Virgin active - bullying tactics

khublaikhan

Hi All,

Need some advice. I was a member of VA for over a year on a £60 MONTHLY rolling contract. I used to travel 40 miles commute, pop into the VA gym then off to work nearby.

In February this year I got another job (part-time - locally where I live) so I went part-time where I worked on my commute (two days a week). I asked VA if they could do me a deal as I could only attend their gym a maximum amount of 8 times a month. They said the best they could do was for me to pay £15 each time I went into the gym - which obviously was stupid.

So I told the staff at VA that I would like to give them 30 days notice to terminate my contract - they said I would have to pay full for the March month as that was still in the 30 notice and why not freeze my account for a max of two months after that - whereby if in that time my new job did not turn out well and I returned to full-time back where I was, I could rejoin the VA gym as a full member. They said if I did not call them to unfreeze my account within two months my membership would be cancelled. Foolishly, I said fine (£20) what the hell?

Early June, roughly 4 months after my termination notice I found £10 still coming out of my Account every month to VA so I promptly cancelled the DD.

So then I started to get nasty letters that I owed them £73 - after a couple of these I rang up their head office (3 weeks ago now) and spoke to someone who kindly agreed that I HAD given them notice and that he would investigate the matter. He took my email address and said he would contact me. Nothing happened and VA DID NOT contact me.

Today I received a letter from their Debt Recovery agency stating I owed them now £93???

I got home late tonight and Virgin head office was shut but I did speak to the debt recovery agency who stood by their letter saying that they had been informed by VA 4 days ago of my failure to pay.

I am absolutely furious but need some advice as to my legal standing and what to do next - by rights they owe ME money as they continued to take money out my account beyond the two month period they told me about. But this debt recovery stuff feels like harassment and bullying to me.

I genuinely made an effort to terminate my contract according to their rules. They never advised that would I need to go into their gym to cancel my frozen account as they said I could only freeze it for a limited period.

Why, after I rang them and they stated that they would investigate and contact me back have they now put their debt recovery agency on me??

Please advice??

daytona0

Can I ask a question?

Why didn't you, upon noticing the 10 DD, promptly ring up the VA company and query it were you under the impression that your membership had been cancelled?

Doesn't sit right with me.... They've been doing the 10 pound DD's over a 4 month period, you cancel it without contacting VA (contacting them would have cleared up the issue or enabled you to cancel or even you getting money back where owed!) and then they invoice you a bill which goes to a debt collection agency (it is very unlikely that the money owed is related to the 4 month period in which you were already paying which supports the theory that you didn't contact VA when cancelling the DD). You have to ring them up b4 you cancel the DD because they are either doing it legally (and you need to sort that out) or illegally (and you need your money back).

All because you didn't sort it out you've created a mess. What you have to do is get the details o why they continued with the DD. Should it be legal and something you've overlooked then suck it up and pay the bill. Should it not be legal then take them to court and get your money back. Simple as that really. Nobody on here is going to advise you on how to dodge a bill you owe, should this be the case....

usefulmale

Tell the debt recovery agency that the debt is in dispute. They will have to pass it back to Virgin.