PureGym have screwed me over, what can I do?

thomashorsman

I joined PureGym 3 years ago before they had built the gym, the build got delayed due to covid and finally opened a year ago. My joining offer was £12.99 a month and then it goes up to £19.99 after a year. So the other day I noticed my direct debit had gone up. I now have a Blue Light Card and knew that I could get 5% off a core membership (what I have) but didn’t know how to apply it, so I emailed them. The customer service agent Ajoa said:

“No problem, we will be happy to help! We can't apply Bluelight discounts to existing memberships, you will just need to cancel your current membership and re-join via the Blue Light card Website.

As you are very close to your payment date (29/03/23), we can end your membership and refund you £19.99, so you can re-join us via Blue light Card. Please confirm you are happy for us to end your membership.

Once you have confirmed the cancellation, you will be able to re-join the next day. 

We hope you are enjoying the gym and we look forward to your reply!”

I took this as: all I have to do is tell them to cancel, so that I will be able to rejoin with my blue light discount so that it can be cheaper for me. So I emailed back and asked them to cancel. Clare got back to me and said that she’s cancelled my membership and refunded the £19.99 and I am now able to join back with BLC.

When I have gone to rejoin via Blue Light Card, I have found that the price of the membership (with discount) is £26.59.

So essentially, they told me I could use my discount, but failed to mention that it would be more expensive.

I emailed back asking if they can just revert my membership back to the £19.99 that it was originally, but I’ve heard nothing back.

Is it my fault for not checking the price of a membership with blue light and just assuming I would get 5% off £19.99 or have they tricked me by purposefully not telling me it would be more expensive (which they surely would know).

It’s also so frustrating that I have to wait over 24hrs for every email to get a reply, why can’t they have a telephone line or a live chat?!

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Grumpy_chap

This sort of thing is not unusual.

My work have a discount scheme with several chains of gym, including the one I am a member of.  I checked the cost through the discount work scheme, found it was higher than my current membership so stayed as I was.

The various work related discount schemes are often little more than marketing for the brands involved and never guarantee to be the best price.

thomashorsman said:

I joined PureGym 3 years ago before they had built the gym, the build got delayed due to covid and finally opened a year ago. My joining offer was £12.99 a month and then it goes up to £19.99 after a year. So the other day I noticed my direct debit had gone up. I now have a Blue Light Card and knew that I could get 5% off a core membership (what I have) but didn’t know how to apply it, so I emailed them. The customer service agent Ajoa said:

“No problem, we will be happy to help! We can't apply Bluelight discounts to existing memberships, you will just need to cancel your current membership and re-join via the Blue Light card Website.

As you are very close to your payment date (29/03/23), we can end your membership and refund you £19.99, so you can re-join us via Blue light Card. Please confirm you are happy for us to end your membership.

Once you have confirmed the cancellation, you will be able to re-join the next day. 

We hope you are enjoying the gym and we look forward to your reply!”

I took this as: all I have to do is tell them to cancel, so that I will be able to rejoin with my blue light discount so that it can be cheaper for me. So I emailed back and asked them to cancel. Clare got back to me and said that she’s cancelled my membership and refunded the £19.99 and I am now able to join back with BLC.

When I have gone to rejoin via Blue Light Card, I have found that the price of the membership (with discount) is £26.59.

So essentially, they told me I could use my discount, but failed to mention that it would be more expensive.

I emailed back asking if they can just revert my membership back to the £19.99 that it was originally, but I’ve heard nothing back.

Is it my fault for not checking the price of a membership with blue light and just assuming I would get 5% off £19.99 or have they tricked me by purposefully not telling me it would be more expensive (which they surely would know).

It’s also so frustrating that I have to wait over 24hrs for every email to get a reply, why can’t they have a telephone line or a live chat?!

Does anyone have any suggestions?

DCFC79

Yes you have assumed you would get a 5% discount £19.99, I would do the same before I would find out how much I would be paying for a membership using my Blue Light card.