Problems with Village Gym 30 June 2018 at 8:14AM in Sports & fitness MoneySaving 4 replies 3.1K views

Andy_Harvey

Has anyone else had problems with aggressive tactics from this group? I joined their Swansea gym in January on a monthly contract so I could cancel when I want. I then gave them 30 days notice on 13 May to say I no longer wanted membership after 14 June. They ignored my e-mail and I did not get confirmation within the 7 days they say they will respond within. I proceeded to cancel my direct debit and stopped using the gym. I am now getting threatening texts and e-mails from them to say I owe them a month's fees and that their cancellation policy is a calendar month notice (i.e. it starts from the 1st if each month) although it does not say this in the T & Cs. Now they are threatening to pass the alleged debt (a whole £36.00) to a debt collection agency. I feel I have done all I could to let them know I wanted to cancel. I dont accept that a month's notice equates to a calendar month and I regard their failure to acknowledge my cancellation e-mail as allowing me to cancel my DD as I said I would. Has anyone else found these people really hard to deal with?

parking_question_chap

Word is the exact wording on your contract re cancellation notice? word for word.

SarahRickers

I too have had issues with Village gyms. I had a membership with them since 2016, but due to ill health I am now not able to use the facilities. Also I am on reduced pay (ie. SSP) as I cannot work until I have an operation next month. A couple of months ago I put my membership on a freeze, while I was assessing my options. Having decided to cancel - they tell me I have to pay a whole months membership to get out of the contract and quoted T&Cs to me (that I never received or have had sight of). Despite a number of lengthy emails to them, explaining my situation, I cannot get any sort of acceptable response from them, they just repeat the same thing and it is quite clear they have not read the content of my messages, I just get a standard response. I am so frustrated with them and it has tainted my view of them as an organisation. The customer service is atrocious.

[Deleted User]

A month's notice sounds an exceptionally good deal. It's often a lot more than that.

Did they also let you off payments while your membership was frozen? Again, that's very rare.

Sibz

A months notice is a months notice. Membership freezing isn't all that rare any more - many gyms will do this upon reasonable request (they often tag it onto the end of your contracted period so it costs them nothing overall).

Perhaps an email to a local newspaper/media outlet with the correspondence you've received along with your original cancelation notice email might make them behave better. Who knows how many others have encountered this? - maybe even someone at the newspaper themselves...