direct debit for my daughter Puregym when classes get contantly cancel Can i claim it back and how?

jessyred

need help








my daughter sign up for a membership with PureGym when she was 16 years old and she put my name for the direct debit as she is a minor, the last 2 month they have constantly cancel classes every time she booked it and most of the months due to maintenance work they cannot run the classes that my daughter wanted to go, they suggest to go to the other gym, but as she has already booked the local one was not on a convenient time, so i wrote as well as my daughter to ask for a 2 month refund, this is the reply they send:







" Unfortunately I will not be able to offer any refund for payments because the gym has been under refurbishment, when you signed up to your membership you agreed to the terms and conditions which states in section 5 under miscellaneous terms that:



"There may be occasions where we have to close all, or part of, the gym of which you are a member. We will do our best to let you know of such closures in advance of them taking place, unless the problem is urgent or an emergency. We will use all commercially reasonable endeavours to ensure that such closures are outside of peak visiting hours and are kept to a minimum, in both duration and frequency. You will not be entitled to a refund of part of, or all of, your membership fees in such circumstances."




now i would like to point out that my daughter was under 18 years old and she sign the term and condition not myself, so is anything i can do to fix this?

thanks

Flobberchops

From the topic title I thought Puregym was your daughter's name. Very exotic.


Short answer is no, you can't use the direct debit guarantee to raise an indemnity for not receiving a service, receiving a worse service than was promised, or general dissatisfaction. From DirectDebit.co.uk, "The Guarantee covers Direct Debit payments. It cannot be used to address contractual disputes between you and the billing organisation.​", so it's quite clear on that. A chargeback is only acceptable in the instance of an error, for example a recurring payment taken when you were told it was a one-off, payment taken after you asked them to stop, the incorrect date or amount, and so on.


The proper thing to do would be to escalate the complaint with Pure Gym if you feel in the wrong, and if all fails there (and you genuinely think they have breached the contract, not just not lived up to your expectations) approach your bank to raise a merchant dispute.



The fact that your daughter is under 18 wouldn't change anything as far as I'm aware. There are many things you can be legally responsible for under 18. Driving and sex, for example, although probably not both at the same time.

JuicyJesus

Additionally, as I understand it, the classes are free add-ons to the PureGym contract which is for access to the gym itself and use of the equipment. Even if the classes got cancelled, she would presumably have been able to use the gym itself which is what she is overall paying for. As they've explained, sometimes even this can't be provided all of the time due to things such as maintenance and refurbishment, which is reasonable.

Sorry to say that they're entirely right. What Flobberchops says about getting a refund via the Direct Debit scheme is also correct; the indemnity scheme isn't for that.

gingercordial

The point of Puregym is that you can cancel whenever you like with no contract. So if she is dissatisfied with the service why doesn't she just cancel?

Gubz22

jessyred wrote: »

need help








my daughter sign up for a membership with PureGym when she was 16 years old and she put my name for the direct debit as she is a minor, the last 2 month they have constantly cancel classes every time she booked it and most of the months due to maintenance work they cannot run the classes that my daughter wanted to go, they suggest to go to the other gym, but as she has already booked the local one was not on a convenient time, so i wrote as well as my daughter to ask for a 2 month refund, this is the reply they send:







" Unfortunately I will not be able to offer any refund for payments because the gym has been under refurbishment, when you signed up to your membership you agreed to the terms and conditions which states in section 5 under miscellaneous terms that:



"There may be occasions where we have to close all, or part of, the gym of which you are a member. We will do our best to let you know of such closures in advance of them taking place, unless the problem is urgent or an emergency. We will use all commercially reasonable endeavours to ensure that such closures are outside of peak visiting hours and are kept to a minimum, in both duration and frequency. You will not be entitled to a refund of part of, or all of, your membership fees in such circumstances."




now i would like to point out that my daughter was under 18 years old and she sign the term and condition not myself, so is anything i can do to fix this?

thanks

HI Jessy,

As some have already said the classes themselves are mostly free except for some paid for classes which are very very few so unfortunately you wouldn't be able to receive a refund as the gym as a gym is still functioning which is really what you're paying for.

If you cancel your direct debit there will no longer be a charge and they have no cancellation charges so it would be an easy way to stop the ongoing direct debit.

The only thing I could suggest for escalating the case is try raising a executive level complaint and see if you can get anywhere there. Even if it is two free months at another site that doesn't have the same ongoing maintenance works. To raise the complaint you would usually email the CEO which will be passed to a dedicated team to deal with. The email address should be humphrey@puregym.com best of luck with it but remember technically they don't have to offer anything so I wouldn't hold your hopes on it although it is still work a try IMHO.