DW Sports gym issue

[JaceMindu]

I signed up to a 12 month membership with DW Sports gym in my area.

 

 

The problem was that the equipment kept breaking and they failed to keep up the maintenance.

This really screwed up my routine as I couldn't always access the equipment that I wanted to use.

 

 

I tried cancelling on the basis that the service had changed significantly, but they refused to admit this.

 

 

I ended up stuck into the contract until I could cancel in accordance with the terms.

 

 

It's annoying as I really think they failed to fulfill their contract and I didn't have much of a clause to get out of it.

 

 

I will never use them again, that's for sure.

[slick132]

Hi Jace,

 

You could have cancelled during the initial 12 month m/ship period if you took the following action :-

 

1. Complained verbally to the staff or, preferably, the manager.

 

2. If no improvement occurred within a week or two, you would then put a complaint in writing to the manager at the gym and maybe send a copy to the gym's HO.

 

3. If the problems continued, then you would hand in a letter saying you hold the gym in breach of your m/ship agreement due to their failure to adequately maintain the equipment to a satisfactory standard. Accordingly you would cancel your DD mandate with immediate effect.

 

They key here is that you must complain in writing and keep copies of exchanges. Although the gym and their admin system would probably chase for a while, they wouldn't have good grounds to take court action (which almost never happens anyway).

 

[JaceMindu]

Hi Jace,

 

You could have cancelled during the initial 12 month m/ship period if you took the following action :-

 

1. Complained verbally to the staff or, preferably, the manager.

 

2. If no improvement occurred within a week or two, you would then put a complaint in writing to the manager at the gym and maybe send a copy to the gym's HO.

 

3. If the problems continued, then you would hand in a letter saying you hold the gym in breach of your m/ship agreement due to their failure to adequately maintain the equipment to a satisfactory standard. Accordingly you would cancel your DD mandate with immediate effect.

 

They key here is that you must complain in writing and keep copies of exchanges. Although the gym and their admin system would probably chase for a while, they wouldn't have good grounds to take court action (which almost never happens anyway).

 

I did all of the above except cancel the direct debit. The reason for this is that due to being a graduate with student debt, I don't need the addition of a possible CCJ put against me to mess up my credit history even more.

[slick132]

Hi Jace,

 

When did you make your last pay't by DD.

 

If you took all the right steps including writing letters as outlined by me above, you may have reasonable grounds to claim back DD payments made AFTER you wrote your letter. The Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme gives the right to claim back DD taken incorrectly, unfairly, etc.

 

Gym disputes/arrears don't get reported by CRA's. Also, the chance of a court claim being made against you is miniscule.

 

[JaceMindu]

Hi Jace,

 

 

 

When did you make your last pay't by DD.

 

 

 

If you took all the right steps including writing letters as outlined by me above, you may have reasonable grounds to claim back DD payments made AFTER you wrote your letter. The Direct Debit Guarantee Scheme gives the right to claim back DD taken incorrectly, unfairly, etc.

 

 

 

Gym disputes/arrears don't get reported by CRA's. Also, the chance of a court claim being made against you is miniscule.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My member ship is cancelled now. I think I've paid about 5 months since my complaint, so that's about £200 if you're right.

[slick132]

Hi Jace,

 

Thanks but my question was, WHEN did you make the last payment.

 

Timing is important if we are to give you the correct opinion.

 

[JaceMindu]

Last month. My cancelation was effective from 31/05/16

[slick132]

Hi Jace,

 

Please confirm the date of your final DD pay't.

 

Are you interested in reclaiming DD's paid after you made the gym aware that you held them in breach of their m/ship agreement obligations.

 

If so, can you copy here what you told them in your letter sent to the gym complaining about the poor facilities.

 

Thanks

[JaceMindu]

Hi Jace,

 

Please confirm the date of your final DD pay't.

 

Are you interested in reclaiming DD's paid after you made the gym aware that you held them in breach of their m/ship agreement obligations.

 

If so, can you copy here what you told them in your letter sent to the gym complaining about the poor facilities.

 

Thanks

Sure, I'll copy them individually:

 

 

My first correspondence, with photos to show the poor equipment:

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

I have been a member of you gym since April this year. During my time there, visiting 3 times a week, my experience has consistently included faulty and missing equipment. This has included multiple machines being out of order and jubilee clips being missing from equipment and making them unusable. I have reported these issues to your staff, repeatedly, but despite this, these machines have been repeatedly out of action, for several weeks at a time and continue to break down. I have attached several of the more recent photos taken, for your review.

