I’ll keep this as short and sweet as I can, also I understand that some of you will want to flame me and defend the company’s dubious contract but I’d just like to add that the OFT seem to be displeased with the way that certain gym’s are pursuing their clients for costs of services NOT provided on the back of their contracts.

Signed a contract with LA Fitness early 2012, 6 months @ £50pcm.. here’s where i fell down. Cancelled my direct debit in Jan 13 never to return to the gym. I never attended the gym after I cancelled my DD.

LA fitness now claim my contract is still live, and that I owe them for £50 per month to this day.

They’ve passed their ‘costs’ onto a debt collection agency.

I’m absolutely gutted that they see it fit to harass me for this money for services that haven’t been provided on the back of a contract purposefully put together to trap consumers.

LA FITNESS you’re would be thieving bastards. Good luck to you making me pay. KNobs.

rant over 🙂

Just because you don’t use their services, doesn’t mean you can wriggle out of the contract.

They are still providing you the services, it’s just you’re not using them.

Did you tell them you were cancelling? Do you have a signed copy of the cancellation form?

If the answer to those two questions is no, then you owe them the money. Pay up, learn from it and move on.

You cancelled the DD but did you cancel the contract ?

So you didn’t cancel the contract then ? Your fault not theirs.

It’s a contract for a Minimum of six months.

Not a “sixth month contract”

Their part of the contract is to provide the agreed facilities, and make them available for you to use between the times and on the days agreed.

Your part of the contract is to pay them £50 / Month.

Seems like they have done their part.

Have you done yours ?

Didn’t you, or someone else post exactly the same “rant” a few months ago? And that person (you) got shot down for being an idiot then too?

Excellent 🙂 just what I expected to be fair.

The office of fair trading doesn’t seem to agree with you though and consider this kind of action to be unjust, as does a high court judgement back in ’11

So let me just get some focus here.. YES I agree, I didn’t adhere to the contract that stipulates after the minimum term I have to cancel in writing giving thirty days notice. I did it gov’ shoot me down already.

My point is that the contract is a disgrace.

It’s GYM FFS, A GYM!!

Didn’t you, or someone else post exactly the same “rant” a few months ago? And that person (you) got shot down for being an idiot then too?

no.

As above, it is you that’s broken the terms and conditions of the contract.

You might get some sympathy from them if you call them up and say it was a mistake but if they have already gone as far to instruct debt collectors then you may find they are willing to chase you all the way to court for the money.

My point is that the contract is a disgrace.

It’s GYM FFS, A GYM!!

So why sign the contract???

I can’t see what’s to be argued over, you haven’t cancelled your contract?

What does the contract say about how to cancel it ?

So let me just get some focus here.. YES I agree, I didn’t adhere to the contract that stipulates after the minimum term I have to cancel in writing giving thirty days notice. I did it gov’ shoot me down already.

Nobody want to shoot you down. I agree that gym contracts are drawn up to get a the best deal for the gym and to make cancelling a bit of a chore and also in a lot of cases to gain an extra months payment where common sense dictates that none should be required. By now anyone that joins a gym should know that. So should you and by your own admission you didn’t cancel the contract. You owe them money, you should pay it.

you may find they are willing to chase you all the way to court for the money.

I don’t think they will take me to court.

The office of fair trading doesn’t seem to agree with you though and consider this kind of action to be unjust, as does a high court judgement back in ’11

The OFT decision was nothing to do with Numpties forgetting to cancel their contracts and making out it wasn’t their fault.

And neither was the High Court decision as far as I’m aware.

Unless you know different, in which case I will happily agree with you that either (or both) of those fine institutions disagree with me.

The OFT decision was nothing to do with Numpties forgetting to cancel their contracts and making out it wasn’t their fault.

And neither was the High Court decision as far as I’m aware.

Unless you know different, in which case I will happily agree with you that either (or both) of those fine institutions disagree with me.

Steady on neil, there is no need for personal insults.

I made a mistake by thinking that cancelling the DD would be the end of it. It’s the first contract of the kind that i’ve ever entered into.

But on the subject of the OFT and the court judgements please enlighten me.

Debt collectors…. Ignore.
Court papers, do not ignore.
Bailiffs would not get involved until you’ve been found guilty in court and still not paid.

