Health club sold us £250 worth of day-passes without telling us their facilities would close

davidmcn

bobwilson wrote: »

Couldn't find the old health club name on companies house.

If it was a limited company then it won't have disappeared completely from Companies House - even dissolved companies are still listed. Was it a limited company? The legal name of the limited company might not resemble the trading name. It is possible that the new owners are now the owners of the old company and therefore could still be pursued.

sheramber

We purchased around £250 of health club passes (about a year's worth) in early 2018 for a family member who is only in the area once a month. The expiry date on the passes was the end of 2018. The monthly rate was £80 so it made sense to buy the passes.

A few days later we went to the health club to use the first pass & discovered that the facilities (jacuzzi, relaxing deck chair area etc), were closed "due to renovation work". They remained closed for the rest of the year.

Once the refurbishment finished, we discovered to our horror they closed some of the facilities permanently. Obviously we wouldn't have paid for the passes had we been told that. A few weeks later, the entire club "closed until further notice due to a fire"-

we asked for a refund, but the club refused.

The reason we were given was "We have no paperwork to prove you bought the passes (apparently owning the physical passes isn't enough) and the member of staff who sold you the passes no longer works for us, so we can't ask her. The club has unfortunately experienced a fire and is closed for the forseeable future, until further notice. We can extend the expiry on your passes in case the club re-opens in the future, but we can't refund them. The fact that they're non-refundable is printed on the back of the passes."


rom memory we bought around 40 passes at approx £6 each (approx £250), for use throughout the year. This was a significant reduction from the usual price of £25 each. We were lead to believe this was simply because of a special offer during the Christmas period.


Can you confirm the timeline

you bought the passes in early 2018

A few days later some facilities were not available- still early 2018 - and were closed for the rest of the year.

The club closed after a fire- when was this ?

The offer for the passes was 'an offer during the Christmas period' but you bought in early 2018.

If the new owners of the club did the refurbishment when did the ownership change?

Could the staff member have sold you the passes after/ or knowing about the change of ownership ?

The company have offered to extend the passes but not refund the purchase. As you have no proof of purchase how far can you pursue that?

If it now owned by a chain is there not another club in the chain near you that you could use the passes at?

bobwilson

davidmcn wrote: »

If it was a limited company then it won't have disappeared completely from Companies House - even dissolved companies are still listed. Was it a limited company? The legal name of the limited company might not resemble the trading name. It is possible that the new owners are now the owners of the old company and therefore could still be pursued.

Seems highly unlikely though. I could try to confirm it- how do you go about finding out the legal name if it wasn't the same as the name on the health club building? I've tried google to no avail.

Given the amount of time I've spent on this already, it's very close to being not worth it even if legal action was possible (which apparently seems very unlikely).

bobwilson

sheramber wrote: »

Can you confirm the timeline

you bought the passes in early 2018

A few days later some facilities were not available- still early 2018 - and were closed for the rest of the year.

The club closed after a fire- when was this ?

The offer for the passes was 'an offer during the Christmas period' but you bought in early 2018.

If the new owners of the club did the refurbishment when did the ownership change?

Could the staff member have sold you the passes after/ or knowing about the change of ownership ?

The company have offered to extend the passes but not refund the purchase. As you have no proof of purchase how far can you pursue that?

If it now owned by a chain is there not another club in the chain near you that you could use the passes at?

Received an email about club closing due to fire a week or so ago (shortly before starting this thread).

I am given to understand the ownership changed shortly after we bought the passes (as in a week or so after)

It's possible she sold us the passes knowing the club would be sold, but didn't realise they'd do refurbishment work preventing us from using it for the year.

Extended passes are useless to us now since we don't live there anymore, and even if we did (which we won't), they have no intention of restoring the facilities we signed up for.

There's no other club part of the chain anywhere near us now. They're all in only one city I believe.

davidmcn

bobwilson wrote: »

Seems highly unlikely though. I could try to confirm it- how do you go about finding out the legal name if it wasn't the same as the name on the health club building?

• Details on any correspondence, contracts etc you've had with them (or on those passes?)
• Rating valuation roll
• Planning or licensing applications on the council's website
• News stories about the place opening/closing (or about the current owner's acquisition)
• LinkedIn or other personal profiles for members of staff
• Companies House details (accounts etc) for the current company if they refer to the acquisition.

That sort of thing.

Would be easier if you gave us some details - if you're convinced they no longer exist then who's going to sue you?

sheramber

When you look up the new company on Companies house you can click on the people involved.

When you do that it gives you details of other directorships currently held or previously held.That would tell you if any of the directors have been involved with any other company.

bobwilson

davidmcn wrote: »

• Details on any correspondence, contracts etc you've had with them (or on those passes?)
• Rating valuation roll
• Planning or licensing applications on the council's website
• News stories about the place opening/closing (or about the current owner's acquisition)
• LinkedIn or other personal profiles for members of staff
• Companies House details (accounts etc) for the current company if they refer to the acquisition.

That sort of thing.

Would be easier if you gave us some details - if you're convinced they no longer exist then who's going to sue you?

My goodness, I don't know how to check most of these but I'll try

I don't have any contracts- only the passes.

The old company never made any planning applications.

The only news article I found has said the entire hotel & health club both changed ownership.

The staff told me it changed ownership completely.

I don't know any staff members full names of the old company so can't check Linked in, and the current management seems unwilling to give any info on them.

Latest accounts on companies house for the new company say "Group of companies' accounts made up to 31 December 2017" - before the purchase date of 2018. None the less, I checked the accounts & couldn't find any reference to buying the club, but then I'm no accounting expert.

It's not really worth spending that much more time on this, I could work during this time to earn the money back instead of fighting a losing battle.

Sometimes you have to pick your battles in life- and from experience, the law rarely protects people.