David Lloyd and Arc

[afriendlyfoe]

Hi everyone. I'm new here and I'm sorry my first post is a moan.

 

I joined David Lloyd in Aug 11.

 

I had a minimum term of 12 months, which I completed.

 

I only realized I had to provide 3 months notice in the 12th month so I did so towards the end of Aug 12.

 

At this point I had moved about 100 miles away from the gym so rather than handing in the notice face to face I posted them a letter.

 

In Nov 12 after the third month's payment (notice period), I cancelled my direct debit.

 

When Dec 12 arrived, I started receiving automated emails from David Lloyd saying I owed them membership fees for the month.

 

As I was busy I ignored this and assumed this was an error on their part as I had completed my notice period.

 

I then received communications from a company called Arc claiming to be debt collectors acting on behalf of David Lloyd.

 

At this point I rang David Lloyd who claimed that my membership wasn't cancelled as they hadn't received my letter.

 

long story short, we settled on me just paying them one final month (Dec 12)

- only accepted by me as I made the mistake of not using recorded delivery.

 

I have email communications from my local David Lloyd stating that my last month of membership was Dec 12 and I have a receipt for the final payment which was posted to me.

 

now despite no longer being a member, I continued to receive automated communications from David Lloyd and letters and emails from Arc.

 

Initially I just ignored them as I had no outstanding debt with David Lloyd.

 

However, as these communications kept on coming in and I began to get more and more annoyed

I eventually wrote to both my local David Lloyd and Arc, questioning their competency and accuracy of information.

 

David Lloyd apologized in writing and informed me that they had now contacted their head office and Arc to make sure I was not contacted again.

 

Arc just said, David Lloyd passed on my details so they were doing their job, no apology.

 

Yet since my last communications with David Lloyd, I have received more automated emails from head office David Lloyd and from Arc, now for payment of Apr 13's fee.

 

Today I got a letter from Arc about possible filings in court.

It put me in quite a bad mood all evening.

 

I@m not bothered about any threats from Arc as my membership ended in Dec 12 and David Lloyd have acknowledged this on more than one occasion in writing.

 

I have made several requests using email, to Arc to stop contacting me.

 

My view is that I consider all their communications unsolicited and therefore harassment.

 

I have no relationship with them and as I owe David Lloyd nothing, they have no right to pass on my details to Arc.

 

I was just wondering where I stand from a legal point of view as part of me wants to file proceedings over harassment

and a breach of data protection laws against David Lloyd and Arc.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[citizenB]

IMHO, you should send them a FINAL WARNING letter, that if they don't cease and desist with their harassment, you will be forced to advance your complaint.. This could be either through the Financial Ombudsman or Court.

 

You might also want to copy the letter to David Lloyd as they may not have passed the message on to their Rottweiler's !

 

If they haven't, and this is the reason for the continued hassle, then DL will be equally responsible for any harassment.

 

Send both letters to the Head/Registered Offices of the respective companies.

[slick132]

Hi AFF and welcome to CAG

 

Because of the nature of your gym agreement, any formal complaint will be lodged with the OFT and not the FOS. However, I think the following action should put a stop to ARC's antics.

 

You had no need to use Recorded Delivery to post your cancellation - this could have been done by email or a phone call as confirmed by Mr Justice Kitchin in his High Court rulings against Ashbourne Mgt Services Ltd in 2011.

 

Write to DL's head office and send a copy to ARC in writing and by email saying:-

 

Dear sir or madam,

 

I refer to previous communications about my membership at the xxxxxx Gym.

 

We have already agreed that my payment made to you on xxdate settled all amounts due to you.

 

Despite this, ARC continue to harass me demanding payments. For example, they have contacted me by email on xxxdates.

 

However, ARC have now gone a step too far threatening court action in their letter to me of xxdate.

 

Take notice that I will take court action against David Lloyd Gym and ARC as joint defendants if I receive one more demand from them.

 

David Lloyd are responsible for instructing ARC and you will be held accountable for their continued harassment.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

In reality, ARC can be completely ignored as they'd not take court action in this case. Furthermore, they will not post any adverse data on your CRA files with Experian, etc.

 

However, they should not be allowed to harass you in this manner, hence the warning.

 

[afriendlyfoe]

thank you citizenB and slick132.

I will send them a letter in the format outlined above and see what happens.

[citizenB]

Please do let us know how things progress

[afriendlyfoe]

Just thought I'd wait to post an update, it has been about 4 months since I contacted them and after more apologies, they have not been in contact since. Thanks again for the help.

[sequenci]

Hey there, really grateful to you for taking the time to come back with an update; it's always nice to hear about a satisfactory ending - I'm just sorry it took way longer than it really needed to!

 

Seq.

[slick132]

Hi AFFoe,

 

As Sequenci says, feedback is always very welcome, good or bad.

 

That's good that ARC appear to have backed off and let's hope that's the last you hear from them.