Gym Membership Cancellation

bigsid19

Hi, hope it's ok to post this question here. Have a query on behalf of my girlfriend. She joined a local private gym back in November. At the time she joined she was led to believe that it was a pay-monthly deal, nothing was mentioned to her about it being an annual subscription. She injured her back at work at the beginning of this year and has been unable to make use of the gym so contacted them recently asking to cancel her membership. They told her should would need to pay another 8 months worth of fees at £28/month. Surprised by this she asked them to send her a copy of the contract she supposedly signed when she joined. They sent her a blank contract form with no signature. She says she did not sign anything when she originally joined but the gym have said they don't need to get a signature because all new memberships are conducted "on the computer under CCTV surveillance". I thought this was an odd and frankly ridiculous response. Anyway they also said if she'd injured herself and was unable to use the gym that she could cancel if she sent them a letter to that affect from her Chiropractor. She has now sent them the letter and cancelled her direct debit, but they are basically ignoring any emails now and won't confirm the cancellation.Obviously this is causing her a lot of worry. She is low income and their blank contract has lots of fairly threatening small print about unpaid memberships being referred to debt colleciton agencies etc.Just wondering what people's opinions are of this, as I don't personally think the gym has a leg to stand on. She was misled, not asked and didn't sign any contracts and has a valid letter proving she is unable to use their facilities and think she would be safe to simply forget about it now. Would love to hear your thoughts, sorry for the wall of text.

Regards Sid

JJ_Egan

Do they have web site with membership details ??


Just cancelling a DD may lead to debt collection and credit record getting trashed .

Aylesbury_Duck

The signature issue isn't a problem and doesn't help you, so ignore that. She must have signed and agreed to something else the direct debits wouldn't have started. What paperwork did she keep when she joined? That will presumably set out a minimum annual period.

If the gym offers the chance to suspend membership if there's an injury, then get her to keep pressing this point. Don't cancel the direct debit her end, it should be cancelled by the gym once they've suspended the membership. She's probably in breach of contract if she cancelled the DD before she formally suspended the membership.

Once they get back to her to properly acknowledge her letter, then the DDs will stop being collected by them from that point. She may be liable for a part month payment depending on the date of her letter.

bigsid19

Thanks for the replies. She got no paperwork when she joined. She sat at a desk with a computer opposite an employee who took details from her and entered them. There was no signature requested for anything, no paperwork was provided to her and at no point was she asked to enter anything into the computer or tick any boxes etc. They have a website but it has no real details on it about their membership plans just some blurb and a contact form.

Aylesbury_Duck

She must have agreed to it all though. How else did they get her bank details to start payments?

Get her to write to them formally giving notice she wishes to suspend membership as per her first letter and as per the accompanying evidence of injury. It should take effect from the date of that first letter. She should reinstate the direct debit immediately. Then they should stop collecting payments from the date of the first letter but as I said earlier, there may be a part month pay ent due.

Make sure she understands how long she can suspend membership for and what she has to do to extend the suspension if needs be (and if they allow it).

unholyangel

bigsid19 wrote: »

Hi, hope it's ok to post this question here. Have a query on behalf of my girlfriend. She joined a local private gym back in November. At the time she joined she was led to believe that it was a pay-monthly deal, nothing was mentioned to her about it being an annual subscription. She injured her back at work at the beginning of this year and has been unable to make use of the gym so contacted them recently asking to cancel her membership. They told her should would need to pay another 8 months worth of fees at £28/month. Surprised by this she asked them to send her a copy of the contract she supposedly signed when she joined. They sent her a blank contract form with no signature. She says she did not sign anything when she originally joined but the gym have said they don't need to get a signature because all new memberships are conducted "on the computer under CCTV surveillance". I thought this was an odd and frankly ridiculous response. Anyway they also said if she'd injured herself and was unable to use the gym that she could cancel if she sent them a letter to that affect from her Chiropractor. She has now sent them the letter and cancelled her direct debit, but they are basically ignoring any emails now and won't confirm the cancellation.Obviously this is causing her a lot of worry. She is low income and their blank contract has lots of fairly threatening small print about unpaid memberships being referred to debt colleciton agencies etc.Just wondering what people's opinions are of this, as I don't personally think the gym has a leg to stand on. She was misled, not asked and didn't sign any contracts and has a valid letter proving she is unable to use their facilities and think she would be safe to simply forget about it now. Would love to hear your thoughts, sorry for the wall of text.

