HELP!! Cancellation of David Lloyd Gym

stellamanella

Hi. I'd originally posted this in the wrong place :eek:

I hope someone can HELP me with this David Lloyd problem! So here it goes...

Basically I joined David Lloyd gym around Feb/March 07 at £58per month. Anyway shortly after I received a letter from David Lloyd saying this was going up to £60per month from October. I later decided to cancel as I was moving 80miles away, so I phoned and they said I had to write to the manager. I wrote to them on 29th May to cancel the membership as I was moving away, but might be moving back to the area sometime in the future so I would rejoin then. (In their T&C's they have a 3months cancellation policy) so I moved and after 3 months I cancelled my direct debit.

In September I received a letter saying they hadn’t received the payment and unless they received the next 2 months (totaling up to £181.50) they would forward it to debt collectors. :mad:

I phoned them up to say I'd sent them a letter on the 29th May to cancel and they said that I should have got either proof of postage from the post office or a receipt at reception if I handed it in, and as stated in their terms and conditions I needed a receipt from them to acknowledge this. I wrote to them again (Original letter attached) saying as far as I was concerned I had already paid the 3months I owed, also my financial situation had changed & couldn’t pay another £181, and I didn’t even live in the area now to use that gym. They got back to me basically saying exactly the same thing, "as stated in their t&c I should have got a receipt. I wrote to them again saying I couldn’t afford this and is there anything they can do as It seemed to be their mistake for misplacing the original letter.:rolleyes:

Ive now received a letter from the debt collectors asking for the £181 or they'd take me to court and it would affect my credit rating. I phoned them and explained the situation they said they'd give me a call in a week to see what had happened.

I need to know what to do next, DL just keep giving me the same excuse of "as stated in their T&C's" etc. Does anyone know what the laws are for this? Is there anyone I can make a complaint to? As far as I was concerned I paid the 3 months they were asking for and didn’t even use the thing for those 3months. I really cannot afford another £181 just before Christmas, they are being really unreasonable and when I try to phone them there is either no answer from the manager (I can only speak to him apparently) and they are quite rude on the phone. :mad:

I’ve googled cancellation problems for David Lloyd Gyms and it seems a lot of people have this problem with them. Letters going missing and having to fork out another 3 months or they say (if you've sent the letter near the end of the month) the manager is on holiday and he's the only one who can acknowledge these letters, therefore it carries on to the next month (So if I cancelled 2nd of November, I'd have to pay November in full, then they'd terminate it from the 1st December, I'd then have to pay December, January & February) So you pay 4 months notice instead of 3. :mad:

Someone has suggested I offer to pay them £1 per month a duration of Xtime and they have to accept this and back off, does anyone know the law on this? or even if it's true?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance! xxx

dmg24

Do the terms state that proof of delivery is required, or are they just saying that?

Iamthesmartestmanalive

stellamanella wrote: »

Hi. I'd originally posted this in the wrong place :eek:

I hope someone can HELP me with this David Lloyd problem! So here it goes...

Basically I joined David Lloyd gym around Feb/March 07 at £58per month. Anyway shortly after I received a letter from David Lloyd saying this was going up to £60per month from October. I later decided to cancel as I was moving 80miles away, so I phoned and they said I had to write to the manager. I wrote to them on 29th May to cancel the membership as I was moving away, but might be moving back to the area sometime in the future so I would rejoin then. (In their T&C's they have a 3months cancellation policy) so I moved and after 3 months I cancelled my direct debit.

In September I received a letter saying they hadn’t received the payment and unless they received the next 2 months (totaling up to £181.50) they would forward it to debt collectors. :mad:

I phoned them up to say I'd sent them a letter on the 29th May to cancel and they said that I should have got either proof of postage from the post office or a receipt at reception if I handed it in, and as stated in their terms and conditions I needed a receipt from them to acknowledge this. I wrote to them again (Original letter attached) saying as far as I was concerned I had already paid the 3months I owed, also my financial situation had changed & couldn’t pay another £181, and I didn’t even live in the area now to use that gym. They got back to me basically saying exactly the same thing, "as stated in their t&c I should have got a receipt. I wrote to them again saying I couldn’t afford this and is there anything they can do as It seemed to be their mistake for misplacing the original letter.:rolleyes:

Ive now received a letter from the debt collectors asking for the £181 or they'd take me to court and it would affect my credit rating. I phoned them and explained the situation they said they'd give me a call in a week to see what had happened.

I need to know what to do next, DL just keep giving me the same excuse of "as stated in their T&C's" etc. Does anyone know what the laws are for this? Is there anyone I can make a complaint to? As far as I was concerned I paid the 3 months they were asking for and didn’t even use the thing for those 3months. I really cannot afford another £181 just before Christmas, they are being really unreasonable and when I try to phone them there is either no answer from the manager (I can only speak to him apparently) and they are quite rude on the phone. :mad:

I’ve googled cancellation problems for David Lloyd Gyms and it seems a lot of people have this problem with them. Letters going missing and having to fork out another 3 months or they say (if you've sent the letter near the end of the month) the manager is on holiday and he's the only one who can acknowledge these letters, therefore it carries on to the next month (So if I cancelled 2nd of November, I'd have to pay November in full, then they'd terminate it from the 1st December, I'd then have to pay December, January & February) So you pay 4 months notice instead of 3. :mad:

Someone has suggested I offer to pay them £1 per month a duration of Xtime and they have to accept this and back off, does anyone know the law on this? or even if it's true?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance! xxx

How about you read contracts in future?

