Tru Gym claiming money for a non-existant contract

pensionmatt

Wonder if anyone can offer any advice or tips or experience.
Story goes:
Former member of Fitness First. When FF went into Administration the "FF home gym" my girlfriend was a member of (and my membership was linked to hers) was sold and our FF membership cancelled without our knowledge.
Apparently our details and "membership" was sold by FF to Tru Gym. First we knew of this was a letter through the door saying "welcome to TruGym". We called them the very next day and said "sorry we don't want to be with TruGym for a number of reasons and we never agreed to it and never wanted it".

TruGym then are claiming that we have to give them one months notice and are pursuing the monies via their DD facility company Harlands Group.

We have tried to inform both companies that we do not have a contract with them - never agreed to one - never signed one - and as soon as we heard they thought we had called them to say "no thankyou". However they refuse to listen and are still saying we need to give a months notice for a contract we don't have and are sending threatening money collection letters and adding on further Admin fees.

Citizens Advice have told us that we are correct that there is no contract and we have refused any "offer of contract". However TruGym are still trying to get money from us.

We have tried talking to them - emailing them - writing and sending recorded delivery to them - however they still say "you need to pay your 30days notice fee" for a contract we never had and don't have.

Advice please - where do we go next ? How do I get them to go away and acknowledge that they have no legal contract with my girlfriend and I ??? We feel completely distressed by this and its causing us to lose sleep. We are really worried that Tru Gym & Harlands will affect our credit score and will just hound us for money they have no legal entitlement to.

Any help or ideas cratefully received as we are really stressed and upset by all this.
Matt

wealdroam

Is there a term in FF's T&Cs that you have agreed to which says something like "We can transfer all or any part of our rights or responsibilities under this contract to another organisation"?

If so, then they are probably relying on this to say that the contract has been transferred to Tru Gym.

However, this is likely to be seen as an unfair term if you are not allowed to transfer your "rights or responsibilities", i.e. your membership, to another person.

unholyangel

Whats the time line with this aswell? When did you take the membership out and on what terms? When did the original gym close? When did the new one open? Or was there no down time between the old one closing and the new one opening? When did they make you aware they were transferring your membership?

Why do you object to the new gym?

Where services are being provided, and payment is being made,
on a continuing basis (as, for example, with membership of a club) a more
practicable approach may be for the consumer to have a penalty-free right
of exit if he objects to an assignment. Alternatively, an assignment clause
may be considered fair if it allows the supplier to assign only in
circumstances which ensure that the consumer's rights under the contract
will not be prejudiced.

pensionmatt

• My girlfriend had been a member of FF for something like 6yrs+
• We wanted to stay with FF.
• We didn't get told or informed about the switch by either party.
• First we heard of it was the letter from TruGym saying "welcome to Tru Gym" - which was the point when we called them and said "we don't want to be with you - we want to stay with FF".
• This all started in late April and they have been pursuing us for the May payment for a contract we never had with them and never signed with them and never wanted with them

Citizens Advice have confirmed that regardless of any clause in the FF contract the fact of the matter is that Tru Gym legally have "made an offer of contract" to us - and we have rejected that offer. But they refuse to understand or acknowledge that and just keep robotically regurgitating the line "you have to give 30days notice to cancel a contract".

As for why we would never want or agree to be with Tru Gym:

• Its a women only gym - and we had a joint memebership for myself (male) and well as my girlfriend.
• Our FF membership allowed us to use 45 gyms inside the M25 where we live - Tru Gym have about 2 I think.
• Our FF memebership was the top membership which included gyms with pools (my girlfriend is new to swimming and we valued this) and the TruGym ones don't have pools.
• I had a choice of 3 FF gyms within 10min cycle to my house I could use. Tru Gym don't have 1 within a 30min Drive !!!!

Basically its the equivilent of a car lease company that you use and pay £100 a month for a 5 seater Merc selling your contract to someone and them taking the Merc away and giving you a bicycle!!!

wealdroam

Oh... you gave us no clue in your first post that anything was changing other than the name.

What exactly was the advice from Citizens Advice?

