Help!

mazk

Hi will try to keep it short - I joined a gym unfortunately 6 weeks into my membership the support and service turned shockingly bad. I decided to quit and leave that gym. Here’s the confusing bit I paid £495 for my membership upfront one lump payment by debit card for a 6 month membership - when I got my membership I received no terms and conditions and no contract to sign. Can I get my money back for the rest of that 6 months I’ve not used ? Can I do charge back to my bank ? If the retailer is not willing to give me a refund or partial refund where do I stand considering I didn’t receive anything about my membership ? 

Sandtree

Either they would need to have offered an early cancellation or have promised things which they have failed to provide. 

There is no legal requirement for a written contract, without one it just makes it harder to prove what was agreed. Unless you can evidence a breach then you;ve paid for 6 months access, you;ve had 1.5 months access and can continue to use it for the next 4.5 months, if you choose not to thats your choice.

If you can substantiate they offered 3 hours of PT time a week (and not "subject to availability") but they've not been providing that (or something similar) then you have more grounds to argue a breach of contract for which a partial refund may be an appropriate resolution.

born_again

No chargeback as the gym facilities are still available.

mazk

Sorry to put it into perspective further originally you sign up for a 6 week boot camp  - which u pay for in that time you get- 
*encouragement to hand in a food diary
*Weighs in with email support and follow up
*photos to track your process 
*face to face coaching 
*a motivational welcome talk and thanks for joining 

in week 4 they set goals with me face to face to encourage you to become a member and pay for the 6 month membership. 

Once I then became a member all that level of service and support stopped and therefore payed an fortune for somewhere I could have just gone to a gym if this makes more sense so that’s what I am asking as it’s not a normal gym membership- it’s a gym advertised with extra support but as I didn’t receive that extra support due to staff shortages - which one of the coaches admitted am I entitled to get my money back or a partial refund back for bad service as I feel I’ve been conned 

Grumpy_chap

So, you paid for the boot camp, and got what was expected.

Then you paid £500 for a 6-month gym contract.  Roughly £85 per month membership.  That is kind of about the level of gym membership fees. 

In many gyms, "extra support" is often just a case of asking specific questions from the PT's on a casual basis, or taking a (paid for) training plan on top of the gym membership.

What is the nature of the "extra support" you are expecting?

bris

Gym's don't offer the same lever of support as boot camps. Boot camps are are instructor focused to get the best from you.

Gyms are more of a "there's the equipment get on with it".

Personal trainers can hired but obviously hired means a fee, usually in hourly blocks.

You don't really have a case for a refund as it's you who are confused about the level of support a gyms gives you.

mazk

I think what’s happened as there has been confusion in both parties as I wasn’t the only member led to believe that the level of service kept in the 6 week program would then dramatically dwindle once you become a member -otherwise what is the point in paying all that money - when they are just like any other gym? That was the attraction for me to hand my
money over,

 in terms of extra support I got as I’ve said above in my 6 weeks - emails weekly tracking my progress, photos for accountability, weekly food diary etc I wouldn’t have paid for the membership knowing that I was going to get that - that’s my case, my argument. It’s funny how when I’ve brought this up with the company they blamed it on staff shortages, I even got a phone call from the head coach to say “I would like you to come back we can support you now, I am going to concentrate more on members” that to me was too little too late and surely a breach in their contract??? - which I don’t know as I never received one. And it isn’t PT led its group training 3 times a week with an instructor so it’s not like you get one to one sessions either. Like I say I was happy for the 6 week - which I actually think they concentrate more on their 6 weekers as it’s like a rotation, it’s just unfortunate that I just to become a member and didn’t get what was offered in the first instance others why would anyone hand over all that money just to get 3 sessions a week and nothing else - 

thanks for your help anyway bit of a difficult one but in the first instance I will try and settle it with the company first just wanting to know where I stood legally