esporta problem

First mistake I made was joining.
Second one was telling them I wanted to cancel.

My cancellation period was 3 months notice, and I joined on 30th Jan 2009 on an initial year long contract, which to me indicates my year was up Jan 31st 2010.

I dropped a letter off to cancel on 29th October 2009, 3 months notice given I assumed. I emailed them to get a confirmation that the letter had been received on the 30th October as I'd heard esporta were notoriously poor at cancelling memberships. 1st Nov I get an email:

From XXXXXXXX@Esporta.com

Hi
Just to confirm that I have received your cancellation letter.
  
Your final payment will become due at the beginning of January and your membership will then be cancelled on 31st January 2010.
  
Please do not hesitate to contact me by email or Tel XXXXXXX, if you require any further assistance.
  
XXXXXXXXXX
Membership Administrator
 
Fantastic, that was quick and easy, job done I thought. I see my 3 months notice period out, January payment leaves my account and I cancel my DD at end of Jan.


February comes and I get sent a letter (didn't pick it up initially, as it went to the wrong address), and then a second one, demanding payment for February which has now been increased with administration fees to £76 as there has been a failed payment, followed by a further failed payment. They want this within 14 days otherwise my details will be forwarded to their debt collection agency and I will be charged £106 minimum.

I have rung them, and forwarded their membership advisor the email that she had sent me, and she promised their general manager would get back to me. 7 days later I emailed as I had heard nothing, then after waiting the whole working day I rang about 5.30pm and got told "they had passed the matter to head office" and "were aware of the situation" and would ring me back. I missed the call as I was in the gym, but got left a voicemail stating that their head office had an issue because my membership runs until March so they want this payment, and they would contact me again soon. It is now over those 14 days, but I did contact them after around 5 days as soon as I picked up the letter.

I don't want any black marks against me, or the involvement of a debt collection agency, but I believe they are wrong, and are trying to force a payment they are not owed. I have records of everything, my signed direct debit mandate (they refused to provide me with my contract on 4 times of asking), my emails, my voicemail they left, what are my options?
Any help would be great, thanks.

What a pain!  The email from them saying your membership will cease on 31 January 2010 should mean you have nothing to worry about, but it's annoying anyway.  

Getting touch with the trading standards at your local (county) council, speaking to Consumer Direct or the Citizens Advice Bureau are the most obvious solutions.

Something else you might want to try is getting in touch with their data protection officer and saying that their records are wrong: your membership ceased and you do not owe them any money.  Demand that they correct their records - they have a duty to keep the personal data they hold on you up to date and accurate.  If they don't, you can then complain to the Information Commissioner. 

Good luck!

What date was your first payment made?

Esporta contracts are 12 + 1 contracts.  They caught me out on that when I joined them too.

A 12 month pay monthly contract is for 12 consecutive monthly payments.
Did you pay the first month in cash/cheque/card, up front, outside of the signed contract terms?

The first payment was made 2nd Feb, and has been made monthly x 12.

When I spoke to the membership advisor she said that my membership could be cancelled at any point before 9 months to elicit a 3 month cancellation window running up to the 12 months at which point my contract would end. Definitely a 12 month contract; when was this for you Papa? Because I think a consumer watchdog forced them to change the rules, as I heard previously they were a sneaky 13 months.

Just cancel your direct debits and leave... the debt would be too small for debt agency to persue....
You will receive a few "scary" letters which will stop coming in about a month or two...

Veins

Just cancel your direct debits and leave... the debt would be too small for debt agency to persue....
You will receive a few "scary" letters which will stop coming in about a month or two...

^ this

I join gyms on the best offer I can blag and then leave when I like (sorry to any gym owners here!).  Big chains take the p'ss, but people paying and not going is how they make their money.

phil3030


The first payment was made 2nd Feb, and has been made monthly x 12.

When I spoke to the membership advisor she said that my membership could be cancelled at any point before 9 months to elicit a 3 month cancellation window running up to the 12 months at which point my contract would end. Definitely a 12 month contract; when was this for you Papa? Because I think a consumer watchdog forced them to change the rules, as I heard previously they were a sneaky 13 months.

This was in late 2008.  The cheeky feckers even debited £15 more than the £61 monthly fee as a penalty fee despite being misadvised by the local Bristol Branch (they said I could cancel, the Taunton didn't).  Wouldn't ever join them again.

Veins


Just cancel your direct debits and leave... the debt would be too small for debt agency to persue....
You will receive a few "scary" letters which will stop coming in about a month or two...

