LA Fitness Gym Membership Cancellation - Closure of 'Home' club.

[davejh666]

Hi all,

 

After some advice regarding LA Fitness and cancelling my gym membership with them.

I am sorry upfront but this is going to be rather long as I want to give all the information.

 

I joined an LA Fitness gym in Bedford on 11/06/2014.

This was under a rolling 1 month contract.

I paid monthly via a direct debit which comes out of my account the 31st of every month.

 

I received an email from LA Fitness on 29th October 2014 to inform me that my gym was closing on 14th November 2014.

 

 

LA Fitness informed me in the email that:

You will still have full access to the club and our facilities until Friday 14th November,

on which date your membership will automatically transfer to our Bedford Heights club,

located nearby on Manton Lane, Bedford, MK41 7PA.

Your DD will continue as normal

 

 

LA Fitness had 2 gym's in my town,

they shut the one I went to and transferred the membership to the other one.

The gym's are not that far apart, only about 2 miles at most.

 

I called the membership line on the 30th October 2014 to ask a few questions.

I was worried as I biked to the gym, about where I could leave my bike at the new gym

and whether the gym would be suitable for my needs, and about the cost of the new gym.

I was told the cost would stay the same and the re-assured me over the bike situation.

 

I went up to the new gym on Saturday 15th November and it seemed okay, nice and clean etc.

The problem came when I went to go last night, Tuesday 18th November.

 

Although the gym's are not far apart (and as I said I bike there on my way home from work),

it is quite a bit out of my way for biking home.

It took me about 20 mins longer to get to the new gym,

different route and much more traffic. And,

 

 

when I got in the gym at about 6.45pm, it was very, very busy (as you might expect I guess).

I had to wait up to 20 minutes to get on some pieces of equipment, and I generally did not like it.

 

Which comes to me phoning up the membership services helpline today to cancel my membership

(as my terms and conditions state I should).

 

 

I explained to the lady on the phone that I had nowhere to leave my bike when I got to the gym (there is a bike rack, but it was full),

it is not convenient for me (the sole reason I joined the original LA gym was that it was on my bike route to and from work)

and I generally didn't get on well there last night.

 

She said that I could cancel but I need to give 30 calendar days notice and therefore my membership would not end until December 31st 2015.

Again, my terms and conditions state that notice on the first day of the month following receipt of notice of termination, so again, they are right.

 

However, do I have any rights here as they have shut my 'Home' gym? I have no wish to go up there again.

They only gave me 2 days notice that they were going to shut my 'Home' gym before they took a full months payment

(the gym didn't shut for another 2 weeks so had use of my home gym for 2 weeks).

 

I tried to argue that giving notice was irrelevant as I no longer had a home gym.

She said in the terms and conditions it allows them to move me to another gym.

The only bit I can see that possibly refers to this is:

 

13. GENERAL

13.1 We may sell, transfer, mortgage, charge or assign the benefit of the Contract at any time.

You may not, without our prior consent sell transfer, mortgage charge, or assign the benefit of the Contract

 

 

But, not sure if that is what she is referring to?

 

Sorry this is rather long winded, but wanted to give as much info as possible.

 

 

can I get out of giving them the notice they say I owe as the transfer isn't suitable for me.

 

Many Thanks.

[dx100uk]

they've no powers to demand any more money IMHO.

 

 

dx

[slick132]

Hi Dave,

 

Don't deal with this by phone - you need proof of what's said so keep everything in writing from now on. Either letter or email will do.

 

If the new gym does not offer facilities suitable for you, I believe you have every right to cancel the agreement without notice or payment of further fees. LAF will not agree and may pester you for payment unless you pay the DD due at the start of December.

 

I would cancel the DD mandate by contacting your bank and I'd write to LAF saying :-

 

I'm cancelling my agreement immediately after my local gym has been closed, due to :-

 

1. The second gym being more difficult for me to travel to and from.

 

2. The gym being overcrowded with the increased membership causing unacceptable delays to use equipment.

 

3. The gym having insufficient bike stands.

 

I have cancelled my DD mandate with my bank and please ensure you do not make any demands for further payments.

 

Get a free Certificate of Posting from the PO when you send the letter, so you have proof of postage.

 

Or you can take the letter to the gym, but take a 2nd copy of the letter and get it signed by staff as proof of delivery.

 

[BankFodder]

If the new gym does not offer facilities suitable for you, I believe you have every right to cancel the agreement without notice or payment of further fees.

 

I agree with this completely. They should refund you any outstanding fee for that last month

[davejh666]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for all the advice.

 

I looked last night for an email address to contact LA Fitness, but could not find one anywhere for them.

 

I have wrote a letter to them this morning which will be posted off today stating the facts as Slick132 outlined in the response.

 

I know you said they will pester me for the remaining month they think I owe them for notice, but ultimately what can they do? Will they effect my credit score in anyway, does it go against it?

 

Cheers again for the replies.

[slick132]

Hi Dave,

 

If you read other threads here, you'll see that some gyms (or their admin companies) will continue to pester for payment. But, after initially writing back in response to their demands, there comes a time you should ignore them.

 

The only way your credit files could be affected is if the gym took court action and you failed to pay the judgement amount within 30 days. But our experience here is that gyms do not take court action in 99.9% of cases.

 

Otherwise, gyms do not register disputed payments with the CRA's since the 2011 High Court case of The OFT v AMSL.