I've never joined a gym before and only decided to join FF because the minimum commitment was three months. I stayed for seven months and then decided to cancel. I asked the reception staff what I needed to do and without looking at my account she said I couldn't cancel if I hadn't been a member for a year. I ignored this because I didn't think it applied to me. I was told the same again when I took my cancellation letter in. I refuted this and they said they needed to get hold of my contract from Head Office and would be in touch in a few days. In the meantime I cancelled my direct debit.

I had no further contact for two weeks until I started getting payment requests by text.

I contacted Customer Services. They had no knowledge of cancellation and said I was on a 12 month contract anyway. Once again I disputed this and they said they would need to get hold of a copy of my contract. The account was put on hold so that I would not receive any payment requests. I also wrote a letter of complaint to Customer Services.

A month later I received a notice of intended collection proceedings. On contacting them I was told that my contract showed a minimum commitment of twelve months and that they had sent me a copy. I've yet to see it.

Well I kept a copy of my contract and none of the membership types or commitment terms were ticked so clearly they must have been added afterwards. I'm sure this invalidates the contract or amounts to a breach.

I'm beginning to think this is a deliberate tactic. They must depend on people not keeping copies. I am hopeful this will resolve the matter but having read other stories I'm not convinced!

In any event I think I will take the matter further - perhaps Trading Standards or legal action. Such practices are unacceptable. What's worse is that they don't seem to care about the negative publicity they are getting including having a website dedicated to how bad they are.

 

Im not surprised you think its a deliberate tactic. I am having problems with them at the moment as well since they claimed not to have received my letter of cancellation. I am tempted to let them take me to court as I have proof of posting but its a creepy feeling knowing that some dirtbag debt collection agency is lurking in the shadows. Actually they don't have my current address so I might let them go to the hassle of locating me before considering providing proof of posting.

Don't give in to them and make sure you tell everyone you know how awful they are.

 

Hi there,

I have a similar problem regarding my cancellation.
They can't find my cancellation letter.

I have written to them syaing if I receive further non-sense letters, I will report them to the Office of Fair Trading and if they pass my details to the credit collection agency I will report them to the Information Commissioner because they should not release personal details without my consent.

I am sure if we all complain to the Office of Fair Trading, we will have some result. The customer services line is the worst ever I have experienced in the UK. They are just like answer machines saying "terms and conditions" and "you are still laible". Well, is she/he a judge to decide that?

I am not sure if having credit collection agencies actually affect your credit rating as they try to imply. Its only when a court action is taken against you that it goes in your credit report and even then that could be investigated further.

I will contact the consumer direct help line to see what legal action can i take against them.

If we have cancelled the membership and have not used their gym, why on earth shall we pay them even a penny?

I am sure the courts will not enertain such reckless and uncompetititve behaviour by Fitness First.

 

Hello

Just an update.

Well, I've finally heard (by telephone message) that my contract has been cancelled. I've asked for this to be put in writing but no joy so far.

I had to send them a number of letters, and copies of my contract twice. I also sent them a letter notifying them of my intention to pursue the matter in the Small Claims Court. I gave them a date by which to resolve the matter.

The claims I was intending to make were breach of contract or voidable contract, misrepresentation, and possibly fraud (my contract appears to have been altered after I signed it). They never sent me a copy despite my asking for it several times.

The advice I would give is 1. don't give in if you know you're right 2. use the internet to get initial legal advice to support your case 3. keep a log of any contact you have with FF and copies of any correspondence 4. inform Trading Standards.

And for anyone thinking of joining FF, don't! There are plenty of good gyms around.

 

Mine is a similar story. Delivered a cancellation letter by hand, which was ignored. Cancelled the direct debit, which FF then re-instated. Cancelled the direct debit again. Posted and emailed cancellation letters, which were ignored. Tried to contact the Membership Manager but she seemed to avoid me and never returned my calls or emails. Tried "Customer Services", what a waste of time they were! Eventually I decided to just turn up at the Gymn with copies of all the correspondence. When I arrived I was told the Membership Manager was busy, so decided to wait. Eventually got to meet her and got things sorted out, although further calls to FF head office were necessary. They admitted that there had been a clerical error several months previously, and apologised for the inconvenience.

In the mean time of course, they had passed the "debt" to a debt recovery agency, who bombarded me with letters. It took months to resolve, and caused me a deal of stress and wasted a lot of time and energy on attempting to correspond with them. I feel a little sorry for the staff as they are obviously following a company edict that they should make it difficult for people to leave.

So, I would advise as follows:

Don't join in the first place, pay a bit more and go somewhere else.
Keep copies and records of all your attempts to contact FF.
Go in to your Gymn with a copy of the cancellation letter, and don't be fobbed off.

 

Hi all,

I joined FF in Sep 05 used the gym a few times, staff were friendly but constanty pushed other services in my face. On initial signup I was told that there was a FF branch in the town I was about to move to in Dec 05, but there was not. I rang them in late Feb 06 to cancel, they told me I would be charged up until March which is reasonable. After a little research on the net I found people having problems cancelling, so I cancelled my direct debit after the March payment. Low and behold they are chasing me for April payment.

I rang there customer services number to explain I had cancelled and got through to some useless moron in Poole. He said I hadn't cancelled and they hadn't received a letter of cancellation from me. The girl I spoke to when I initially rang to cancel did not request a written letter from me but accepted my cancellation request. I told this to useless moron but he just insisted I hadn't cancelled and its my word agaisnt theres.

I have been harrassed with threatening letters and phonecalls ever since from a debt collection agency in Basingstoke called C.A.R.S (Creditlink Account Recovery Services Ltd.). On CARS first phonecall I explained I don't owe FF any money but they insisted I did and said that it was my responisbility to dispute this with FF who also insist I owe them money and won't even listen to me.

Furthermore, C.A.R.S are chasing me for the wrong monthly amount and have inflated the amount with numerousother fees.

Apparentley they were going to send the bailiffs round last week but of course didn't. I'm quite happy for them to take me to court I'd be interested to see what a judge makes of FF's tactics and behaviour. If I was forced to pay then I can assure you that it wouldn't be in the interests of the FF branch who signed me up :-)

I've found some software for my phone which blocks all there calls before it rings, and I am certainly not going to give into any of there pathetic "we're about to send the bailiffs around/take you to court unless you pay us" letters.

Wish I had seen this site sooner!

Paul

 

Haven't been on this site for a long time but I come with good news. FF's debt collectors stopped sending me their stupid letters and calling me. All I did was to ignore them completely as I knew it just wouldn't stand up in court if they tried.

Don't give in, and like others have said there are much nicer gyms to go to. I currentely go to my local council run gym which is alot better and no direct debit!!!

Stay fit