Doing this runs the risk of obtaining a "credit default notification" against your credit file - costs nothing and no court is involved - but it fcuks your credit up.

Surely if you have an email from the company stating that membership ends at the end of January then that should be the matter settled whatever the contract states.

They've agreed to your membership ending at that date, in writing. Even if the contract says otherwise they've varied it

"Surely if you have an email from the company stating that membership ends at the end of January then that should be the matter settled whatever the contract states"


This based on my experience is right.


At the gym I work at we have just started re-evaluating all the T&C making careful notes on every nook and cranny. After some heavy research we found that if any member of the staff in writing has said that it ends on a specific date then it is nearly impossible for the company to really pursue anything.


I'm not saying this is gospel but personally I wouldn't be too concerned espically if you are keeping evidence of all the interaction and effort you are putting into this.

The cheeky feckers tried the same with me...I ended up paying the extra 3 months just to get rid of em...best sticking to a non-chain gym, they're more likely to be flexible when you need to move on.  Had heard Esporta are in all kinds of financial difficulty at the moment and there's been talk of them going under...so no wonder they're after every penny.

Good luck with it mate.

rightyho

Veins


Just cancel your direct debits and leave... the debt would be too small for debt agency to persue....
You will receive a few "scary" letters which will stop coming in about a month or two...

Doing this runs the risk of obtaining a "credit default notification" against your credit file - costs nothing and no court is involved - but it fcuks your credit up.

You mean as in when it comes to apply for a loan for example?
Also I dont get the bold part? sorry spend all day in the car maybe Im just being dumb

A credit default notification is issued by a creditor to credit rating agencies without going through court mate.
When you then apply for a mortgage/loan/store card etc, it's flagged up and you cannot obtain credit until the previous debt is satisfied.

I used them all the time at my gym - on people who just defaulted part way through a contract and refused to talk about it. (The ones genuinely struggling got cut some slack, some got their contracts cancelled as an act of goodwill on my part).

oh right I get you.... I work in insurance and if the debt isnt paid and is too small it just gets writen off and forgoten about I didnt think gyms went to the extent you mentioned above...
I was a member of la fitness for about 5yrs if not more and just cancelled my direct debits and started receiving threathening letters which are not gona get a response (none sent recorded so I guess I can plead ignorance) but I did call them up in december to see if they can match offers out there and they said no.... also they increased monthly payments due to so called vat increase even tho 5yrs ago vat for 17.5% so why has it gona up all of a sudden and do they owe me money for not decreasing my payments when the vat fell to 15%?
I can imagine people like me are a nightmare for gyms but Im sure they'll be fine

rightyho


Doing this runs the risk of obtaining a "credit default notification" against your credit file - costs nothing and no court is involved - but it fcuks your credit up.

In my experience most individuals who default and do not communicate with us deserve this and more.

kinglean

rightyho


Doing this runs the risk of obtaining a "credit default notification" against your credit file - costs nothing and no court is involved - but it fcuks your credit up.

In my experience most individuals who default and do not communicate with us deserve this and more.

Can I ask how is the gym affected if people suddenly leave? Lets say they've been a member for a minimum 12months and just decide to pack up and go, in which way is the gym affected... i ask purely out of curiousity

Veins

kinglean

rightyho


Doing this runs the risk of obtaining a "credit default notification" against your credit file - costs nothing and no court is involved - but it fcuks your credit up.

In my experience most individuals who default and do not communicate with us deserve this and more.

Can I ask how is the gym affected if people suddenly leave? Lets say they've been a member for a minimum 12months and just decide to pack up and go, in which way is the gym affected... i ask purely out of curiousity

They may have included the contracted income in their cashflow forecast and planning. Its one of those "if every one did it" situations and is'nt going to affect a national chain.

Another way to look at it (which isnt applicable here) is if you signed a LT contract and got a subequent discount because of it. Why should you able to bugger off part way through, taking advantage of said discount while the gym doesn't get the LT income?

As Wes has answered.

If I charged £25 a month for a 12 month contract, £22.50 a month for a 24 month contract and £17.50 a month for a 36 month contract and allowed everyone who really only wanted 12 months to sign up for 36 months but then leave after a year, I'd lose out substantially.

While it would be nice to be a charitable foundation, my gym had nearly £5k a month going out before opening its doors.

It also had a perpetual default rate of about 20% - people who couldn't be bothered going any more and cancelled, hoping no one would chase them up.

Sod that. If you only wanted a year, pay the £25 fixed rate, don't expect to join on a 36 month contract to enjoy the net saving benefit but not be tied to the contract terms.