Annual Gym Membership Refund

[xGreig]

I bought a Student Gym Membership from the university I attend for £165.

 

Since I've joined I have been there twice and decided it's not for me. Also the workload at university is increasing, I'm in there everyday and work a part time job so finding time to go to the gym is a struggle.

 

When I signed up I had some spare time but the workload has increased.

 

The payment went through on 3/10/2014 22 days ago.

 

The iffy bit is that in there contract under the refunds/cancellation section it reads,

 

"Refunds of membership fees and early cancellation of memberships will only be permitted in exceptional circumstances and at the sole discretion of . "

 

Am I able to get some sort of refund?

 

I paid with Debit card and received receipts from them.

 

Thanks for any advice on the situation.

[BankFodder]

Please will you name the University and also the gym club. Is the gym club part of the University or is it sponsored or supported by the University?

 

I'm only asking these questions because I think people should be put on notice about Draconian terms in contracts – particularly which affect students.

 

In your case, because you have paid the money upfront, you then have an uphill slog to get it back and I expect it would take legal action.

 

If you look around this forum you will find that gym clubs make a huge amount of their money from cancellations. The standard model is that they entice people into the gym maybe on a trial period, maybe on money upfront, but normally on regular monthly instalments. People join the gym with the best intentions. They figure that they are really going to sort themselves out get into a good routine, lose weight, increase fitness and so forth. After a few visits, they realise that it's harder work than they thought – finding the time and actually going through the pain. They then decide to leave the gym.

 

These gyms generally speaking have a fairly polished machine for chasing what they consider to be debts. They're all in the business of debt chasing and it would be really interesting to know what percentage of the revenue comes from people who gave up using the gym at the very early stage.

 

I expect that students are a particularly lucrative source of revenue – because students often find themselves in the first term of the academic year with money on their hands and full of resolutions and trying to find a way round and getting into new social life etc. they see a gym membership for £165 – which is pretty cheap but I suppose that it is a student rate – and they sign up. After a few visits they stop going to the gym. For the gym club it's money in the bank. Job done. They typically care with you keep on going to the gym or not.

 

Had you been on instalment plan then it would have been extremely likely that you could have cancelled and after some unpleasant correspondence the problem would have gone away. Because you've paid upfront, they have your money and you have to get it back.

 

You could try talking to them and turning on the charm – but I doubt whether it will get you anywhere. There are too many people in the same situation as you if they gave all the money back they would be out of business.

 

£165 is really not too bad and maybe you should consider getting into the routine and benefiting from the subscription. I'm sorry that this is not the advice I would prefer to give you – but I think you will have to take a pragmatic view in this case.

 

By the way, I imagine that you are over 18. If you are under 18 then you can cancel the contract and get all the money back.

[xGreig]

Please will you name the University and also the gym club. Is the gym club part of the University or is it sponsored or supported by the University?

 

I'm only asking these questions because I think people should be put on notice about Draconian terms in contracts – particularly which affect students.

 

In your case, because you have paid the money upfront, you then have an uphill slog to get it back and I expect it would take legal action.

 

If you look around this forum you will find that gym clubs make a huge amount of their money from cancellations. The standard model is that they entice people into the gym maybe on a trial period, maybe on money upfront, but normally on regular monthly instalments. People join the gym with the best intentions. They figure that they are really going to sort themselves out get into a good routine, lose weight, increase fitness and so forth. After a few visits, they realise that it's harder work than they thought – finding the time and actually going through the pain. They then decide to leave the gym.

 

These gyms generally speaking have a fairly polished machine for chasing what they consider to be debts. They're all in the business of debt chasing and it would be really interesting to know what percentage of the revenue comes from people who gave up using the gym at the very early stage.

 

I expect that students are a particularly lucrative source of revenue – because students often find themselves in the first term of the academic year with money on their hands and full of resolutions and trying to find a way round and getting into new social life etc. they see a gym membership for £165 – which is pretty cheap but I suppose that it is a student rate – and they sign up. After a few visits they stop going to the gym. For the gym club it's money in the bank. Job done. They typically care with you keep on going to the gym or not.

 

Had you been on instalment plan then it would have been extremely likely that you could have cancelled and after some unpleasant correspondence the problem would have gone away. Because you've paid upfront, they have your money and you have to get it back.