Regards Sid

Great, ask them for that proof then.

You can't be bound by terms you were never given - assuming she was never given them and hasn't just failed to read them.

Does the contract you've received say anything about contract formation? Perhaps that its subject to contract or is formed upon signing of the contract by both parties?

bigsid19

Thanks again for the replies. In response to Aylesbury Duck, she did just verbally give them her bank account number, sort code etc which they took down and used to set up the direct debit. She did not sign a direct debit mandate (I specifically asked this because I've had to do that in the past when settings up DDs).

In response to unholyangel, I double checked with her and she was given no paperwork at all. The blank, unsigned contract they did send us via email after it was queried says on it "...by signing this agreement..." which of course she never signed.

I've suggested she follow up all the email communication with a written letter sent by recorded delivery attaching again a copy of the letter from the chiropractor about her injury as well. She already cancelled the DD (on my advice...oops) so I'm not sure how or if she can go about setting it up again from her end.

Aylesbury_Duck

Let's hope they are prompt in dealing with it.

Direct debits can be started without signatures.

deethebee

bigsid19 wrote: »

Thanks again for the replies. In response to Aylesbury Duck, she did just verbally give them her bank account number, sort code etc which they took down and used to set up the direct debit. She did not sign a direct debit mandate (I specifically asked this because I've had to do that in the past when settings up DDs).

In response to unholyangel, I double checked with her and she was given no paperwork at all. The blank, unsigned contract they did send us via email after it was queried says on it "...by signing this agreement..." which of course she never signed.

I've suggested she follow up all the email communication with a written letter sent by recorded delivery attaching again a copy of the letter from the chiropractor about her injury as well. She already cancelled the DD (on my advice...oops) so I'm not sure how or if she can go about setting it up again from her end.

You can't be bound by terms and conditions that you haven't signed. If she signed up online then it would be different as you usually confirm that you agree to the terms and conditions by clicking "I agree" and this constitutes a cyber "signature". But if she signed up in person and they have no contract or terms with signature then she absolutely cannot be bound by them. They must produce evidence that she agreed to these terms otherwise they won't have a leg to stand on.

If they try to enforce debt collection on her then all she needs to do is state her position clearly - that she provided the evidence they required of her injury even though she didn't have to because she didn't sign any contract and that they have also failed to produce any evidence that she has signed anything and if they continue trying to recover the alleged debt then she will commence court action against them for harrassment. That should shut them up.

deethebee

Aylesbury_Duck wrote: »

Let's hope they are prompt in dealing with it.

Direct debits can be started without signatures.

Direct Debits cannot legally be set up without a formal agreement, such as a signature or "cyber signature" as when you sign up to a service online. She is well within her rights to get ALL the money she paid to them back as they have no proof that she ever agreed to the Direct Debit. In fact, I'm surprised that her bank allowed the Direct Debit to be set up at all without a signature.

Aylesbury_Duck

deethebee wrote: »

Direct Debits cannot legally be set up without a formal agreement, such as a signature or "cyber signature" as when you sign up to a service online. She is well within her rights to get ALL the money she paid to them back as they have no proof that she ever agreed to the Direct Debit. In fact, I'm surprised that her bank allowed the Direct Debit to be set up at all without a signature.

Correct, but we're only hearing half of the story and not from the customer herself. If indeed there is literally nothing to show she agreed to the membership and to the contract and direct debit, you are right, but I would be surprised if that were the case.