 

It seems to me that the contracts you have with your maintenance and equipment suppliers need to be reviewed. They are not maintaining the equipment appropriately and the services at the gym have significantly failed to provided the services offered to me when I signed up. The final equipment to become faulty, twice over the last month, has been the water fountain, which is a basic facility. On this basis, I consider your sports centre to be in breach of contract by not supplying the basic services offered and therefore I am cancelling the contract with the gym. I will not accept any cancellation fee and feel compensation is in order.

 

I shall await on offer from yourselves before I consider taking this further.

Edited June 14, 2016 by JaceMindu
Photos

[JaceMindu]

Their reply:

Hope this email finds you well?

 

Thank you for your feedback regarding the gym facilities here at the Bristol DW Branch, the pictures you have attached are of the equipment that is currently out of action here in Bristol and I would like to now report that the water fountain is now back in action.

 

We do not wish for any of our equipment to be out of action at the club and as a duty of care to our members we must make a decision if the kit is deemed safe and effective to your work out.

 

The pieces of equipment currently out of order at the club are awaiting parts from the suppliers, the precor AMTs included in your picture will be fixed with the next 5 working days. The grappler also included in your pictures is with the manufacturers due to the age of the equipment parts are currently still being sourced. Once a piece of kit is placed out of order we report this through our process and each maintenance contractors works in a slightly different way.

Technogym and precor work on a basis is report Monday- Friday they will attend site within 48 hours and repair on site if they can if parts are need to repair the equipment this is where the hold up can be, which is chased daily by the club management and deadline dates are given.

All i can do is apologise for the equipment that has effected your training days here at the club, and i can assure your all we can do to ensure the equipment is fixed on a timely manor.

If you would like to discuss your experience further please don’t hesitate to contact me

Kind regards

Then I replied:

 

The equipment from your gym has broken down too frequently. I have attached some additional pictures of broken equipment at an earlier time and will continue to catalogue these as a record. As much as you have a target of a 48 hour repair, this is rarely the case and I have seen the same equipment out of order for weeks on end. When I signed up to your gym, I did so on the basis that there was sufficient equipment for me to carry out set routines on each visit. Being continuously hindered by broken equipment on each visit is not what I would expect for the fee I am paying each month. I would be interested to see the records showing the time for faulty equipment being repaired.

 

As I have previously stated, the service you are providing is significantly different to what was offered as part of my membership. On this basis, I hold you in breach of contract and am terminating the agreement. If you are not willing to action this request, then I will take this to trading standards. You have still not provided an offer of compensation or settlement that I asked for.

They didn't reply, so I chased them up:

I am disappointed to have not received a reply from you.

 

I have visited my Bristol branch and again asked them to get this cancellation processed. They have reiterated again that they do not have the facilities to cancel and I am reliant on your department doing so. Why have you not carried this out? This is increasingly frustrating and another example of how your company as breached the contract, which states quite clearly that I can cancel at the site.

 

I have attached additional photos to show equipment that has still not be repaired since the photos I took 18 days before. This is clearly not the 48 hours you state, unless you include poorly covering up torn arm-pads with duct tape a fix?

 

This is my last warning to you before I take this to the ombudsman.

Then they replied:

Good Afternoon Jace,

Sorry for the late reply unfortunately I have not been in the club.

The pictures of the parts you have taken pictures of are in hand, as explained in the first response they have been logged but unfortunately we are awaiting the parts for the grappler and the arm pad, which is now covered in tape is also on order we are awaiting the service engineers to site

There was a change to the cancellation process which is now processed through the central membership team, they can be contacted on 0344 249 5300. I have forwarded your information to our regional manager as unfortunately I can only cancel within the 12 month contract due to medical, Redundancy or relocation reasons.

Please contact the number above to request early cancellation

Kind Regards

[slick132]

Hi Jace and thanks for the copy emails.

 

Can you now confirm :-

 

1. The date your gym agreement started.

 

2. The date the minimum 12 month period ended.

 

3. The date you last paid a DD to DWS.

 

4. The dates of your 3 emails to DWS.

 

5. The dates of their 2 replies.

 

6. The amount you paid each month.

 

[JaceMindu]

Hi Jace and thanks for the copy emails.

 

Can you now confirm :-

 

1. The date your gym agreement started.

 

2. The date the minimum 12 month period ended.

 

3. The date you last paid a DD to DWS.

 

4. The dates of your 3 emails to DWS.

 

5. The dates of their 2 replies.

 

6. The amount you paid each month.

 

Started 18/05/15, so 12 months ended 18/05/16

Last DD on 01/05/16

All emails sent in November 2015, 1st 19/11/15, they replied on 20/11/15, I replied the same day, then again on 26/11/15 after visiting the gym and trying to cancel there (and being shrugged off). They replied on 29/11/15, again refusing to cancel.

My membership was £39.50 a month.