Steady on neil, there is no need for personal insults.

It’s hardly a personal insult, I call my nephew a numpty when he spills his drink and he’s only 5
But if it offended you then you have my apologies.

The OFT and the high court decisions were both concerning making it easier for people to get out of minimum contract terms if their circumstances changed by Cancelling the contract early without penalties.

And a few bits of slightly misleading contract jargon too.

None of which are relevant when you haven’t cancelled your contract.

Debt collectors…. Ignore.
Court papers, do not ignore.
Bailiffs would not get involved until you’ve been found guilty in court and still not paid.

Thanks martin, that’s the plan.

Shouldn’t the title of the thread now read:

LA FITNEES and the money they are not owed.

Thanks martin, that’s the plan.

Don’t worry about thanking me for the “enlightenment” 😉

Your mistake was to sign up to a gym in the first place. Ride your bike ffs!

Your mistake was to sign up to a gym in the first place. Ride your bike ffs!

My mistake was a double post!!! ;0)

Lots of people have or have had the same problem with another gym chain. I didn’t. Hand delivered cancelation notice to manager and got confirmation, all done as per contract. I do know others who didn’t follow the contract details and ended up coughing up the cash. Lesson learnt.
All gyms are a business first 💡
As is your lbs, crc, Merlin etc….

The gym I have most recently joined (been at one gym or another for the last 20 years) has a rolling DD contract which only debits if I use the gym. Book no sessions and they don’t debit anything – basically PAYG. Quite enlightened really….

I had a little trouble cancelling a contract at virgin active a couple of years ago. I had signed a contract that could only be cancelled annually on the anniversary of the joining date.
When I rang to cancel mid year they told me I couldn’t.
I asked them to supply me with the copy of the contract I had signed.
They couldn’t.
They could see from my records that I hadn’t been through the door for over 6 months despite continuing to pay the £40 a month.
They then cancelled the contract immediately.

It’s a GYM BUISNESS FFS, A GYM BUISNESS!!

FTFY 😉

Go away, you trolling troll, you….

11. TERMINATION BY YOU
11.A DURING THE INITIAL TERM
11.1 You may terminate your contract during the cooling off period being the first 14 days of the Initial Term for any reason.
11.2 You may terminate or freeze your contract during the Initial Term if one or more of the following criterion is met and you supply independent appropriate supporting documentation (e.g. Doctors note confirming you are no longer fit to exercise or a utility bill from your new home):
(i) You have lost your job due to redundancy, contract termination or are suffering from severe financial hardship.
(ii) You have sustained an injury, long term illness or become pregnant.
(iii) You’re moving away and there is no LA fitness with a reasonable distance from your new home or workplace, as a general rule we use 10 miles as a guide for reasonable distance.

11.B AFTER THE INITIAL TERM
11.3 You may cancel your contract on one month’s notice at any time after the Initial term, but your notice shall only take effect on the first day of the month following our receipt of your notice during which time you shall be able to continue to use the Services.
11.4 If you wish to cancel the contract you must give us notice by either:
(i) Using the “Contact us” section of MYLA Memberzone, which can be accessed via http://www.lafitness.co.uk/memberzone;
(ii) Calling our Membership Support team on the Contact Us telephone number; or
(iii) Sending written notice of your cancellation request to the company address for the attention of the Membership Support team.
11.5 Cancellation of your contract will only be valid provided the cancellation request satisfies the conditions of 11.1, 11.2 or 11.3 above. We will not accept liability for mail lost in transit and therefore suggest a proof of receipt is obtained at time of posting eg by sending the letter via recorded delivery.
11.6 Cancelling your direct debit does not constitute cancellation of your contract.
11.7 On application to cancel your contract for any reason you shall immediately pay to us all outstanding Membership fees, if any are due.
11.8 On application to cancel your contract,however arising, the following conditions 2, 9,10,11 and 13 shall survive and continue in full force and effect.
11.9 We are entitled to retain any Membership fees where you have not followed the correct cancellation process.

any normal, ethical business would send a letter saying that an attempt to collect the DD failed, and then send a final reminder, and then probably something saying that if arrears wasn’t paid then the contract would be terminated.

