Bannatynes Gym

EAD_2

Hi,

I wondered if anyone in the forum may have had similar problem.

I was a member of Bannatynes gym for 2 - 3 years, i paid £50 per month. Over the time as a member, the service was frustrating. There were various issues which i would report, and constantly chase up, only to be paid lip service, as nothing was ever rectified. I cancelled the contract via a letter, giving more than 3 months notice, which they say they didnt receive. I dont ahve a copy of my contract, so im not sure if 3 months was actually required, but i read forums online and they advised 3 months for Bannatynes and so took the advice. The letter wasnt sent recorded, so I've not proof of it being sent.

I received a letter from them asking for £100, which i then telephoned the gym to advise i had written to them 3 months prior and there was no mention at that time they hadnt received my letter.

Shortly after i received another letter asking for £150, this letter had an email address. I wrote to the email address and advised i had written to the gym advising i was terminating the contract. I made a copy of the letter to keep in my file to refer to the date I had sent the letter.

They replied to my email asking for the word file, which I dont have. I printed out 2 copies, one for the file.

My complaints to the gym and vast communication with them, have not prevented them from recently threatening a county court judgement.

I have contacted citizens advice, i have now refered this to my MP and this evening, I have sought the advice of my lawyer.

The level of service i received at the gym, it now doesnt surpise me that this has happened.

Fire_Fox

Pay up and then dispute using snail mail and recorded delivery keeping copies of everything not e-mails and phone calls, you risk a black mark on your credit file if you don't.

The onus is on you to prove you cancelled the legally binding contract you signed, I can assure you members lie about that all the time. Given that you bother to ask for a copy of the contract nor clarify where the letter was supposed to be sent to it may be you sent it to the wrong place - some chains want it to head office, some to the club. Seems to me they are being very fair asking for either proof of posting or the Word file.

Issues about service are not relevant to whether you are or are not still in contract, that should have been properly address with a written complaint or series of written complaints at the time. This is nothing to do with your MP, by all means seek legal advice.

steampowered

Send them a copy of the letter, explain you cancelled your membership and explain you won't be paying because you cancelled in accordance with the contract. It is unlikely they would sue you and if you do you just defend it. But first check your contract to ensure you did validly cancel it.

Don't waste time speaking to your MP. Your MP can help you with public bodies, he can't help you with legal disputes.

arcon5

Why pay up then dispute it?

Either pay up and put it behind you
Or
Don't pay up, dispute it an if they go to court let a judge decide (they may not though)

In the meantime scan and email a copy of the letter you sent them

mr_sharma

I cancelled with Bannatynes by going in to the gym and completing a form. They gave me a slip as a receipt and I had to provide what ended up being two months notice as I'd missed the first of the month by a day.

Hope you get sorted.

EAD_2

Hi,

Thank you for your replies, I really appreciate your advice.

At the moment, I have now sought the advice of my solicitor and have carried out what they advised I should do.

My MP has also written to the CEO of Bannatyne Fitness regards this matter.

I felt, that had I written the letter by hand, there would be no word file then. Therefore, it is unfair they should put the onus on expecting a word file. It is a gym membership, they are the 5th or 6th gym i have been a member of within the city and never have i had this problem before. It's not only that, i was a frustrated member - i would fill in the comment cards in reception when there was a problem and they would never get back to me or fix the problem - i resorted to talking to the employees and that resulted in lip service each time. " the engineer is coming" then after the date passed "he didnt have time to repair that, it will be looked at next time" i asked when that would be and they replied in with "a month"....... this was recurring.... and recurring. and recurring....i felt embarrassed complaining...... i just wanted to enjoy my workout.....

they also, said before i joined that they always had a joining fee - a month after i joined - they advertised no joining fee! I complained about that several times - but guess what - it didnt get followed up!

I hope this can be resolved soon.

Moving forward I shall take from this - that in future, send anything like this as recorded delivery.

timbstoke

EAD wrote: »

I received a letter from them asking for £100, which i then telephoned the gym to advise i had written to them 3 months prior and there was no mention at that time they hadnt received my letter.

How exactly would that work? Did you get a letter from them every month previously saying "Just to let you know, we didn't receive a cancellation letter from you this month"? If they didn't receive the letter, how can they be expected to notify you?

It sounds to me like you've tried to cancel the contract without actually talking to anyone at the gym, and you're now surprised when nobody has any idea what you're talking about.

unholyangel

timbstoke wrote: »

How exactly would that work? Did you get a letter from them every month previously saying "Just to let you know, we didn't receive a cancellation letter from you this month"? If they didn't receive the letter, how can they be expected to notify you?

It sounds to me like you've tried to cancel the contract without actually talking to anyone at the gym, and you're now surprised when nobody has any idea what you're talking about.

OP meant (from how i read it anyways) that when they received the bill, they contacted the gym and told them they had issued their notice 3 months earlier and there was no mention during the phone call that they had not received the OP's letter of cancellation. Not that they hadnt informed the OP at the actual time the letter was sent.