XmisterIS
Purveyor of fine nonsense
I joined a gym in the summer (God knows why!) and I used it for a while, but then stopped because it's crap and I went back to proper cycling (i.e. not on one of those stupid machines) and rock climbing (which makes you a lot stronger than lifting silly bits of iron).
Anyway, I digress. Two months ago I sent them a letter giving my membership number and bank details and asking them to cancel my direct debit and heard nothing back, so I assumed they'd received it and would take the appropriate action.
Then ... guess what? They've taken the next direct debit out of my account!! So, I phoned them up and said, "what the F*$£%@!!!!!??".
They told me they hadn't received the letter (which was sent by recorded delivery). So I went to the post office with the reciept and the long and the short of it is that the letter was definitely delivered.
So I phoned them up again and told them that, they were insistent that they hadn't received the letter! I kept telling them "yes you bloody did, I have proof of bloody postage AND delivery because you signed for the God Damn letter, are you f*$&£ing schizophrenic??!!!" (I was a little more polite than that, however!
).
Then, having been backed into a corner over that one, they told me that they wouldn't be able to acknowledge any letter that I had sent them because the only way I can cancel a direct debit with them is to fill in one of their direct debit cancellation forms and the only way I can do that is to come in in person, and the only way I can get my hands on one of those forms is by making an appointment to see the manager first who will give me a copy of the form to fill out, but I can't do that at the moment because the manager is away on holiday.
I politely told them that the manager can cram his arse with walnuts for all I care and that I would cancel the direct debit myself through the bank. They then told me that if I do that, I will still be liable to pay a monthly direct debit until I cancel it through the "official" channels.
Now then, common sense tells me that is complete and utter BS and totally illegal - surely all I need to do under law is tell someone that I don't want their services any more and instruct them to cancel the direct debit? I was aware that I had to give one month's notice to cancel the direct debit, but I didn't know anything about having to use special forms only available by appointment!!
What do you think?
Anyway, I digress. Two months ago I sent them a letter giving my membership number and bank details and asking them to cancel my direct debit and heard nothing back, so I assumed they'd received it and would take the appropriate action.
Then ... guess what? They've taken the next direct debit out of my account!! So, I phoned them up and said, "what the F*$£%@!!!!!??".
They told me they hadn't received the letter (which was sent by recorded delivery). So I went to the post office with the reciept and the long and the short of it is that the letter was definitely delivered.
So I phoned them up again and told them that, they were insistent that they hadn't received the letter! I kept telling them "yes you bloody did, I have proof of bloody postage AND delivery because you signed for the God Damn letter, are you f*$&£ing schizophrenic??!!!" (I was a little more polite than that, however!
Then, having been backed into a corner over that one, they told me that they wouldn't be able to acknowledge any letter that I had sent them because the only way I can cancel a direct debit with them is to fill in one of their direct debit cancellation forms and the only way I can do that is to come in in person, and the only way I can get my hands on one of those forms is by making an appointment to see the manager first who will give me a copy of the form to fill out, but I can't do that at the moment because the manager is away on holiday.
I politely told them that the manager can cram his arse with walnuts for all I care and that I would cancel the direct debit myself through the bank. They then told me that if I do that, I will still be liable to pay a monthly direct debit until I cancel it through the "official" channels.
Now then, common sense tells me that is complete and utter BS and totally illegal - surely all I need to do under law is tell someone that I don't want their services any more and instruct them to cancel the direct debit? I was aware that I had to give one month's notice to cancel the direct debit, but I didn't know anything about having to use special forms only available by appointment!!
What do you think?
