the end of the matter. At this point I cancelled my card because I was afraid they would take a large amount out without me knowing first. I received a call from the same staff member on the 8th of march 2013 and he explained that he didn’t received the email with the gas bill attached. So I went into my sent items and forwarded it on to him again(it had been sent both times without any errors). He then said he received it but the bill I sent was useless as it wasn’t in my name, so I sent him a screenshot of my phone bill which was in my name and asked if this would suffice. I never got a reply, so once again I thought that was it finally sorted!


I then received an email on the 22nd of march stating:
“We have moved the cancellation date forward for your memberships to the end of this month, as a gesture of goodwill.
We could not accept the documentation that you tried to send to us in January, as your name was not on the utility bill.
Thus we are asking for £178.60 to close your membership account, instead of £267.90”


I found this extremely frustrating as I had started the cancellation process back in January and it felt like I now had to pay for how slow and ruthless they had been in replying to me, despite my emails and phone calls in January showing that I didn’t even live in England anymore and wanted them to stop adding to the bill while we sorted the issue out!


So then I started getting letters and emails from Arc Europe threatening court action. Today, 25th April, I came home to find a letter claiming I owe £974.60 and that a summons may be prepared ten days after the date of the letter. I don’t understand how the fee has increased that much in this short space of time. Its terrible that there companies can bombard us with phone calls and emails during the day and have threatening letters waiting for us when we get home from work in the evening.


Id really appreciate any advice on this and hopefully can get it put to bed.
Thanks in advance for any advice!