Crunch Fitness - A warning

whiskeyhigh

This is to everyone who thinks that there gym membership is no longer active. In 2005 I took out a gym membership from Crunch Fitness in Westmanstown. At the time it was a couples rate and I set up a direct debit paying €106 a month. I literally went once and then never went back. Then I made the first of many assumptions which were to prove very costly. I assumed that after 12 months the gym membership was no longer active and I was no longer paying any money for it.

A couple of reasons for this: I never, ever received any form of communication in the first or subsequent years from them by phone, email or letter either welcoming me as a member of the gym, updating me of my membership status or advising me that my first 12 months was done etc. Secondly the reference on my bank statement is ILG Ltd, which is a very similar name to the company who provides my payment protection, and I didn't realise it was Crunch Fitness all along charging me. What really sickens me is the fact I've paid for a service not received, but also that Crunch, fully aware that I attended only once, never once contacted me in any of the subsequent years I was paying for membership. What's worse is their reaction - I signed a direct debit therefore I owe them, they have so many members it's hard to keep track of who isn't attending, they do send out communications (but can't explain why I never got any letters ), they don't appear to have any member care policy to contact members in the 11th month of their year to say the Direct Debit is rolling over, it's my fault for not realising ILG Ltd wasn't Crunch Fitness, if I had googled ILG Ltd I could easily see that it's Crunch Fitness (not true - it's not easily found), they accept I didn't take up the service but aren't willing to offer compensation worth talking about.

I accept I owe for the first 12 months, but the fact that they literally don't care makes me so angry. I did sign a direct debit, fair enough. But I was quoted fees for a year and I was taking it up on a year on year basis, so I'd expect at least a letter after the first year to say it was continuing over into the second etc. VHI, car insurance company etc. do this - standard practice I thought?

Basically I've been told f*ck off - we're happy to take your money, but couldn't give a damn about you as a member.

I feel like an idiot for not being more vigilant but I still think they were underhand, sneaky cowboys for letting go on for 4 years.

kazzer

4 years? This is quite common in fitness centres, I almost got stung before. But 4 years, you really have to take more responsibilty for your own personal finances.

uturnin6weeks

No offence- but you are a mad yoke! You should have checked your montly direct debits!

Fact of the matter is now that there is a recession people are now looking at their banks accounts. Everyone should make it their business to keep an eye on their bank accounts.

Fair play to Crunch for getting 4 years free money from you.

aye

They arent legally obligued to inform you of the end of contract year. Mobile phones companies dont inform you of that, insurance companies inform you because your quote generally changes on a yearly basis.

i agree a letter informing you would be nice, or even a letter wondering why you havent been to the gym in so long, but most commercial gym wouldnt do this because of the number of members, though personally i think they should have systems to inform them if members arent attending.

ILG stands for International Leisure Group, which is the company the crunch fitness brand operates under. i found this using google pretty easily.
http://www.bestjobs.ie/bt-empd-crunch.htm

i agree that is sucks, and that maybe they could have contacted you, and i'm sorry to hear it, but its your money, and your responsibility to check your bank statements, and the question things you dont recognise.

i found i was charged double one month from my gym, made a complaint and got the next month free as expected, but i doubt they would have rang me and said sorry we charged you double.

kevpants

Not denying they are cowboys. I had a run in with Crunch Westmanstown myself but the way it work is there is a MINIMUM contract term of 12 months. This means you can cancel it after 12 months but not before. It's like a broadband contract, your broadband doesn't get knocked off after the 12 months, you just have the option of cancelling the subscription.

They will argue they never prevented you from using their service during the 4 years, you were an official member. Basing how much someone pays on how many times they used the service would set a dangerous precedent as far as they are concerned.

Zamboni

Signing a direct debit to any gym was the first mistake.

Reyman

Zamboni wrote: »

Signing a direct debit to any gym was the first mistake.

I agree! Pay cash up front or don't join a gym. This isn't the time to be paying high monthly rates for your training.

Transform

Totally agree - your own fault really mate, sorry.

whiskeyhigh

I did sign a direct debit, I accept that. But to say I shouldn't have an expectation of a certain level of customer service, is wrong. At least it seems wrong to me - to expect to be treated like a mug. Legally they may be correct, but as far as I'm concerned this wasn't about legal obligations. Maybe because in my job if we ever treated our members the same - actually scratch that we just wouldn't, we wouldn't be in business.

I really couldn't fathom their attitude. Anyway I just wanted to warn people. I'm not the first either - I just spoke to the bank to make sure they had received my letter cancelling the service and she said she gets calls all the time about people not realising ILG Ltd. were still taking money out. This is a regular occurrence.

(And as for finding out ILG was actually Crunch Fitness - it's not that easy. Do a general search first, there are lots of companies called ILG).

I won't be so naive to expect to be treated as I treat people both professionally and personally.

rubadub

whiskeyhigh wrote: »

so I'd expect at least a letter after the first year to say it was continuing over into the second etc. VHI, car insurance company etc. do this - standard practice I thought?

Standard practice for decent reputable companies. I see far more complaints about gyms than praise than almost any other business or service. Glad I never joined one. I know 2 mates who joined a local one and went hardly ever, must warn them of the same thing. A mate just got a macafee receipt of payment the other day for one he thought was finished long ago, seems it had a auto-renewal thing on it, still got 60 days to contact them to get rid of it.

aye wrote: »

They arent legally obligued to inform you of the end of contract year.

Yep, common decency is not always legally obliged! Now if your price increased I think they do have to inform you and offer cancellation at the time. If it did go up you might have somewhere to stand. What would interest me even more would be if they realised you were still going would they have tried to increase the fee... i.e. did they sit back quietly knowing full well you were not going and did not want to remind you, and just accepted the lower fee.

This might be better moved to consumer issues.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=580

Racing Flat

Unlucky mate, it's a tough auld world out there, some cold people out there who put profit before anything else.:(:mad:. Thanks for the warning.

Are you still a member till the end of this month? Maybe you should go there every day and be a nuisance...

Zamboni

whiskeyhigh wrote: »

I shouldn't have an expectation of a certain level of customer service, is wrong. At least it seems wrong to me - to expect to be treated like a mug.

No, when it comes to large branch chain gyms you shouldn't have any expectiations of decent customer service. They are non emotive profit making entities.
They are there to make money, not to ensure you get fit and healthy and are attending regularly.
Let the buyer beware and all that...

whiskeyhigh

My payment protection was paid to a similarly named company, which is why I didn't query it until now.

It is feckin sickening though! I could have thighs like Madonna if I'd being going all that time. Ah well, live and learn

aye

whiskeyhigh wrote: »

(And as for finding out ILG was actually Crunch Fitness - it's not that easy. Do a general search first, there are lots of companies called ILG).

em it was. i did a serch for 'ilg ltd' in google, set pages from ireland on, and the first four results all related to the company. the fourth result was the one i linked to.

anyway, yes its bad customer service fair enough, and i agree that gyms really should get in touch with members when they start not going for long periods of time.

whiskeyhigh

I had no reason initially to set the google search page for Ireland. I shop online quite a bit so it could have been payment for a number of things. I had recently got notification from the companyy providing payment protection, real;ised that ILG ltd couldn't have been them and then searched. There are a no. of companies called ILG Ltd.

g'em

Not a Fitness Issue, there's a Consumer Issues forum if you want to air your gripe.