You haven't answered my earlier question:
Is there a term in FF's T&Cs that you have agreed to which says something like "We can transfer all or any part of our rights or responsibilities under this contract to another organisation"?

As you are denying the existence of a contract with Tru Gym, then surely you assume that the contract with FF still exists?
Does that contract require 30 days notice of cancellation?
Are Tru Gym acting as agents for FF in this respect?
What have the administrators of FF got to say about this?

ThumbRemote

How can the OP send a letter before action? TruGym don't owe them anything.

unholyangel

If they provide a lesser service, they cant assign without your consent.

Just write to trugym stating there is no contract between you and them and should they disagree, they should send you a copy of the your signed contract.

See what they come back with.

pensionmatt

FF don't care - as far as they are concerned we are no longer their members. We would have loved to stay with them. But this is not about FF. I would be more than happy if my contract with FF still existed - it wasn't me (or GF) that terminated it.
Tru Gym are not agents of FF and nothing to do with FF. They bought a branch of FF that was for sale.
FF administrators don't care. Its our issue with Tru Gym.

I think there maybe a clause like that in the original FF contract - however as I have stated CAB told us that all it means is FF can try and sell our details - however Tru Gym legally are then only presenting us with an "offer of contract" - which we then must accept and we have clearly not!

CAB told us to write to them stating "this is an offer of contract - we reject it - therefore there is no contract - therefore we are not subject to any T&C - therefore you are not entitled to pursue us for monies". We did this and sent recorded delivery. Tru Gym ignored!!! They just ignored and kept pursuing their standard incorrect line.

To them they don't care - its their tactic to keep spouting the false statement of "you have a contract and your contract requires 30 days notice" in the hope that we give in and pay them a load of money for a service we never wanted, never agreed to, never signed up for, and never used. Its pure bullying. Nothing more nothing less. I wonder how many people have just incorrectly paid them the money just for them to go away and stop hounding and bullying them.

I'll pay the money if it was my legal duty to do so - but its not !

paddyrg

Refer them to the answer given in Arkell vs Pressdram (1971) ;-)

Alternatively...

Sounds like they're trying it on, make sure you have a copy of the letter you sent and keep all the timeline for when they instruct debt collectors or start small claims proceedings - when you can show your evidence.

unholyangel

pensionmatt wrote: »

FF don't care - as far as they are concerned we are no longer their members. We would have loved to stay with them. But this is not about FF. I would be more than happy if my contract with FF still existed - it wasn't me (or GF) that terminated it.
Tru Gym are not agents of FF and nothing to do with FF. They bought a branch of FF that was for sale.
FF administrators don't care. Its our issue with Tru Gym.

I think there maybe a clause like that in the original FF contract - however as I have stated CAB told us that all it means is FF can try and sell our details - however Tru Gym legally are then only presenting us with an "offer of contract" - which we then must accept and we have clearly not!

CAB told us to write to them stating "this is an offer of contract - we reject it - therefore there is no contract - therefore we are not subject to any T&C - therefore you are not entitled to pursue us for monies". We did this and sent recorded delivery. Tru Gym ignored!!! They just ignored and kept pursuing their standard incorrect line.

To them they don't care - its their tactic to keep spouting the false statement of "you have a contract and your contract requires 30 days notice" in the hope that we give in and pay them a load of money for a service we never wanted, never agreed to, never signed up for, and never used. Its pure bullying. Nothing more nothing less. I wonder how many people have just incorrectly paid them the money just for them to go away and stop hounding and bullying them.

I'll pay the money if it was my legal duty to do so - but its not !

Have they issued debt collectors yet?

Are they chasing for payment too or just saying you need to give 30 days?

Even if this went to court, it would be up to them to prove that a contract does exist between you (or rather your gf) and themselves. Since FF cant assign without consent and you havent given your consent....obv theres no contract - at least not between you and trugym.

bris

If I understand it correctlt true gym have taken over FF by buying it from the administrators, if this is correct they take over all the existing equipment and clients. This is no different to any other takeover, if O2 buy Vodafone the clients can't just cancel their contracts.

CAB were wrong, no surprise there, if you want out you will need to show a breach of contract thet they are not providing the same level of service that you signed up to.