Sports Direct / Everlast Gym Membership Issue

JulieWa

Hi,

I've been a member of Sports Direct gym in Kings Heath, Birmingham for a couple of years.

Around a year ago I began working for a new employer who is part of the Gym Flex scheme where the cost of the gym membership is taken out of your salary before tax. I signed up and provided my gym account number so I thought this would be linked to my existing account.

I cancelled my direct debit from my bank account as the payments would now be made via Gym Flex.

Today I've discovered I have two accounts - one using my personal email address and one using my work email address - and that the first account has a £200 debt on it.

I discussed this with the manager at the gym who seemed to think I shouldn't worry about the £200 debt account and could just continue on the new one.

I came away comforted by that but have since begun to worry about the £200 debt being against my name. I logged into the Member Area of the website (I can't get on to their app!) and can see that an 'order' is accruing every month, building up the debt.

I am not able to cancel my membership as this is not possible if you have a debt on your account. So the amounts will keep building and I can't stop them.

The manager said it's the user's responsibility to cancel their membership and there is nothing he can do to cancel the membership until the debt is cleared. He also said it happens all the time and lots of people end up with two accounts with debts building.

He's now agreed to contact their HR department but he said they are only likely to agree to cancel the membership if I agree to go on a payment plan.

I'm obviously angry that I have to pay again for membership of a gym I've already paid for and annoyed with myself for assuming a) the membership would be carried over when I started paying via Gymflex and b) cancelling the direct debit would lead to a cancellation of the membership.

I would ignore it as the manager suggested but this debt is only going to keep growing and I don't want that against my name.

My only hope now is that I speak to someone with some sense and some authority to clear the debt in their HR team but I am pessimistic.

Have I got a leg to stand on or do I need to chalk it up to experience and agree to set up the payment plan to get the membership cancelled and stop the debt accruing?

My only consolation is the Sports Direct gym membership is half the cost of any other gym in the area so paying twice means I'm about where I would have been if I'd have gone somewhere else... Buy cheap, buy twice!

Aylesbury_Duck

JulieWa said:

Hi,

I've been a member of Sports Direct gym in Kings Heath, Birmingham for a couple of years.

Around a year ago I began working for a new employer who is part of the Gym Flex scheme where the cost of the gym membership is taken out of your salary before tax. I signed up and provided my gym account number so I thought this would be linked to my existing account.

I cancelled my direct debit from my bank account as the payments would now be made via Gym Flex.

Today I've discovered I have two accounts - one using my personal email address and one using my work email address - and that the first account has a £200 debt on it.

I discussed this with the manager at the gym who seemed to think I shouldn't worry about the £200 debt account and could just continue on the new one.

I came away comforted by that but have since begun to worry about the £200 debt being against my name. I logged into the Member Area of the website (I can't get on to their app!) and can see that an 'order' is accruing every month, building up the debt.

I am not able to cancel my membership as this is not possible if you have a debt on your account. So the amounts will keep building and I can't stop them.

The manager said it's the user's responsibility to cancel their membership and there is nothing he can do to cancel the membership until the debt is cleared. He also said it happens all the time and lots of people end up with two accounts with debts building.

He's now agreed to contact their HR department but he said they are only likely to agree to cancel the membership if I agree to go on a payment plan.

I'm obviously angry that I have to pay again for membership of a gym I've already paid for and annoyed with myself for assuming a) the membership would be carried over when I started paying via Gymflex and b) cancelling the direct debit would lead to a cancellation of the membership.

I would ignore it as the manager suggested but this debt is only going to keep growing and I don't want that against my name.

My only hope now is that I speak to someone with some sense and some authority to clear the debt in their HR team but I am pessimistic.

Have I got a leg to stand on or do I need to chalk it up to experience and agree to set up the payment plan to get the membership cancelled and stop the debt accruing?

My only consolation is the Sports Direct gym membership is half the cost of any other gym in the area so paying twice means I'm about where I would have been if I'd have gone somewhere else... Buy cheap, buy twice!

I think the first bold part is the problem which means the answer to the second bolded part is, no.  I suspect that if you revisit the terms and conditions of your original membership, there is a proper way to cancel the contract with appropriate notice.  I'm not aware of any contract that can be cancelled simply by stopping the direct debit, so it's normal that you begin accruing debt to the provider.

Hopefully, some nice negotiation may be able to unwind it, but if the gym is run by the retailer with the same name, I wouldn't get your hopes up.

JulieWa

Thank you, let's hope so!

I should have said "cancelling the direct debit would have no effect" as as far as I was concerned, the membership was continuing as I was paying for it from my salary instead 😔

JulieWa

Wow, the manager at the gym just called and gave me the good news - common sense has prevailed and they're closing the duplicate account and the "debt".

He even apologised for the stress caused 😅

I am really pleased and glad to be able to share a happy ending to this story.