gah debt collection

Because the putting your fingers in your ears and pretending you are none the wiser approach has worked so well thus far with cancelling a direct debit.

Yeah it has worked pretty well, he still has his money and nobody has bashed his door down yet or sent him a court appearance.
 
deal with the gym directly and don't talk to the debt collectors, if the gym say there is nothing they can do then speak to the debt collectors and say you can't afford it, then make them a full and final settlement offer of the original debt amount
 
I happened to talk to the manager when trying to cancel my contract the first time and he basically ****ed me off, stating that I was tied into the contract no matter what.
When I visited the Gym it was a week day and around the time I would normally go, It was literately deserted about 10 people on each floor. I was told that this was busy for that time of day by the "Instructor" that guided me around. come march every piece of equipment is being used no matter what time I attempted to go, which wasn't the service I was sold when I started my contract.
change in service
Surely I can claim a massive change in the quality of the service I paid for.
 
deal with the gym directly and don't talk to the debt collectors, if the gym say there is nothing they can do then speak to the debt collectors and say you can't afford it, then make them a full and final settlement offer of the original debt amount

If you cannot afford it, make a deal with the agency and offer to pay x amount a month, just do NOT miss a payment...

but he now has a flag on his credit rating which will take him a while to get rid of

6 years after paying the full amount of debt, then the flag is removed...
 
That usually happens in January when the gyms target all the new years revolutionists with cheap deals and all the fatties sign up. Give it till about March and it will be back to normal when they've all given up.

Not much you can do now though, you should have complained to the manager when it happened and got out of the contract. I bet a lot of people try what you're doing because they signed up to a years contract and then only been twice.

MW
 
go for a work out and throw the weights to the floor after every set like you see those clowns do on youtube.

it shouldn't take long until you get booted out get someone to film it for youtube and keep shouting "do you even lift bra?"
 
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Surely I can claim a massive change in the quality of the service I paid for.

You probably could have at the time, your issue now is that debt collectors have been called in - you can't argue with them, they just want the money.
 
Don't do this. The debt collectors will eventually go through legal channels and challenge you in court (CCJ?), if you fail to turn up, then it is a police matter IIRC.

Lol police! They don't get involved in civil matters :rolleyes: for £200 the collectors will send a few threatograms and the give up
 
Lol police! They don't get involved in civil matters :rolleyes: for £200 the collectors will send a few threatograms and the give up

they add there own money on though and it well end up ar £1000 or something stupid by time it goes to court.

some companies will avoid debt collectors for a few hundred and just offer you an amount to pay usually like 40% of what you owe

once it goes to debt collectors I wouldn't risk it
 
At which point of your decision making process did you think 'No, I won't take this up with the gym as a clear change in the agreed service, I will just cancel my payments and i'm sure nothing will happen'?
 
Pretty sure I read something about gym contract enforcement, and as they are notorious for ripping people off.. I'll see if I can dig something out.

Lol at people saying cough up, especially if you can't use the service due to over subscription?
 
Surely Trading Standards can do something if you speak with them, explaining the over subscription of the gym membership by the company, as what you signed up for ended up being very different in reality.

As Joakster says, the OFT may be able to assist, the following link shows they have dealt with similar before - http://uk.practicallaw.com/3-506-4863?service=ld

"The High Court has found that certain standard terms in gym membership contracts were unfair and contravened the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999"
 
OK here the short story;
Joined a gym in September last year was going fine till Christmas, then the gym over subscribed itself, a wait of 5 minutes for equipment turn to 30 minute waits.
I ask to leave the contract I was in because the service provided was unsatisfactory and a more specialised gym closer to my house had a maximum number of customers to reduce waiting times.

Any way after being told I couldn't cancel my contract, I paid one last visit to the gym in march where I was able to do One strength exercise in the 40 minutes I was there and 10 mins on a tread mill as a warm up. I decided to cancel my direct debit and move to the better gym.

Anyhow, I have now had a letter from a debt collection agency, claiming I owe the gym money for the last 4 months plus there addon even though I haven't used there service for this time. The total comes to £200+ which isn't much I know but its the principle that's preventing me from paying.

Any advice

I work for a debt collection agency and based on experience you will have no other option but to pay up unfortunately. If you're not in a position to pay the full balance in one hit, the debt collection company in question will be obliged to set you up on an affordable payment plan.

As already advised in this thread, if you had a dispute with the gym, then you should have taken it up with them directly before defaulting on your contract.

Ultimately, the debt won't go away and the chances are it'll get passed from agency to agency until the matter is resolved.

It is of course your right to refuse to pay and if you do have a genuine dispute you can make the agency aware of this and then they're legally not allowed to carry out collection activity until the dispute is resolved. Be advised you may need to provide supporting evidence though, otherwise it may not class as a genuine dispute.
 
At which point of your decision making process did you think 'No, I won't take this up with the gym as a clear change in the agreed service, I will just cancel my payments and i'm sure nothing will happen'?

when after being told to deal with it by the manager and waiting 30 minuets to use a treadmill to do my pre exercise warm up, at 8pm on a Tuesday after completing 12 hours in a boiling hot cess pit of a plant
 
Some of the posters above have pointed out quite correctly that if you really had an issue with the gym being too busy, thus not getting the service you paid for, then you really should have raised that with an official complaint in writing and spoken to whatever legal advisory services could have helped.

Since you have just cancelled a direct debit, ignored it and have debt collectors on the case, you can't really fall back on that argument now.
 
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