Gym membership help with complaint.

[Deleted User]

Hi this probably could be in a few different sections but i'll try and explain best I can

I signed up to a 'cheap'ish local branch of a big chain gym in July. I signed up for 12 months. Since I've been there I think there have been 4 managers?

Anyway, last Friday, the newist of managers decided to send a mail shot round to the members of the gym, Black Friday offer, only he didn't BCC us all he left all our email addresses in the To:line, so now my email address is visible to all 200+ member and vice versa.

I am fuming about this as this is a breach of data protection. I called the manager, was told he'd call back, emailed him, left messages on social media for them, Nothing! I've emailed the head office now but I can't find a telephone number anywhere to call.

I really want to just cancel my direct debit and be done with them but worried they will chase me etc. Is there anywhere I can complain to re the data breach? I'm very frustrated now and getting angrier by the hour! :mad:

indesisiv

Do they have a complaints procedure? I would suggest that you find out how to start an official complaint. You may be able to come to a solution through that? Or failing that you will need a full and final response from them.

Then finally ??
Information Commissioners Office
https://ico.org.uk/concerns/handling/

However the ICO will only look into things after you have tried to sort it I think.

nomoneytoday

An apology and maybe a free month would be fair.
Cancelling a contract for an admin mistake, I think is unlikely.

Fosterdog

The contract you have agreed to with them and the data breach are two separate things. The data issue is not a valid reason for early termination of the contract.

They have made a mistake, I don’t quite understand why you would be “fuming”, mildly annoyed I understand, but fuming over something so trivial is an extreme overreaction. I’m assuming you are not perfect and have made mistakes both in your personal life and in your profession, that’s all this is. Now you’ve made them aware you have no reason to believe it will happen again and you have suffered no actual loss by your email address being included in a long list, a list that possibly nobody else has even paid attention to and noticed.

You can complain to the ICO however this is a minor breach and relatively trivial compared to the serious cases they deal with, as long as the company agree it will never happen again I highly doubt they’d even consider looking into it.

wgl2014

What do you think anyone is going to do with your 'stolen' email address?

I'd get over it and move on.