Pure Gym cancellation - thoughts?

matty_art

goater78 wrote: »

Personally I would say its to he customers advantage this policy. Seems the easiest possible way to cancel a gym membership. A lot of gyms force you to serve a notice period.

Well true, except at least then you get the full service that you've paid for.

System

matty_art wrote: »

Well true, except at least then you get the full service that you've paid for.

But they often force you to pay more than you want to pay! Those bar stewards at David Lloyd got about £240 out of me!

I accept its annoying but it does say quite clearly on the website the cancellation is on the day you cancel the DD. just be glad you didn't cancel the day after it came out!

artbaron

I'd advise walking to the gym every day and trying your passcode card. You won't get in but it'll stop you getting fat.

matty_art

goater78 wrote: »

But they often force you to pay more than you want to pay! Those bar stewards at David Lloyd got about £240 out of me!

I accept its annoying but it does say quite clearly on the website the cancellation is on the day you cancel the DD. just be glad you didn't cancel the day after it came out!

Yep, I'd have never signed up to them! I do think it's a great idea to have the "no notice period", they could just manage it better, by simply having a facility on the website to cancel membership following the expiry of your prepaid period. It's just a little odd. As I say, I was more wound up about turning up to use the gym and being locked out than anything else!

Anyway, cheers for useful input folks. I certainly think they could learn some customer service lessons.

System

unholyangel wrote: »

I didnt say a court would ignore the rest. I simply said if they'd failed on something so simple and straight forward, chances are they made more mistakes.

As for what i'm getting a bit upperty about (i assume thats the same as pants in a twist) i'm not. I'm simply exasperated that people take things at face value - especially here on a consumer rights board.

If a shop tells a customer "you'll need to go to the manufacturer, its after 30 days and theres nothing we can do", would you tell them to just accept that as they'd agreed to those terms by entering into the contract?


Think about it this way. You pay your milkman up front on a month to month basis. Halfway through the month, you cancel the service for the next again month. The next day, no milk is delivered and when you contact the milkman, he says he's not going to finish the month you paid him for or refund any of your money. Or Virgin/BT cancelling your service immediately and still charge you the 30 days notice. Do you honestly think that is fair? Binding the consumer to pay but not binding the supplier to supply? Again it is covered by unfair contract terms.

If OP had signed up for a minimum term contract (in which the "monthly" rate is often lower than those on a month to month contract) then I would see the fairness in withholding the refund/services. Or if the payment wasnt totally 100% in advance. But from what the OP has told us......imo they have no valid reason to withhold payment AND services.
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So are you advocating the OP takes it further and pursues legal action to claim their £6/7?

matty_art

goater78 wrote: »

So are you advocating the OP takes it further and pursues legal action to claim their £6/7?

Why, do you know a no win no fee solicitor?

I was actually asking more as a discussion point because something didn't feel quite right to me. Quoting statute can always help of course!

Edit: as a final point, I just happened upon the terms and conditions of a very similar gym model, Easy Gym.

Monthly Direct Debit Membership: You may cancel your membership by cancelling your direct debit at any time after the payment of the first month’s fees and the joining fee. Your cancellation will take effect at the end of the month for which the final direct debit payment has been paid.

Now that seems a much fairer way of doing things.

unholyangel

goater78 wrote: »

So are you advocating the OP takes it further and pursues legal action to claim their £6/7?

Only person here thats mentioned legal action is yourself.

OP made it quite clear in his opening post that he was asking for thoughts on their practices as he was going to rejoin them but after this experience, is reluctant to do so.

I've done no more than give my opinion that their T&C's are potentially unfair. Well except for my apparent exasperation with the "small print = law" attitude that is so common because we're so used to being told "check the T&C's" that it gives the impression that whatever is in a contract is correct, that it is all legally binding. As we say so often on here, terms and conditions cannot override legislation. So while its important to check what the T&C's are, its also equally important to question the validity of those T&C's.