Can I take my gym to court and/or claim off my credit card?

enginestar

I need advice in what to do about a problem with my gym.

Summary:

- I have been cheated out of 6 months membership due to Covid closures and restrictions.
- They refuse to honour the price for my renewal - which is given in their own lifetime membership agreement given in their own terms and conditions on their website.
- I paid using my credit card in February 2020.

Can I ask my credit card to help? (I have spoken to them and they seem thick as 2 planks.)
Should I take the matter to a small courts claim? Taking the matter to court, can I force them to honour the price deal I signed up for?

I actually want to continue to go to the gym - so don't want to upset anyone as such.
The gym is a large chain with hundreds of centres around the country.

In more detail:

In Feb 2020 I took out a joint gym membership with my wife.
I was promised verbally that the price I paid would be guaranteed for life.
Covid comes along and messes up the world.
Gyms closes + when they reopen they have limited access on EVERYTHING (due to government rules on proximity).
Impossible to get classes. Getting a gym slot is hit and miss always.
I calculated 6 months access was lost. 😕
Wife was hit hardest - she couldn't book a single class.
After Covid, the gym introduced an apartheid system - where some members could pay £10 extra and book 2 weeks ahead - while the rest of the peasant members could only book 1 week ahead. The result was that the 'elite' members got to book everything.

I spent many email threads communicating with the gym manager (polite emails only). He stopped replying about the loss of 6 months gym membership.

My app told me my gym membership was due for renewal in January (and not February like it should!).
I paid the renewal fee asked in the app. All was OK for a few days. Now my wife can't book anything or go to the gym.

I spent many phone calls to the gym manager. He says that they have new plans in place now and the old plans and prices are now scrapped. And as such, I can't have my old gym membership as it was. I kept telling him like a madman that I was promised when joining that the price I paid would always be honoured and I would never pay anymore despite future price changes. He says he knows nothing about this.

3am: browsing their website, I see in their terms and conditions the price promise mentioned! So I wasn't going mad after all!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

MattMattMattUK

enginestar said:

I need advice in what to do about a problem with my gym.

Summary:

- I have been cheated out of 6 months membership due to Covid closures and restrictions.
- They refuse to honour the price for my renewal - which is given in their own lifetime membership agreement given in their own terms and conditions on their website.
- I paid using my credit card in February 2020.

Can I ask my credit card to help? (I have spoken to them and they seem thick as 2 planks.)
Should I take the matter to a small courts claim? Taking the matter to court, can I force them to honour the price deal I signed up for?

I actually want to continue to go to the gym - so don't want to upset anyone as such.
The gym is a large chain with hundreds of centres around the country.

In more detail:

In Feb 2020 I took out a joint gym membership with my wife.
I was promised verbally that the price I paid would be guaranteed for life.
Covid comes along and messes up the world.
Gyms closes + when they reopen they have limited access on EVERYTHING (due to government rules on proximity).
Impossible to get classes. Getting a gym slot is hit and miss always.
I calculated 6 months access was lost. 😕
Wife was hit hardest - she couldn't book a single class.
After Covid, the gym introduced an apartheid system - where some members could pay £10 extra and book 2 weeks ahead - while the rest of the peasant members could only book 1 week ahead. The result was that the 'elite' members got to book everything.

I spent many email threads communicating with the gym manager (polite emails only). He stopped replying about the loss of 6 months gym membership.

My app told me my gym membership was due for renewal in January (and not February like it should!).
I paid the renewal fee asked in the app. All was OK for a few days. Now my wife can't book anything or go to the gym.

I spent many phone calls to the gym manager. He says that they have new plans in place now and the old plans and prices are now scrapped. And as such, I can't have my old gym membership as it was. I kept telling him like a madman that I was promised when joining that the price I paid would always be honoured and I would never pay anymore despite future price changes. He says he knows nothing about this.

3am: browsing their website, I see in their terms and conditions the price promise mentioned! So I wasn't going mad after all!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Cancel your membership and go elsewhere.

Aylesbury_Duck

Serve notice in writing.  They may come back to you with an offer to retain you if you haven't burnt your bridges by constantly emailing and calling them like a madman.  If not, find another gym.

You can't force them to have you as a member - they will have clauses in the contract that allow them to serve appropriate notice on you, just as you can on them, and you're clearly not happy with the way they operate, anyway.

Credit card probably won't help because you have been supplied with what you paid for, it's just accessing it that's difficult.  If you can evidence your actual losses then small claims court is an option.

If you live in an urban area, there are probably plenty of alternatives.  My friend is in the gym business and it's a members' market out there.  Lots of people moved from gymbership to home exercise or other activities in the pandemic, and they're not all coming back.

TELLIT01

Moving to a new gym when you have just paid for a new membership may end up costing you part of the annual fee for the current gym.  Years ago I had a 'discussion' with the manager of the gym I went to.  I always went at the same time of day, it was the only convenient time for me, and always used the same equipment which was on the exercise programme created for me.  I arrived one evening to find all the kit I needed roped off.  They were using the area, and the kit, for training sessions for a local sports team.  The manager initially tried to tell me it would cost me to cancel membership.  I said if he tried that I would continue to use the kit as it was the only equipment I could use in order to conform with their rules.  In the end he backed down and cancelled my membership.

enginestar

Thanks for the replies guys
I didn't realise there were replies to my question

In terms of getting my money back - do I have any chance of getting a complete refund as I wasn't given the service I paid for??

Aylesbury_Duck

I wouldn't think so.  You paid for membership and you received it.