 

You could try talking to them and turning on the charm – but I doubt whether it will get you anywhere. There are too many people in the same situation as you if they gave all the money back they would be out of business.

 

£165 is really not too bad and maybe you should consider getting into the routine and benefiting from the subscription. I'm sorry that this is not the advice I would prefer to give you – but I think you will have to take a pragmatic view in this case.

 

By the way, I imagine that you are over 18. If you are under 18 then you can cancel the contract and get all the money back.

 

The university is RGU and the gym is called RGU:Sport. I think it is part of the university since the membership is only for students of RGU and there is various sports scholarships through RGU:Sport, it is on campus to.

 

Do you think I could get like a part refund?

 

Any sort of refund is better then no refund i guess?

[BankFodder]

So it is the Robert Gordon University at Aberdeen. http://www.rgu.ac.uk/student-life/new-students/new-students-on-campus/new-students

 

Well you can't lose anything by approaching them very nicely. However, before I did that I would go to the students union and asked them about it because they will know whether this is a constant problem. You will also find out what their attitude is. If you learn that actually this is a problem that many students have been having and if you also learn that the students union is not happy with the no cancellation rule then this will give you some support.

 

From a legal basis you could try bringing a small claim to recover the fee less any time used plus administration charges – which might amount to £100.

 

However, if the gym is able to say that they provided you with a reduced price in return for a very special deal which you took advantage of, this might weaken your argument. Start speaking to the students union and also try to find out how many other people are suffering the same problem.

[BankFodder]

I now see that they offer a peak and off-peak membership. You have chosen the peak membership. The off-peak membership is £95 per year.

 

A good place to end up on this if you try gently could be to go to them and to say that now you are more aware of the requirements of the university courses and the demands on your time, you now appreciate that you were a bit rash going for the peak membership and that you would like to go back to the off-peak membership and with a be prepared to give you a refund on this.

 

They might find this a palatable and acceptable compromise. I think that you would have done quite well to achieve this. It could be that if you started getting into the routine of going to the gym for short periods you would start to enjoy and start to rely on it.

[xGreig]

I now see that they offer a peak and off-peak membership. You have chosen the peak membership. The off-peak membership is £95 per year.

 

A good place to end up on this if you try gently could be to go to them and to say that now you are more aware of the requirements of the university courses and the demands on your time, you now appreciate that you were a bit rash going for the peak membership and that you would like to go back to the off-peak membership and with a be prepared to give you a refund on this.

 

They might find this a palatable and acceptable compromise. I think that you would have done quite well to achieve this. It could be that if you started getting into the routine of going to the gym for short periods you would start to enjoy and start to rely on it.

 

Thanks for your help by the way, i really appreciate it.

 

I'm going to give them a call later today to see what they say.

[xGreig]

Thanks for your help by the way, i really appreciate it.

 

I'm going to give them a call later today to see what they say.

 

Ok, so i just finished speaking with them and they told me to e-mail them instead of speaking to them.

 

is there anything should put in my e-mail other than what I've already told you?

[slick132]

Hi XG and welcome to CAG.

 

Contact them by email or letter only - not by phone. That way, you have a papertrail of all that's said.

 

I can't really see you getting any money back for this. M/ship fees of £165 for the year are very reasonable indeed and I would certainly agree with BF when he said you could maybe try to take advantage of the facilities and make time to attend, as best you can.

 

However, if you are interested in the off-peak deal, you could take BF's advice and ask for a partial refund, because it's only now that you realise the demands you face in terms of balancing studies and leisure.

 

I see no real way of demanding money back as I can't see that you have any legal backing or case law in your favour. Also, I can't see any help for you from consumer protection legislation.

 

Keep us posted.

 

[xGreig]

So after e-mailing them and explaining the situation the gave me a refund of £141.25. I received the cheque in the post from the university today, on the letter there was nothing about the gym. I think this was a special case where i got a refund because the university owns the gym and they are able to relate to student life.

 

Thanks for your help guys.

[slick132]

Hi xG and thanks for the update.

 

I'm delighted you got this result and I'm sure you're right about the reason being the gym is owned by the Uni.

 

Hope the studies go well !