Fitness First review: One month's membership

I sent the below information to Hornsby on Friday 16 June as well as a response to a threatening SMS that I received whilst abroad. This is an ongoing issue and no one has got back to be about this:

I am abroad at the moment so do not have all the specific details about who I spoke to and when. I have an ongoing issue with my membership. I have now received threatened action by SMS against me if I do not pay.

I had signed up for one month's membership at Hornsby. When I signed up, I did say that I just wanted the month's membership. They did not tell me at the time that more would be taken out after the month despite me saying when I signed up that I only wanted to join for a month. I phoned just before my membership finished to find out what was my last day and at that time they said that I would have to pay another month. I said that this was not right and they said they would get back to me to discuss it. They did not. I kept phoning as the direct debit was still being taken out of my account. I have spoken to countless people at Hornsby. My friend who has been a member there texted someone she knew at the club but they didn't get back to her.

Eventually I talked to an employee at Fitness First as I went in to see them. I told her my story thus far and she agreed that my membership could be put on hold without cost until the issue was resolved because I was paying but because of the discrepancy, I was not attending the club. I kept trying to resolve things and phoned countless times to sort this. I was told that a manager would get back to be within three days but this did not happen. I kept trying to call and at one time was told that the manager was there and I was put on hold. I waited 40 minutes on the phone as it had been difficult previously to get through - although noone came back to me.. I eventually hung up.

After a couple of weeks, money started coming out of my account again and my membership had been taken off hold without any consultation with me. I phoned again and there was no luck. I contacted my bank and they cancelled the direct debit for me. I have now been receiving requests for payments and the last one was a threat of action if I did not pay. I will be sending this information to Fair Trading as I have not been able to resolve this with Fitness First Hornsby. I am quite disgusted about how I have been treated and the stress of this has affected me greatly as it has been an ongoing issue for so long and no one has taken it up to resolve it.

Furthermore, I will be sending this information to Fair Trading.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards, Marjolein (Jo) Pink

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