Virgin Active demanding money after cancelling membership

BBCofPeace

Hi.

Back on 27/10/12 I went to my local Virgin Active Health Centre and told them of my wish to cancel since I was never going and spending £49.95 each and every month for no reason (which you have probably heard dozens of times). I completed all the relevant forms and was told that I required notice and that November would be the final month of which I was required to pay, with the membership ending on the 1st of December.

I was handed a cancellation form for my own records and it states the date of which I went in to cancel (27/10/12) and also that the membership would be cancelled with effect from 1st of December.

After that I went back home and cancelled my direct debit with them due to poor past experiences with them regarding them retaining such details (I could explain if you would like though it has no relevancy to this issue). Virgin always take payment on the 1st of every month so I went to pay in person to my own local centre again. The lady at the desk told me however that there was no outstanding balance and so I couldn't make a payment. So I waited and after a while they called me and I made payment over the phone on 29/11/12 which was taken from my account and showed up as being a payment to Virgin Active.

However in December I received a letter (dated 03/12/12) telling me that I had an outstanding balance of £49.95 and that payment had been due for 01/12/12. At the bottom it did say that I should disregard this letter f I had already made payment so decided to do that as I knew I didn't owe anything. I received a second letter in December acting as a reminder. At the time I thought there had been a procedural error with updating their records so I wrongly chose to ignore it again.

But today I noticed I had another letter from them received this month dated 10/01/13 which I can only imagine I assumed to be an old letter as I had it on top of the other letters received from Virgin Active. This latest letter stated that I actually owe an outstanding balance of £99.90. They said that if payment isn't received in the next ten days my details will be passed to a Credit Collection Agency who will apply a £30.00 administration fee and will instigate formal debt recovery proceeding to recover the outstanding amount which may affect my credit rating. Any remaining subscriptions will also become payable in full.

Obviously now I have chosen not to overlook it and have regretted ignoring this and not contacting them sooner over the matter. I will be contacting them first thing tomorrow morning by phone.

What I would like to ask is, is there any reason as to why they are demanding this money from me despite having cancelled? Why has it risen to £99.90? I didn't receive a letter asking me to make payment for January. I have retained my cancellation form and all the letters I have received from them.

wealdroam

BBCofPeace wrote: »

What I would like to ask is, is there any reason as to why they are demanding this money from me despite having cancelled? Why has it risen to £99.90? I didn't receive a letter asking me to make payment for January. I have retained my cancellation form and all the letters I have received from them.

They have obviously made a mistake.

£99.90 = November payment + December payment.

They appear not to have noticed either that you have cancelled, nor that you have made the payment due in November.

Ring them up and sort it out.

mr_fishbulb

BBCofPeace wrote: »

I was handed a cancellation form for my own records and it states the date of which I went in to cancel (27/10/12) and also that the membership would be cancelled with effect from 1st of December.

Send them a copy of that.

pinkshoes

Don't phone them - WRITE to them, send them a copy of your cancellation form, and proof you made the last payment, and tell them any further letters will be considered harrassment other than an apology for not checking their records and causing you un-warranted stress!