Gym membership - charched me 4 times this month...

[heythere]

Hello,


I got a gym membership with an annual contract running on direct debit. This month they charged me twice. I contacted their manager, and he assured me that he was going to refund the money back to my account. A week later not only they didn't refund my account but they charged me another two times making that 4 times in total for this month. My account went on overdraft and I have bills due that I am not able to pay cause of that. They assured me that they are going to refund me the money as soon as they can and they might give me 1 month free membership as a compensation. I believe thats not even close to what am entitled to.

Thanks for the help!

[des8]

Re: Gym membership - charched me 4 times this month...

Hi & welcome

You're quite right.
At the very least they must refund all the over charged membership fees IMMEDIATELY, reimburse you for any overdraft fees & bank charges, and refund any charges made by third parties for late payment of those bills you can't meet.

They should also write a letter you can copy to those firms explaining your difficulties were caused by their error.

If their error causes damage to your credit worthiness they will have to take steps to repair it and compensate you.

I month's free membership....huh

[heythere]

Re: Gym membership - charched me 4 times this month...

Thanks for the quick reply.

Its exactly what I thought of. 1 month free membership is like a complementary you give to a new member that joined your gym. Not to a person that you charged 328pounds for 1 month getting him on overdraft plus problems with his landlord etc.

Could you specify to me though on what steps I should take? Seems like they won't understand at least their manager. Its a corporate gym called Gymbox and ive been given their customer service email. Thinking of starting with a formal complain to that email plus calling consumer rights and filling a formal complain on consumer rights.

Thanks for the help.

[EXC]

Re: Gym membership - charched me 4 times this month...

Could you specify to me though on what steps I should take? Seems like they won't understand at least their manager. Its a corporate gym called Gymbox and ive been given their customer service email. Thinking of starting with a formal complain to that email plus calling consumer rights and filling a formal complain on consumer rights.

Absolutely make a formal complaint setting out exactly what the extra direct debits have cost you and provide the evidence to substantiate it.

Who are consumer rights?

[heythere]

Re: Gym membership - charched me 4 times this month...

Hey,


I've been reading an article about complaining for your gym membership. I'd like to ask a question regarding a problem I am currently having with my gym named Gymbox. At the end of April I went and asked to changed my direct debit (bank account). I was told that that takes several days and they will try to take the money through the old account if not Ill have to pay the money using my credit card and next month everything will be back to normal. So at the 2ond of the month as I tried to get in, I had to pay 82 pounds which is the monthly fee. Later that week I found out that they already took the direct debit. So I paid twice for May. I took action against it and I asked the manager of that gym to refund me the extra money that were taken off my account. He assured me that everything would be alright and after taking my bank account details again he said that it will take up to 3 days for the money to be refunded as everything goes through their corporation. Few days later i found out that not only I didn't receive a refund but they charged me another two times for my membership at the same month. Making a total of 328 pounds. My account went on overdraft as well and I didn't had enough money to pay my rent. So I went back to them and the manager said how sorry he is about that and he is going to try to resolve it. They asked me about my bank statement so they can proceed with refunding the money and any extra fees that occured from the overdraft. But at the same time they offered me 1 month free membership as a compensation. I trully belive they are trying to just get away with it... is all that trouble really worth only 1 month of free membership?

I am posting the whole case as it exactly happened. I'd like to take it further, taking legal action against them if they keep on that attitude. What steps do I need to take so I qualify for a legal case?

[mystery1]

Re: Gym membership - charched me 4 times this month...

http://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectD...Guarantee.aspx

Contact the bank.

M1

[des8]

Re: Gym membership - charched me 4 times this month...

That's fine for Direct Debits M. but what's the betting this is a "continuous payment authority" which isn't covered by the DD guarantee?