LA Fitness

Undercovercarrot

I get in from work today, to find 2 identical letters from LA Fitness, who are my gym. The letters state that further to an earlier letter that they sent me (which I never received), my account with them is in arrears to the tune of £96. The letter continued to say that if I did not pay the outstanding sum within 5 working days from the letter (now 2 working days, as I got it this evening) then they would pass my details to a collection agent.

I called up the bank, thinking "oh God, what's happened?" The bank tell me that the Direct Debit is set up, confirming all details are correct, but that LA Fitness have made no request for funds to be collected from my account. They also say that under the terms of the Direct Debit guarantee, I cannot be liable if the company makes a mistake, and that I should receive a full refund.

I found that the tone of the letter was very accusatory and confrontational. It in effect said that I was trying to breach my contract with them etc. It actually upset me quite a bit, as I am now worried that they will send the baliffs round to try and collect the funds. (I am even MORE worried about the possibility of a CCJ) I have e-mailed them telling them to retract the letter immediately, but I am still worried.

Avoid LA Fitness like the plague! They are useless and unpleasant. Any advice about how to take this further, and what my rights are?

Ta!

Milky_Mocha

You don't happen to have changed your bank to A&L do you? I've had that problem twice with them. Looks like their current account doesn't communicate well with other organisations!

IvanOpinion

Don't fret over it ... these things happen ... all the time .. just make a couple of phone calls and get it sorted out - I wouldn't trust email as being my only medium for contact (useful for follow-up but in matters like this I do prefer talking to something that vaguely resembles a human life form). Alternatively take the letter down to the gym and explain that you have talked to your bank and the problem is at their (LA Fatness') end and then offer to pay any outstanding amounts by credit card or whatever way you prefer ... or, if you really want to, then cancel your membership ... that will teach them a lesson ???

You are miles off baliffs and CCJs? They say they sent you out an earlier letter which you unfortunately did not receive. The problem they have is that every Tom, !!!!!! and Harry before you has used the 'I did not receive it' excuse therefore when this genuinely happens they take the 'yea right' type of attitude.

I am not sure what you can complain about since you haven't incurred any loss (in fact it appears that any loss is currently on the side of LA Fatness) and they claim they sent you a previous (probably much more polite) reminder. It is only a simple misunderstanding that should be easily sorted out.

Ivan

Lucie_2

LA Fitness do have fairly stringent credit control. They do enforce their contracts. However, this is their mistake as they have not asked for any money out of your account. In my experience they make quite a lot of mistakes like this so you are not the only one. You need to talk to the membership administrator at your club & get them to sort it out. It sounds like you've just been missed off the BACS run.
One thing that is for certain is your account is in arrears because they haven't claimed the money (not your fault), so you will have to pay the £96 owing. They should take the payment in the club by cash, cheque or card. Usually once 2 or 3 direct debits are unpaid the remainder of the contract becomes payable immediately, but I would say that they can't do this to you, as you were willing to pay, they just didn't claim the money.

Undercovercarrot

I have no objection to the fact that my account is in arrears. However, I do object to the confrontational tone of the letter which made me feel like a criminal rather than a valued paying customer. Trading Standards told me that it was definitely their error, and under the terms of contract, they would be in criminal breach if they attempted to send my details to a debt agency when I had made attempts to pay, which is reassuring.

Thanks for the advice, anyway people!

Dave

Lucie_2

Undercovercarrot wrote:

a valued paying customer

Therein lies the problem. LA Fitness will only value you (& not that highly) if you are paying hard cash, even if it's their fault that you are not. I think they have tried quite hard to improve their customer service recently, but at the end of the day it's cash in the bank that's important to them.

Undercovercarrot

Sadly this seems true.

I e-mailed the credit control people and phoned them three times yesterday. I got put through to an answerphone each time. Although I left three seperate messages, nobody got in contact with me.
I phoned up my own gym today and spoke with the admin manager. She has apologised unreservedly for the letters and has credited me with two month's free membership for the inconvenience caused. This seems to be a result! Woohoo!

ZSO, my advice is: if you have to deal with LA Fitness, do NOT deal with their membership department. Go to your gym and demand to speak to a manager. They are able to sort it out very easily.

Dave

Lucie_2

Undercovercarrot wrote:

She has apologised unreservedly for the letters and has credited me with two month's free membership for the inconvenience caused. This seems to be a result! Woohoo!

Nice one. You have done well to get anything free out of them - must be all this sunshine putting people in a generous mood!

I would make a mental note to check that next month's DD goes out OK so that you can get onto them if it does not.