New company takes Direct Debits for gym membership without my knowledge.

Emmia

taxi13 said:

Those who said the bank won't indemnify me are correct. The bank said my claim "does not meet the criteria for the direct debit indemnity scheme and advised me to "speak" to the company direct.
To avoid confusion here:
The council gym is run by an outside contractor. They take the money, not the council.
My previous DD was with the previous contractor whose contract was terminated during covid.
The council's new contractor has told me that my bank information was passed onto them by the previous contractor.
So, my question is simple. As a completly new business, what right have they, to start debiting my bank account. As I said previously, surely they would have to take on the assets and liabilities of the previous contractor before they could start dipping into the previous contractor's customer accounts..

You are (or your subscription) is to an extent an asset of the previous company that has been taken over by the new company.

Hoenir

taxi13 said:

So, my question is simple. As a completly new business, what right have they, to start debiting my bank account. 

The Company acquired the existing contracts that were in place. Due notice was provided that the service was being resumed. Opportunity was given for customers to cancel if they so wished. 

dunstonh

So, my question is simple. As a completly new business, what right have they, to start debiting my bank account.

Its not a completely new business.   As you keep saying, they are contracted to run it on behalf of council.

prowla

Blooming annoying.

But it seems the new operator has simply taken on the business as a going concern, which includes all of the contracts/subscriptions in-place.

This sort of thing happens all the time with network providers, TV companies, house & garage rentals, banks, etc.

I suppose the question is whether the contract was terminated during covid, or just suspended.

I'd be inclined to push it as far as I could to gain redress, but it seems that you may have reached that point.

Grumpy_chap

prowla said:

I suppose the question is whether the contract was terminated during covid, or just suspended.

I'd be inclined to push it as far as I could to gain redress, but it seems that you may have reached that point.

I don't think time is on the OP's side for those discussions to be had.

taxi13 said:

I was a member of the local council gym and had been paying the council’s gym contractor by direct debit, which ceased when the facility closed down during covid. I am 75 and did not want to continue my membership anyway. A year later, the council chose a new contractor to operate their sports facilities. I discovered two years on, that the new contractor was given my bank details and had been charging me. 

So, the closure for COVID would have been 2020 (March).
Re-opened a year later, Spring 2021.
The OP's age seems an irrelevance - there is no automatic link between being 75 yo and not wishing to continue / resume gym membership
It took a further two years (2023) for the OP to realise the DDs had been taken.

Had the OP realised the DDs had restarted in the first month or so, then a discussion about the payments not being agreed might well be successful.  After two-years, that request seems like a retrospective attempt to reclaim money for an unused subscription, yet the facility had been made available to the OP.

I assume the OP stopped the membership and DDs in 2023 once the realised the DDs had been taken for the re-opened gym.
It is now 2025 (another two years on) so does that mean the OP has been chasing this refund back for two years?
There comes a point whereby one has to know that it is time to move on and no longer expend any further energy on a matter.