gah debt collection
- Thread starter Abraxaz1
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Soldato
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Not saying any advice here is bad, but I'd suggest a different forum for this as they assist with sort of thing all the time:
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?260-Gyms-and-Health-Clubs
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?260-Gyms-and-Health-Clubs
I know, I had free gym membership for 3 years and now I pay £12.50 for the work gym a month with 90 minutes with a person trainer once a week.
MW
Ah the good old lets just bend over and take it up the woopsy advice.
Associate
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- 7 Sep 2007
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If he'd put his complaints in writing to head office before cancelling the direct debit it would have been easier to argue this. As it is he's broken his contract with no paper trail what-so-ever, and will have a much harder time getting it dropped entirely.
It's well worth trying to get the gym to reduce the dept by explaining in writing to them your grievances with their service and why you cancelled, but I personally wouldn't fight it much further than that as my free time would be worth more to me than the money.
Associate
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A series of booby traps around your home will see those pesky debt collectors off.
but that's what he needs to do.
He signed a contract, decided that he didn't wish to complete on the contract then then just thought it would go away!
Nothing about bending over and taking it - he needs to pay up what he owes.
Shoe on the other foot, he signs a contract with you to complete a job, decides it's not for him and leaves you £200 out of pocket - presume your happy to let it go??
Two ways to look at it:
Customer: We want members who are committed to themselves and their club. People who want a nice comfortable gym, that is clean, maintained well and not over crowded will have no problem committing to a contract. Likewise they want members surrounding them that are also committed to themselves and the club (respect the club etc).
They also see the monthly draw coming from their account and most people I communicate with, see this as motivation to use the club, 'if I'm paying for it, I'm going to use it!'
People really do struggle with motivation, and to keep it going, paying for it monthly, with no out, gives them that commitment they need (hopefully).
Business: It's a no brainer, I want consistency through my monthly remits, not just in January when a load of start ups kick off.
My gym is more expensive, and is not for everyone. We tailor it to our clients who want that more up market, comfortable feel. This way, we don;t run in to the problem with the OP where we are over crowded.
Edit* Yes, after the initial 12/24 month contract, they go into a month-to-month style membership. Industry studies show that the average customer keeps their membership for 15 months regardless of contracts etc
Hope that helps
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I'm surprised by the amount of people suggesting you pay up. Personally I'd contest it, and at best they'd get a much reduced settlement out of me.
A friend who once worked for a debt collection company told me that they had no power to touch your credit file for gym contracts, because it is a contract and not a credit agreement - at no point do they do a credit check. I do not know how truthful this is - I'd suggest further investigation on your part before you tell them to go forth and fornicate.
A friend who once worked for a debt collection company told me that they had no power to touch your credit file for gym contracts, because it is a contract and not a credit agreement - at no point do they do a credit check. I do not know how truthful this is - I'd suggest further investigation on your part before you tell them to go forth and fornicate.
Nope.
He signed a contract, the other party failed to deliver, he exercised his right to end the contract and the other party refused so he put a stop on payments. Perfectly normal, he did everything that could reasonably be expected of him.
Think about it like this, you pay for milk to be delivered, they are so super busy that by the time they get around to it the milks gone sour, you ask to cancel the delivery's but they say no you have to keep paying for sour milk. Would you stop payment or hire a solicitor to fight them? which is the more reasonable choice?
OP's friend was fully right in what they did and it would have been unreasonable to expect any more.
Unfortunately the way the law works at the moment means that companies can do whatever the hell they like and the onus is always on the customer to fix it.
We had issues with Virgin media for 6 months where our internet was un-usable 90% of the time when it should have been 50mb all the time. They were still installing new customers onto an already oversubscribed exchange whilst telling us "it will be fixed on x date... hopefully. But that might change". It took them 3 missed deadlines and 6 months to fix it and all the while they were signing up new customers in our road.
You can probably get the debt wiped if you cause enough hassle with the company but be prepared for a long drawn out battle till you find the right person. I'm getting to the stage where I am going to start doing what a guy did recently and charge the company for the time wasted trying to fix an issue created by themselves.
We had issues with Virgin media for 6 months where our internet was un-usable 90% of the time when it should have been 50mb all the time. They were still installing new customers onto an already oversubscribed exchange whilst telling us "it will be fixed on x date... hopefully. But that might change". It took them 3 missed deadlines and 6 months to fix it and all the while they were signing up new customers in our road.
You can probably get the debt wiped if you cause enough hassle with the company but be prepared for a long drawn out battle till you find the right person. I'm getting to the stage where I am going to start doing what a guy did recently and charge the company for the time wasted trying to fix an issue created by themselves.
Which is fantastic!
I'm assuming this is open to everyone?
As is the obvious "free" Gym the guy you are responding to is going to (hence his statement about people paying for the gym)?
Because of course if they aren't open to everybody, and local to everybody - they why are these being compared to the kind of gym/contract the OP is talking about?
Even if one party breaches the contract, doesn't mean you are allowed to. All it means is that the other party is in breach and you are entitled to terminate/damages depending on exactly what happened and the contract provisions. Not that you can decide to start also breaching the contract. That still means the other party can pursue you for that if they want to since you have breached.
(this is not legal advice etc. In no way does it take into account of other legal concepts etc. just a very basic opinion of mine)
I strongly recommend doing what Nitefly suggested. Go speak to the gym to see if there's an arrangement that can be reached.
Or, you know, take the advice of others and do nothing. What's the worst that can happen? You get taken to Court, have to pay for the contract and their fees and your credit rating is damaged?
As others have said, you do need to deal with this but I don't think you will have to pay. Its £200 which is nothing for a large company. The wages and time it takes to deal with it will cost them more than the debt amount. Add to that the fact that they had broken their side of the argument, their representative (the manager) was rude and dismissive and it will be in their interest to settle this amicably.
You could also try explaining to them that you will get legal advice and may involve other members of the gym who also felt like they were being ripped off for an oversubscribed gym. They won't want to have to deal with the potential of other members trying to get rebates or people like yourself who just cancelled the DD.
You could also try explaining to them that you will get legal advice and may involve other members of the gym who also felt like they were being ripped off for an oversubscribed gym. They won't want to have to deal with the potential of other members trying to get rebates or people like yourself who just cancelled the DD.
How did he do "everything that could reasonably be expected of him"
He didn't put it in writing, he just stopped the direct debit and walked away. If he had complained in writing about it to the gym/head office etc, then I could see how he would have done as much as could be reasonable expected.
However he just got the hump and walked away from the contract.
He's done nothing that would constitute - "everything that could reasonably be expected of him"
As you get older you will all learn that without a paper trail or some documented information regarding who you spoke to, when and what about, you have nothing. In this case the gym can simply say the conversation never happened, to be honest we can't even be certain it did, on face value it just looks like someone logged into their bank account and hit cancel without even informing anyone.
It's not ambiguous if the contract simply doesn't mention waiting times for equipment, surely? (I don't know what an average gym contract looks like so no idea what kind of "subject to availability" terms they use...)
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