Gym Membership

htbgibbons

Hi, my girlfriend had a gym membership with a gym owned by the local authority. On the 28th October she emailed them to cancel her subscription but they never responded. On the 31st a second lockdown was announced and a day later the gym took money out of her account for November’s membership. They emailed to say the account had been frozen. She got in touch with the gym who were quite hostile and said that the money for November had been transferred as credit for December. She asked for this to be refunded to her bank because she had already requested for her account to be cancelled before all of this happened. We understand that she would have to pay for November’s because of the 30 day notice period however the gym was supposed to freeze the membership and instead still charged their members and simply used this as credit. This does not seem fair but the gym have said their stance is final and are now refusing to reply to any emails. Is there anything that can be done to get this money refunded? Thanks

[Deleted User]

If there was a 30 day notice period, then it's correct that there was one more payment  And if she can't use it in November, then they've done the right thing in allowed her to use the gym in December.

htbgibbons

Deleted_User said:

If there was a 30 day notice period, then it's correct that there was one more payment  And if she can't use it in November, then they've done the right thing in allowed her to use the gym in December.

Thanks for replying. The problem is they froze her account by taking out payment and using this as credit for the next month, after she had already given them a 30 day notice for cancellation. With lockdown they should not really have charged her for November, but they did and just used this as credit for December. This would all be fine if she hadn’t already have given notice to cancel. So now the gym has the credit for her membership which she already told them she did not want in December. Thanks again

MattMattMattUK

You are misunderstanding the 30 day notice period, the payment they took out covers the 30 day notice period, that would have been November, but as they were closed that period covers December, the alternative was that she pays for November, but with no access to the gym. The gym are correct, she is not entitled to her 30 day notice being free.

unholyangel

If she cancelled in line with T&C's then they can only charge her for the days they were actually open during the notice period. They cannot extend her membership beyond the cancellation date just because they were unable to provide services during that period. 

People have a funny perception sometimes. For example, if you'd came on here and said you wanted to pay the gym December rather than November as agreed, they'd be telling you that you agreed to pay in November so you must pay. If you told them you wanted to tell the gym you were going to pay them in brass buttons rather than the money agreed, they'd tell you you agreed to pay money so you need to pay the money. Yet post on here saying a trader isn't doing what they agreed, and the replies will still tell you that you need to pay. 

A contract needs to be equally binding on both parties. That both parties are bound to the obligations they agreed to accept at the time the contract was formed. Yeah it may not be the gyms fault, but it's still their liability and they're still in breach of contract. And it not being their fault doesn't automatically make it yours. 

gary83

I had the same situation & got a result. My notice was confirmed to expire 1 December, gym shut on 2 November. I rang customer service who said the same party line , Payment for November could be used as credit for December. I argued I didn’t want credit, my contract with the gym was over & I had no further need of it, I’d followed the contract, and had ended it correctly, they couldn’t now insist on adding something. At that point she got a supervisor I made a separate payment at the pro rata rate for the 2 days they’d been open got an email confirming that in writing & directing me to claima direct debit indemnity for the full month subscription from the bank, that was a 2 minute live chat with Santander who filed a picture of the email and instantly credited my account the full cost of the monthly subscription