Considering Taking Personal Trainer to Small Claims?

pinkshoes

Well, you have had 4 sessions, so 6 remaining then two freebies...

I suggest that either:

1. take the sessions and have them adapted to meet your needs,

2. Gift them to a friend or family member,

3. Sell them yourself.

Of course the PT is not going to advertise your cut price sessions when he already has the money and can get full price from someone else! No incentive there! Nor has he breached the contract.

unholyangel

TrickyDicky101 wrote: »

I must have missed something = how has either party breached the contract?

OP bought 10 lessons. OP has 10 lessons which PT will supply (and has supplied in part). Fact she hasn't used all of them isn't a breach?

Wrongful termination is a breach of contract....

pmduk

unholyangel wrote: »

Wrongful termination is a breach of contract....

I can't see where you get wrongful termination

Laz123

Jaqua2 wrote: »

In July 2014 I found a PT online through Facebook. We discussed cost of sessions and I met him in person. I purchased 10 sessions for £500 and got 2 sessions free (got receipt). I used up 4 sessions and health deteriorated. I suffer from chronic pain and fatigue and Osteoarthritis among other things. My PT knew of my health conditions at my assessment. I told him I was in too much pain to continue the sessions and asked for a refund for the remaining sessions which he declined and said he doesn't do refunds even for medical reasons. I did try multiple times to tell him I was phyically unfit to continue the sessions but still I faced the same response. Due to my health going down hill I left it for a while as I thought it was a loosing battle. As time went on my health never got better and in fact I am 100 times worse. Now in 2017, I contacted him again because I don't want to let this go and I think its unfair. But also I need the money. I am disabled, unfit for work, claim disability and I am in a wheelchair. I gave the suggestion for me to sell my unwanted sessions to someone else which he agreed too. It was much harded thing to do because I had no contacts. Even tried to sell on eBay! I asked him to mention them to his exisiting clients and contacts as I have no way of selling these on. I wanted initially wanted £400 for the remaining 8 sessions. He said he would try and sell them for me. Its been months now and still nothing. I told him to reduce to £320 to get rid of them and he said that he will try. I personally think he isn't making much efforts because he kept saying I don't refund and sessions are supposed to be used and not transferred to someone else and this is not normal practice. He had the nerve to say to me that the sessions are still there for me to use, I am in a bloody wheelchair HELLO.. He is showing no compassion and if he was to refund me a long time ago this would be over with. So thinking of taking him to Small claims, I'll claim all the fees off him too. Do you think I have a case it shall I cut my losses and move on? This is having a negative affect on my phyical and! mental health. I have a phone number and email address for him. No postal address as he moved

Correction, it's been years.

robatwork

Laz123 wrote: »

Correction, it's been years.

I would concur that your claim is stale.

unholyangel

pmduk wrote: »

I can't see where you get wrongful termination

You can't? Its pretty simple. Wrongful termination is when you cancel a contract without having any sort of legal basis for cancelling (ie in response to the traders breach/under statutory rights such as the CCRs).

Not sure why people struggle with this - prepaying doesn't change what damages are due in a breach of contract scenario.

ETA: How about this councils explanation of it:

Normally a consumer has no automatic right to change his mind and to cancel a contract; therefore if this happens he is in breach of contract.

If a consumer cancels the contract wrongfully, the trader can claim the reasonable costs incurred. Where the trader cannot recover the lost sale (for example, by making another booking in place of the cancelled one) they may be entitled to claim loss of profit too. If the consumer has made full- or part-payment up front, the trader can only retain enough to cover these losses and must refund the difference.

Pretty clear, no?

pmduk

I'm sorry, I read it you stated the trainer had wrongfully terminated the contract which of course wasn't the case,

steampowered

I don't think you are legally entitled to a refund Op. Issuing a small claim would probably be throwing good money after bad. Sorry.

I don't think the CMA guidance quoted above is directly relevant. That guidance concerns termination charges - such as where a consumer leaves a broadband contract only. That is not the case here. It seems to me that nobody has terminated the contract and there is no early termination charge. Rather the consumer has prepaid for a service.

Even if the CMA guidance were to apply, it says that traders may withhold their net loss of profit. The net loss of profit for personal training sessions is presumably the entire cost of the sessions. The actual financial cost to the trainer of providing the session would be close to zero, unless the trainer would have needed to pay an hourly rate to the gym for each session.

I don't think it makes sense to talk about the PT "re-selling" sessions. The concept of re-selling sessions to another client would only make sense if the PT has more clients than they can cope with. This is extremely unlikely. Most PTs will sell additional sessions to anyone that wants to buy them.

BorisThomson

unholyangel wrote: »

I think some posters replying here forget this is a consumer rights board.

Where one party is in breach of contract (thats OP in this case), they are liable for losses incurred by the other party as a result of their breach. However, the other party has a duty to take reasonable steps to mitigate their loss and not take unreasonable steps to increase it.

The trainer has taken reasonable steps to mitigate his losses, he is actively recruiting new clients. He is able to accommodate the OP so not working at full capacity, hence he would still have a loss if he was to refund the cost of the lessons.

If you cancel a generic room at a hotel and they are able to fill that room then a refund would be due. However that room could quite legitimately be the last room they sell, they are entitled to sell their available rooms first. The same applies here - if, despite his best efforts, the trainer still has spare appointments, then he is incurring a loss and is not obliged to refund the OP.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Jaqua2 wrote: »

In July 2014 I found a PT online through Facebook. We discussed cost of sessions and I met him in person. I purchased 10 sessions for £500 and got 2 sessions free (got receipt). I used up 4 sessions and health deteriorated. I suffer from chronic pain and fatigue and Osteoarthritis among other things. My PT knew of my health conditions at my assessment. I told him I was in too much pain to continue the sessions and asked for a refund for the remaining sessions which he declined and said he doesn't do refunds even for medical reasons. I did try multiple times to tell him I was phyically unfit to continue the sessions but still I faced the same response. Due to my health going down hill I left it for a while as I thought it was a loosing battle. As time went on my health never got better and in fact I am 100 times worse. Now in 2017, I contacted him again because I don't want to let this go and I think its unfair. But also I need the money. I am disabled, unfit for work, claim disability and I am in a wheelchair. I gave the suggestion for me to sell my unwanted sessions to someone else which he agreed too. It was much harded thing to do because I had no contacts. Even tried to sell on eBay! I asked him to mention them to his exisiting clients and contacts as I have no way of selling these on. I wanted initially wanted £400 for the remaining 8 sessions. He said he would try and sell them for me. Its been months now and still nothing. I told him to reduce to £320 to get rid of them and he said that he will try. I personally think he isn't making much efforts because he kept saying I don't refund and sessions are supposed to be used and not transferred to someone else and this is not normal practice. He had the nerve to say to me that the sessions are still there for me to use, I am in a bloody wheelchair HELLO.. He is showing no compassion and if he was to refund me a long time ago this would be over with. So thinking of taking him to Small claims, I'll claim all the fees off him too. Do you think I have a case it shall I cut my losses and move on? This is having a negative affect on my phyical and! mental health. I have a phone number and email address for him. No postal address as he moved

Just for continuity, things can happen!