Send a letter to BBC Watchdog. Various gyms are on there every other week, for exactly that.

I’d never ever sign up for a gym, cos I know they use these tactics. They must earn a packet getting people to sign up after new year, and never use the gym beyond February.

I cancelled with Virgin recently.
I rang them and said I’d like to cancel, what do I do? They said email us and we’ll cancel, sorry to see you go.
I emailed them, said I wanted to cancel and I’ll be stopping my DD
They confirmed the end date and I’ve cancelled my DD.
Simple.

Tbh OP I think you’ve made a massive assumption here that cancelling your DD would be understood by them that you wanted to end your contract…

Send a letter to BBC Watchdog. Various gyms are on there every other week, for exactly that.

Various gyms are on Watchdog every other week for continuing to charge customers who haven’t even made an attempt to cancel their membership contracts ???

I really don’t think so.

(I’ve don’t watch Watchdog, but I’m aware of what they do, and that’s not it. )

The gym should have told you that there had been a problem with payment. They would know that the payment wouldn’t have went through. I did the same thing and got a letter about a month after saying there was a problem with my payment.

Seems they are being a bit slow in telling you that your payment hasn’t went through. My advice would be to speak to the club manager, offer to pay your months notice (£50) and that will be quits. Worked for me.

To be fair, the gym would easily be able to track whether or not you have paid. If they wanted tombe reasonable they could easily have a sytem which stops your membership when you stop paying.

Of course the gym have no interest in this. Which is why they deliberately create a contract which is not as simple to terminate as it could be.

My local gym has no joining fee – £10 admin fee payable on joining though. Was told I couldn’t join without paying it. Obviously I pointed out this meant it was a joining fee and even kindly offered to do the admin for them so I wouldn’t have to pay the joining fee.

They declined.

So I payed it; I didn’t have a problem with paying it, I just don’t like being lied to.

When I got bored and could no longer stand going there I told them to cancel my membership and they said I had to put it in writing.

I told them there was a £20 admin fee if I had to put pen to paper

They declined to pay it. Wonder if I’m still technically a member?

I work for a business which takes variable monthly payments by dd. A customer cancelling their dd does not mean we cease their their services as a result.
Normally we would then change their payment method on the system and then contact them to arrange alternative payment methods.
The only difference being that businesses tend to struggle to function without phones. So at least we have some leverage to encourage the client to pay.
Your gym doesn’t have this leverage, therefore they take action to recover their money.
Instead you tried to be clever and assumed they’d know what you were doing.
And because you didn’t bother to tell them they don’t know your intentions.

Contact the gym in the first instance, see if you can reach an amicable arrangement. Try and talk to the manager if you can.

Just cancelling payment, as others have said, is never going to end well. You should have told the gym, and you’ll have to accept responsibility for that.

However, it seems odd that the gym didn’t contact you when payment failed, and going straight to a debt collector after a year to chase you for £600 seems, well, immoral. I’d use that as a bargaining tool.

I suspect you’re going to end up with a bill for the six months original contract; anything less than that will be a bonus.

Similar happened to me a few years back, but I had give notice to cancel-they just disputed it….handed my debt to a collection agency…..just a scare tactic though, they can do no more than merely ask you for the money! After a few months telling them both to eff off on a weekly basis they agreed to waive the money that I owed.

I **** hate gyms!!

Flip side of this

I have been an LA fitness gym member on and off for around 5 years. Each time I have needed to cancel it I have rung them, cancelled, and been given a cancellation code and had no problems at all. have done this 3 times.

David Lloyd on the other hand……….hand deliverd letter written in blood to enter into a 3 month cancellation notice period!!!

I’ve don’t watch Watchdog, but I’m aware of what they do, and that’s not it.

Well I have watched watchdog, and have seen this issue.

Any normal company would chase up a missed payment. Not chasing up, to me suggest that the company is intentionally keeping the contract “live” with the express intention of increasing the arrears due.

edit: but agree that you need to tell them to terminate.

The debt collection agency may have “purchased” the amount owed, probably for less than the original amount, say £400.

The gym has accepted they have lost £200, not £600, and have nothing to do with the debt anymore.

The debt collection agency on the other hand want to get their money + administration costs.

So you owe the gym nothing – you currently owe the debt collection agency.