cancelled gym membership, direct debit taken for year and a half

TheMeerkat

hi,

i used to be a member with virgin active a year and a half ago. i was paying £70 a month with them at this time. i cancelled my membership with them and got an email from them where they "made arrangements for your membership to be cancelled". however, it look like what they've done instead is upgrade my account, so i've been paying them on average £102 a month for a year and a half. i called the branch to find out what was going on and they say that my membership was never cancelled. they also upgraded my account AGAIN a year after i initially cancelled but admitted that there is no signature on the contract for those 6 months. i have basically been charged over £1900 for a service i thought was cancelled. what is the best course of action here? how likely am i to get all the money back?

p.s.: i know that i should have caught this sooner, but that doesn't excuse this entire incident.

Pollycat

What was their response when you coped them the email they sent you confirming your cancellation?

You really do need to start checking your bank statements (and credit card statements ) more often.

CGG

Try asking on the Bank Accounts thread.

Pollycat

Is it really a bank account issue though?

It's cancellation of a contract.

OP - maybe there's something here that will help:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/cheap-gym-membership?_ga=2.45895008.576594396.1512289052-423494737.1487771712

If you click on the link, there's a section about cancelling contracts.

loadsacash

I used t work for a gym in the memberships department.

The thing to do is to contact your bank and tell them that you cancelled your membership with the gym but they carried out paying the direct debit.

Your bank will do an indemnity and pay you all the money back.

Pollycat

loadsacash wrote: »

I used t work for a gym in the memberships department.

The thing to do is to contact your bank and tell them that you cancelled your membership with the gym but they carried out paying the direct debit.

Your bank will do an indemnity and pay you all the money back.

Let's hope the OP has proof that he/she actually requested that the contract be cancelled.

And - from what I understand - there may be minimum membership periods and notice periods.
So this should be taken into account when requesting a Direct Debit Indemnity.

teddysmum

There were articles, a few years ago, on such programmes as Watchdog and it was found that people were charged after 'cancelling' because they had actually been sold a loan based on the cost of a year's fee upfront, which the gyms received, but the loan had to be paid off, even if gym use was discontinued.

House_Martin

I can cancel my own direct debits at any time with my online banking.Its easy, I don`t have to trudge into the bank or wait forever trying to phone them, why can t you OP ?

jenniewb

House_Martin wrote: »

I can cancel my own direct debits at any time with my online banking.Its easy, I don`t have to trudge into the bank or wait forever trying to phone them, why can t you OP ?

The reason the OP can't just cancel via the bank is because they'd be going against the contract agreement and could at best end up with a fine, at worst end up with bailiffs and a dent in their credit score. It's not wise to cancel everything via the bank, some things sure, but not everything and IME, not most things.