ARC / David Lloyd gym contacts

[wildbill22]

Dear consumer action group,

 

I have been defending a debt alleged by David Lloyd and being enforced by ARC since June 2012 now, I have run out of options and am looking for any advice you can give.

 

The circumstances of this are that in March 2011 myself and partner took out a membership, this was a 14 month membership 2 months free and 12 months paid in advance, a sum of around £1400.

 

Towards we the end of the membership a letter was sent confirming we no longer wished the membership to continue, then the problems started. The gym allege that they received the letter on the 4th April, had it arrived by the 1st there would have been no problem but as the notice was 3 days late they now state that the cancellation notice applies from the 01st May and invokes a 3 month cancellation period and £350 is now owed.

 

We did not pay this and disputed it stating various arguments and after discovering the OFT guidance on fair notice periods and gym contracts over 12 months being unenforceable. We refused to pay and asked them to take us to court if they felt they could prove a breach of contract.

 

After 3 months of back and forth emails and letters, ARC were recruited to chase this "debt" they were also told to stop wasting their time demanding payments and take us to court if they felt they had a case. This again appears to have fallen on deaf ears.

 

The last email to them stated that consent was withdrawn for ARC to phone or text us and again advised them of the disputed debt and encouraged them to take us to court. Their reply was we will not contact you for 14 days but ill after that if a payment is not made.

 

They clearly will not take us to court over this as they have been told throughout this is the only way they will ever see a penny from us, so how can this matter ever be resolved? Is it best just to ignore them having fully stated our stance?

 

many thanks for any help you can give

[maroondevo52]

Hello and Welcome wildbill22,

 

I've moved this thread to our Gyms and Health Club Forum, I'm sure Site Team member Slick132 will be online later to assist.

Have a look around other threads in this Forum.

 

Regards,

 

Scott.

[Conniff]

What date was the letter sent and what stamp did you use?

 

You can tell them that not further correspondence will be entered into and then ignore anything further from them.

 

Slick will be along later, he is all about on these bad boys and loves to fight them.

[slick132]

Hi Wildbill,

 

If you let us know when you cancelled and whether it was sent 1st or 2nd class post, we can advise further.

 

Personally, I think that 3 months notice is an unfair requirement and the case of The OFT -v- Ashbourne Management Services Ltd backs this up - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?320766-Ashbourne-Management-Services-Ltd-Contracts-longer-than-12-months

 

Read other threads here to see how others are dealing with similar problems.