Gym membership unused for over 5 years.

Badger36

Today I noticed I have still been paying PureGym for a gym membership that would have been last used in late 2018, when I moved away from that property (I now live over 40 miles from my nearest PureGym). I expect that I would have cancelled at the time via the app (as I went most days, so was very aware that I had the membership)

The reason it went so long to be noticed is the money was coming out of an account that was set up purposely to be used only for mortgage payments. Every month we pay into that account an extra 25% on top of our mortgage payment and it acts as a rainy day fund. We have another account that has every direct debit coming out it. Why the PureGym money was coming out that account is probably human error on my part. 

Basically, what are my rights here? 5yrs of gym fees is a significant amount of money, probably £1200-£1500 depending on how their prices rose. 

I'm fairly sure I would have cancelled, but having now used their website to cancel - it's quite a convoluted process. Presuming it's the same, I can quite easily picture me walking out of the gym for the last time and cancelling via the app - only it never happened. 

la531983

Your rights here are nil. At best, you may get a goodwill gesture of a few months refund but the fact you didnt notice around £300 (?) a year leaving one of your own bank accounts isnt PureGyms fault.

Pretty sure they used to say cancelling the Direct Debit cancels the membership, something you didnt do clearly. These days its easily done on website/app - https://www.puregym.com/help-centre/freezing-or-ending/how-do-i-cancel-my-monthly-membership/

HillStreetBlues

You would need to show that you did cancel, being "fairly sure" carries no weight.

Badger36

Its not that easy btw. I did just cancel it and got it wrong the first time by clicking the wrong button as it asks maybe 5 times 'look at these great offers' - 'are you sure you want to leave'. I completed the process about 2hrs ago and still haven't had any confirmation email through that my account has been cancelled. 

Unfortunately I did fear my rights here are nil, despite not using the product for 5yrs. 

Exodi

I think if your defense hangs on "I can quite easily picture me walking out of the gym for the last time and cancelling via the app" coupled with 'I didn't check my statement for over 5 years' then I think even the most pro-consumer among us will struggle to help you with this.

As la531983 says above, I think your best bet will be politely speaking to them and seeing if you can get a goodwill gesture out of it. I think you'd be lucky though, these cheap gyms are famously ungenerous - especially to people that are leaving them. Charging people for memberships they don't use is a major part of the revenue of these types of gyms.

I remember an issue I had with The Gym in the past - They advise to cancel your Direct Debit to cancel the membership with them. I did this mid way through the month to make sure I didn't accidentally pay for another month (where the Direct Debit was due on the 1st). Much to my suprise I was instantly locked out of the gym in the middle of the month, even though I had paid for the full month! I spoke to them about this, they pointed to some random page and subsection of their T&C's and told me that's how their payment system works. I ended up going in circles with them over a few emails and gave up - it was only about a tenner and I can see why they would not be motivated to help someone that has made the decision to leave them.

Sorry, wish I could have given a more positive answer.

Exodi

Badger36 said:

Its not that easy btw. I did just cancel it and got it wrong the first time by clicking the wrong button as it asks maybe 5 times 'look at these great offers' - 'are you sure you want to leave'. I completed the process about 2hrs ago and still haven't had any confirmation email through that my account has been cancelled. 

Unfortunately I did fear my rights here are nil, despite not using the product for 5yrs. 

Cancelling your direct debit is also a good plan B if you want to be double sure.

Can share your frustration with the cancellation processes - HelloFresh does the same thing, 'are you sure you want to cancel?' - 'are you sure sure?' - 'are you reallyyyyyy sure?' - 'are you sure you do not want to not cancel?'.

Grumpy_chap

Badger36 said:

Today I noticed I have still been paying PureGym for a gym membership that would have been last used in late 2018, when I moved away from that property (I now live over 40 miles from my nearest PureGym). I expect that I would have cancelled at the time via the app (as I went most days, so was very aware that I had the membership)

The reason it went so long to be noticed is the money was coming out of an account that was set up purposely to be used only for mortgage payments. Every month we pay into that account an extra 25% on top of our mortgage payment and it acts as a rainy day fund. We have another account that has every direct debit coming out it. Why the PureGym money was coming out that account is probably human error on my part. 

Basically, what are my rights here? 5yrs of gym fees is a significant amount of money, probably £1200-£1500 depending on how their prices rose. 

I'm fairly sure I would have cancelled, but having now used their website to cancel - it's quite a convoluted process. Presuming it's the same, I can quite easily picture me walking out of the gym for the last time and cancelling via the app - only it never happened. 

Your rights seem to be low to nil in this case.

You "expect" you would have cancelled the membership is quite weak - can you find anything that proves you would have cancelled?

You did not check the account that the DD was taken from for five years.  That is not PureGym's fault.

Remember that it is not at all unusual for individuals to hold gym membership that is never, or very rarely, used.  Indeed, some gyms may require as part of their business model that people join and commit to a year (or longer) membership as they "want to get fit" and those people attend a hand full of times and then give up, but need to keep paying for the year and eventually forget to cancel the membership once the year has rolled around.

The only possible thing here might hinge on "5yrs of gym fees is a significant amount of money, probably £1200-£1500 depending on how their prices rose"
Can you go back through the 5 years of statements and look at the monthly amounts drawn? 
How and when have those amounts varied?
If the amount changed, then I understand that the gym would need to notify you in advance that the DD amount was changing.  If the gym wrote to you ate your old address, did you have mail forwarding in place?  
If you can prove that you were not notified of a DD change, there may be a route under the DD Guarantee.
It is a long shot as, if the gym wrote to you at the address they had on file for you, that would probably be sufficient to count as notification.

la531983

The only possible thing here might hinge on "5yrs of gym fees is a significant amount of money, probably £1200-£1500 depending on how their prices rose"
Can you go back through the 5 years of statements and look at the monthly amounts drawn? 
How and when have those amounts varied?
If the amount changed, then I understand that the gym would need to notify you in advance that the DD amount was changing.  If the gym wrote to you ate your old address, did you have mail forwarding in place?  
If you can prove that you were not notified of a DD change, there may be a route under the DD Guarantee.
It is a long shot as, if the gym wrote to you at the address they had on file for you, that would probably be sufficient to count as notification.

He will be out of luck here too. My PureGym membership price hasnt changed in years, it doesnt change until you cancel and then rejoin at whatever the rate is at the time, or do an upgrade of some sort (Which he wont have done either)

Therefore, there is likely no email notifiying of a change in DD price, because quite simply it wont have changed price. And it would have been by email, like all their their other mailings.

born_again

Re above even if it was £1500 over 5 years thats only £25 a month.

la531983

born_again said:

Re above even if it was £1500 over 5 years thats only £25 a month.

Mine isnt even £20 a month. 

Brie

I don't know what the T&Cs are but the gym I used to use had a 3 month cancellation period so if you cancelled you were expect to pay for another 3 months.  If you cancelled your DD too soon they would immediately send the big boys in with threatening tactics. 

Only managed to fight this in the end as about half the gym wasn't open and even the bits that were available were on very restricted hours.  It was all part of their run down to closing the place completely and insisted that those that didn't respond to their 1 email warning of the closure were simply deemed to have transfered their membership to another in the chain which was 30 miles away.