At the end of the day if you sign a term which states you must get proof of postage/receipt and you dont then you dont have a case

Frankly this site is boring

1) I bought something 18 years ago and it now suffers from general wear and tear can I get i use SOGA

2) I signed a contract, now it suits me to get out can I even though im in a contract

3) I mishandled the finances how dare my bank not let me off

4) I got a silly scam email, im offended

5) My insurer charges me an admin fee

Frankly its boring

Its very simple, read your contract, abide by it, if you dont accept you will be penalised

Im sure if it was david lloyd in the wrong you'd not expect to be penalised:rolleyes:

stellamanella

To be honest I can't find the T&C's, I don't think i even remember reading them. To me it was a gym It wasnt like I was buying a house or something (I know, I was naive) and I didnt think it'd be this hard to cancel, the only thing i remember being told was about the additional 3months payment after I cancelled, so this is what I did.

They quote the "as stated in their T&C's proof of delivery is required" phrase in every correspondance that they send, so I imagine they must have it in tiny size 2 font somewhere on their T&C's. I just don't think it's fair to pay another £181 for something I can't use, or even want to now. They're not listening to me and are very quick to get the debt collectors out without trying to resolve the problem with me first.

Does anyone know how/who I can try and complain to about this? or take the matter to a goverment agency(someone like this?) or even know the law about demanding payment/paying them for something like this?

Surely I must have some rights? If you can get you'r money back from banks about overpayments i must be able to do something about this?

stellamanella

Iamthesmartestmanalive = I was asking for help, not a lecture! Do you never make mistakes?! Or do you work at David Lloyd?!
I know I was naive, but due to a berevement I had to move and frankly the gym was the last thing on my mind. Im not saying im trying to get out of the contract, as far as I was concernerd I had paid the 3months they asked for.

dmg24

Unfortunately, as you have no proof that you sent the letter, you will find it difficult to get out of the additional charge.

You could call Consumer Direct, but at the moment it is your word against that of DL, and they have t&c's to back them up. Sorry x

smcaul

Iamthesmartestmanalive wrote: »

Frankly this site is boring

Frankly its boring

Well feel free to take your acerbic comments elsewhere then. The poster was asking for advice in good faith, not to be ridiculed by a self inflated ego.

OP, there seem to be lots of people in your situation, not only with DL. If it were me I would happily let them take me to court and then tell the judge that the letter had been sent and show the copy of the letter - I cant find their T&C's all I can find is this http://www.davidlloydleisure.co.uk/content/david_lloyd_leisure/media/The_David_Lloyd_Leisure_Limited_Conditions_of_Purchase.pdf and nowhere in there that I can see does it mention sending in by recorded delivery.

There seems to be people who have also got out of gym memberships by going along the lines that they were sold a finance agreement to pay for the membership - if this is the same at DL was it sold correctly? Might be worth looking into.

I am no lawyer but there is a wealth of info about these sort of scams (and yes they are scams before anyone starts, they trick people into signing, therefore are scams)

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Lisey_Loo

Have a look on the Watchdog website.
I`m sure something like this was mentioned on their programme a few weeks ago.

Hope you get it sorted out. It sounds like they`re trying to intimidate you into giving in, and paying another 3 months again.

Good luck!

SmileBeHappy

Ah dear.... i answered in the first thread but here i go.... now ive seen you all go off

I worked for them (as a minor job) but have a good idea how it all works.

They do not scam you... it is in the t and c's you sign when you join they will need 3months cancellation (in writting) to terminate your agreement. Now, surely, if you want to secure that, you need to prove it, your a fool if you don't ensure you can prove it. For all you no, they never received it, and the PO mucked up. Why should DL let you off nearly £200 they should be owed just coz you failed to get a recipt?

Its not "just a gym" its a rather exclusive lifestyle, and one you should have to abide by the rules for... you can't (in my opinion) fork out whatever sum of money they ask for (in my opinion alot) and then fail to comply by their t and c's when they ask for what you owe.

Its a buisness... and £200... although nothing in the grand scheme of things, is alot when you consider they might have 100 people trying to do this a year/month.

Im not accusing you of scamming... but they won't bother "scamming" you for the sake of £200... their a buisness with a reputation, they wouldn't do it at all. I advise you to pay... the interest they will possibly add wnt be attractive

Keep us posted

timberflake

Iamthesmartestmanalive wrote: »

How about you read contracts in future?

At the end of the day if you sign a term which states you must get proof of postage/receipt and you dont then you dont have a case

Frankly this site is boring

1) I bought something 18 years ago and it now suffers from general wear and tear can I get i use SOGA

2) I signed a contract, now it suits me to get out can I even though im in a contract

3) I mishandled the finances how dare my bank not let me off

4) I got a silly scam email, im offended

5) My insurer charges me an admin fee

Frankly its boring

Its very simple, read your contract, abide by it, if you dont accept you will be penalised

Im sure if it was david lloyd in the wrong you'd not expect to be penalised:rolleyes:

If you find this site boring, why do you come here? :rolleyes:

Lavendyr

I'm sorry OP but honestly it sounds like a very expensive lesson for you to learn - next time you want to cancel something, you absolutely must use registered post or special delivery otherwise you have no proof that it arrived the other end. If it were me, I'd accept the mistake and cough up the three months' membership fee as I don't think you really have a leg to stand on, unfortunately.