Gym Passport Cancellation

[John Money Woe]

Hi,

I had/have(?) been using a service that allows access to multiple selected gyms for a reasonable fee.

It is a service pair for fortnightly via direct debit, which has cancellation fees for signing up for less than 12 months. I have been a member for over 12 months.

I have not used this service for several months and found a more convenient gym (which they did not have an access agreement with) so wanted to cancel. Of course their charges continue whether I use the service or not.

I thought I wrote an email to them requesting that my service be cancelled, though I cannot find said email so let's assume it never occurred.

They state on their site that in order to cancel said gym contract, they require photo ID that my cards have been cut up / destroyed.

I got frustrated with jumping through their hoops and their lack of reply to my email (which I may not have sent.... Oops) so called the bank asking for them to cancel my direct debit. This was done.

Following this, I received an email from them re their inability to collect direct debit. It states that they require payment, and if I do not pay them on their next attempt in 2 weeks, that they will subsequently charge a further dishonour fee if they cannot collect next time, and use debt collectors if they cannot obtain payment from the third.

I sent an email to them stating that I cancelled via the bank. They replied that the current contract is STILL ACTIVE and will only be cancelled if I pay them the unpaid amount and show proof of destroyed access cards.

Questions: is my contract still binding, and do they have the right to demand further payment and for me to jump through their hoops. I had no issues cancelling Amazon Prime via this method and assumed this would be the case for my gym pass.
Thank you.

 

[Atticus]

s my contract still binding, and do they have the right to demand further payment and for me to jump through their hoops

Just my thoughts, I'm not a lawyer, but I reckon they are right. Until you actually cancel the contract it's still active... Assuming as you say a cancellation email was not sent because you can't find it...

As such I think they have a right to pursue outstanding payments until you cancel & destroy or hand over the access cards

 

[Scruff]

Atticus is correct. Having the bank cancel the direct debits has nothing to do with the contract you have with the other party. In fact, by cancelling the direct debit, you have actually broken the contract.

If the contract stipulates that you need to do certain things to terminate it (provide evidence that cards have been destroyed), then that's what you need to do.

While you're not paying (because of the cancelled direct debit), they may be able to charge additional fees if that's allowed under the contract. You therefore need to jump through all the hoops to make sure that the contract is terminated correctly and make all payments up to that date. Make sure you keep all evidence of the termination (photos/emails) in case they continue charging after the date of termination.