So, I like a lot of people, I had a gym membership but haven't been to the gym in a few months.
Today, 26/11/18, I sent them an email to cancel my membership and they replied and said that they have closed my direct debit account.
Now, the fees work like this according to them. Its prepaid in advance monthly fee of $250! deducted on the 20th of each month. So 20th of November is paid for the month of December 1-31.
They said that my fees for December have already come out and they have a no refund policy or something that apparently I signed on when I join.
I want, at the very least, my money back for December as I don't want to go back there and haven't been back there in months but they keep taking out my money.
What can I do?
@HighAndDry: This will be my last and final post on this.
I don't appreciate your use of strawman arguments when I have clearly stated it is the LENGTH and TOTAL AMOUNT of Gym contracts that are my concern. I don't care whether it is pre-paid or post-paid. I don't appreciate you referring again to my example when it was clearly a specific example for a single purpose.
These long term gym contracts are not for the benefit of the consumer, unfairly locks them in for a long period of time and/or significant exit fees. Who cares if they pay in advance? They may be locked into a $1500 amount with no apparent way out if their circumstances change or if they can no longer afford it.
The Gym(s) are only interested in signing up a consumer to 12/18/24 month contracts as, to them, it is guaranteed money as soon as the signature is gained. Thus why the majority of gym staff are Sales Reps and not personal trainers. One major chain no longer even hires trainers, their staff consist solely of sales staff. Personal trainers (to that chain) are now contractors who have to hit up gym go'ers and try and extract further money from them.
ie. Fitness First - cancellation fee on an example contract of $1794 is 95% cancellation fee. They are guaranteed a minimum $1704.
Anytime Fitness - cancellation fee on an example contract of $984 is 50% cancellation fee. They are guaranteed a minimum of $492.
Local gym is my area is 100% cancellation fee.
Unfair contract terms such as this have been well tested in VCAT. Most signicantly here. Note at 40 "it is necessary to take care, particularly on this first occasion, to provide clear signposts"…to ensure a contract term is fair. there are another dozen examples stemming from this under the old FTA. It has yet to be tested under the new ACL. It's obviously not a minor concern when CAV have posted at least 3 revisions on this topic here
p1 ama, all your examples are of monthly services. None of which lock you in for long term 12-24 month contracts. Not even relevant. I never said people with bad credit cannot get contract services, however in the example (Gym) the consumer DOES owe money (in the Gym's eyes) if they sign a $1500 12 month contract and want to end it 3 months in. See?
Look, I have extensive background in this industry and the telco industry, this WAS rampant, now it's been toned down but still occurs all the time. This all stems back to my ORIGINAL comment (that HighandDry jumped in on) where I stated:
"In fairness, it happens so often because your company motto is to sign people up for long term contracts knowing full well the drop out rate is extremely high :)
Why do you think internet and mobile service providers (except for the dinosaurs like Telstra) have flipped from 12-24 month contracts to monthly no lock in contracts."
Lucky there are more providers offering easy month to month, no obligation/lock in, contracts these days. Consumers who want to get or stay healthy have more options…but the black sheep and dinosaurs of the Health/Fitness industry still remain.